Posted on 06/16/2003 3:42:10 AM PDT by putupon
Pickin' and Grinnin': College football goes to the courts
June 12, 2003
The unthinkable has happened. College football is now mirroring society. Let's all officially welcome the group entering through the back door, with their shiny suits and plastic hair and their arguments for the sake of argument. Ladies and gentlemen, lawyers and politicians have their slithery sights set on our sacred game.
The problem: They were invited by five jilted and jaded girlfriends from the Big East, who can't understand why The Bachelor didn't pick them.
Officials from Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Rutgers have filed suit against the ACC, charging that the league and Miami and Boston College conspired to leave the Big East more than a year ago, despite Miami's assurances that it wasn't going anywhere. Yeah, so?
It's as comical as it is pathetic. The ACC decides to expand and invites Miami, Boston College and Syracuse. Those who don't get invites revert to a cycle that any freshmen psychology major could explain. First you kiss, then you beg, then you file suit.
And if all else fails, call your governor for help.
Someone please tell the honorable Gov. Mark Warner that his state has a $535 million shortfall of support for basic education. Let's see, the Hokies in the BCS (which is what this is all about), or the educational welfare of children in Virginia?
A quick aside to the honorable West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise: Don't even think about it. You've got a school there in Huntington that, along with the other 50-plus teams not in the Big Six confernces, has been getting screwed by the BCS since its inception. Can't back one state school and not the other; let WVU take this frivolous fight alone.
The Futile Five started out by joining hands and pleading for unity at the Big East meetings last month. This was the kissing stage. We still love you, we can make it work, we'll pay more attention (give you more money) to you. Then comes the begging stage. For this, we look to Virginia Tech.
First, the Hokies tried to get Warner to politically pressure Virginia into agreeing to expansion only if Tech was involved. Didn't work. The Hokies also tried a fancy double reverse, having a group of university bigwigs travel to the ACC offices and beg for admission. Once that failed, the next stage was inevitable: litigation.
Since when did entitlement become the right of every American? The Futile Five weren't too concerned about the rest of the Division I teams getting hosed by the BCS's monopoly not so long ago. So now, when it suits their needs, they're high and mighty.
What we have here is a group of schools getting booted from an exclusive club they helped form in the 1990s, and now their noses are suddenly pressed against the windows looking in. Does anyone else see the irony?
Instead wasting time and effort and money with pointless litigation, perhaps the Futile Five and Big East commish Mike Tranghese should focus their efforts on landing Notre Dame and keeping their automatic BCS bid. There's a solid base with the Futile Five; Pitt and Tech are among the nation's top 25, and West Virginia is on its way back. Then there's Connecticut, which could be a major player, given time.
And if all else fails, simply adhere to the last stage of denial: acceptance
I agree Kilgore and Allen shouldda kept their yaps shut on this, but both figger we ain't got nowhere to go considering Timmy Kaine and MarkyMarkWarner are gonna be their respective DemonRAT counterparts in the upcoming years.
Wahoo Wah...MUD
Sorry you got yer preppy panties all in a wad, but George Allen and Jerry Kilgore (Virginia's next great Governor) are two of the finest Republicans in the land.
I can assure you, that they also remain loyal to the University of Virginia, in spite of your opinion on the subject.
I'm writing in Craig Littlepage and Al Groh, they'll need jobs. Unless I'm the first one to get my hands on Casteen if he votes "no" (whoever that is will be in jail).
Go HOOs!
Friends like those sleazy RepublicRATs, UVa needs no enemies. Click on the Jeb Bush link I put up earlier if you want to read how a real republican thinks. Wormur already put a lock on any 'RATs who might flip to the GOP from the agricultural college, I don't know why they thought it best to sell us out.
A low class frivolous lawsuit, how sterotypical Democrat can you get? And RINOs bought it. What a pair dirtbags, take them to the games in Blacksburg with you, they are no longer welcome in Charlottesville.
Funny, I thought you had no allegiance. You said this to me last week:
Well then my opinion is more valid, being that it's more objective by not being influenced by an alligence to either side ;-)Here
Cavalier speak with forked tongue.
Send Jerry Kilgore a check for his campaign and we'll forget all about it. ;-)
I missed this earlier, but that's just flat out one of the stupidest statements I've seen in a long while. Your mother must be very proud.
Yup...the best in the Commonwealth, as we will demonstrate in November!!
Unfortunately for you UVa also has to play in Sep and Oct (and maybe Aug?). :-) But at least your boys will be able to rest in January.
Kiddin', just kiddin'! I think the Cavs are going to be a heckuva team this year.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its a duck.
You are in denial. Allen and Kilgore have followed a DemocRAT MarkWormer down the cheapest trail of Democrat tactics, and you support it?
Funny, I never figured you for a DU troll.
Groh's definitely got 'em headed in the right direction...and now the in-State rivalry with the Hokies just got that much more interestin'!! Good to see you, too.
FReegards...MUD
Not really. Miami has a right to leave the conference. Va. Tech has a right to sue. It's really quite simple.
Now calling two conservative politicians RINOs based on ONE thing you don't like about them, that's just ridiculous.
Calling them conservative after we know that ONE thing about them is ridiculous. You don't like the term RINO? Try RATublican or RepublicRAT, they work too.
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