May 30, 2005

Yet another reason to hate the NC$A.

As many of you know, I'm not a big college baseball fan. I don't follow all the games, I don't get behind my usual favorite teams..and I CERTAINLY don't circle jerk over the ESPN Love-Fest that is the CWS. (Proudly, I'm the only citizen of Omaha who literally hates the CWS, aside from a few old couples who live on 10th street.)

The reason I hate college baseball is many..but the biggest of the big goes largely unnoticed by many, and passed off as "just business." The art of putting top teams and playing TOURNEMENT games on a home fields is the stupidest fucking thing in the history of the world. WHY ON ERATH does Nebraska get to play their tournement games at home, while a team like Arizona has to go on the road because their fans don't care? Wanna know the difference? (And no, it's not money)

Nebraska fan has nothing better to do with their lives than go root on a sport that glamorizes hitting (with the stupid-ass aluminum bat) and patronizes teams by the amount of fans that they draw. Meanwhile, Arizona fans...have to decide whether or not to go down by the pool...drive to Vegas, head to Baja or any other of 1,000,000 more fun activities than sitting on the side of the 110 freeway in Lincoln, waiting for some 18 year old kid to hit a foul ball their way.

The art of awarding home games in playoff situations is great ONLY in the NFL. This is because these teams are professionals, who's SOLE job it is to win their games. Meanwhile, college baseball teams from small schools such as Princeton, Bowling Green, Western Kentucky et all have NO FUCKING shot at going to a College World series...even if they were head and shoulders above the rest. Why? Becuase the Nazi-esque NCAA isn't going to award them a home date in the playoffs because they don't have enough fans to pay for extra shag carpeting on Dennis Pope's Lear Jet. It's the same reason Tennessee and UConn are the only two teams in women's basketball...because they are the ONLY people that give a shit long enough to draw home games in the playoffs.

The NCAA has fucked over the sporting public in this country for so long..it now is shocking if anybody even raises a hand to question them. Why does Michigan host every CCHA playoff? Why do the Huskers play 32 Division 2 baseball teams and get to host a regional in baseball? Why does Duke and North Carolina on average get to travel a total of like 20 miles each when March Madness comes around? Because the NCAA is all about cash, and that's fucking wrong.

I don't care what sob story you paint abou thow money rules the world...about how corporate dollars decide titles...and guys in suits are the games' most powerfull forces. It may be the case, but that still doesn't make it any less of a crock of shit when stuff like this happens.

I will enlighten you all more on this topic as the giant orgy of "dig us" approaches, also known as the College World Series..and I will enlighten you on what sort of grade 'A' assholes run the place. What I say will probably roll right off your backs..but rest assured from a guy who has been there and seen it close up....if you got to know some of these assclowns or got to witness the things they do....you too might be a little bit indifferent as to whether or not you bow down to them 10 days a year in June.

Oh yeah...Fuck the Huskers and may the Bluejays stick them in the ass once again. Wake me up when it's hockey season.

8 Comments:

Blogger Rick said...

Well, I'm on board with about 70% of this, I think, but it's a grade-a rant. Particularly the part about Creighton stomping Nebraska.

6:56 PM  
Blogger A J said...

It just drives me nuts that THIS is the #1 news story of the night on Channel 7 news...yet in 1996-99 when I worked at Rosenblatt to do the sound for NU-CU baseball...we MAYBE had 300 people max come out.

I love Omaha for a lot of things..but this is one of the most bandwagon places on earth..ESPECIALLY if it's dressed in red. Pathetic.

10:56 PM  
Blogger Sam said...

Well, the NCAA has become dumbasses in many respects. Look at the clusterfuck that is the Road to the Final Four-- pod scheduling? What brain-dead jerk dreamed that one up? Why is Boise, Idaho hosting games in the EAST regional? WTF?

And take a look at this years field for the baseball tournament. St. John's has a very strong team, and put in a very good bid to host a regional. So, what happens? They get sent to Corvalis, Oregon. Oregon? Could we find somewhere further away from New York for them to play? If you're going to do something like pod schedule, make it pod scheduling-- make it true regionals.

But making regionals region sucks... it guarentees that your top eight teams cannot make the finals. Think about it, if your top 3 seeds are USC, Cal State- Fullerton, and Stanford... chances are two of those teams are going to be in the same regional.

Here's what they need to do. Fuck pod scheduling (it should be called POS scheduling). You rank your teams-- 1 through 64 (or however many teams you have in your tourney). 1 plays 64, 2 plays 63, etc, etc, etc. And don't worry about keeping teams close to home-- they have the budgets to go on the road. Everyone but the fucking Husker football team seems to be able to go on the road. Very simple... Teams ranked 1, 32, 33, and 64 go to one regional... Teams 2, 31, 34, and 63 go to another... and so on. Not exactly rocket science. Everyone in the world knows that #1 Illinois should have played the winner of the play-in game in basketball. Who got the winner of that game-- NCAA fuckbuddy Duke-- cuz EVERYONE LOVES DUKE.

So who hosts? Who fucking cares? Put it out for bids like you do everything else. Find minor league stadiums in four regions, and go play. I also belive Minnesota should not have played in the Twin Cities regional during the Road to the Frozen Four-- doesn't matter if it was at Mariucci or Excel.

The way things are set up right now, it is easier for UCS, CSF, Stanford, LSU, Auburn, and the rest of the perrenial favourites to make it to the CWS, and that's not right. The NCAA has already identified the 8 teams they want to see in Omaha-- and they will not play each other until then. You've taken that step-- now finish the job. Like a Lancer player avoiding a paternity suit while banging a puckfuck, the NCAA pulled out. You either have to go all in, or stay all the way out. None of this, we'll do this much just to please someone. That is piss-poor policy.

You're not going to see any fans in Lincoln for an Illinois-Chicago/NC State matchup, so why does it matter that they play in Lincoln? But they know they can make a couple extra bucks in Lincoln by having both NU and CU there-- and that is called greed. They know that if they let St. John's host a regional... with another regional opponent like Maine, the fans in the northeast won't show up. Why not-- cuz they don't care about college baseball. Why don't they care about college baseball? For one, they have the Yankees (who also suck) and the Red Sox. For another, the NCAA has made no attempt to bring the game to them.

Play neutral site games as much as possible. The fans who REALLY care will show up. If the top 8 teams are that great, they can play on the road and get to Omaha. Coastal Carolina should not be forced to be a #1 seed and play at the home park of #2 seed Arizona.

That said, go Flames, go Bluejays. Go blow Huskers, go blow NCAA.

12:04 AM  
Blogger A J said...

You are on a Ruth-ian streak of biblical proportions. I've never been more proud.

And I hear ya about the stupid ass "pod" system for basketball. It all started because Kansas City bitched and moaned that no "local" teams were in their regional a few years ago. Well guess what...IT'S THE G** DAMN NCAA tournement...who cares if you have local teams or not?!?! When the big dance comes to Omaha..I don't care if it's Washington vs. UMass...I'm gonna go because it's the best of the best.

Yet another reason why the NCAA blows goats and Dennis Poppe is one of the most evil people on the planet right along with George Steinbrenner, Peter Gammons and the old guy who does the Woodhouse Ford commercials. (CREEPY!)

8:14 AM  
Blogger A J said...

Good point. I didn't think about cocks and beavers. That would be funny to hear old Jack Payne announce that one. "Cock fans..beaver fans, get to know each other and say "howdy"

The thing that is SO maddening to me is that it is SUCH a huge deal right now for two reasons: 1) they're good and 2) Husker football is in the toilet. If fortunates were reversed back to 1997, we'd be back to seeing 200 people show up for a Creighton vs. Nebraska game at Rosenblatt.

Fact of the matter is, Husker fans HAVE to have a team they can feel superior with. Since it will NEVER be basketball, and nobody cares about gymnastics, this is as close as the Hickster fans get to shoving people's noses to bow to their greatness. (I've had 4 people already this morning asking me "how bout those Huskers". My answer? Who gives a fuck? You didn't up to 5 years ago.

Oh well...much like a bad case of ghanarhea, the CWS and all this crap will be gone soon enough, and we'll be back to talking about how the Husker secondary is going to get torched by everybody they play this year. Good thing they only have 4 road games this year. (And remember what happened last time they did that. Bobby Purify is STILL running down the field...but that is another rant for another day.)

9:58 AM  
Blogger A J said...

My bad...you are correct with Chris Brown. I have a picture to post in a second that will be dedicated to that game and it's memory. You'll enjoy it I'm sure. (More than Krutov will. I think he's mad at me for the anti-Husker rants. :) )

12:20 PM  
Blogger Sam said...

My better work seems to be showing up here... but have you checked out my blog yet? One of these days I'll get a good rant going on that one.

All I have to say about Colorado v Felons: 4 offensive plays-- that was all the Buffaloes ran.

And I can still hear the play-by-play from that game. Purify up the middle for 24. Purify up the middle for 42. Brown up the middle for 30. Purify up the middle for 14. Brown up the middle for 17...

6:03 PM  
Blogger A J said...

The shackles of moderators have been released...you are free to vent your anger in a truly meaningless and powerfull way, and you don't have to worry about pissing off the families of recruits. :)

Joking kids..only joking.

7:59 PM  

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