12 Reasons to Love the New Season

A friend on Facebook posted a link to a trailer for the EA Spors NCAA 12 that comes out this summer.  It got me so pumped up I had to scribble a quick off-season blog post.  Apparently this year EA has included more of the pre-game rituals for the teams, including our boy stabbing the field with the sword.  Take a look:
EA Sports Trailer

One very enthusiastic USC blogger wrote of the highlight reel:

"So tell me NCAA.  What does it say about your ability to sanction when EA Sports drops more Trojans in this teaser than Achilles did in the f**king Iliad?  It says YOU CAN’T SANCTION THE ENDZONE OR OUR PIXELLATED ASSES. "

I could write this collumn for 10 years and never come up with a line as brilliant as "drops more Trojans than Achilles did". 

March Maddness is over, the NBA and NHL playoffs are awesome (except when the Kings blow a 4 goal lead), and campus spring games are peaking this week.  But after the Lakers win their latest championship, we will be dragged ino the dead zone in sports, with nothing to do but tend the garden, clean the barbeque, and wait until the end of August. 

There are many things to look forward to this season: the first Iowa - Nebraska game, Saturday mornings with Chris Fowler and the crew, and watching Ohio State try to play without Terrel Pyror and Coach Tressel.  But the newly expanded Pac-12 is really turning me on.  The first conference game will be Utah at USC on Saturday, September 10th.  No, I am not going.  But one of my nurses is (he's from Utah, but we'll forgive him for that).  Our annual Bay Area Game will be a Thursday night affair against Cal on October 13th.  That just happens to be the first day of the American College of Emergency Physicians conference in . . wait for it . . . San Francisco, CA.  Thanks, guys; I appreciate you planning your conference around my football travel schedule.  USC's first of many glorious roadtrips to the Rocky mountains will be Novemeber 5th at Colorado.  We might even get some skiing in while we're there. 

The NFL continues to talk lockout.  I couldn't be more thrilled.

With 2 new PAC teams, 1 new Big-10 team, and all the color, triumph, and pagentry that is college football, who needs the pro game.  Besides, without pro games underdog poolers will be able to choose three college games every weekend.  That way, I can be wrong about three informed choices rather than wrong about two and get one random NFL pick. 

Fight On and see you in August,

Hans

Des Moines Knows Beer

Just a picture and a quick note: I had an overnight in Des Moines last week and discovered the "El Bait Shop", a bar based on 1970's Mexico beach bar decor.http://www.elbaitshop.com/  What makes it cool is the EXTENSIVE collection of American microbrews, most on draught (photo).

Next door is the High Life Bar, a turn in the opposite direction.  There, they only serve American beers introduced in the 1970's.  The decor is something out of a Cohen brother's movie, screaming blue-collar and Carter-era Milwaukee.  http://thehighlifelounge.com/story.html

The same group also operates the Royal Mile, a pub specializing in British beers and scotch (http://royalmilebar.com/).  Upstairs from the Royal Mile is the Red Monk, specializing in, hold onto your hats, BELGIAN BEERS!  YAY! (http://www.theredmonk.com/)

Fight On,

Hans

BCS Maddenss and NCAA Hypocrisy

It's official- Cam Newton has won the Heisman in a landslide over runner up Andrew Luck (the second consecutive year a Stanford Cardinal player has finished second in the ballot).  Now only time will tell if the New York Athletic Club will have vacate a trophy for the second time.  Reggie Bush became the first earlier this year when he gave back his trophy because his family received undue benefits when he was playing for USC.  Vince Young, the runner up in 2005, was not given Bush's trophy- the 2005 winner was vacated.  It took 5 years for the NCAA investigation to run its course and for Bush to come to a decision about his trophy (actually the case is still not completely resolved because the appeal process continues and USC officials will next testify to the NCAA next month).  I have to wonder if it will be another 5 years before the Cam Newton controversy is resolved.

The NCAA made a rather odd decision on the Monday before the SEC Championship.  Auburn officials, investigating the reports that Newton's father asked for money to "deliver" Newton to Mississippi State during recruitment, declared the player ineligible.  The next day, the NCAA reversed the decision, saying that there is insufficient evidence that the player knew of his father's actions (all together now: Bull Shit).  Therefore, if a player is unaware of illegal activity by their family or people "representing" them, then the player is cleared for participation.  This, of course, set off a firestorm of outrage and confusion from sportswriters across the nation.

The controversey did not go unnoticed by USC Athletic Director Pat Haden, who expressed confusion about the policy.  Per the LA Times:

"In the Reggie Bush case, when the parent [did] something inappropriate the kid and the school suffered . . . .I was always told the parent is the child, that's what we've been telling our kids. If the parent does something inappropriate the child suffers the consequences."

Haden, not surprisingly, plans to use the Cam Newton decision as part of their appeals testimony next month. 
For now, Cam Newton will play and get a chance to win a national championship against Oregon on January 20th.  Then, he will get drafted into the NFL and make millions.  In the mean time, the NCAA will do its do dilligence and slowly carry out their more compelete review of the allegations.  Several years from now, they may decide that Auburn knew of Cecil Newton's shopping of his son's talents.  Or, as evidenced by the sanctions handed down to USC, Auburn should have known about it.  If so, then the NCAA will punish players that have not stepped onto the field yet; players that have never met Cam Newton or his father.  Hardly seems fair.

Fight On,

Hans

PS: TCU has announced their decision to move to the Big East as of 2012.  I certainly dont blame TCU for seeking a league with an automatic qualifying (AQ) status, much as Utah in their joining of the Pac-12.  What is interesting here is how the move will affect the automatic qualifying status of TCU's current league, the Mountain West, and their future league.  The BCS is in the process of assesing the performance in terms of top 25 finishes for all the teams in the all the leagues.  This is supposed to provide a pathway for non-AQ leagues to enter the BCS, none more so than the Moutain West, home of 2 of the 3 non-AQ "BCS busters", Utah and TCU. 

Get this: the BCS comissioner says that TCU's "data will transfer".  That is a HUGE statement.  What it means is that TCU's recent success (top 10 finishes and 2 undefeated seasons) will count in FAVOR OF THEIR NEW LEAGUE!!!  Yes, dear readers, the Big East, who has another unranked team in the BCS this year (UConn, playing Oklahoma, OUCH), will benefit in having their AQ status PROTECTED becuase TCU will join them in the future.  Dan Wetzel is right- the BCS is all about a few schools protecting their power and their paychecks. 

Really Bad Day

A funny thing happened Sunday morning.  You probably didn't notice it, but I did.  The sun came up, the air was breathable, and there were no cats and dogs living together.  It is very reassuring to learn that after Iowa loses to Minnesota AND USC loses to Notre Dame in the same day, life will, in fact go on.  As RoJo dropped the wide open winning TD pass or as Mitch threw the final game ending interception, I prepared for the End of Days.

Anyway, I know that someone at work was happy about the Domers pulling off the first win over SC since 2001.  I snapped the photos above last month when I happened to park next to a contemporary of my college days.  My car is the one with the USC 93 plate . . . oh . . . you knew that already?  Good.

As an aside, Subarus are very common in Iowa City.  It has more to do wth the adverse weather conditions of the area rather than with the auto preference of a certain sexual orientation group common in our town. 
As described in a Subaru ad, here they dont ask what kind of car you drive, they ask what color is your Subaru. 

I just couldn't resist this one last dig at the Domers.  They have been through some long, lean years, and yet they never lose their spirit.  That is an admirable quality.  They may lose to Navy and Tulsa but they still have some of the best tailgaiting in the Midwest.  If you can't be successful, at least enjoy doing it poorly, as per the Cub fans.

Fight on,

Hans

Football in Exile, Part 2

Consistent with this week's Hans's thoughts, I too was in San Francisco on Saturday. Like Hans, in these situations, I "seek common ground; we seek out ones of our own kind."


To that end, I learned that we can add one more to Hans's list of SF "official bars": The Republic on Scott St. at the corner of Lombard. Owned by a Northwestern alum, the Republic hosts a weekly gathering of Cats fans, including this weekend for our annual "upset" of the Hawkeyes.

Thus, when I arrived at 9 a.m. for the game, I was not surprised to find a group of purple-clad fans already sipping on bloody mary's. (By the way, thank goodness I no longer live on the west coast. How do you folks handle such early games?). However, I was surprised by the sheer quantity of the purple-wearers.


As it turns out, this Saturday, The Republic was not just Ryan Field West. Rather, Saturday also marked the annual match-up of the purple-clad Williams College Ephs and the also-purple-clad Amherst College Lord Jeffs. (Another aside: if Wildcats is one of the most generic mascots, than Ephs and Lord Jeffs may be two of the most bizarre.)

Frankly, I didn't know they even televised the Amherst-Williams game. In fact, I didn't even know they had football teams. But, there they were, courtesy of the Republic and the New England Sports Network.


Thus, on Saturday, I spent the morning at the most obscure gathering of sports fans in America. Northwestern, Williams and Amherst. I love college football.


The Ephs rallied from a 10-10 halftime tie to carry the day in the 125th annual edition of Battle for Northwest Massachusetts by a final score of 31-16.


By the way, I don't know if housing both sides of a rivalry in the same bar is such a good idea. After NU beat Iowa, I headed to the Buena Vista, home of the first Irish Coffee in the US, for an Irish Coffee, obviously. There too was a large contingent of Iowa fans, clad in yellow and Ricky Stanzi jerseys. That I was accompanied by my mom may be the only reason my purple shirt made it out of there still on my back.


This week, it's on to Wrigley Field for the NU-Illinois game, which will host ESPN's Gameday crew. Did I mention I love college football?


Go Cats,


NoahG