Thank Palpatine it's Friday

I don’t like to use this space for attacks. Not my style. But I feel the anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering…

Here are the two things that brought out my dark side this week.

The first was an article from Boston Globe college writer Mark Blaudschun. As a rule I try to avoid his work, but posters on the BC message boards linked to his latest folly. In his article he proposed an 11-1 Penn State missing out on the chance to play for the National Championship in the Rose Bowl. How would that happen, Mark? Penn State is only playing 11 regular season games. Did they add a 12th game before the Rose Bowl that we weren’t told about? Does Mark not understand how schedules work? I imagine it is a typo that wasn’t caught. It happens to me all the time. The difference is I DON’T GET PAID AND I DON’T WORK FOR ONE OF THE BIGGEST PAPERS IN THE COUNTRY. Really sloppy work from Blaudschun and the Globe copy editors. I would let the typo slide, but Mark pushed my buttons in his notes section. I had to print it just to show how out of touch the college writer of the Globe actually is. Here’s the quote: “Who would have thought? Rutgers bowl-eligible before Tennessee. Rutgers needs to win one of its remaining three games to get in position for a spot in the Insight Bowl in Phoenix Dec. 27. The Scarlet Knights can climb higher as the Big East champion, which would earn them a BCS bid. But the Knights would have to win out (which would include a victory at Louisville) and current leader West Virginia would have to drop a game. Worst-case scenario: The Scarlet Knights lose their remaining games and wind up in Charlotte, N.C., in a bowl game against Connecticut or Boston College.”

Harmless, right? Well except for the last sentence about who Rutgers might play in Charlotte. He has them potentially playing another Big East team. What? Does he not know how bowl affiliations work? Sure conferences can't always fill their slots, but can you think of a bowl in the last 10 years that has selected two teams from one conference? And the Big East would be the conference to break this barrier? For UConn-Rutgers in Charlotte? Come on. Forget typos. How did he let this absurd thought go from his head to his fingers? Ignore that UConn will have a tough time becoming bowl eligible or that BC is unlikely to be invited back, this man, who is supposedly an expert on College Sports doesn’t understand how bowl selections work. Unbelievable. The sad part is I can list 10 bloggers who can write circles around Blaudschun and would kill for his salary and platform and would actually bring something to the position. What a waste.

The other thing that upped my ire was the Big East handing Mike Tranghese a big fat extension. Forget Charlie Weis’s new deal, where is the outrage about this? This guy might be the most ineffective leader in the country. He botched the ACC defections, ignored full sports members desires in favor of basketball schools, took his whining public, secured two bad TV deals in the 1990s, led the remaining schools into costly and worthless lawsuits, has no sense for PR or marketing, uses his job to promote his friends and poke his enemies. And now the new Big East has rewarded him even though everyone keeps saying the 16 team conference won’t last much longer. The ADs and presidents of the Big East schools only have themselves to blame. Instead of finding someone who can lead them into the uncertain future, they’ve handed a golden parachute to this basketball school crony.

Glad I got that off my chest.