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At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

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College Bowl Swag: The Things They Carried

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I, like many sports fans, have a difficult time keeping up with all these CFB bowl games. For instance, until last night, who knew that there was such a thing as the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl? Or, for the matter, that there was such a thing called Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, which, by the way, looks like a really nice place to enjoy some Nachos ‘O’ Brady or perhaps some Cheesy Bacon Pub Chips.

Now, with these early bowl games, what interests me the most has very little to do with the who’s playing or the final score. No, the types of things that I care about regarding things like the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl or the Belk Bowl is 1) how empty is the stadium and 2) what kind of “swag” do players receive for their participation.

Tonight, for example, is the San Diego Country Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl between TCU and Louisiana Tech. And for their efforts, each player in the Poinsettia Bowl will receive a Best Buy gift card, Tourneau watch, hooded sweatshirt, and FlexFit cap. Let’s start with the gift card. My absolute favorite part about this gift is that all players must use the card during the scheduled team visit to the electronics superstore. Because lines at Best Buy weren’t long enough to begin with now I have to wait behind a group of 300 lbs linemen all wearing oversized track suits and smelling like a strange combination of Tex-Mex and Axe. I wonder what the most sought after item at Best Buy is for these players. I say either a PSP or pair of Beats headphones.

Next the Tourneau watch. By comparison, this is probably a much nicer watch than most of these players are used to wearing. Then again, since they are always on their smart phones to begin with, how many of these guys actually still uses a watch? I’m guessing that this is the most “regifted” item on the Poinsettia Bowl registry.

Don’t have all that much to say about either the sweatshirt or the FlexFit cap. Chances are, both of these items probably get more love/use from the players than either the watch or the Gossip Girl: Season 2 box set from Best Buy.

If you’d like to see the complete list of bowl games with the accompanying swag, look here. Otherwise, do what I’m doing and enjoy yourself a little preseason NBA hoops before the real deal begins on Christmas Day.

view from Qualcomm Stadium courtesy of @threalcatherine

Defending the BCS: Life Isn’t Always Fair

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Don’t chalk me down as one of the several hundred thousand bloggers and college football fans who have a problem with the BCS. It is what it is and things aren’t going to change until oil magnates like T. Boone Pickens start clamoring for greater equality because their beloved Oklahoma St. Cowpokes got screwed out of a chance to play for the national championship this season.  Until then, you will continue to allow the Tostitos and Allstates of the world to both ruin your New Year and any chance of a 6 team playoff that would finally legitimize the college football postseason.

Here’s an uncompromising preview of the BCS bowl games. Game picks to come later, except for the Orange Bowl. Clemson/WVU doesn’t deserve any extra attention.

Rose Bowl: No. 5 Oregon vs No. 10 Wisconsin – Oregon’s offense could score on the ’86 Bears while Wisconsin looked a step slow against a very pedestrian Michigan State attack led by Kirk Cousins who, coincidentally, just completed his 10th season under center for the Spartans. As a Badger fan, my only hope for success in Pasadena would seem to be if the Ducks show up entirely consumed by their Nike “swag”. For the final time, yes Brett Musburger we understand that Phil Knight is from Eugene and donates an unhealthy amount of money to the football program. And yes, Oregon’s “hypercolor” yellow into green 3D uniforms are a beauty to behold.

Fiesta Bowl: No. 3 Oklahoma State vs No. 4 Stanford – My favorite part about Bedlam 2011 occurred during the pregame introductions when Okla St. honored Justin Blackmon along with other Cowboy seniors. The only problem, Blackmon is a junior. I guess the good, kind folks of Stillwater aren’t too confident their star receiver is going to return for his “real” senior season next year. As for Stanford, tough to imagine many undergrads bypassing their Organic Chemistry lab for a trip down to the desert. Perhaps they should look at a trip to Glendale as field research. I’m sure there are any number of gullible Environmental Science TA’s in Palo Alto who would be willing to cancel classes if they knew about the abundance of Saguaro Cactus Flowers in the greater Phoenix area.

Sugar Bowl: No. 11 Virginia Tech vs No 13 Michigan – Why won’t Brady Hoke wear a headset? According to Mike Francesa, college coaches that don’t wear headsets aren’t really coaching. Of course, Big Mike was really referring to Joe Paterno who, in fairness, has overlooked much much more than just game planning these past few years in Happy Valley. For Va. Tech, you definitely don’t deserve to go to a BCS Bowl, especially after losing to Clemson for the second time this season. But, the Hokies “travel well” which I guess stands for something for bowl organizers whose primary objective is to make money not put together the most compelling, competitive matchup.

Orange Bowl: No. 15 Clemson vs No. 23 West Virginia – Holy crap, I wouldn’t watch this game even if I were related to Jerry West.

BCS Championship Game: No 1. LSU vs No. 2 Alabama – The winner of this game should take on the loser of Indianapolis Colts vs Jacksonville Jaguars to prove once and for all that the top of SEC is just as good as the very very bottom of the NFL.

view from EverBank Field courtesy of @meghanmilissa

Nittany Lyings?

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As a writer, I am really not qualified to editorialize on the recent allegations surfacing about the Penn State football program and former longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. But as a human being, I, like most people, am more than equipped to share my sincere and complete disgust over these reported, and corroborated, acts of repeated sexual assault and violence towards minors. At this point, my only hope is that the victims of these alleged crimes can one day find peace and safety.

Here are some writers/bloggers/former Penn State football players who can all offer much more insight and context to what has become perhaps the saddest most salacious story to ever hit college athletics if not sports in general.*

First, from Spencer Hall, he of @edsbs twitter fame, comes what I believe to be the comprehensive expression of the sadness and genuine anger we are all feeling right now. There are simply no real words to describe the types of emotions these allegations bring to the surface.

Next comes a simple, yet powerful statement from Susan Orlean of The New Yorker, who encapsulates the mesmirizing allure of big time college football and how certain programs can effectively shield themselves from unwanted attention and scrutiny. Did Penn St. and JoePa effectively cover up the crimes Sandusky was committing simply to protect the football program? It’s way too early to tell who exactly is complicit in this mess of situation but one thing is for sure, the legacy of Joe Paterno will forever be tarnished.

Finally, former PSU linebacker, and now radio host, LaVar Arrington shares his dismay and surprise upon hearing such atrocious things about a man, Sandusky, who mentored are cared for the player while in Happy Valley. The fact that this news and information comes as such a shock to the players** who spent such a considerable amount of time with the former d-coordinator, and onetime heir to the Nittany Lion throne, makes this story even scarier and only heightens peoples awareness/suspicions of sexual predators living amongst us.

In the end, more will be written and there will be time for greater reflection. Right now, the details of this story are too sordid to totally comprehend as most of continue to shake our heads at the thought of such evil existing in this world.

*Drew Magary over at Deadspin believes that as of now, the PSU/Sandusky scandal still ranks second to OJ but that could all change depending on what other information, especially if it involves JoePa, is released/exposed over these next few days/weeks/months.

**Matt Millen, another former PSU linebacker now ESPN analyst, literally broke down and started crying this morning in front of a live national audience.

view from Northwestern/Penn St soccer courtesy of @PSUwomenssoccer

The Idiot’s Guide to Conference Realignment

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Recently, I’ve had a lot of people ask me, “hey Jon, what do you think of all this crazy conference realignment happening in college athletics right now?”. Pause Ok, so maybe nobody has asked me about all the crazy conference realignment in college athletics right now. But that doesn’t change the fact that realignment remains a topic of conversation for passionate sports fans across the country even though amongst my immediate circle of friends it ranks somewhere in between the new season of Dancing With the Stars and the Poker Ponzi Scheme.

So Oklahoma and Texas bolt for the Pac 12, bringing Oklahoma State and Texas Tech along with them, while Mizzou heads down to the SEC, Rutgers and UConn make it 16 in the ACC, and the Big East is left picking up the Big 12leftovers. There has to be enough football money to go around. Last time I checked, the ESPN family of networks was airing almost every single college football game including Gardner-Webb/Wake Forest and UCF/Florida International.

My take is quite simple. As a product of a DIII athletic conference where college presidents will not allow their football programs to play enough games to qualify for post season play because the extra weekends would “interfere” with a student/athletes academics, I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I mean, so long as there are enough chairs for every school to sit down on when the music stops, shouldn’t we just simply allow the process to proceed?

The only thing that really bothers me is the thought of no Big East basketball championship in Madison Square Garden. Those 5 days in early March are one of the highlights of my annual sports calendar. And sure, I can see the ACC tourney relocating to the Big Apple but Duke/Pitt just doesn’t carry the same gritty nostalgia as Syracuse/Georgetown. I for one love hearing from curmudgeons like Jim Boeheim who believe AD’s should just leave well enough alone.

And finally, the way the Big East is headed, maybe the conference will be lucky to play a tournament in the Providence Civic Center let alone MSG.

view from Toledo/Boise St. courtesy of @bigrupe57

Between the Hedges at the US Open Final

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I was all set to talk about how my friend Chip went down to Athens, Georgia for some good old fashioned SEC football between the Bulldogs and the South Carolina Gamecocks, and then the US Open men’s final between #1 seed Novak Djokovic and #2 seed Rafael Nadal happened. Not to take anything away from Chip’s experience “between the hedges” – by all accounts it was a once in a lifetime experience highlighted by a unannounced trip to a sorority and plenty of hearty tailgating in “the grove” – but the effort and skill on display in Ashe Stadium Monday afternoon into night was impossible to overlook.

In the end, last night was one of the few sporting events where it really didn’t matter who won the match, both were equally deserving of the honor. By far the most compelling aspect of this US Open final was the physical and emotional exertion put forth by these two world class athletes. I was tired out just watching the match from the edge of my couch, tipping and tilting my body with every long rally. How these two players didn’t strain every single muscle in their bodies is beyond me. If it were me on the court last night, I would have needed a week in a hyperbolic chamber to recover from that 4.5 hour marathon.

So Chip, thanks for the view from Sanford Stadium. I still want to know what brought you to Athens in the first place and how in the world you ended up on the 50 yard line. I guess you’ve spent enough time now south of the Mason-Dixon line to warrant inclusion into the world’s largest cocktail party.