MY CONFERENCE COULD WHIP YOUR CONFERENCE WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND ITS BACK

NCAA football from Wikimedia

When we sit down to watch a sporting event, unless we have a rooting interest in one team, we hope for a close, exciting game.

Of course the truth is, sometimes when one team plays another, one team is clearly better and opens a can of whoop ass on the other, beating it soundly. I know, I'm a New England Patriots fan. Zing! Bet you didn't see that coming.

That brings us to the college football playoffs. For years, Division 1 college football decided its championship in a quaint way. Teams played a regular season, then the best teams played  bowl games, then some media folks voted on who would be awarded the national championship, or in today's parlance, the "natty." I really, really hate today's parlance. Since rarely did the number one team play the number two team, this system allowed as many as three or four schools and their fans to proclaim each year that they were the rightful champions.

So the powers that be, seeing the inefficiency of this system, as well as its failure to milk every last dollar out of the fans, TV networks and anyone else involved, came up with a new, improved system. A four team playoff. One plays four, two plays three and the two winners square off. Finally, an undisputed national champion. Would that be an "undi natty?" The new system would use existing bowl games as playoff games. What could go wrong? Glad you asked. Three playoff games and approximately 97 bowl games no one gives a damn about any longer. Nine bowl games drew under 20,000 people last year.

Only four teams, you ask. How are we going to decide which four? Easy. Computerized sorcery, combined with TV network and conference politics. This is gonna be easy. We'll take the three undefeated major conference champions, and.....what? Sorry, we'll take two of the three undefeated major conference champions, plus Alabama and Texas. 13-0 Florida State, sorry, maybe next year. But why?

Because the SEC and its legion of obnoxious fans fancies themselves the home office of college football. Why, we're the conference of Alabama, Georgia, Home Depot, Sonic and Fansville, for God's sake. You can't leave us out! The ACC? A bunch of Dukes.

So the powers that be, seeing the problems with this system and blind to the problems of any system they could possibly dream up, came up with a new one. 12 teams! All the major champions get in. Look, Clemson is in from the ACC. Sorry, Florida State, can you forgive us? Arizona State is in. I think they were the Big East champ, hard to keep track. Boise State, in. Hey, Indiana, great season, come on down. SMU, the Southwest Conference champ (or not.) OK, is there anyone who could possibly have a gripe about this? Wait, who's that spraying Dr. Pepper all over the bracket? How dare you leave out fourth place Alabama from the SEC? We beat all kinds of good teams, plus Mercer and Western Kentucky. This is an outrage! Next year? The top 11, plus the entire SEC.

Then, they played the games. See second paragraph. Tennessee got waxed by Ohio State, but bragged about how many fans they had at the Shoe. (See, SEC and legion of fans above.) Indiana tripped on the glass slipper and fell into a snowbank.

Cue sports media, led by an impassioned Kirk Herbstreit rant about how the selection committee blew it by allowing the likes of Indiana and Tennessee in. I like Herbstreit. I think he made one of the greatest athlete to broadcaster transitions of all time. Problem is, he, like everyone in major TV sports, works for a network that is involved in business transactions with the teams and leagues they cover. When a commentator's opinions align with what's in the best business interests of his employer, one must wonder.

Here's my radical suggestion. Let me say in advance I know all the things that are wrong with it, but hear me out.

Since conference alignments mean less than they ever have, blow them up. Let whatever experts are up to the task come up with four 13-team leagues. The top 52 in the country. Try to balance those leagues so they would be of roughly equal strength. 

Each team plays each team in its league once. This takes strength of schedule off the table. Everyone plays a schedule of about equal strength. The top three in each league go into the tournament. A 12 team tournament. Twos play threes, ones get a bye. Determine a formula of which league faces which, so seeding is not an issue.

Include soccer-style relegation every year, two years, whatever. Mississippi State 2-10, you're out next year, Army is in.

Of course, none of this matters, because North Carolina is going all the way next year. Light blue hoodies will be all the rage.

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

There are two angles a reporter could have taken following Thursday's Biden-Trump debate hosted by CNN. One, "Biden has poor debate." The other, "Trump makes dozens of false statements." I'll leave it to you, dear reader to determine why every single reporter in the United States chose the former. Perhaps it's that left wing media bias I hear about every day from the 12 straight hours of right wing hosts who follow my show.

Before debates, campaigns work the refs and attempt to lower expectations. Any competent reporter knows this. So why did so many reporters repeat the GOP talking point that if President Biden had a good debate, it meant he had been given performance enhancing drugs beforehand? Competent reporters would behave one way, but actual reporters behaved differently? Why, I think we have our answer!

After Thursday's debate, we finally know for sure that 81 year old, relatively fit and trim Joe Biden is physically and mentally unfit to be president, while 78 year old Donald Trump, who is obese, subsists on a diet of Burger King and Milk Duds and who shows actual, clinical signs of dementia, is ready to rock.

CNN, we have one candidate who is a serial liar. Whatever will we do? Let's just not mention it. After all, determining and reporting the truth isn't our job, right. We don't report, you can't decide.

Joe Biden should have agreed to a pre-debate drug test, in return for Donald Trump agreeing to step on a scale and shoot a round of golf with a camera crew following him.

Unasked question Thursday: Mr. Trump, you complained repeatedly about your New York trial for falsifying business records, saying that the judge was a Democrat who was biased against you, yet in another of your legal cases, the judge was appointed by you and is clearly doing everything in her power to delay your trial until after the election. Is it your contention that only judges appointed by you can be fair and unbiased?

Republicans have been saying for months that Mr. Biden should step aside and let someone else gain the Democratic nomination. What is the only possible reason one would call for an opponent's removal from the ticket? The fear that they can't beat him. Have you heard a single reporter in the United States make this blindingly obvious point? Why not? 

The Democratic party is an embarrassment. The bed wetting, pants pissing whining of so many Democrats after the debate was pathetic. The Democrats don't need a better candidate, they need better Democrats. 

It's June. In June, 1992, the presumptive Democratic nominee was third in a three way race at 25%. He won. On election day 2016, the polls gave his wife a 60% chance of winning. She didn't.

THE FLX TED PODCAST - CHRIS LAJEWSKI, MONTEZUMA AUDUBON CENTER

Bald eagles, photo by Greg Craybas

 

In this episode:

• A recent bald eagle census in the Montezuma wetlands showed one of the highest populations ever, including what appears to be a breeding pair near the Montezuma Audubon Center in Savannah.
• We got some winter bird feeding tips, including a reminder to keep our feeders clean.
• Our species spotlight this month was the American Black Duck. 
• A second Onondaga Lake bald eagle and birding excursion has been set for this Saturday, January 21st.
• Montezuma Audubon Center has been partnering with the NY State Canal Corp. for snowshoeing (or walking if there's not enough snow) excursions along the canal. Sign up right away, because many of the trips have already sold out.

Our theme music is "Sugar Zone" by Silent Partner. You can find their music and other copyright-free music here.

 

 

You can subscribe to my podcasts on Google Podcasts, Anchor and Spotify.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON SUPER WILD CARD WEEKEND

Photo courtesy of piviso.com

 

I'm glad it was Super Wild Card weekend. If it were ordinary Wild Card weekend, I might not have watched.

There are 11 defensive players. There are a maximum of five eligible receivers. With 2.2 defensive players for every receiver, why is at least one receiver running wide open on every play?

Why is that receiver very often a guy who had 192 catches for 3,000 yards for the year?

Was there a pass play in any of the three games yesterday on which pass interference did not occur, more often than not on the part of both the defender and the receiver?

When you keep nobody in to help the offensive line on a pass play, it only takes one guy to miss his block for the play to blow up. 

If you're a defender looking into the backfield trying to guess where the QB is going to throw the ball, the answer is always "to the guy you just let run 20 yards behind you."

When I was 12 and playing in the backyard and a fast kid beat me for a TD, never once did I say I was expecting safety help over the top.

Also, never once did I hurtle out of bounds at the three, tap the point of the football on the pylon and declare "TOUCHDOWN!" Of course, the pylon was a tree. It might have been dangerous.

Call me crazy, but Cover Zero doesn't sound like a very good way to stop a team from passing. I would cover at least one.

End the "coach running off the field at halftime" interviews forever. "What are you going to tell the team at halftime, coach? "I'm going to tell them I would have been there 30 seconds earlier if I didn't have to stop and talk to you."

"What are you going to do to stop the turnovers, coach?" "Well, because we play 17 games, my $20 million starting QB is hurt. I'm playing my backup and his backup was a FedEx driver last week, so not much."

End the post-game sideline reporter interviews. You've had three hours to come up with a question or two and it's "how does it feel?" or "what does this mean to you guys?" "It feels great and it means we get to play next week."

Coming to NBC Thursday, Chicago Rock, Paper and Scissors.

I'm going to buy a pickup truck. The next time I go to Wegmans to get chips, dip and beer, if the Wegmans is on top of a mountain with unpaved roads covered in two feet of snow, I'll be good to go. I can even pull my house there if I want.

Admit it, you've always wanted to take your hands off the wheel and clap to "We Will Rock You" while your truck is passing another vehicle.

Think we might have seen the last of the "reach out with the ball and try to break the plane" play?

Give Trevor Lawrence some credit. His big playoff debut, he's absolutely sucking, he gets his thumb stepped on, they duct tape it back on and he just keeps on coming back for more. Then he went to Waffle House with his wife after the game. Seriously, he did.

Why all the Kirk Cousins hate? He completed 79% of his passes for two TDs and no turnovers, while a certain local "elite" QB turned it over three times and cost his team 18 points. Also, in the five years they've been in the league together, Cousins has had a better passer rating than Elite Hero three times.

Is anyone actually going on the "Jesus gets us" website?

Do I really need to set up a retirement plan to go kayaking?

Before you criticize your team's play caller, give it a try. The play ends. In 40 seconds, you have to identify down and distance, the other team's personnel, get your personnel into the game, noting anyone who just got banged up and can't go, pick a play and radio it into your QB with 70,000 people screaming. All while covering your mouth in case the other team hired Marlee Matlin as an assistant coach.

Coach Harbaugh, we desperately need to score, time is running out and we have two timeouts left. Shouldn't we take one? Nope, we're good. Oh, the clock stopped. Now we'll take one.

On the other hand, I forget which game it was, but a trailing coach took a timeout while on defense with about 3:30 left in the game. Good clock management.

Don't blame the refs on roughing the QB. They're only calling the rule the way the league tells them to.

Does Fox think its NFL viewers are all 11 years old?

The play clock is running down, can they get the play off? 3,2,1,0, -1, -2, -3. I guess they can.

Don't go for two before the fourth quarter. There's too much football left to be played and those points you don't get can make a big difference at crunch time.

Any player making the first down sign or a "where's the flag" sign should be penalized. However, choreographed TD celebrations are cool.

Is there a correlation between a DB doing the "not in my house" thing and that same DB giving up an 82 yard bomb a few minutes later?

Let the kickoff go into the end zone, get the ball at the 25. Try to run it out of the end zone, get tackled at the 12 and look really stupid. Just saying.

If you weighed 265 pounds and just ran 98 yards, you'd be looking for the oxygen mask, too.

I can't wait for that new movie, the one with the explosions and car crashes. Or maybe that was NCIS: Everywhere.

Is a flag football Pro Bowl dumb? No dumber than the way they've been doing it.

Young Rock?

If this is Super Wild Card Weekend, are we going to have Super Super Bowl Week?

Game on.

 

PLANS FOR AUBURN BUILDING COULD INCLUDE MUSIC HALL OF FAME

Manowar from Facebook

 

Auburn heavy metal band Manowar might not make it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, but they could become Hall of Famers nonetheless. 

Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason says plans for the first floor of the former bank building at 120 Genesee St. could include a local music Hall of Fame.

 

The California couple that owns the building is seeking $2 million through the Restore NY program to redevelop the property with a period facade, retail space downstairs and apartments upstairs. The City Council held a public hearing on the grant application at its meeting Thursday.

The city also plans to apply for Restore NY funding for the former Bombardier rail car plant at 151 Orchard St. A French company that also makes rail cars has purchased Bombardier's transportation division. Alsum has not yet said what their plans are for the building.

By the way, if you want to see Manowar, you'll need a plane ticket. The band begins a European tour next week in Pardubice in the Czech Republic.

You can listen to my full Flx Ted Podcast with Chuck Mason below.

THE FLX TED PODCAST - AUBURN CITY CLERK CHUCK MASON

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In our latest weekly conversation:

• There was a public hearing at this week's City Council meeting on the Restore NY grant application for work at the former bank building at 120 Genesee St. and the former Bombardier rail car plant at 151 Orchard St.
• Mayor Quill issued a Dr. Martin Luther King Day proclamation, calling for a day of service. There will be an MLK church service Sunday at 3PM at the Apostolic Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, 103 Fitch Ave.
• The council discussed issuing a resolution calling on the state to take action on proposed regulations for the Owasco Lake watershed.
• The new State Senator representing Auburn, Rachel May, will attend next week's council meeting.

Our theme music is "Sugar Zone" by Silent Partner. You can find their music and other copyright-free music here.

 

 

 

You can subscribe to my podcasts on Google Podcasts, Anchor and Spotify.

THE FLX TED PODCAST - RACHEL WILLIAMS, SENECA CO COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

  

In this edition:

• Seneca Co. Cooperative Extension is seeking new office space.
• Volunteers are being sought to lead workshops and to judge annual contests.
• Each month, CCE offers a Give it a Go Thursday workshop. Tonight, it's Alpaca Fiber Art. As of when we recorded, there were still spaces available. Call (315) 539-9251.
• There will be a 4-H Produced in NY State Food Demonstration Contest, in which youth will prepare recipes featuring NY-grown foods.
• February 17-19 is Outdoor Adventure Weekend at Amboy 4-H Education Center in Oswego County.
• The annual day-old pheasant chick program is underway. You can order the chicks, raise them and release them on public land.
• 4-H Shooting Sports training takes place in February in partnership with the Seneca Falls chapter of Ducks Unlimited. We talked about how you can support shooting sports and Ducks Unlimited.
• There is now a NY State E-Spots program.
• NY State virtual Livestock Summits are taking place over the next three months to introduce youth to raising animals for show.
• Next month, there will be a Zoom series called "Zooming into Wildlife" on using trail cameras.

Our theme music is "Sugar Zone" by Silent Partner. You can find their music and other copyright-free music here. 

 

You can subscribe to my podcasts on Google Podcasts, Anchor and Spotify.