What To Do On A Bye Week
October 31, 2008
What to do on a bye week?
Well, glad you asked. This is what I'll be doing on my bye week:
6 a.m.: Wake up. Head downstairs and greet my cancer-free canine companion, Eli. Start the coffee. Deep breath: “It’s gameday. And yet I have no reason to nervous.”
6:10: Check the “news.” And by “news” I mean the Penn State message boards. Maybe hop over to the Ohio State ones, too, just to enjoy the continued post-mortem (glorious). And then a quick stop over at the Pitt board. Always, always entertaining. And educational: For instance, I recently learned that Pitt fans refer to West Virginia fans as “the hoopies.” If anyone can explain this, it would be appreciated.
6:30: Check the “real news.” The Harrisburg Patriot-News. The Centre Daily Times. The Cleveland Plain Dealer. For my daily aggravation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Maybe the Dallas Morning News.
6:42: Sip coffee and contemplate the following subjects: “Penn State is 9-0”; “Lavarro”; “How come the Phillies won a championship even though the Indians are better?”
7 a.m.: Kids wake up.
7-10 a.m.: Responsible parenting.
10:03 a.m.: “College GameDay” on ESPN. Set kids up with activities that require, shall we say, less than direct parental involvement.
11 a.m.: Tired of the SEC spin on GameDay (see: McShay). Switch over to the greatest television network in history—Big Ten Network. It’s time for Big Ten Football Saturday. Woo-hoo! Featuring TCFA Hall of Famers Dave Revsine and Gerry DiNardo. And maybe, one day, Melanie Collins (actually, scratch that: Who are week kidding? Melanie may well be there this week; or at least should be).
Noon-12:30: Lunch. Watch first quarter of noon games.
12:45: Back to responsible parenting. Justification? Simple: Not any good games at noon anyway. Walk the kids down to the Flourtown Farmers Market in the Beautiful Wissahickon Valley to pick up supplies for the Saturday evening dinner—most typically some kind of grandiose recipe that Your Editor only halfway pulls off. Most nights, Mrs. Your Editor politely takes three bites and then eats a bowl of Kashi “Good Friends” cereal. No matter, it’s a Saturday tradition now. Tonight? Duck a la orange? Grilled lobster? Braised rabbit? We shall see.
3 p.m.: Nap time! Not for Your Editor, no. Your Editor does not nap because when he naps he worries me may be missing something. No, 3 p.m. is Your Editor’s Kids naptime. Which means those 3:30 games are free game. Your Editor’s “me time.”
3:30-6 p.m.: Watch The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party while drinking a large cocktail. Spend next couple hours sipping cocktail and looking for tiny flaws in the Gators and Dawgs, so I can write the next day about how ovverated the SEC is.
6 p.m.-8 p.m.: Generally speaking, "family time." With football in the background. The kids just love the sound of Verne Lundquist’s voice. And Mike Patrick’s. And maybe even Pam Ward’s. I mean, they love football. I think.
8 p.m.: Bed time for Your Editor’s Kids and, most likely, Mrs. Your Editor. It’s almost November and she’s just about college-footballed out. But she can’t really complain. She has the Phillies and I have nothing. At least in the realm of pro sports. Snore.
8:07 p.m.—TBD: Get comfortable. Flip on annoying fake and way-too-hot gas fireplace that I wish was a wood-burning fireplace. Finish presentation of overly ambitious dinner. Flip on ABC for Texas-Texas Tech. Proceed to eat dinner, sip cocktails, watch game, check the “news,” jot down ideas for next day’s column for over here, debate whether it’s worth it to stay up for “GameDay Final,” very likely decide against it, and drift off to sleep, hopefully with Texas Tech having just pulled the upset, dreaming of a 12-0 season, All-American honors for Lavarro, a miraculously cured JoePa, and maybe—just maybe—Penn State’s fifth national championship.
Out And About: News And Notes You May Have Missed
• It's almost November. Which means a few things: First, it means that there are a whole lot of teams (hello, Auburn; hello, Michigan; hello, Clemson) whose seasons are already toast. They have almost nothing to play for and, because they have had their hearts and souls ripped out by repeated beatdowns, won't pose much of a threat to anyone in the weeks to come. So that's one thing. But here's another thing that comes with November: Bellyaching over the BCS. And that’s' exactly what we have. Let me recap what has occured in the past few days: 1. USC coach Pete Carroll is already making excuses for the Trojans' loss to Oregon State ("injuries,” he says) in hopes of gaining support for his team down the stretch; Penn State fans are (justifiably) worried about an undefeated Nits team being blocked out of the national title picture for a stunning fifth time in the past 40 years; and, most noticeably, our friends in the South are beginning their campaign to ensure that a one-loss SEC team gets a BCS bid even if that would mean jumping over, say, an undefeated Big Ten team. For example, Penn State. Don't believe it can happen? Well, think again. Check out this. And this. And this. The movement is afoot, folks. And were this to happen—were we to see an undefeated BCS team bypassed by a one-loss BCS team for the first time—we very likely could see the implosion of the conference coalition and the end of the BCS as we know it.
• Why, may you ask, would we see an implosion of the conference coalition? Simple, say I: For all of its many flaws and inconsistencies, the BCS has at least been consistent about one thing—the idea that undefeated records are to be respected. True, there will be occasions when three BCS conference teams finish undefeated (see: 2004) and there will be occasions when an undefeated BCS team will get the shaft because there are also two other undefeated BCS teams (see: Auburn 2004), but generally speaking, we in the college football world have been operating under the assumption that if there are only two undefeated BCS conference teams at year's end, then those two teams deserve to play for the national title. This has been an unspoken but widely understood rule of the college football world. And it is now being challenged. Here's what I would say about that: If this were to go down, and if an undefeated Penn State team were to be jumped by a one-loss Florida team, for example, a potentially destructive precedent would have been set—a precedent by which we would tacitly be endorsing the idea that undefeated teams from some conferences are less deserving than one-loss teams (or maybe even two-loss teams) from other conferences. We would be declaring once and for all that some teams play by certain rules, and other teams play by different rules. And so, instantly, we would have not only shattered our tenuous and hard-won conference solidarity (just take a guess how long it would take Jim Delaney to take his proverbial ball and go home—taking the Rose Bowl, and potentially the Pac-10, along with him), but would have also obliterated the idea that the results of the games matter. We would essentially be stepping back in time a few decades—back to when national champions were chosen before the bowl games were even played. Because here's the thing, folks: If you're not going to respect what happens on the field, and if you're going to use perception to choose national champions, you will have destroyed the underlying premise of the BCS—that this system was created to determine a national champion on the field. But hey, Tony Barnhart, Tom Deinhart and Dennis Dodd, if you want to go there—be my guest.
Quick Hits: Straight And To The Point
• Georgia tailback Knowshon Moreno was asked this week about his thoughts on the Georgia-Florida rivalry. And his answer is probably not what Dawgs fans would have liked to hear. Said Moreno to the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "I'm not really looking at it as a rivalry game—more as another really good team that we're getting ready to try to do some things against. I'm not from Georgia, so I'm just looking at it as another game." For the record, Moreno is from New Jersey. That 'splains it.
• By the way, I may have my issues with SEC apologist Tony Barnhart, but the man certainly knows his (southern) football. And this week in his column she shared the following (shocking) stat: If Georgia beats Florida this weekend, it will mark the first time the Bulldogs would have beaten Florida in back-to-back years since the 1988-1989 seasons.
• I suppose I should mention the Texas-Texas Tech game at some point, so here goes: It's a big 'un. In fact, it's the biggest game in the history of Texas Tech and the most important day the city (town? village?) of Lubbock has ever seen. Red Raider fans plan on setting an new attendance record for ESPN's College GameDay (they are expecting about 17,000 people, which is what the average Big East team draws for their actual games), tickets are going for up to $1,000 and the Texas Tech press folks kept star quarterback Graham Harrell and star receiver Michael Crabtree away from the media this week. But I sense a quiet confidence in these Red Raiders. Take this quote, from offensive tackle Ryan Reed: "Our best is good enough to beat anyone in the country. And I'm sure Texas believes their best is good enough to beat anyone in the country. We've got to make sure our best shows up." Confident, yet respectful. Nicely said.
• And just so you don't think I'm biased against the Big East: For the record, I am currently watching South Florida-Cincinnati on Thursday night football. I will say this much—Cincy has a very nice crowd on hand. Plus, Erin Andrews is there. They must be doing something right.
• By the way, have any of you readers ever been to Lubbock? Is there water there? Tall buildings? These are the two things I wonder about cities I've never been to. Water and tall buildings.
• With its win over Ohio State last week, Penn State the first team in Big Ten history to defeat Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin in consecutive weeks. That looks really impressive, until you realize that Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin are not actually capable of beating Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin in consecutive weeks. Still, it's cool.
• And we now turn to one of our regular features, The Weekly Quote From A Former Five-Star Recruit Who Is Whining About Not Getting The Ball Enough At USC, As If This Should Be A Surprise: Trojan sophomore tailback C.J. Gable pointed out to the Los Angeles Times this week that he's "not going to cry about it," but said he's "angry" and doesn't "understand" why he's not getting more offensive touches. Hate to break it to you, C.J., but you just cried about it.
• Another interesting tidbit from the Los Angeles Times: It seems that offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian has expressed an interest in the Washington job, which was vacated -- kind of, but not really -- when Ty Willingham got fired this week (he's still coaching there, though). But that's not the interesting tidbit. The interesting tidbit is this: With a salary of about $704,000, Sarkisian is the fifth-highest paid employee at USC, trailing only head coach Pete Carroll, basketball coach Tim Floyd, athletic director Mike Garrett and the dean of the USC medical school. In other words, Sarkisian--an assistant coach--makes more than the president of the university? The lesson for kids out there? Simple: Put down the books and pick up a football. Or clipboard. Or just ride Pete Carroll's coattails (see: Lane Kiffin).
• This headline from the Newark Star-Ledger caught my eye: "Schiano says Rutgers not trying to hurt opposing quarterbacks." Well, that's good. It seems the mighty Knights have injured the last three quarterbacks they've played, but coach Greg "I Wish I Took That Miami Job" Schiano says it's all a coincidence. Nothing to see here, folks. Said the regretful Schiano: "We play tough, aggressive football. You're never gunning for anybody."