I was driving to work listening to the radio, listening to the highlights, and such. First off, I was glad to hear Eric Kuselius and Mark Schlereth instead of Mike & Mike. I actually heard college football talk in the morning. Greenberg for some odd reason, other than the fact he attended Northwestern, cannot stand college football so the only CFB talk I ever hear on the morning commute is Notre Dame snippets from Golic. So Kuselius and Schlereth finally indulged me.
The first topic was about Mike Leach and his punishment of Adam James. It reminded me of a time in middle school where this kid in gym class called a coach "lazy." The coach grabbed the kid by the arm, dragged him across the court, put the kid's hands on the controls of a hardwood buffer, and turned on the buffer. The buffer slung the kid around like a rag doll to the amusement of the coach and the other kids in gym class. I guess it's a weird 20 year old memory to have but either way the coach in gym class was wrong and I think Leach was wrong. And I think it relates to Mangino's case as well.
You have two coaches who didn't grow up playing sports or learning social networking. They didn't learn the importance of stature, social hierarchies, or peer respect in team sports. All they knew were the X's and O's. The books. So when they were confronted with situations requiring discipline they crossed the line; embarrassment through awkward psychological torture. Hell, George O'Leary's an even better example of extreme torture on the practice field and he also never played a snap of college football. I doubt anyone knows if he even played high school football. These guys have no boundaries when it comes to discipline because they were never pushed to said boundaries as players. I guess I'm trying to say, "They know how to brand someone, they just don't know what the hot brand feels like."
I wanted to originally talk about bowls and I ended up ranting on Mike Leach. Here are some quick thoughts about bowl games. I think 90% of the bowls are a joke. When you compare the percentage of teams that get into I-A bowls when compared to other sports, it's ludicrous. Here are the stats for teams in college sports excluded from postseason play, teams included, and number of teams that reach "elite" postseason play:
I included my favorite college sports of I-A and I-AA football, college basketball, and college baseball. Postseason in all of the sports means you either made the tournament or a bowl game. Elite for baseball is the College World Series. Basketball is the Final Four. I-A is a BCS berth. And I-AA elite status is simply the National Champion since there's no real demarcation in I-AA, merely tournament berths and a champ. I think it's plain to see why other people are starting to realize the bowl system is a joke. More teams are included than excluded. Now-a-days, you have to be pretty terrible not to make a bowl. The odds of making it to an "elite game" are about 7 times higher than the next closest sport. Here's a more visual breakdown:
One last fact I'm surprised no Iowa fan has really brought up. At-large teams are 9-5 all time in the BCS against conference champions. This includes non-BCS teams so the Boise State and Utah teams of yore are included as "at large" in that stat.
Late Edit: My last thought relates again to sports radio. Anyone out there listen to the Packer Show out of Charlotte on the drive home? Anyone else find it terrible and incredibly obnoxious? Lately, they've had Doug Gottlieb on because I'm assuming Packer's crew is on vacation forcing the local networks to play nationally syndicated stuff. Gottlieb is pretty annoying but he's TEN times better than Packer. So goes life of someone living in a non-major sports market. I have to listen to Clemson-USC football radio 365 days/year or Charlotte Bobcats/Carolina Panthers talk 365 days/year. It's pretty terrible. I recommend satellite radio for all the unfortunate Tech fans and Atlanta natives in the Pee Dee.
The first topic was about Mike Leach and his punishment of Adam James. It reminded me of a time in middle school where this kid in gym class called a coach "lazy." The coach grabbed the kid by the arm, dragged him across the court, put the kid's hands on the controls of a hardwood buffer, and turned on the buffer. The buffer slung the kid around like a rag doll to the amusement of the coach and the other kids in gym class. I guess it's a weird 20 year old memory to have but either way the coach in gym class was wrong and I think Leach was wrong. And I think it relates to Mangino's case as well.
You have two coaches who didn't grow up playing sports or learning social networking. They didn't learn the importance of stature, social hierarchies, or peer respect in team sports. All they knew were the X's and O's. The books. So when they were confronted with situations requiring discipline they crossed the line; embarrassment through awkward psychological torture. Hell, George O'Leary's an even better example of extreme torture on the practice field and he also never played a snap of college football. I doubt anyone knows if he even played high school football. These guys have no boundaries when it comes to discipline because they were never pushed to said boundaries as players. I guess I'm trying to say, "They know how to brand someone, they just don't know what the hot brand feels like."
I wanted to originally talk about bowls and I ended up ranting on Mike Leach. Here are some quick thoughts about bowl games. I think 90% of the bowls are a joke. When you compare the percentage of teams that get into I-A bowls when compared to other sports, it's ludicrous. Here are the stats for teams in college sports excluded from postseason play, teams included, and number of teams that reach "elite" postseason play:
I included my favorite college sports of I-A and I-AA football, college basketball, and college baseball. Postseason in all of the sports means you either made the tournament or a bowl game. Elite for baseball is the College World Series. Basketball is the Final Four. I-A is a BCS berth. And I-AA elite status is simply the National Champion since there's no real demarcation in I-AA, merely tournament berths and a champ. I think it's plain to see why other people are starting to realize the bowl system is a joke. More teams are included than excluded. Now-a-days, you have to be pretty terrible not to make a bowl. The odds of making it to an "elite game" are about 7 times higher than the next closest sport. Here's a more visual breakdown:
One last fact I'm surprised no Iowa fan has really brought up. At-large teams are 9-5 all time in the BCS against conference champions. This includes non-BCS teams so the Boise State and Utah teams of yore are included as "at large" in that stat.
Late Edit: My last thought relates again to sports radio. Anyone out there listen to the Packer Show out of Charlotte on the drive home? Anyone else find it terrible and incredibly obnoxious? Lately, they've had Doug Gottlieb on because I'm assuming Packer's crew is on vacation forcing the local networks to play nationally syndicated stuff. Gottlieb is pretty annoying but he's TEN times better than Packer. So goes life of someone living in a non-major sports market. I have to listen to Clemson-USC football radio 365 days/year or Charlotte Bobcats/Carolina Panthers talk 365 days/year. It's pretty terrible. I recommend satellite radio for all the unfortunate Tech fans and Atlanta natives in the Pee Dee.