Here’s my question for today — is there anybody around who really likes 11 a.m. starts in college football?

Students have to drag themselves out of bed early. Tailgaters have to get moving about 5:30 am to get any decent work in before the game starts. Restaurants and bars have to serve pregame breakfast to get anybody in the door. The teams have to play a game in the mid-morning, and the TV ratings are through the floor because nobody cares about the early game. I’m serious — couldn’t we just start ESPN Gameday at 11 EST, instead of 10 EST, and move everything else back an hour?

Anyway - here are a few links for the weekend.

*It’s Saturday, so we really need to begin by listening to EDSBS’s Spencer Hall sing. (Warning: there’s some basic bad language in that song.)

*I know I link to pretty much everything Chris Brown at “Smart Football” writes, but it’s only because I love technical football discussions. Forget all of the “mainstream” blogs that have been snapped up by various big websites - I want somebody to pay this guy to post one of his trademark 6,000 word explanations every week. This time, it’s a discussion of end-of-game clock management, and why spiking the ball to stop the clock is almost always either a dumb play or a sign of a poorly-coached team.

*This is a couple weeks old, but still worth a read: perhaps you’ve noticed that college recruits seem to be committing to schools at younger and younger ages, especially in hockey. Chris at Western College Hockey notes that, while Jordan Schmaltz committed to Wisconsin (obligatory BOO!) at the ripe old age of 14, it’s not really that unique (or outlandish).

*For a moment, it seemed like things might be looking up for the Wolves; now, we’ve got guys getting injured in golf-cart accidents. It can only be downhill from here. (When Al Jefferson is injured in a run-in with a pop machine, don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

*And finally: if this picture doesn’t make you laugh, you are not human

That’ll do it for me. Enjoy your weekend; these 70-degree days won’t last forever.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 13th, 2008 at 6:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.