Playing Hookie on Campus - 7/30/08

College Football, Major Sports

Posted by Obiora, July 30, 2008 - 12:25 pm

- With a new college football season coming, I can just hear the griping about to start - the polls are biased against this team, the voters don’t know anything, the polls favor that team, we need a playoff, we need a playoff, we need a playoff. Like most folks, I too would favor a playoff to decide the national championship. I’ve come to accept that a playoff would be the best way to decide a largely unbalanced season though mine would only feature four teams. But it ain’t gonna happen. So I’ll make a pact with you, oh my droogies. I won’t go off into any diatribes about how the BCS is responsible for the imminent downfall of western civilization as we know it if you don’t. That is until everyone’s “favorite” Big Ten whipping boy gets to the BCS title game again.

- Most of the major sports websites have been previewing the upcoming season but for me, the coup de grace is today’s ESPN.com articles on Hate. I think sports is driven more by hatred of other teams than by love of one’s own chosen squad and nowhere is this more true than in the seething cauldron of collegiate athletics. Is there an occasion where I’ll pay attention to Big East traitor Boston College - yes, when they play Notre Dame. Why do I occasionally cheer for Texas or Michigan - because I despise Oklahoma and Ohio State.

- It may surprise the unacquainted to know that I hate Ohio State since I made the apparently unpardonable sin of ranking the Frakeyes #1 a couple months ago. For the record, I despise everything to do with the state of Ohio, from the boring, flat terrain to that sorry excuse for a city called the Mistake by the Lake to the moronic dotting of the I. However, I’ll stand by the pick even as it makes me want to hurl because no other major program is a better bet to get to the big game. I’ll also be weeping tears of joy with any decent human being (Ohioans aren’t human) when OSU gets waxed by whichever opponent faces them.

- Last weekend’s Outside the Lines delivered a scathing indictment of Joe Paterno Univ, I mean Penn State University’s football program. I’m not going to crucify PSU for its problems given that many Universities seem to be having troubles these days. However, I was a little disturbed at JoePa’s reaction. Whereas University President Graham Spanier called the numbers (72 charges in 2007 alone, resulting in 9 convictions) staggering, Mr Penn State brushed it aside as a witch hunt. Maybe boys are just as naughty now as they have ever been. Maybe not. But with bigger dollar signs in college football, comes bigger scrutiny and more incentive for programs to walk the tight line. PSU needs to get it in gear - and hire Greg Schiano away from Rutgers next year.