College Football Fans - Time For My Annual Plea

Well, it's that time of year again.  Time for my annual plea to all college football fans out there who want a playoff instead of this lame BCS garbage we have now.  Do you want change?  Do you want a playoff?  We all know the easiest and quickest way to get what we want and yet, year after year, we can't all band together to get it.  People, if you want a college football playoff, here's all you have to do:

BOYCOTT THE BOWLS!

That's it, if you want change you simply just opt to not support the structure that's in place.  Sponsors won't support games if nobody goes or watches on TV.  ESPN will think twice about dropping $125 million a year if they can't get the ratings to justify forking over that kind of cash.  And, if you're a fan of a team who was maybe mediocre this year (like my Noles), why would you travel across the country and fork over a ton of cash to watch them play a meaningless post-season exhibition game?  In the case of FSU, I'm not even willing to drive downtown in my own city to see them play a worthless game against Wisconsin tomorrow.  And, in these days following Christmas, I think I can find something better to do with my time than watching on TV.

As I love Owls, lets use Florida Atlantic as a "for instance".  So I live in Boca Raton, Florida as a Florida Atlantic fan.  My team had a crummy year but eked out their sixth win on the final weekend of the season.  So the reward for my fandom is to get to drop some cash in Detroit to watch them play Central Michigan in the Motor City Bowl?  So my options would be to get to spend the day after Christmas at home in Boca Raton or in f'in Detroit to watch them play the Chippewas to see if they can manage not to finish below .500 for the year?  Umm...  Pass!  And the same can be said for any team.  Hey Longhorn fans...  Your team got screwed out of a title shot because, in the current system, only two teams can play for a championship.  So why would you support that same system by going to Phoenix to watch a meaningless Fiesta Bowl game against Ohio State?  What does winning that game prove?  Utah fans, your team's undefeated season is rewarded for their efforts by being sent to New Orleans to play Alabama for nothing more than pride.  You're welcome!  Because at least you didn't end up like Boise State, undefeated and WAC champions but pushed out of the BCS so they can make room for epic matchups like Virginia Tech and Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl.

I understand the tradition and pageantry of the bowls, but lets face it...  If you support these things then you're a sap.  They're using your loyalty to reach into your wallet and bilk you for the honor of supporting your team in a meaningless matchup.  And, it's true that most people don't go to the games.  But, even with that said, you invest your time watching the commercials and willingly enduring constant product mentions as you sit through some corporately titled bowl game.  That puts money into the bowl system and gives them the ability to continue each year.

Now, imagine if fans banded together.  Many bowl games are already struggling with attendance in this down economy.  The new St. Petersburg Bowl will be lucky to make it to Year 2 considering the poor draw they got in Tropicana Field in a game featuring a school that's only 45 minutes away from the stadium.  Others are struggling maintaining their sponsors who can't fork over the millions of dollars to have their names spray-painted at midfield.  If ever there was a time to hit these bowl games where it counts most, their wallets, now would be the time.  If a game can only draw a few thousand people to the stadium and less TV households than a PTI rerun then guess what???  It's not going to be in the best interest of the networks who air the game or the sponsors who fork the cash to support them.  And when the number of games, TV contracts and payouts start getting cut, less schools will be the beneficiaries of bowl money and those that do will get less.  So guess what they'll start talking about...  Making the college football playoffs a cash cow like the basketball ones.  And thus, we will finally have what we want.

Looking for Something To Do New Year's?

With that said, you may wonder what to do on New Year's since you're not going to be vegging-out in front of the tube watching bowl games.  Well here's an exciting idea, how about giving NHL hockey another chance.  New Year's Day the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings will be playing at Wrigley Field.  And, for those who haven't been following hockey in a while, that's not a misprint.  They will be playing an NHL game outside at Wrigley Field!  This is the third NHL game to be played outdoors as part of the NHL's Winter Classics.  And, while admittedly it is just a regular midseason game, you have two of the top teams in the Western Conference this season, two of the tradition-rich Original Six franchises, playing outside at f'in Wrigley Field?!  How cool is that?  Or, you could watch two 9-3 teams (Georgia and Michigan State) play in the Capital One Bowl or two worse teams (Nebraska and Clemson) play in the Gator Bowl.  Is there even a debate here?

Baby Butt Pants

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Just another week and this nightmare of a year, 2008, will be one we can finally all forget. The '09 seems to hold promise, so lets all hope for the best.

Merry Christmas Casey Anthony...

OK, I don't really give a damn about Casey Anthony, but now that poor little Caylee has been found it's time to look at how Casey's trial will work out. Already the attorneys for the prosecution and defense are acting juvenile, so the one good thing for us here in the Orlando-area is that there's about 0% chance that the actual trial will be heard here. But the case may take a while to work it's way through the process. But, if I were Casey and her attorney's this is what I would do... This is probably too much to ask for, but Casey needs to confess. She needs to throw the investigators a bone and hope that they'll take it easy on her. Look, I believe that Casey did something horrible that cost Caylee her life. But do I think she was setting out one night like "I'm gonna kill that little brat!"... No. I think, whatever happened, it was probably an accident. And yet the state attorney is charging her with first-degree murder. While I think that it would be really difficult for them to get any conviction of first-degree murder, which would require proof that Casey had planned to and then killed Caylee, the prosecution can give the jury choices of lesser charges to convict her of should they feel that first-degree murder isn't warranted. If the speculation is true that Casey maybe used chloroform to make Caylee go to sleep so she could party and accidentally killed her, that's probably more along the lines of manslaughter. She'll still have to pay for a long time in jail, but she won't spend the rest of her life behind bars. And, if she turns around and starts to cooperate with authorities, sparing the prosecution of a long, media-fueled trial, I'm sure they could work out something fair.

And a funny side-story is forming around this... A woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, the name that Casey gave to police as the babysitter she said kidnapped Caylee, is suing the family for defamation of character. This whole story is just bizarre and shows how messed up Casey must be. This Gonzalez woman goes to look at an apartment, somehow Casey uses her name and the apartment complex (even though Gonzalez never actually moved there) as the rogue babysitter, and now people start to suspect her of killing Caylee. Poor woman didn't know anything about anything but got dragged into the media storm surrounding the case. Now, she's suing for defamation and it makes you wonder how that'll work. Lets say I say that John Hughes sucks and I hate him. Then I get a defamation claim from John Hughes the movie director (Ferris Bueller is one of my favorite movies) saying that I libelled him or something, it's then his burden to prove that I was talking about him specifically. I could be talking about anyone with that name. That's, what I think, this Gonzalez woman will run against. I don't think you can claim defamation just because their using your name. I mean, by that logic, that little Adolf Hitler kid who couldn't get his birthday cake will be able to grow up and sue the History Channel or something because they're hurting his image.

Finally Someone Agrees With Me!

As most know, I'm a huge fan of the Covino & Rich Show on Sirius 108. This week, they brought up a subject that I have always thought to myself about but never really said anything about. The topic: Those lame ass jewelery commercials. Especially, the one for Kay where the dude is signing for his deaf girlfriend, a commercial so lame that the first time I saw it I busted out laughing and felt like I was immediately going to Hell.



Just like a recent study has shown, chick movies have been shown as bad in real-world relationships because they set unreal expectations of what a relationship is like, these are like the commercial equivalent. About as realistic as the car in the driveway with the big bow commercials they usually show this time of year (guess with the current economic situation even the car makers realize how impractical that is). And, if I were the dude in the one Jared commercial where my date is texting her friends about me buying her something while I'm in the bathroom, I'd show what I think of that by trying to get with the brunette asking if I had a brother. But hey, that's just how the J rolls.

Anyways, have a great day everyone. Have a wonderful holiday!