Krut, I noticed you were sleeping with the enemy.
RTR
LC
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
http://snipurl.com/8bq3
It's our honor and privilege to introduce ...
By Ivan Maisel
ESPN.com
I'm college football, and I'm reporting for duty.
My fellow Americans, this is the most important
season of our lifetime.
We come together today because a new season is upon
us. Not just a new season, but a new era. From the
Atlantic Coast Conference to the Pacific-10, from
the Big East to the Western Athletic, we are ready
to embark on a journey to new places.
We have changed our leagues, we have changed our
rules and we have changed our recruiting of the next
generation of student-athletes, the young men who
provide us with hope and, if we are head coaches,
seven-figure incomes.
But we cannot go forward without being firmly
grounded.
We can never forget the traditions that brought us
to this time and place. So it is that when we closed
the door of the Superdome last January, the top
three teams in the nation were LSU, USC and
Oklahoma. And so it is that when our coaches
exercised their democratic right in the preseason
poll, the top three teams were USC, Oklahoma and
LSU.
My friends, I am honored to share this day with
Tigers coach Nick Saban and Trojans coach Pete
Carroll, who are the living embodiment that every
vote counts, unless you vote in the final USA
Today/ESPN poll.
To those who say the same teams will forever be at
the top of college football, I say, opportunity
exists for everyone. It is part of the American
birthright. Any university that takes the
opportunity of raising $45 million for an athletic
budget can compete for the national championship.
With the onset of the 2004 season, Miami and
Virginia Tech have shifted from the Big East to the
Atlantic Coast Conference. When Boston College
arrives next year, it will be, as Maryland coach
Ralph Friedgen put it, truly an Atlantic Coast
Conference. No discussion of which conference is the
best may begin without the ACC.
Yet we have to be aware of the price that the ACC
has paid in the loss of trust from its allies. The
conferences must leave behind the mindset of, 'I
don't care where I end up, as long as they are as
screwed as we are.' We must look forward to the day
when BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo can dine in
the same room as Big East officials and not employ a
food tester.
Earlier this year, in a summit of historic
proportions, university presidents agreed to provide
greater opportunity to reach the BCS. In the past,
the BCS conferences believed in college football run
by the right people, their people. They thought that
college football should concentrate wealth and power
in the hands of the powerful. With the guidance of
educators such as Tulane president Scott Cowen, we
no longer have a sport in which there are BCS
members and non-BCS members. There are only Division
I-A members.
Some of which have a greater chance of going to a
BCS bowl than others.
The non-BCS, uh, mid-major, uh, historically
challenged I-A conferences are the lifeblood of
college football. My friends, we cannot survive
without the volunteer spirit that made this sport
what it is. Let us not forget that when Alabama
wanted to dump Penn State out of fear of not
qualifying for a bowl and the Crimson Tide needed a
home game it could win, Utah State said send me.
And when Clemson needed a home game against a
non-conference opponent to slide between midseason
games against fellow ACC contenders Virginia and
Maryland, Utah State said send me.
And when the Western Athletic Conference, having
been ransacked by Conference USA, which had been
pillaged by the Big East, which had been picked
clean by the ACC -- when the WAC needed local
members, beginning in 2005, Utah State said send me.
My friends, this season will have its share of
innuendo and half-truths. We do not live by the
bulletin board. I say to all coaches, let's be
optimists, not just opponents. I am also honored to
share this day with Texas coach Mack Brown, who has
withstood a campaign of negativity and pessimism,
and that's just from the Texas Exes.
We will not allow rumor to go uncontested, untruth
to go unchecked. It is simply not true that when
faced with the challenge of playing Oklahoma at the
Cotton Bowl on Oct. 9, Brown said send Utah State.
In an age of technological wonder, the truth is
easier to see than ever. We must recognize today the
Big Ten, the conference that represents the
heartland of the sport. The Big Ten will boldly
examine the use of instant replay on an experimental
basis this season.
The NFL has achieved this milestone with the
possibility of eight camera angles on every play,
and a system in which the coach on the sideline must
weigh the risk and reward of challenging the call on
