breaking news

Report: WNBA awards Atlanta franchise for '08 season

Expansion? Really?? I mean, apparently it doesn't matter that most of our major sports leagues are already bloated due to overexpansion - at least they regularly make money. Here I was under the impression that businesses generally expanded when they were doing well and the market wanted it. Congrats to you, Atlanta - now Hawks games will seem even more appealing.

Lemme just say this - when you're deciding who makes the Championship by a best of three series, you know you're not important. Nothing gets resolved by a best of three contest. At the very least, it's expected to play best of five rock-paper-scissors for the last piece of pie.

in case you missed it

STANFORDSTANFORDSTANFORDSTANFORDSTANFORDSTANFORD!

oh right, other things happened this weekend in college football. here's a few that may have slipped through ESPN's mind-controlling tendrils:

1. Mississippi State beats UAB, 30-13. No, this is not news because of the result of the game; UAB is a one victory team and an obvious cupcake on the MSU schedule. What makes this noteworthy is it brings the Bulldog record to 4-2, currently tied with Auburn, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Granted, they now have to play the meat of their schedule, and bowl eligibility is still very much up in the air.

BUT DID YOU KNOW - Mississippi State has not won 4 games in a season since 2000, when they went 7-5. That's an astonishing streak of terribility (definitely a word), and they've already broken it with five games left to play. Maybe Sylvester Croom knows what he's doing in Starkville.

2. Mizzou is apparently a force to be reckoned with, after proving they're not just paper tigers - see what I did there? See? Go back and check.

They didn't just beat Nebraska, they thwomped them. The only thing Chase Daniel didn't do in this game was pluck a giant radish, Mario 2 style, and throw it at Bill Callahan. The Tigers racked up over 600 yards of offense and held the Huskers to six points. Funny, it seemed like their week one victory over the Fighting Zookers was just a glorified cripple fight - now it'd be a big game between conference leaders.

3.
Honestly, Kyle - you've attempted over 700 passes in your college career. You've started about 25 games. Coming into this game you'd only thrown 21 interceptions to 32 touchdowns.

And you turned in maybe the worst performance of any big program starter I've seen in a while. The stats don't really reflect how putrid you were, mostly because the bulk of your yards and one of your touchdowns came on long, heaving prayers where you somehow managed not to overthrow the receiver or put the ball 6 yards out of bounds on a sideline fly pattern.

These interceptions were terrible and came at the worst possible times. Maybe the Tar Heel linebackers looked like All-Pro receivers because the only check down you made was to make sure your testicles were still there (fact: they were not).

But I will say, it was a helluva lot of fun to watch a Miami game and root for Butch Davis with a clean conscience.

character, dammit!

so apparently we are all terrible about posting to the site. that should change, and i encourage you to email adam and grant mercilessly until they do something about it.

i had the unfortunate honor of being at the uf-auburn game with adam, a disappointing loss in any number of ways. personally, for all the shit our defense takes, i think they were the unit that had the best overall performance in the game. but i digress.

as my fellow posters would probably attest, this was not nearly UF's worst loss or even the worst loss we attended. shit, pick any one of our losses in 2003. that year still leaves an awful taste in my mouth.

but all those losses are good for a football team in the long run, and they're good for the fan base as well. these are what i like to call character losses. granted, losses are never fun, and not all losses are character losses; for instance, the 2003 FSU-UF victory remains the absolute worst officiated game i've ever seen. there's nothing to gain from that except disdain for ACC officials and chris rix, and we really didn't need any more of either.

the beautiful thing about character losses is they make you appreciate big wins and championships all the more. the success of the gators last year doesn't really mean the same thing to you if you hadn't seen these same players struggle and choke and sputter to losses in games they could have won. losses like the auburn game test your fan loyalty, because it's easy to root for a team that wins and wins and wins but harder to support them wholeheartedly when they play a really crappy game. i can still remember the 2002 UF-Miami game in gainesville where it seemed like 1/4 of the student section had sold their tickets because it looked like we were gonna get waxed (coincidentally, we did). that's fucking awful and those are probably the same people buying "gator peat" t-shirts for their kids.

so, oklahoma, texas, rutgers, west virginia, and florida fans, buck up. you may have all lost last saturday, but it's good for your fans. football teams that don't struggle just aren't that interesting.