You Tickets

Found this video on You Tube for BCS bowl tickets at face value. While it is interesting to seek the evolution of new technology, these clips lack the polish of Madison Ave. The comments made by viewers are not very kind.

Question of Character

Consider the big and small betrails in your life of the trust placed someone be they close or distant. In Confess Your Grudge is the story of a business associate that "forgot" what he had said and taught a young salesman the importance of that confirmation letter. (And the people from Ken's salad dressing are still on the list of those that should rot in hell.)

Think of those people that have betrayed your trust or even societies trust. Once the Catholic Priest was among the group of people that had a solid reputation for doing the right thing. Now that sadly is not true. Or remember in your childhood when your mother told you that you could rely on a police officer. Again not always true. Like may professions the priest and officer has little tangible to offer others expect the element of trust. Diminishing that level of trust and the value of the job is also diminished.

We do not have the time to put the multitude of like transactions into a written and notarized contract. Instead trust is extended the transaction along with the expectation that the other party will treat us in a fair manner.

In current money driven environment college football has entered trust has been replaced with the contract. Players enter into a contract to play for a particular school on the highly anticipated National Signing Day with coverage on ESPNU starting at noon. And as the, The ugly landscape of college football , points out an offer form the old coach need not be honored by the new administration.

In the case of the now very ugly and very public divorce between West Virginia University and Rich Rodriguez, we can see that the contract too has a flaw in that both sides (most aggressively by Rich Rodriguez's agent Mike Brown) are publicly jockey for the low ground in order to undermine the other party. Mike Brown early decided that given that trust was long ago replaced by a contract decided that the be strategy was to intimidate the other side with accusations that undermine the university's position. Memo to Mr. Brown: It is not working.

The actions of Rich Rodriguez and Mike Brown are understandable. The old saying about how adversity reveals character maybe true but as anyone that has been in the position where money is at stake knows the dollar can be a true a test of character as you will find.

You can imagine conversion that Rich Rodriguez and Mike Brown early December.

Rodriguez: "What about the buyout?"

Brown: "Don't worry. We'll play hardball, they'll buckle...It's just a contract. Not like you gave your solemn oath."

In the case of $4 million how would you act?

Which means more to you a promise or the text of a contract? Which would you be more likely to break?

Just Say No

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After 16 games does the AFC need a playoff? With last weekend's meaningless wildcard games we move to the second round of the much loved playoffs because as we know it the champion is best decides on the field. Yet in the case of the AFC there is no need for a post season as New England has vanquished every foe n defeating what is likely the second best team in the NFL in the the Colts. In fact why play the Super Bowl at all as it is clear the New England is the best team in the NFL and at best the current process can only serve to delay this conclusion or crown a pretender the the thrown.

Those that advocate the playoff in college football point to this past season with no regular season dominate team as proof of the need for adding a tournament single elimination contest to the regular season. The recent proposal by Georgia's Michael Adams might not be seems so smart if the Dawgs go undefeated through an SEC schedule only to lose in the first round to a no. 8 Hawaii (or alike). Then the screams would be to consider the difficulty to surviving a brutal SEC regular season and that the winner of the playoff was illegitimate.

This is not to say that we should crown the National Champion prior to one last test, like the vote to give the title to the University of Maryland in 1953 despite being beaten by Oklahoma 7-0 in the Orange Bowl (the final poll was taken before the game was played). The current system requires teams to position themselves for the #1 or #2 positions for a shot at the MNC and while the 2007 season had no dominate team and therefore gave voice to those advocating a tournament the NFL may show the folly of this approach.

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Plinko

...the launching of the much-ballyhooed Big Ten Network proved disastrous.While the launch has been less than the triumph that Jim Delany would have wanted the plodding BTN might yet find its way into you house and extract money from your wallet.. BTN is like the guy from Monty Python and the Holy Grail that wasn't dead yet and any cheering at the death of this cash grab is best done when it is six feet under.

Apparently BTN and Comcast are still talking trying to find a way they can both profit handsomely from selling you a few 2nd or 3rd rate football games, meaningless regular season basketball and content on par with ESPN2 billards coverage.

"So when Silverman says the BTN has addressed Comcast's concerns, you can be sure it has dropped considerably from its initial asking price of $1.10 per subscriber." Not that Comcast really opjects to adding $1.10 to the cable bill, they just want a cut of the loot.

Ending...too cynical...too close to the truth. Looking for that happy place.

Bowl Game Attendence #2

These numbers are as accurate as the height and weight numbers on your license.

Independence Bowl - Alabama Vs. Colorado
Attendance: 47,043

Armed Forces Bowl - Cal Vs. Air Force
Attendance: 40,905

Humanitarian Bowl – G. Tech Vs. Fresno St
Attendance: 27,062

Sun Bowl - South Florida Vs. Oregon
Attendance: 49,867

Music City Bowl - Kentucky Vs. Florida State
Attendance: 68,661

Insight Bowl - Indiana Vs. Oklahoma State
Attendance: 48,892

Chick-Fil-A Bowl - Clemson Vs.Auburn
Attendance: 74,413

Outback Bowl - Tennessee Vs. Wisconsin
Attendance: 60,121

Cotton Bowl - Missouri Vs. Arkansas
Attendance: 73,114

Gator Bowl - Texas Tech Vs. Virginia
Attendance: 60,243

Capital One Bowl - Michigan Vs. FLORIDA
Attendance: 69,748

Rose Bowl - Illinois Vs. Usc
Attendance: 93,923

Sugar Bowl - Hawaii Vs. Georgia
Attendance: 74,383

Fiesta Bowl West Virginia Vs. Oklahoma
Attendance: 70,016

Orange Bowl - Kansas Vs. Virginia Tech
Attendance: 74,111

International Bowl - Rutgers Vs. Ball State
Attendance: 31,455

GMAC Bowl Bowling Green Vs. Tulsa
Attendance: 36,932

BCS Championship - LSU Vs .Ohio State
Attendance: 79,651

Less Than Rosie

PAG or Premier Auto Group was Ford Motor's attempt to cobbble together a premium, high margin consisting of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo with the existing Lincoln division. On paper this is an excellent part of the auto industry to enter as Porsche reportedly earns $28,000 per car or at least enough to be buying Volkswagen.

Ford's problem is that they were trying to put create PAG out of a patchwork collection of firms with rich histories and the parts did not add up. The problems were:

1. Diverse product lines and that for the most part did not share much in common with the larger parent firm.
2. The expense of developing new products for these unique entities.
3. The lack of a home run car. Or more exactly, never getting the volume out of Jaguar for the X-type (a dressed Ford Mondeo) and the S-type that was hoped.

The parts were good but the expectations were too high and the with the down turn in the fortunes of that parent company PAG was doomed. Aston Martin has been sold and Ford is in talks with Tata to unload Jaguar and Land Rover. Porsche's success was built over years with patients (having to recover from the 914 and 924) while PAG's life depended on quick success.

When the ACC expanded John Swofford had visions eclipsing the SEC by adding football to the the conference's highly successful basketball tradition. The plan was simple add three more teams with solid football reputations (and their respective TV markets), improve leverage with Disney Sports, add a lucrative championship game and get additional dollars from putting two teams in BCS bowls. After the lack of an impressive team during this past season and needing to move the championship game due to lack of interest in travelling to Jacksonville, it may not be time for a fire sale but a lowering of expectations may be in order.

In How much worse can bad get? Bob Lipper all but throws in the towel on the Atlantic Coast Conference as a football power.

The ACC is actually in a perpetual spin cycle. It's now 1-9 in these BCS jousts, 4-37 against top-10 opponents over the past seven seasons and nowhere close to the muscular alliance it hoped to become when it expanded clumsily four years ago by extending its corporate-greed tentacles to Boston and South Florida.

The ACC lacks a hit product. The ACC does not have one team let alone two that are what could be considered marque programs. Virginia Tech, the conference champion, lost when confronted with quality out of conference teams getting destroyed by LSU and coming up short against against Kansas. The teams of the ACC have all the sex appeal of Rosie the Robot as Miami is mired in mediocrity, Florida State waits for Bowden to retire, and Virginia Tech looks for that big win. The rest of the memebers have done little or nothing to attract fans. (Wake forest as the little team that almost could being an exception).

Even the writer of the ACC Football Report seems to be at a loss to explain the "commonness" of the conference and has cried Uncle. Given that one of the motivating factors for the Business of College Football (BCF) was the ACC raid on the Big East, you might expect cheers of joy over this state of affairs but, there is no such joy to be found.

The ACC unlike PAG has the time to allow for the flower improve. The business of college football does not currently have obvious agents of change that will cause a new set of conference realignments so the ACC has time to change its current situation.