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Thursday, July 03, 2003
In the 'Non
Safely in Lebanon, PA. We managed to stay just ahead of the getaway weekend traffic, and Angie slept most of the trip.
It's strange, but the PA Turnpike still doesn't aggravate me the way it does everybody else. It's narrow, only 2 lanes most of the time, lots of winding and hills, the construction; but, and maybe it's because the problems are so obvious and glaring, it isn't that bad as long as you stay alert and are willing to punch it when you have the chance.
Happy Fourth
The packing is done, and yet another weekend with family is about to commence. Going to see my family in Lebanon, PA. Great-grandparents have been waiting since March to see their great-grandaughter. Should be a fine time.
Hope everyone has a fantastic holiday.
Local Legal Shake-up
Great, even more unemployed lawyers in the Cleveland area.
Arter & Hadden has notified the state labor department that it will close its doors July 15, leaving all 246 of its Ohio employees out of work. The law firm sent what is known as a WARN notice to the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services. Such notices are re quired when companies are likely to let go significant num bers of workers. The firm said that until last week, it had been seeking more money that would have made a closing un necessary. Dan Bailey, chair man of Arter's executive com mittee, did not return calls for comment. In Cleveland, 44 at torneys, 67 secretaries and paralegals and 56 other em ployees would be out of jobs. The rest of the firm's Ohio em ployees are in Columbus.
Their Website doesn't have any info yet. Kind of a shock since the firm is 160 years old, and people with whom I went to law school are/were employed there.
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
Well, Interview Somebody
The wife and I just saw an unintentionally hilarious piece on one of the local stations, about a potentially serious problem at the University of Akron School of Law. Seems the law school accidentally sent a mass e-mail to all law students. In the e-mail, they sent a list containing each student's name, GPA and class rank. Luckily, a student alerted the school rather quickly and the e-mail software the school uses had a recall function, that appears to have worked for some and a second e-mail informed the students to delete the e-mail, so the harm was minimized as best could be expected.
The funny part of the piece, was that the tv station sent a crew down there to get student reaction. The piece was interspersed with undergraduate students commenting, no law students. The wife and I are looking at each other in utter confusion? Why are they talking to students who didn't get the e-mail and aren't in the law school? Then we realize the problem: it's summer, and they couldn't find any law students. So you have all of these undergrads kind of shrugging and saying it isn't a big deal, because to them it isn't. It wasn't their grades.
Why the Post-Gazette Sports Writers Suck
Reason #396: They don't see anything until it is 50 feet past them.
Bob Smizik, July 2, 2003:
The league's future should be clear. The football-playing members -- Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse, Boston College, Rutgers and Connecticut -- must move ahead as an all-sports conference in which all members play Division I-A football. That's right, the new Big East must cut ties with the conference members whose primary sport is basketball. That means saying goodbye to Georgetown, St. John's, Villanova, Seton Hall, Providence and, yes, to Notre Dame, unless, in the extremely unlikely event, the Irish want to come aboard as a football-playing member.
Me, May 6, 2003:
In such a scenario, the 8 Big East football/basketball schools would have to become proactive, because it would only be a matter of time before the Big 11 came knocking or the ACC tried again. Here is what would have to take place.
* Goodbye basketball only schools. Be it a new conference or still called the Big East, the football/basketball schools would split. Yes, I'd be sorry to no longer have games against Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Seton Hall, and even Providence, but not that upset.
Given the Pirates suck, the Penguins suck, and the steelers are still a month from training camp; you would have thought a Pittsburgh sports columnist might take more notice as to what would happen to Pitt.
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
What Pitt Has to Do This Football Season...
To quote from one of those movies (along with Road House, any Clint Eastwood western, Silver Streak, Blazing Saddles, Demolition Man, and Slap Shot) that I can never seem to turn away from when it shows up on cable.
Jake Taylor: I guess there's only one thing left to do.
Roger Dorn: What's that?
Taylor: Win the whole fuckin' thing.
Monday, June 30, 2003
Big East Football -- the Death Knell
It's official. Miami announced it will bolt the Big East for the ACC. It really wasn't much of a surprise. Their weekend hesitation was more of a favor to BC and 'Cuse to help them mend fences with the rest of the Big East, by appearing to consider staying based on their efforts.
Miami and VT have one more season of Big East scheduling to endure. For the record, both VT and Miami play in Pittsburgh in November, this year.
There is a lot that upsets me about this, so here are the items with explanation.
The Miami Press Conference
I watched this on ESPN News this afternoon, already knowing the story. I generally don't engage in ad hominem attacks based on a person's general appearance in this blog, but today is a special day. So, I'll ask: WTF, is with Miami president Donna Shalala? She always seems to have this nervous confused look of someone who will give a nervous titter everytime she has to speak. And, please, learn to breathe out of your nose. Her mouth is perpetually open like she is constantly surprised by the world.
You had three people speak at the press conference. Shalala, the Miami AD, and the president of the board of trustees -- who with a straight face declared that this was done in the best interests of the students, not the money. In a way it was amusing and oddly refreshing to see some bald white guy in his 60s say it wasn't about the money, rather than some 28 year-old athlete signing a multi-million dollar free agent contract.
Otherwise, the press conference was rather dull.
The Big East's Inability to Get Serious
A couple weeks ago, the Big East lawsuit against the ACC, Miami and BC had accomplished two vital things. (1) It knocked the ACC back on its heels, making expansion suddenly seem less certain; and (2) it gave the Big East time to get a real plan to save the conference prepared.
Instead, the Big East got cocky. It decided that it could still keep the football/basketball league and the b-ball only teams in some ill-conceived 16 team conference expansion (8 football/b-ball teams in one division and 8 b-ball only teams in the other). This was dumb, and ignored the reality that they needed to make the hard choice and kick out the b-ball only teams and expand to 12 as a fully functioning conference.
The 16 team idea, would have meant that they would still be targets for the ACC or any other power conference that doesn't have b-ball only teams. As it stands now, they apparently are still considering this idea even with Miami and VT bolting.
The Big East, apparently, also failed to get clear assurances from the football members not to jump to the ACC no matter what. This gave VT the legal wiggle room to bolt the Big East for the ACC after the ACC turned around and offered membership to VT. This leads to
Virginia Tech
Josh sent me an e-mail defending his team betraying the Big East as not doing anything wrong.
Furthermore, the agreement to stay was only valid if Cuse and BC agreed to it.
Blame Cuse and BC for not agreeing, and thus giving VT the room to maneuver.
My answer:
You were very Clintonian in your response. You can split hairs and say that the agreement to stay was solely limited to only if BC and 'Cuse chose to stay in the Big East -- not if the ACC rescinded and extended it to VT -- if you want, but it seems rather obvious that VT would have jumped no matter what the circumstances. There is always a difference between what is legal and what is moral.
As I said, you can say anything you want about how this is good for your school (and no one can disagree), but you can not claim that your school handled itself honestly.
I would also point out that BC and 'Cuse while not rejecting the ACC offer, had not yet accepted it either.
I'll let my friend Lee, give his thoughts:
Ah, the Hokies... the funny thing is that I never really cared one way or the other about that academically pathetic, isolated little hick school where farmers daughters go who can't get into Penn State or UVA until all of this happened. And furthermore, they legitimately do belong in the ACC (although I would remind Chas's buddy Josh that the only reason Virginia Tech wasn't in the ACC to begin with is that they turned down an invitation to join 50 odd years ago). But now, I hate those hypocrites and pathetic wanna bees.
But two things console me about our castrated turkey friends. First, they will be reminded, in perpetuity, by their in-state rivals that they only reason VT still has an athletic program of any kind is because UVA intervened on their behalf. Imagine if Pitt was saved by Penn State's intervention, and you can understand how tortuous this will be.
Second, Virginia Tech, or VPI, or whatever they want to be called this decade, has been absolutely lambasted in the national media for being the hypocrites that they are.
National Media Commentary
There hasn't been a lot of smart coverage of this whole mess. Most have focused on the will they/won't they aspect of Miami leaving; the domino effect of ACC expansion, who the Big East will go after, and what other conferences and schools will do.
Simple example. Louisville will most likely be tapped by the Big East to join, leaving Conference USA. Of course, others started speculating that maybe the ACC will go after Louisville as well to get the 12th team. They do this, without really thinking. If they did, they might consider the words of a Louisville Courier-Journal sports writer who covers University of Louisville football.
Forget about it. Louisville fits the ACC academic profile the way a thong fits Nate Newton. According to NCAA academic reports, Louisville's average general-student graduation rates over its most recent four classes is 10 percent in four years and 31 percent in six years.
Simply put, the urban commuter school's academic mission has nothing in common with the missions at Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Virginia.
Now, it could be argued that Florida State was hardly a Harvard-level addition to the ACC, and that Miami and Virginia Tech were lesser academic institutions than the spurned twosome of Boston College and Syracuse. It's true that academics is not driving the ACC expansion bus, but at some point presidents at the league's ivy-walled institutions will put on the brakes.
Louisville is that point.
Of course the annoying thing, is the argument that the Big East will do the same thing the ACC did. Turn around and raid another conference, so they really are no better. It misses one key point. The ACC tried to do all of its raiding in secret. There was no (courtesy) contact with the Big East; the negotiations with the schools were being done in secret; and the ACC refused to admit it was considering expansion. That is, until the Big East called them out on it.
The Big East is being above the board in what it will do. It will still raid another conference, but it won't be done outside of the public eye and with an attempt to blind side the targeted conference. To some, this may be a small point, but it sure helps in the old public image issue.
The ACC
Believe it or not, I'm not that upset with the ACC trying to strengthen itself. Obviously I am not happy it was at the expense of the Big East, but their actions were logical, and what the Big East football schools should have been looking to accomplish. Most media went with the angle that the ACC was just trying to get a bigger share of the BCS pie. They, however, ignored the ACC's need to keep Florida State happy and not risk losing FSU.
I have some other things, but this has rambled long enough.
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Big East-ACC: Just End This Already
It has almost a month and a half since I last wrote anything substantive on the Big East Death/Miami Bolt Watch. Since then, there has been a lawsuit initiated by the Big East against the ACC, Miami, and Boston College.
ACC expansion nearly collapsed because of it and pressure from Virginia lawmakers on UVA to not let VaTech get killed in the raid on the Big East.
The Big East getting cocky and not being serious about doing what it needs to do to survive (jettison the b-ball only schools and expand to 12 football/b-ball schools) starts floating a stupid 16 team league with half being b-ball only.
To save its expansion, the ACC rescinded its offers to BC and Syracuse; and instead extended offers only to Miami and Virginia Tech.
The Hokies jumped.
Miami is hemming and hawing after receiving last-ditch offers spearheaded by former conspirators BC and 'Cuse to stay. They will announce their decision tomorrow, or else they will owe even more money in exit fees to the Big East.
This is an abbreviated version of the soap opera. Here are some of my thoughts and other ramblings on the matter.
Pitt is so screwed.
Starting with my own biased and self-interests. I wouldn't be so concerned with all of this if it wasn't for the fact that this is really hurting my school in sports. Pitt is seeing everything it has rebuilt over the last decade teeter on complete collapse. The only thing that will save Pitt, is if the Big 11 comes calling in a couple years. Pitt will need to jump through whatever hoops are put in front of it, but it must get to a better/stable conference. Right now, the Big 11 is the only hope. Most of you do not understand how much I hate admitting this.
Adding Miami and VT is clearly a desperation move by the ACC to expand someway, somehow. It puts a lie to the earlier claim that they wouldn't do anything rash or without careful consideration. This is exactly that. Expansion, just for its own sake. It really lends credence to the idea that the ACC really does want to destroy the Big East any way it can. Maybe it is out of recognition of its own potential instability, but the ACC is clearly in an all out push to expand. The ACC has ignored its own expansion procedures by inviting VT without even touring the campus yet.
The ACC had no choice but to call Miami's bluff on the partners in expansion. Since this began it was heavily reported that Miami was all but insisting that BC be included in expansion. That it wouldn't jump without BC to keep its strong alumni connections up East. And that one of the reasons to jump was to avoid the high costs of traveling to Blacksburg. Suddenly, they will lose that strong Northeast alumni connection and still go to Blacksburg if this happens. Add in the risk of now having another strong football program in the ACC, and this move isn't so much an upgrade as it is a lateral move.
Being short a team for the conference is not too big a deal for the ACC and a championship game. They can petition the NCAA for a rule change or an exemption. Plus, the ACC can wait a couple years and pick off BC or even UConn when they are in the shitter, and would pay to join.
What the hell is the deal with Wake Forest supporting ACC expansion? Wake's silence has been puzzling. The only explanation I heard before, was that they wanted BC and 'Cuse because they are private schools so they could help with their specific and unique concerns. As it stands now, they look to become the Northwestern of the ACC. Miami may also be a private school, but they are nothing like Wake. The fact that Wake Forest has gone blithely along with this when it could have ended the whole thing by siding with Duke and UNC is the great mystery to me.
The NCAA will do nothing, because the schools around the country secretly want this. Not in a vast conspiracy way, but in so far as it shrinks the number of hands in the BCS honey pot. Less power conferences means more money to the big power schools and less competition for the national championship. The talent in Div. 1 football has been getting diffused wider. This gives the power schools even more strength in recruiting.
The real problem for the BCS is what to do about the Big East. They were a charter member, and if Miami and Va Tech is gone, they aren't much more powerful than the Mountain West (even with a presumed raid on C-USA for Louisville, Cinci., and USF). The lawsuit against the ACC was as much a warning shot across the BCS bow regarding the auto-bid for the Big East. You know the Big East won't give up its automatic bid without a fight. It is just a matter of figuring it out.
Honestly, though, the BCS bid issue seems rather simple to me. Status quo. Right now, football independent and part-time Big East member Notre Dame is already tied to most of the bowls via the Big East bid. Just simply guarantee the Big East that if it's top team is ranked higher than ND, that the Big East team gets to go. ND would not like it, but they don't actually get to vote, so eff 'em (and you know the other conferences, especially the Big 11, would love to help screw the Domers a little).
As for Virginia Tech's betrayal of the Big East, and yes it is a betrayal...
The Big East Conference this week received commitments from its schools that none would leave for the Atlantic Coast Conference if Syracuse and Boston College stay.
That's a considerable bargaining chip conference commissioner Mike Tranghese will use while trying to convince Syracuse and Boston College to remain in the Big East.
Both schools have entertained a leap to the ACC with Miami, believing if they declined to leave the Big East other conference members such as Virginia Tech, Connecticut, Pitt or West Virginia would jump into the breach with Miami instead.
But Tranghese has received assurances from the football schools in the Big East that that would not happen.
Josh and his Hokie brethren can rationalize it any way they want, about how this has been their destiny/ destination for 50 years and they haven't really betrayed the Big East since they always really wanted in the ACC. But they can not claim that "Virginia Tech handled itself honestly." And no, the Big East didn't get the commitments not to bolt in writing (as far as I know), so it was worthless as far as being a contract; but these are the actions that reduce a school's reputation and integrity -- not to mention more lawsuits.
And if the Hokies think that they are safely in the ACC no matter what Miami does, then they are fools. The ACC may say it will take them, but it can still be rescinded should enough ACC schools raise the point that the ACC expansion procedures have been ignored.
(Is it hypocritical of me to take shots at VT jumping the Big East while I said earlier that I now want Pitt in the Big 10? No. I want Pitt out of the Big East because VT and likely Miami are gone, killing the Big East as a power football conference. If they stayed and the Big East jettisoned the b-ball only schools while expanding to 12 teams; I wouldn't want Pitt to jump to another conference.)
For a good enjoyable blast at the ACC, go to this article on Sports Illustrated site. Money quote:
But you have to stop and ask yourself one thing, 'Canes and Hokies: The ACC may in fact be a better conference on paper, but do you really want to associate yourself with people who have conducted the most pathetic charade of senselessness and groveling since Ahmad Rashad did sideline interviews?
Look nobody in the ACC or Big East and the schools themselves have looked good here. Everyone has their own agenda, and few seem to be overlapping.
The whole thing sucks.
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