The Penn State Football Show

Going into depth a little more on Bowden, I am starting to feel for the guy. I blame this solely on the media who tends to depict athletes and coaches as Saints when they retire/die when the full story is nothing but the opposite. Example: Steve McNair. People are calling this guy a great community leader and family man before he was so tragically slain. Not buyin it. Bowden is a less than perfect guy who has been maybe the biggest perpetrator of nepotism I have ever seen. His recruitment of certain players has had a lot of people raising their eyebrows and his players have criminal records only rivaled by their athletic prowess. Having said that, I thought he handled the academic scandal extremely well and gained a lot of points with me in that one.

His forced retirement at FSU reminds me of a few years ago when fans and faculty were calling for JoePa to step down. I will admit for the first time publicly that I was one of those fans. It is one of the most shameful behaviors of my life I wish I could take back but can't. I feel terrible every time I think about it. But I was a 18 year old kid tired of seeing his once mighty Lions lose to the same teams that we used to beat right off the field. I'm glad to see Penn State kept Joe around and made a solemn vowel to myself I would support him no matter how many losing seasons we might have. The problem with guys like Paterno and Bowden is, given the chance, they will never leave. Its just not in them. So when things go terribly afoul its up to someone else to make the tough decision.

I have to agree with Jason on a playoff system. Not so much for the same reasons as he stated but its just not feasible. I think that goes into the pageantry of college football that it often resembles a Greek tragedy. But as with most things in life, sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get screwed. But in the long run things seem to work out. If we think back a few years ago, the number one team most times didn't even play the number two team in their final game and it was left up to writers to determine the National Champion. Its an imperfect world, why should our bowl selections be any different? I am still holding strong on my opinion that Penn State does not deserve a BCS game this year though.

I don't know if anyone saw this from last weeks USC-UCLA game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVpyI6eWvwQ Its absolutely atrocious. You would think the media would have a field day with this but the fact that Tiger Woods dinged his Caddy coupled with the fact that Pete Carrol is a media darling and it all makes sense. I hate Pete Carrol. I have always hated Pete Carrol. I think he pays his recruits and I think he is a scumbag. And all the Behind the Lines stories where he gave an inner-city kid a chance to be their towel boy for a game won't change that. As for UCLA, either sprint across the field and start throwing fisticuffs or sit there and shut up. I totally agree that what USC did was the poorest showing of sportsmanship and they have every right to be mad. But either put up or shut up. All you've done is create a pre-game montage for next year.

Big ups to Big Ten hoops which brought home victory in the Big Ten/ACC challenge for the first time in 11 years.