Conference Realignments Persist In Chaos, Absurdity In Football

The misshapen tumult is upon the BCS and college football, the one sport experiencing hypocrisy for all the craziness in college sports, yet to constitute a legitimate eight-team postseason system. It’s only a matter of time before the Bowl Chaotic System raises more hysteria and drama within an unbalanced format.

Of course, more disgruntled fans are bickering about the sudden realignment happening when the majorities are petulantly begging for a playoff system. It’s often that you hear about universities getting snubbed or disregarded by a treacherous system and suddenly are victimized of BCS fraud and eliminated from bowl contention. Lately, the transitions are stealing from page headlines, extending a notorious holocaust that crippled the perception and sabotaged loyalty for ignoring the brilliancy and magnitude of non-prominent programs.

All of this means the game isn’t fitted to pacify the average devotee, still willing to cope with the farce that destroys all credibility unless the committee unanimously approves an accommodating formula and eradicate a discontent brand of fraudulent computer systems. By now, it’s not difficult to fathom that the overuse of technology manipulates the rankings and essence of a program’s status, forcing each university to excel and rise above stiff ramifications.

By the end of the season, someone’s heart is broken as a school from a legitimate conference is screwed. For years, conference teams within every region were insulted of the foolish propaganda that besieged a myriad of athletic directors and school presidents, believing the program were balanced and worthy of contending for a national championship. This situation can only get uglier in an unfair society for which nothing seems fair or delightful in pleasing one’s need.

There are certainly no honest advantages in college sports, which are surprising with universities typically emphasizing the tenor of higher education and values of academia, rather than stabilizing revenue in an underachieving athletic department. You are aware of the storyline buzzing loudly in college athletics anonymity peeving our consciousness, while the agitating realignments and conference transitions causes a travesty.

Unlike ever before, it’s a deranged game with perplexing mind games for making one of the worst adoptions in NCAA history mocked for adding and authorizing further absurdity and madness in upcoming seasons. A very ugly and dire situation became uglier and emphatically imperfect once an announcement was confirmed that Nebraska is leaving the Big 12 Conference to join the Big Ten, a famous conference known for its own television network and lousy football programs.


This is what happens in college sports suddenly teams switch conferences. While none of this comes as a surprise to Nebraska’s athletic director Mike Greenfield, who spent the last eight seasons as a member of the wrestling program for the Cornhuskers, it’s certainly a stunner to all people and seems foolish. Football is now a joke, apparently.

“Yeah, we kind of expected it. It has been talked about earlier in the spring. There were rumors floating around and there had been a few staff meetings where things were said that kind of led us to believe that it might happen. But nothing was said formally. I think it finally got to a head last week at the Big 12 meetings in Dallas.”

Which means the Huskers will now meet the conservative Ohio State or Rich Rods Michigan, two Big Ten schools viewed as powerhouses, but are average when facing other conferences. In other words, the conference is an undermined one, meaning the Huskers will have a legitimate chance at winning the conference title, right?


You never know in an elusive Big Ten Conference. Then, with a unanimous vote by the University of Colorado administration and directors, the Buffaloes are leaving the Big 12, now traveling to the West Coast. Only in college football someone would see something this bizarre. No later than Tuesday, Texas regents are expected to approve the Pac-10 move. And this weekend Pacific 10 commissioner Larry Scott is traveling to the south to personally offer invitations to Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State, according to sources.

In the meantime, it’s utterly ridiculous that the SEC could expand the conference and the Pac-10 could rename itself the Pac-16. Any notion that the transformations are for reducing an injustice and unequal crisis, ignoring numerous programs because of its existence in a non-superconference or a smaller school in a smaller town no one has ever heard of, you’re wrong.


It’s strictly a game of finances and richest, a game of politics, more than a game for building stronger character or even towards a better tomorrow. Because there are lopsided conferences such as the Pac-10, it will cause more bickering and raise hell, particularly if the powerful Longhorns steamrolls an inferior Oregon State or UCLA.

It’s also easy to imagine Kansas possibly relocating to the Mountain West and slaughter a below average TCU, who dominated a weak conference a year ago. And it will be amazing to witness if Boise State was an illusion or a forceful program within an attenuated WAC Conference.

For the first time in college sports, a massive realignment could thwart unbalanced schools, cripple traditional schools, ravage well-known schools, and most of all smear possibly substandard schools of reaching the national title stage and hoisting a crystal ball as rectitude no longer exist. Today, it’s all about richest and fame. Today, it’s about chaos and absurdity. Today, the game of football is a joke.

Let’s all make a laugh out of the funniest drama in sports ever.

Are The California Golden Bears The Next Shocking Scare In Tourney?

There’s no bigger infatuation in college hoops than a team ostensibly declared as a Cinderella.

If this is a point in the season when we truly find out what a team is made of, then we may have learned about the California Golden Bears, amazed with their miraculous blueprint of attempting the unprecedented.

With all due respect, it has no relation to a famous football team, but is related to the resurrection of a well-balanced basketball team, established within a noteworthy athletic program.

All sporting teams existing within an inferior conference or with lower seeds, greatly ventures beyond any mirages or flukes and derives respect after being ignored for instability in the past.

Before refuting the Golden Bears in the midst of an inconceivable survival, realize that this tenacious team won’t be an easy out. If people weren’t to deny the truth, before an expected moment written what is viewed as a make believe movie, there’s an indicator that the Golden Bears are just as perilous as Ohio, Cornell or Murray State.

What a shame that gamblers and bracketology overlooked a potential Cinderella, now wearing a glass slipper after making a strong case with a decisive win in the first-round Friday night.

For those curious to know how eighth-seeded California took a commanding lead in the early minutes and sent a credible message to all doubters, the Golden Bears are athletic and well-coached of narrating an astonishing story.

Despite a disappointing loss in the Pac-10 tournament, the program that originated in the Bay Area are good, maybe, great to some living in Northern California. If the Bears were utterly calm, instead of entering a rigid contest with the jitters, then it’s realistic to believe they could explode on Duke early, maybe?

That’s the common question and a fitting one, facing the hottest team arguably in the second-round of the NCAA tournament. Competition only gets stiffer, as it should for an undiscovered program that hasn’t been on such a perennial level.

For a long time, Cal’s basketball program suffocated by a popular powerhouse known as UCLA, a now-depleted roster that has faded out of contention.

For a long time, Cal’s basketball program was overshadowed by interstate rival Stanford.

For a long time, Cal’s basketball program couldn’t find its identity within a compelling basketball conference with brand name players.

But lately, all the brand name student-athletes are listed on Cal’s roster, sparking a scare within a cryptic South region.

There wasn’t a point during the game that things became dicey for the Golden Bears, managing to contain a comfortable margin with a 22-4 explosion at Veterans Memorial Arena. They were in control, refusing to allow a shaky Louisville team to find a groove or momentum as a way to taper California’s endless rhythm.

Basically, here is a cohesion core that has gelled and played together within a four year span, accustomed to each others’ styles and plays unselfishly. At the end of a 77-62 win, it was worth celebrating and rejoicing the sudden emergence after making a sage of a wise, crafty coach Mike Montgomery.

Something happened along the way that resembled much of Montgomery. A couple days ago during an interview, he reminisced about his lustrous coaching track record, but also was candid admitting it has been difficult building a proficient program.

“It was easy for me,” Montgomery said. “This is harder, he said, “other than maybe I have a little more experience on knowing what’s going to happen.”

He ended up leaving Stanford, where he guided the Cardinal to 16 NCAA postseason appearances and a lone trip to the 1998 Final Four, the first bid in 47 seasons. Here’s the pattern we are witnessing now: Montgomery molded his sophomores until they became seniors, a season the Cardinal finished 26-7 with upperclassman.

None of this was a comparison to an upstart in the NBA. In two seasons with the Golden State Warriors, he posted two identical 34-48 records during both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 campaigns, before it was announced that Montgomery was fired.

In the college game, history is repeating itself. Jerome Randle, Theo Robertson, and Patrick Christopher are three seniors, duplicating a habitual pattern. If anything, that is dominating and trying to win as seniors, something California will attempt in a tense tourney.

The Golden Bears transformed from a first-round letdown to a probable team wearing the glass slippery. Not all teams will last or advance to the Sweet 16. But in the meantime, if given the choice to pick one, I’d pick the Golden Bears.

The glass slippers were always silver, but now it may be a pair of Golden ones. Seemingly every March, there’s a team emerging from out of nowhere, stunning us all with their inspiration, hot shooting and brilliant defensive effort.

It’s surprising Cal wasn’t bothered by Louisville’s press and zone defense, composed at attacking the rim and shooting in their comfort zone. In a way, they’re impossible to beat when they shoot over 46 percent, a perfect 21-0 against opponents. Maybe the Bears can break down Duke, and send the first No. 1 seed home, possibly?

Right now, Randle and Robertson are playing their best basketball, and each scored 21points, while Christopher added 17. Each shot a combined 20 of 35 and made all eight three-pointers to unglue Louisville’s fundamentally sound defense.

Without starting forward Omondi Amoke because of a suspension, the Bears still have solidity and balance. More than anything, their calmness and assurance were components of avoiding a huge meltdown.

While the Cardinals went on a light scoring tear and forced four turnovers, Rick Pitino’s unit soared on a 12-0 run cutting the deficit to 30-24. All of this was a scare, but the Golden Bears quickly rebounded and scored the last five points of the half on Christopher’s pull-up 15-footer and Randle’s 37-footer at the buzzard.

It capped an exalted story, one of the conspicuous stories in the crazy month of March. Can this team accomplish the improbable? Any team is bound to upset.

All that said, the Bears now are favored.

Lane Kiffin Makes a Perfect Blend at USC, Despite Immoralities

If there is sensibility under the dim lights in Hollywood, the latest arrival of Lane Kiffin might be an antidote to abandon the ugly mess. Most are aware that a toxic wasteland has polluted the coolest and popular atmosphere in Los Angeles, with outrageous scandals diagnosing the uncertainty for an impaired program.

At USC, pending investigations are currently putting a freeze on a multitude of potential recruits, forcing the former coaching staff to flee the monstrous havoc. That’s not the case for Kiffin, who promptly came to the Trojans’ rescue, expected to be named the next head coach of USC. He is, the new football coach, reducing tears and generating smiles as Pete Carroll’s successor after the Trojans former coach left for the airport a day ago to prepare for an NFL coaching job.


Kiffin is the main attraction returning to the West Coast and departing from the South to attain employment in Southern California, an environment where he is used to the warm receptions, the traditional melody of the “Fight On” anthem. He worked under Carroll for six years, studying and mastering the formation and integral methods to football.

Never mind the horrific downfall at Tennessee, a program that gave Kiffin a shot to strengthen an impotent school after a divorce badly ended with the Oakland Raiders, during a brief assignment in the NFL.

Put aside the alleged NCAA violations, even though he’s still being probed for committing six infractions. Forget about the alleged female recruiting hostesses that the New York Times investigated and acknowledged that women visited prospects in North Carolina.

There are populace believing he’s not suitable to coach a program with a quantity of issues. USC cannot allow more sanctions to ruin credibility, arguably at the most respected program at least before the preface of scandals became ugly. If he committed minor crimes at Tennessee, the latest slip ups are hard to elude and makes it hard for Kiffin to convince that he has grown and past the rogue stages of his flowering coaching career.

In two-plus seasons, Kiffin’s 12-21 record isn’t flawless or something to rave heavily on. The demoralizing 37-14 loss to Virginia Tech wasn’t impressive in his first season as a college football head coach, especially when Kiffin hasn’t had much without his former boss Carroll. He leaves Rocky Top for a Hollywood makeover, given the privilege to take on a steeper role and excel as an acute successor.


Fourteen months in Knoxville, his reputation teetered for acting childish and blubbering with SEC coaches. He had a verbal confrontation with Florida coach Urban Meyer, when he accused him of illegal recruiting. And ever since losing to its archrivals, Kiffin was described as the laughingstock of the SEC, the little kid who wasn’t sure of how to manage a program alongside the old timers.

All over the nation, he was derided for all the foolish nonsense. Losing control of a disoriented team, three of his freshman players were arrested and charged with armed robbery. In an attempt to revamp a program of unforeseen failures, he’s a great suit for the program.


Lots has to do with Kiffin’s fiery attitude, bringing intensity and is powerful in luring top prospects. His ability to persuade goes a long ways, even though much of his crafty exertion appears impractical for the alleged conspiracies.

Bringing aboard Kiffin to a program when times aren’t suitable, the polarizing athletic director Mike Garrett isn’t terrified of a regal athletic department degenerating. Nor should the average Trojans fan.

If they are brave enough to understand and trust in Kiffin, very well he could be the next greatest head coach after he observed and listened to Carroll. One ghastly season isn’t enough proof to say whether he’s a joke as a head coach.

In Oakland, under an ill-tempered owner All Davis, he wasn’t given enough time to transform a pessimistic franchise. Same goes for the year spent in Knoxville, where simplicity and inexperienced underlined first impressions.

The headaches have yet to expire, and probing still persists whether former running back and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush allegedly was lavished with improper gifts and benefits by two businessmen who shouldn’t had been allowed to influence student-athletes.

And suddenly, prolific running back Joe McKnight is hightailing, trying to escape a sanction that he’s being held liable for. He has decided to expand on a promising future, and will declare for the NFL Draft as well as receiver Damian Williams.

However, the disturbing headline these days revolves around McKnight, who is being investigated for driving a Land Rover registered in the name of a businessman who has a website called www.4joemcknight.com.

The Trojans aren’t in bad shape able to rebuild around a sensational quarterback Matt Barkley, who has the potential and talent to lead the Pac-10 in statistics. Just a day ago, Matt’s father said he’s expected to return for his sophomore season.

It isn’t such a bad suggestion to rebound under the 34-year-old Kiffin, either. Bringing a reliable staff he has instituted, a workable nucleus that could present problems for the emergence of Oregon and Stanford.

While grudges are shown toward Kiffin, he’s bringing a crafty staff along, which makes the Trojans favorable. Monte, his father and defensive coordinator, and Ed Orgeron as his recruiting coordinator will travel to Los Angeles. And to top things, Norm Chow may revisit the Trojans as offensive coordinator.

With seemingly a lot of questions, the players are satisfied by the replacement. Kiffin could be mistaken as a student, but the players already have tremendous respect. Barkley and running back Marc Taylor calls it the perfect replacement for Carroll. And Garrett issued a statement, elated of the greatest gift since Carroll accepted the job last decade.

“Lane brings a lot to the table,” Garrett said. “He has a coaching background both in the pros and in the best collegiate conferences. He has a great command of the X’s and O’s. He is familiar with the Trojan landscape and will be a great representative of our university. He keeps the game fun. And, very importantly, he has proven to be one of the finest recruiters anywhere.”

Having familiarity is the key to building upon success, a brilliant recruiting coordinator, a father who has great knowledge of defensive methods to fight on. We’ll see if this measures up to multiple national titles.

But according to my senses, the Trojans will hoist the crystal football.