Marc's Musings

2008 NCAA Football

Apparently the good folks in Indianapolis (NCAA) have decided that the rules for football needed even more tweaking this year. Most of them tweak the clock to make the games shorter to "benefit the fans." I don't know about you, but except during the Turner years, and some pre-season games against TerribleU, I haven't really wanted a game to end sooner.

I take that back. The 2008 IL @ OSU game couldn't have ended soon enough, but I digress.

Here is a summary of the changes. Change #1 (in that list) really shouldn't make a whole bit of difference in the game, but change #2 is a pretty big deal. At least they stop the nonsense after the two minute warning--oh wait, college doesn't have that--but it's still a big pile of hooey. Change #3 could have the effect of either fewer or more facemask calls being made--we'll have to see how that plays out.

Dear Comcast

I'm sick of your ads against the Big Ten Network. I really don't care if you are "looking out for the interests of the consumer" (yeah, right). I don't care that you seem to be getting buddy buddy with your source of revenue.

I've heard more of your ads than those of the BTN, and every time I hear one of yours, I think of the old saying. Be careful when you point at someone because there are 3 fingers pointing back at you.

If you really cared about the consumers, you wouldn't have a double standard with the SEC network, the Golf Channel, and Versus (all of which are on the basic tier, all of which you have an investment in), and you would give them the BTN as well. Instead you spend all this money to alienate your customers--you know, the ones moving to Dish Network and DirecTv?

What's next, the NFL Network? Oh wait. You've already moved that off into a sports tier that you make >$5/month/subscriber profit.

If I ever am forced into having Comcast, rest assured, I would rather have network TV instead of give you any of my money.

Random Thoughts

I have a few random thoughts from the past week...

• NBA Draft -- I think my worst fears came to fruition on Thursday. Joakim Noah, the freak of nature, is now a Chicago Bull. Great. It's a good thing I don't watch a whole lot of NBA hoops.
• Flying -- I think that Beth had a realization this weekend. Flying rocks. We went to Evansville, IN for her cousin's wedding. Here's an interesting comparison based on events (not exaggerated):

  	Beth's Parents	Us
  1330 CDT	Leave Arlingon Heights, IL	Pack
  1530 CDT	Sit in Traffic somewhere in Chicago area	Leave Mount Prospect
  1700 CDT	Finally on 41	Wheels up @ LL10 (we had to kill some time)
  1830 CDT	Are we there yet? No.	Oops, we can't land until 1900, time to slow down
  1903 CDT	Almost to Terre Haute	Land in Evansville
  1930 CDT	Phew. Terre Haute	Headed to dinner
  2100 CDT	Almost thereeee	Checking into hotel
  2115 CDT	We made it!

  I am now required to get my instrument rating so that there are more chances for us to fly down there (she likes to go down there at least once a year, usually 2-3 times). It also increases the probability of us going elsewhere, too.
• Weddings -- I heard a saying that if it rains on a wedding, it means good luck--or irony. What does it mean if you get a military flyby (and you aren't military)? It just so happened that the church was between the airport and the location along the river for the Evansville Freedom Festival--also the reason we couldn't land before 7 on Friday. Right after the pastor said "You may kiss the bride" I heard a 2 or 3 ship flight outside. Obviously I couldn't run outside and look (as is my normal inclination), but I thought that it was pretty neat. There was also an F-117 doing passes as we were driving to the church from the hotel.

Time to crown 'em

The bears are who we thought they were...

Video of (former) Arizona Coach Dennis Green

It's SUPER BOWL time, baby!!!