A Look Back at 2016

As The Golden Rules closes out its first year, I suppose it’s time for the obligatory “Look Back At The Year” blog.  As we look back at 2016, I think most of us can agree that it was a….well….kind of…well, it sucked.  From sports to politics to celebrity deaths, 2016 was a bummer.

First of all, consider politics.  Has there ever been a more divisive year?  From HB2 in North Carolina to partisan arguments about filling a vacant Supreme Court seat to Republican debates that resembled pre-UFC/boxing match press conferences more so than actual political debates, America looked less like a “shining city on a hill” and more like a flaming pile of dog poop.  The Democratic primaries and nominations went as expected resulting in Hillary Clinton becoming the first major party female nominee for president.  However, even that was somewhat controversial, as supporters of Bernie Sanders cried foul and the head of the DNC had to step down following the release of emails showing that the party was in cahoots with the Clinton campaign.  The Republican primaries and nominations were hard to distinguish from an argument in a middle school locker room, what with all of the name calling and the discussion of a candidate’s hand size.  Along the way, the country became more and more polarized.  Republicans talked of locking up Hillary Clinton, while Democrats painted Republicans as closed-minded bigots.  Unbelievably, so called evangelical Christians somehow coalesced behind an arrogant, thrice-married, xenophobic misogynist and got him elected.  Everything people thought they knew about American politics was turned on its ear in 2016 and Lord only knows what that means for our country in 2017.

2016 was also a lousy year for sports, unless you’re a long-suffering fan of the Cubs or Cleveland sports.  The highlight for me was the Blues (finally) getting out of the first round of the playoffs and actually advancing to the conference finals for the first time in 15 years.  They knocked off the hated Blackhawks (and I was there for Game 7) and the higher-seeded Dallas Stars before finally falling to the San Jose Sharks.  The star crossed franchise is still searching for its first Stanley Cup, but at least I was able to grow a good playoff beard.  Of course, the Blues celebrated their success by losing their captain to free agency, as well as watching their #1 goaltender and one of their postseason heroes move on to other teams.  The Cardinals missed the playoffs in 2016 for the first time since 2010 and watched their hated rivals finally slay the Curse of the Billy Goat.  After nearly a decade and a half of being the class of the NL Central, the Cardinals are now searching for a way to measure up to, of all teams, the Cubs.  Mizzou basketball continues to be one of the worst Power 5 programs in the country, while Mizzou football turned in a second consecutive losing season, something that hadn’t happened in more than a decade and a half.  My beloved Baylor Bears suffered through a first round upset in the NCAA tournament in basketball, followed by an unmitigated disaster in the football program that resulted in the firing of the football coach, athletic director, and president of the university.  The horrific sexual assault scandal and the way it was handled continues to reverberate through the university and figures to do so for a long time to come.  If there is a light at the end of the tunnel as we move toward 2017, it’s that the football program is poised to start anew with a new coaching staff and they closed out 2016 with a bowl win for the second consecutive year.  Oh yeah, Baylor’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are both ranked in the top 5 as we close out the year.

In world affairs, 2016 gave us horrific attacks in Paris, Orlando, Berlin and Nice.  It gave us Aleppo and Brexit.  It gave us record homicides in places like Chicago and countless killings of police officers from coast-to-coast.  In other words, virtually the entire world received a giant lump of coal in its respective stockings.  We can only hope for things to get better as we turn the calendar to 2017.

You’ve heard of “They Day the Music Died?”  Well, 2016 may very well be remembered as the YEAR the music died.  David Bowie.  Glenn Frey.  Prince. Merle Haggard. George Michael. Leonard Cohen.  A veritable Hall of Fame of musicians all taken from us in one calendar year.  We lose all of that talent, but yet Nickleback still perseveres?  Where is the justice in that?  Perhaps more miraculously, Keith Richards and Ozzy Osbourne have somehow survived the year.  Seriously, 10 years ago, if someone offered you a bet that ‘80s hit makers Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Prince, David Bowie and George Michael would all die BEFORE Keith Richards, you would have taken that chance, wouldn’t you?

2016 also robbed us of Princess Leia, Hans Gruber, Tessio, Willy Wonka and Mrs. Brady, not to mention Alan Thicke, Arnold Palmer and Harper Lee.  So many talented people gone, but yet we still have talentless hacks like the Kardashians among us?  2016, you are EVIL.  Good riddance!

 
To all who loyally read this blog, thank you.  You give me an outlet for my rants and sad attempts at humor.  May you have a blessed and wonderful 2017!   

I Remember

·         I remember riding in my parents’ car without a car seat or a seat belt…and I’m sure many of you reading this can relate to that.
·         I remember how beautiful my wife looked on our wedding day and how I felt as I saw her walking down the aisle toward me.
·         I remember how excited we felt when we landed in St. Thomas for our honeymoon – it was like something out of Fantasy Island.
·         I remember shopping for a live Christmas tree every year when I was a kid.  It seemed like we always picked the coldest day of the year to do it and it seemed like we had to go to about half of the tree lots in West St. Louis County before finding the right tree.
·         I remember when MTV actually played videos, back when the surest way to become a big music star was to have a killer video on MTV.
·         I remember when Saturday Night Live was funny.
·         I remember when Bill Murray was funny.
·         I remember when Kenny Rogers still looked like Kenny Rogers.
·         I remember when almost all stores were closed on Sundays.
·         I remember how excited I’d get as a kid when my parents would take me to a Cardinals game.  Seeing the field and the JumboTron, smelling the hot dogs, hearing Ernie Hayes on the organ…it was always so exciting.  I hope my kids experience that same sense of excitement and wonder when I take them to Cardinals and Blues games.
·         I remember going to my first college football game.  It was in 1987 and it was Mizzou playing….of all teams…Baylor.  I knew nothing about Baylor at the time, so it’s funny to think that I’d be going to Baylor almost 5 years to the day later.
·         I remember how excited I’d be when we had a snow day when I was a kid.  I’d wake up on my own (rather than my mom waking me up) and I’d look at the window and be so excited I couldn’t go back to sleep.  I couldn’t wait to go sledding or go play out in the snow.
·         I remember the Blizzard of 1982, when the St. Louis area got inundated with almost two feet of snow.  We’d had a couple of families over for dinner/socializing the night the storm hit and they were all stranded at our house for a couple of days.  We didn’t have school for almost a week.
·         I remember my first real rock concert: Stryper at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis in January 1989.  It was the “In God We Trust” tour and we had backstage passes and got to meet the band after the show.  The highlight of the concert had to be the encore when, during “To Hell With The Devil,” Robert’s Sweet’s drum kit (which was situated above a wall of speakers) began to rotate.  As a 14-year-old kid, that was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.
·         I remember how I felt when my parents dropped me off at Baylor for my freshman year of college.  Watching them drive away for the first time…it was a mixture of excitement and fear and I’m sure that many of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
·         I remember Looney Tunes on TV on Saturday morning.
·         I remember “Mikey Likes It,” “I’m a Pepper, You’re a Pepper” and the Pepsi Challenge.
·         I remember “Tastes Great, Less Filling,” “Give Me a Light.  No, Bud Light” and Spuds McKenzie.
·         I remember “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” “Growing Pains,” and “Who’s The Boss?”.
·         I remember “The Dukes of Hazzard” on Friday nights.
·         I remember when all of the girls were in love with Duran Duran and it seemed like they each had their favorite band member.  It was the big bangs and leg warmers version of Beatlemania.
·         I remember when all of the girls in St. Louis had a crush on Tommy Herr.
·         I remember Garry Templeton flipping off Cardinals’ fans and literally being dragged off the field by Whitey Herzog.  He was traded for Ozzie Smith a few months later and the Cardinals won the 1982 World Series the following year.
·         I remember when Glenn Brummer stole home against the Giants.  We were listening to the game on KMOX and Mike Shannon called the play.
·         I remember summer evenings, listening Jack Buck and Mike Shannon broadcast the Cards games on KMOX while we played catch or whiffle ball in the back yard with my parents.
·         I remember playing in the basement after dinner while my parents played ping pong.
·         I remember Baylor Homecoming my freshman year.  We beat Georgia Tech in a game that featured a reverse, flea flicker touchdown pass from J.J. Joe to Melvin Bonner.  That was also the same game when BUGWB and The Baylor Line cooperated to steal the helmet of a Georgia Tech player.
·         I remember beating Texas in the season finale my freshman year and rushing the field to tear down the goal posts.
·         I remember beating Texas on Homecoming in 1997 and watching the students tear down the goalposts and carry them all the way from Floyd Casey to the SUB, where people signed them.  My name is on there somewhere.
·         I remember driving around Central Texas at night, singing along to whatever tape was in the cassette player.
·         I remember a bunch of friends crashed on the floor of our apartment, waking up to find Sesame Street on the TV and my hat somehow on someone else’s head.  And, believe it or not, there was absolutely no alcohol involved.
·         I remember Rock-n-Bowl on Saturday nights from midnight to 2 in the morning, followed by trips to Whataburger or IHOP or Taco Cabana (for tortillas and queso, of course).
·         I remember a group of about 12 of us going to the Hootie and the Blowfish concert at Deep Ellum Live in Dallas.  We got back to Waco at about 3:30 in the morning on a Monday morning, after the obligatory late night stop at Whataburger.  I had a test at 9am the next morning.  I didn’t do very well on that test.
·         I remember Roscoe and Nellie.
·         I remember Sweet Pea and Bunnykins.
·         I remember the APO office, decked out in all of its colorful glory during pledging.
·         I remember Red Rules, Yellow is the Color of Jaundice and We Lie, We Cheat, We Steal, We Win
·         I remember finishing up Big Sib Hunt at a rickety old roller rink alongside I-35.
·         I remember standing on top of the Baylor sign on University Parks (next to Hooper-Schaefer) dressed up like a cave man during Big Sib Hunt.
·         I remember service projects at Animal Shelter and LaRue’s Learning Center.
·         I remember initiation at Armstrong-Browning Library, which was named America’s most beautiful library last year.  The toast song always sounded better there.
·         I remember the first time I met my wife, the night I finally got the courage to ask her out and the first time we kissed (which just so happened to be the night my window AC unit blew out the fuse and knocked out my power.)
·         I remember ringing in the year 2000 with a party at our apartment that involved card games and lots of interesting nicknames.
·         I remember everybody freaking out about Y2K, which wound up being much ado about nothing.
·         I remember 9/11 and how surreal it was to watch the towers fall.
·         I remember how excited and scared I was when my son was born – after my wife was in labor for 25 hours.
·         I remember how emotional I was when my daughter was born.  We didn’t know what we were having and when we found out it was a girl, I started bawling.  Happy tears, mind you!
·         I remember when I thought 30 was old and 40 was ancient.  I don’t feel that way anymore.
·         I remember now that I have to go, so I think I’ll stop.  I’m sure I’ll have more I will remember and will do this another time…

Ways that Work is a Lot Like Grade School

30 years ago this year, Robert Fulghum published an essay called "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten."  There is a lot of truth in that statement and it got me to thinking: it's also very true that adulthood isn't all that different from childhood.  With that in mind, here are some ways that Work is a lot like Grade School:

• You have someone telling you what to do and judging how well you do it.  In school, that "someone" is your teacher and he or she judges you via your grade on your report card.  At work, that "someone" is your boss and he or she judges you via your performance score on your annual performance review.
• There's always someone sucking up.  In school, that person is the "teacher's pet" who is always trying to help the teacher and get in good with him or her.  At work, that person is the one who is always fawning on the boss and trying to schmooze him or her.  In both cases, the others in the class/department are highly annoyed by the suck up and are talking about that person when he or she is not around.
• You spend most of your day every day doing something you really don't enjoy doing.  When you're a kid in school, you don't like most of your subjects.  Maybe you like history, but you hate math and science.  Or maybe you like math, but you hate language arts and music.  Either way, you spend most of your day doing something you don't really enjoy but you tolerate and work at it because you have to.  This same thing is true for most people at work.  There may be portions of your job that you enjoy, but it's probably a fair bet that you spend as much or more time every day doing things you don't really enjoy but that you tolerate and work at because you have to.
• There are bullies and there are people who are bullied.  In school, the bully is the mean kid who steals your milk money and maybe knocks you down during recess.  He or she gets their kicks picking on people who are smaller or weaker than them.  At work, the bully is the jerk employee who uses his or her position to dominate the people lower in the company than him or her and takes advantage of them.
• You spend your day in a room surrounded by other people with no privacy and no protection from germs.  In school, you're in a classroom with a bunch of other kids, all working almost elbow to elbow with little personal space.  When one kid comes to school sick, you can almost see that illness pass from one kid to another as it works its way around the class.  At work, especially with the recent popularity of open work environments, you're in an office with a bunch of co-workers working side-by-side at desks with little personal space.  When one employee gets sick, you can almost see that illness pass from one employee to another as it works its way around the department.
• There's always somebody whining.  In school, it's the kid whining that he didn't receive the grade he deserved or the kid complaining that she didn't get picked for the lead role in the school play.  At work, it's the employee complaining about their last performance review or the promotion they didn't get.  The whiner eventually becomes just as annoying as the aforementioned suck-up.
• Sometimes you will really like the person in charge; other times, you won't.  In school, we all have teachers that we really like and other teachers we couldn't stand.  At work, you'll have some bosses that you really like and other bosses you can't stand. 
• You hate Mondays.  I don't think this one needs any further explanation.
• You have to share the restroom with others - and the toilet paper is like sandpaper.  Seriously, I think the same toilet paper company provides the same cheap, giant industrial rolls of toilet paper at both school and work.  What's a guy gotta do to get some two-ply Charmin?
• There are custodians who come around in the afternoons and evenings to empty the trash and clean up the bathrooms.  And I feel sorry for whoever has to clean up the pee on the floor of the restroom used by the males in the building.
• The place is a ghost town between Christmas and New Year's.  Even though your company may not close down during that week, most people are off and won't be there.

What did I miss?  I'm sure there are other comparisons that would further prove that work is a lot like grade school.  I'd like to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading.

Sports Shorts

Here are some of my thoughts on recent developments in the world of sports:

• Baylor football has finally hired its replacement for Art Briles: Matt Rhule, who comes to Waco from Temple, where he's guided the Owls to back-to-back 10 win seasons.  Some may think it's a questionable hire, given Rhule's utter lack of connections to Texas.  While it may not as be as sexy as if BU had hired Tom Herman or Les Miles, I like it.  Rhule has experience creating a winning program and he will certainly have more resources and access to football talent in the Big 12 at Baylor compared to what he had in the American at Temple.  Obviously, time will tell, but given the mess at Baylor, Rhule seems like a good fit: a disciplinarian who is young and charismatic.  Sic 'em, Coach Rhule!
• I think it will be interesting to see what happens to Art Briles this winter.  He's made no secret of his desire to coach again (and soon), but you really haven't heard his name mentioned for any openings.  In fact, Houston issued a press release to specifically state that they WEREN'T going to interview Briles, something I'm not sure has ever happened before.  I realize that there are opposing viewpoints on Briles amongst the Baylor faithful.  While I think the Board of Regents and Baylor in general deserve some blame, I absolutely believe that Briles should have been held responsible for the things that happened on his watch.  He took on some players who had questionable pasts at other schools and it wound up blowing up on him.  Even Briles admits that he set up a system where he was the last to know things, which tells you a lot.  What will tell us even more is if he doesn't get any job offers this winter.  Somebody with his on field results should have his phone ringing off the hook.  If nobody calls him, it will speak volumes what folks outside of the Baylor Bubble think of him.
• The College Football Playoff needs to be expanded to 8 teams: the five Power 5 conference champs and then the next 3 best teams.  If they can make a real playoff work in FCS, Division II and Division III, there's no reason they can't do it in FBS.  The fact that there's not room in the playoff for the champions of what was unquestionably the best conference in the country this year (the Big 10) is ridiculous.  If they aren't going to expand it from 4 to 8 teams, then at least stop insulting our intelligence by telling us that conference championships and head-to-head results matter.  You've already proven that isn't true, so just drop the charade.
• I admit to taking a lot of enjoyment over the debacle that is the Los Angeles Rams this season.  LA fans, who gleefully made fun of the supposed lackluster support of St. Louis fans, are quickly seeing for themselves what a mess they have inherited.  The Rams are already playing in front of empty seats and the best TV ratings they've had in LA this season are still worse than the worst TV ratings they had in St. Louis last season.  Even more ridiculous is the fact that they gave a contract extension to Jeff Fisher, who is poised to become the losingest (is that even a word?) coach in NFL history.  This is a guy who hasn't coached a team to a winning record since George W. Bush was president!  And somehow he not only doesn't get fired - he gets an extension!  That sums up the incompetence of sports ownership embodied by Stan Kroenke.  13 consecutive non-winning seasons and counting!
• Speaking of Stan Kroenke, is there a worse owner in professional sports?  The Rams stink (again).  The Avalanche are terrible (again) and their attendance stinks.  The Nuggets are perennial losers who are in the bottom handful of the NBA in attendance.  The fans of Arsenal do anti-Kroenke chants during games.  I guess when the deck isn't stacked in his favor (like it is in business, thanks to marrying a Walmart heiress), he isn't such a good businessman after all.
• Cleveland won a championship in the NBA this year.  The Cubs won a World Series this year.  Surely that means that a Stanley Cup is in the cards for the Blues soon, right?  Right?  It has to happen eventually, doesn't it?
• I used to view Scott Drew as a great recruiter but a mediocre coach.  But given what Baylor has accomplished on the hardwood since he implemented the two-three zone several years ago, I think he's proving to be a really good coach as well.
• Thank goodness BU has a good basketball team because Mizzou and SLU are awful.  They should schedule each other so that at least one of them can get a win!

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading!

Post Election Thoughts

Well.....it's over.  The seemingly endless 2016 election is over.  Without a doubt, this was the longest, ugliest, most expensive election ever.  Some of you are ecstatic with the result.  Others of you are despondent.  Still others, like me, fall somewhere in between.  Regardless of your political leanings, it's time to look back on this election and try to determine what we've learned.  I'll do my best to try to do this recap without offending anyone...

2016 was "The Year of the Political Outsider": It's a thing that first arose during the primaries.  The two candidates who were perceived as the political outsiders gained the most buzz.  On the Republican side, it was businessman/reality star/loose cannon Donald Trump who drew huge crowds to his rallies and who gained a large, devoted following by speaking his mind and appealing to those frustrated with business as usual in Washington.  On the Democratic side, it was former independent, self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders who drew a large following (especially of millennials) with his anti-establishment, big government viewpoints.  While the latter was not able to gain his party's nomination (partly due to unfair tactics by his own party), Trump did.  In a year in which so much press and excitement was generated by these non-traditional candidates, I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that Trump emerged victorious, especially since he was running against a candidate who was the very definition of a political insider.  The political outsider theme also played out in the Missouri gubernatorial race, where Navy SEAL/Rhodes Scholar/never held public office Republican Eric Greitens tapped into the anti-establishment momentum to win over a well established Democrat.  2016 was the year in which "career politician" became a popular insult thrown in the direction of entrenched members of both parties.

Except That It Wasn't Always:  Interestingly, in a year where political outsiders received so much press, virtually every incumbent Senator was re-elected.  People constantly complain about how much they dislike Congress and yet all but two of the incumbent Senators (Mark Kirk in Illinois and Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire) won their re-election battles.  So, we hate Congress but yet we re-elected almost all of the people we say we hate.  This baffles me.  I personally advocated the "vote the bums out" approach and voted in that manner, but it appears that most people are hypocrites on this point.  This is another reason why I advocate for term limits, because it may be the only way to create any churn amongst our elected officials.

It's Really Hard to Three-Peat: Very seldom in sports does a team manage to win three championships in a row.  The same is true in politics: it's very difficult for a political party - either Republican or Democrat - to win the White House three elections in a row.  In fact, since 1950, it's only happened once- when the Republicans won three straight presidential elections in 1980 (Reagan), 1984 (Reagan) and 1988 (George H.W. Bush).  Other than that one instance, no party has been able to hold onto the White House for more than 8 years since the FDR/Truman dynasty of the 1930s and 1940s.  Not even in 2000, when the Democrats had the economy in great shape as Bill Clinton was finishing up his second term, did the incumbent party keep the White House for a third straight time.  With that in mind, perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised that history repeated itself and the Democrats were denied a three peat.

Perhaps Trump is Smarter Than We Give Him Credit For?: One of my earlier blog posts relayed my opinions about Donald Trump, so I won't rehash them here.  (To read more, see my earlier blog post "The Inevitability of Donald Trump" from March.)  However, I think we may have to acknowledge that Trump got the last laugh and that maybe he outsmarted everyone.  He ran his campaign his way.  He broke all the rules and did all of the things you'd advise a candidate NOT to do and he still won.  He said incendiary things and poked his own party leaders in the eye and still won.  When pollsters and the doubters and the naysayers and even his own party said that he could never win this election, Trump smugly said that he could and would.  And he did.  He saw the energy and size of the crowds at his political rallies and told everyone who doubted him that they were wrong.  As unlikely as that seemed, he was right.

The GOP Gambled Big...and Won: In retrospect, the GOP's decision to stall on filling the Antonin Scalia vacancy on the Supreme Court worked.  I was critical of it in an earlier post and still think it was an abdication of their duties, but it worked out for them.  If Clinton had won, I'm guessing the lame duck Congress would have held hearings on Merrick Garland and confirmed him because they would have perceived him as being more moderate than whatever candidate Clinton would put forth.  Of course, they risked Obama rescinding Garland's nomination and replacing him with someone less moderate.  But, they rolled the dice that they could win back the White House and fill Scalia's spot with a conservative and they won big.

There are a Lot of Angry Americans - and That's Unlikely to Change: If there's been a theme to the last several years in the country, it's been anger.  From the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter to the pissed off working class voters who embraced Trump's campaign, there are a lot of angry people in this country.  Unfortunately, I don't see that changing soon. Instead, we'll just have a new group of angry people.  Where the right was upset with nearly everything Obama did for the past 8 years, I suspect the left will be upset with nearly everything Trump will do the next 4 years.

Time will tell whether or not the results of this election will be a good thing or a bad thing for the country.  I'm sure everyone has their opinion now, but we also can't predict the future.  For those of you who are happy with the outcome of the election, I ask that you be magnanimous toward those who are upset.  For those of you who are upset, I ask that you not lash out at those who are happy.  At the end of the day, we are all Americans and we are all human beings trying to make our way in this crazy world.  No election result changes that.

Thanks for reading.

Five Reasons Why College Football is Better than the NFL

Most people have a love/hate relationship with football.  They either love it – and can’t get enough of it – or they hate it.  Like most sports, I like football, though I don’t enjoy it as much as some other sports, like baseball or hockey.  But, over the past few years, I’ve come to the conclusion that college football is better than pro football.  Here are 5 reasons why I believe that college football is better than the NFL:

Tradition: The Baylor Line.  The Ohio State band dotting the i on the script “Ohio”. The 12^th man and kissing your date after a score at Texas A&M.  Rolling the corner and the war eagle at Auburn.  Howard’s Rock and running down the hill at Clemson.  Playing “between the hedges” at Georgia.  The Sooner Schooner at Oklahoma and Chief Osceola at Florida State.  The list goes on and on.  Virtually every major college football program has unique traditions surrounding its team and their fans, traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation for decades.  Sports can be a wonderful, unifying thing that brings people from disparate backgrounds (politically, socially, economically) together to cheer for a common cause and these various traditions play a huge role in that.

Atmosphere: This is closely related to the aforementioned item, but I think it deserves its own category.  Much like the way that the atmosphere at a college basketball game is much better than the atmosphere at an NBA game, the atmosphere at a college football game far surpasses the atmosphere at an NFL game.  There are lots of reasons for that.  The marching band playing a fight song to which tens of thousands of people sing and clap along.  The thousands of students – many of whom are near the field – standing the whole game, some of their faces or bodies painted and others dressed in all other manner of crazy outfits or school colors.  In pro sports, those seats closest to the field or inhabited by the wealthy businessman who got a free ticket through work and is more concerned with talking shop than watching the game.  But, at a college football game, when you have the students right next to the field, the atmosphere can be absolutely electric.  I recall going to the Baylor-Texas A&M game at Kyle Field in College Station when I was a freshman.  At kickoff, I had 72,000 people (it’d be 100,000+ people today) chant that they wanted to beat the hell of me.  The whole stadium seemed to sway when they sang the Aggie War Hymn.  I don’t like the Aggies, but the atmosphere in that stadium was amazing.  In addition to Texas A&M, I’ve been to games at some other major college football stadiums (including Texas, Oklahoma and Notre Dame) and the atmosphere and pageantry at those games blows the atmosphere at NFL games out of the water.  When there is a big upset in a college football game, the students rush the field and celebrate with the players and by perhaps tearing down the goalposts.  You don’t see that sort of thing in the NFL.

Offense:  College football is home to the spread offense, the wildcat and the triple option.  Offensive experimentation is welcome.  Trick plays are fairly common.  The NFL is home to three yards and a cloud of dust.  This season, only 2 out of 32 NFL teams are averaging more than 30 points per game, while 10 teams average less than 20 points per game.  In college football (FBS) on the other hand, there are 67 teams averaging at least 30 points per game.  College football is home to wild, back and forth games with scores like 61-58, 50-47 and 52-46.  The NFL is home to plodding, boring games with scores like 16-15, 16-13, 19-12, 9-3 and 17-14.  (Those are all actual scores from week 2 of the 2016 NFL season, by the way.)  I appreciate a great goal line stand as much as the next guy, but when the punter is one of the more prominent players on your team, that’s not a good thing.

Overtime:  College football and the NFL approach OT in very different ways.  In college football, each team gets the ball at the opposing team’s 25 yard line and attempts to score a touchdown or a field goal.  If the game is tied after that OT, it goes to another OT.  Beginning in the 3^rd OT, teams who score a TD must then go for a 2-point conversion.  In the NFL, the winner of the coin toss gets the ball.  If they score a touchdown, the game is over and the other team never even gets the ball.  If they kick a field goal, the other team gets the ball.  If they score a TD, the game is over.  If they score a field goal, the game continues.  If the score remains tied after 15 minutes, the game ends in a tie.  It’s kind of convoluted.  However, there exists a very real possibility that the team that loses the coin toss never even gets a chance to score, which seems fundamentally unfair – to put that much emphasis on something as random as a coin toss.  College football’s OT rules may result in inflated statistics and crazy scores, but there’s no denying that it is action-packed and suspenseful.  The NFL’s OT rules, on the other hand, blow.

It's Not All Business: Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of money wrapped up in college football – obscene amounts when you consider that it’s an amateur sport for which the players do not receive direct compensation…well, allegedly.  In most states, the highest paid public employee is the football coach, which is crazy.  But it’s not ALL about business.  For instance, most college football stadiums are named after an alumnus or a former coach or a donor, rather than being raffled off and named after the highest corporate bidder.  This gives us stately stadium names like Sanford Stadium, Faurot Field, Kyle Field, and Neyland Stadium, rather than clunky corporate names like M&T Bank Stadium (nee PSINet Stadum), Hard Rock Stadium (nee Sun Life Stadium, Landshark Stadium and ProPlayer Stadium), NRG Stadium and Sports Authority Field at Mile High that you see in the NFL.  In the NFL, the league dictates what coaches can wear on the sidelines and what kind of socks the players can wear on the field.  Lately, the NFL has even moved to forbid teams from streaming video and highlights of games on their websites and social media, all in an effort to protect their almighty dollar.  Worst of all, NFL teams turn their backs on supportive fan bases and move to another city just because they think they can make more money somewhere else.  It happened to Baltimore.  It happened to Cleveland.  It’s happened to St. Louis twice.  It’s happened to Los Angeles twice and it’s soon going to happen to Oakland for a second time.  The NFL has no loyalty to the cities it inhabits or the rabid fan bases that support their product.  Their only loyalty is to their pocketbook.  While college football certainly has its flaws, we don’t have to worry about the Buckeyes packing up and moving to LA or the Nittany Lions moving to Portland.  We can rest assured that, through good years and bad, we can head to the great college towns across America to watch football on a glorious autumn Saturday without having to worry about whether or not we’ll have a team to support next year.

The NFL is supposed to represent the top echelon of football in the United States, but for the reasons listed above, I’ll take college football over the NFL any day.

Thanks for reading!

The Adventures of Captain Underbite

Back in the summer of 2014, we adopted a quasi-rescue dog.  He was a pure bred shih tzu who was originally named Teddy but who we renamed Yadi.  He was about 6 months old when he joined our family, but he had a long, strange trip before he found his way to us.

He was born in North Carolina in January 2014.  He was purchased by a young man as a gift to his girlfriend.  A short while later, they broke up and the girl decided that she couldn’t afford to keep the dog.  Her aunt and uncle, who lived in St. Louis, became aware of the situation.  They drove to North Carolina, got the dog and brought him back to their home in St. Louis.  However, they were in the process of getting ready to move to a retirement community in Florida.  They already had another dog and didn’t want to have two dogs in their new home.  Reluctantly, the lady was planning to take the dog to the Humane Society, even though she was worried about finding a good home for him.  As she was in the parking lot outside of the Humane Society, she ran into a mom and her two kids.  She asked them if they wanted a free dog.  The mom called her husband to see if he would agree to it but he said no.  However, the mom told the lady to not give him up yet.  She said that she’d find someone who could adopt him.  She posted pictures of the puppy on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to adopt this sweet little dog.

My wife saw the picture on Facebook and showed me in passing.  I asked her if she replied and said we were interested.  She said “What?  We can get another dog?”  I replied, “Sure.”  At the time, our dog, Allie (whom I’ve written about before) was 12 years old and starting to have some health issues.  We thought it might be good to have a younger dog, too.  My wife replied, got the lady’s contact information, and made arrangements to meet Teddy the following day.  She showed the kids pictures of him and, of course, they were excited.  Even before meeting him, they’d already decided to name him Yadi, after the Cardinals’ catcher (and future Baseball Hall of Famer), Yadier Molina.  So, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we were going to adopt him before we even met him.  Fortunately, "Teddy" and "Yadi" sound relatively similar, so it wasn't too big of an adjustment for the little guy.

We went over to the lady’s house the following morning and, within seconds of seeing him, it was a done deal.  He was cute and friendly and we loved him.  The lady, in turn, thought we’d be a great fit for him, since we already had an older dog and the kids were so good with him.  We brought him home that day and he immediately made himself at home.  We bought him a new, St. Louis Cardinals collar (of course).  I quickly came up with a myriad of nicknames for him-  Buddy Buds, Mr. Mister and, especially, Captain Underbite.  The latter owing to his pronounced underbite and also because of those Captain Underpants books that my kids love to read.  Whenever he looks up at us with his underbite showing, we say "Captain Underbite is back!"

Yadi is spunky and a lot of fun. He absolutely loves to go for walks, to the point that he basically refuses to go poop unless you take him for a walk.  Every morning, I have to take him for a walk before I go to work.  As soon as he sees me putting on my shoes, he heads for the front door, ready to go on our daily morning walk.  He loves to watch TV and sometimes barks at the things he doesn’t like on the screen, including a goofy local ad that features a guy wearing a Blackhawks jersey.  He barks at that guy every time!  He loves to play tug-of-war and fetch and loves being outside.  He also loves ice cream, pudding, yogurt and especially Skinny Pop!  He could be upstairs but if he hears you open a bag of Skinny Pop, he’ll come flying into the kitchen to have a few pieces.

More than anything, though, Yadi LOVES my wife.  He practically worships her.  He follows her around everywhere, will shower her with kisses when she’s sitting on the couch and watching TV.  And he ALWAYS sleeps next to her at night.  He NEVER sleeps next to me.  Even when my wife was out of town for a few nights a few weeks ago, he spent most of those nights sleeping in the spot where you’d normally find her pillow.

Having Yadi around made the loss of our older dog, Allie, a little easier when she passed earlier this year. (See my earlier blog post entitled “Farewell to the Short Stack Girl” from February to learn more about Allie.)  In Allie’s final moments, when she was shaking due to the pain and fear, Yadi would curl up next to her, trying to comfort her.

Having Yadi in our lives would automatically make them better, regardless of how we got him.  But when you consider how it came to be – and the travels and changes the poor little guy went through over the first several months of his life – it makes it all just a little bit sweeter.

We are fortunate to have him as a dog and he’s lucky to have us as a family.

Thanks for reading!

 

An Open Letter to the GOP

Dear GOP:

I think it's time that we have a frank conversation about you because you seem to have lost your way.  You're confused and conflicted and, quite frankly, a little hypocritical.  You claim to be the party of limited government, but you started a war that you couldn't pay for.  You took a budget surplus in 2001 and turned it into a giant budget deficit by 2008.  You lambast Democrats for being "tax and spend liberals" while yourselves spending billions of dollars on wars and military build-ups...but without coming up with the funds to pay for it.  You talk about small government and staying out of the lives of individual citizens on one hand while, on the other hand,  calling special sessions of Congress to get involved in the affairs of one family (remember the whole Terri Schiavo thing?) and continually trying to tell people who they can and can't marry.  You bash Democrats for spending money on "entitlements" at home while yourselves voting to spend billions on infrastructure in other countries.  You blame Obama for the rise of ISIS in Iraq while conveniently forgetting that you all were the ones who attacked Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein (a man who was no threat at all to the U.S.), which created the void into which ISIS stepped in the first place.  You claim to be the party of social conservatism and moral values, while embracing a thrice divorced pill popper as your biggest media star.

Oh, you've gotten a few things right.  The Affordable Care Act is an abject failure that, while granting insurance to millions of Americans who didn't have insurance before, is causing many more millions of Americans to have to pay much more for much worse insurance than we had 5 or 6 years ago.  But, in general, you have swung and missed much more than you've gotten base hits.

Your latest, and arguably your most egregious, error is hitching your wagon to Donald Trump for president.  You started out with 16 or 17 candidates, almost all of whom would have been a better option than the guy with whom you wound up.  Seriously, you don't think that somebody like Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush or John Kasich wouldn't be clobbering Hillary Clinton in the polls right now?  You basically nominated one of the only candidates in your party who probably can't beat Clinton. 

Think about it: you claim to be the party of the high morals, but you nominated a vulgar, twice divorced, misogynistic bigot for president.  You claim to be the party of limited government, but you nominated an egotistical tyrant who believes that he alone is the solution to all of our problems.  Worst of all is watching you twist yourselves inside out trying to embrace a guy that most of you hated a year ago.  Watching you try to gloss over or restate Trump's many incendiary comments to somehow make them less offensive.  Watching you try to fall in line behind a guy that most of you considered an lightweight reality show idiot just a few years ago.  Why?  Because you hate Hillary Clinton so much.  Most of your arguments in favor of your candidate are actually more about why you hate Hillary.  Is Trump a loose cannon?  Sure, but he's still better than Hillary! 

Instead of sticking to your principles and either nominating a fiscal conservative or at least not falling in line behind someone who represents almost nothing you stand for, your hatred for Hillary runs so deep that you basically have forsaken all of your principles to support what you perceive to be the lesser of two evils.  And now, it's blowing up in your face as result of yet more disparaging comments from Trump.  You're all freaking out and all I can say is that you're getting what you deserve.

Why should you care what I think?  What difference does it make if some dopey, small time blogger in the Midwest thinks you're all a bunch of idiots?  Because I'm an independent.  I'm someone who sometimes votes for Republicans and sometimes votes for Democrats.  I'm the educated, gainfully employed, upper middle class, libertarian voter that you should covet and that you should never have to worry about.  But I'm calling you out for your hypocrisy, your inconsistency, your duplicity.  You should have been able to count on me to vote for your ticket, but you've fumbled that vote away.

So, if the sky appears to be falling this autumn......if your party fractures into a thousand pieces following the election....if you wonder where it all went wrong, just remember that you brought this on yourself.  It's not the "liberal media" or the "minorities" or the "entitlement babies" who caused your downfall.  It's your own damn fault.  If you're looking for someone to blame for your failings, you need to look no further than the nearest mirror.  You're getting just what you deserve.

In the interim, I'll be casting my vote for candidates who are consistent and genuine and who actually stand up for what they believe in.  Let me know when you think you've learned your lesson and maybe we can talk again.

Thanks for reading.

The Case for Gary Johnson

We're a few days past the first presidential debate of 2016, also known as Fall Dumpster Fire #1.  For those of you who are trying to figure out which of these not so good options to vote for, I submit that these two are not your only choices.  There is another option who will appear on the ballot in all 50 states: the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson.  Here are some things to consider with regard to Johnson's qualifications:

• He is the only candidate with government executive experience.  Johnson was a popular, two-term governor of New Mexico.  Likewise, his running mate, William Weld, was governor of Massachusetts.   Clinton has experience running the State Department from her time as Secretary of State, but she's never been a government CEO.  Neither has Trump.  There's something to be said for having experience running a government before, as Reagan and Clinton and Bush 43 had before they became president.
• He has business executive experience, too.  One of Donald Trump's primary arguments is that he has experience as a successful business executive, experience that will help him as the nation's chief executive.  Some would argue how successful of a business man he has actually been, given multiple bankruptcies, etc., but that's an argument for another day.  Gary Johnson also as experience as a successful business executive.  He built a small construction firm into one of the largest construction companies in New Mexico, with more than 1,000 employees.  And he did it without filing for bankruptcy.
• He doesn't have the baggage that come with Trump and Clinton.  Both of the major party candidates bring with them loads of baggage that has, in part, caused them to be the two least popular presidential candidates in decades.  Whether it's Trump's numerous controversial remarks or sketchy business dealings or Clinton's issues with emails and Benghazi, there are plenty of issues with both of them.  Johnson, on the other hand, has no such negative baggage.
• He's not a warhawk.  If you believe, like I do, that we need to spend less time and money trying to influence international affairs - especially since we have such a horrendous track record of it - Johnson is much less likely to meddle overseas than either Trump or Clinton.
• He fills a unique niche on the political spectrum.  Democrats are fiscally and socially liberal; Republicans are (nominally) fiscally and socially conservative.  Johnson's platform splits the difference - he's fiscally conservative and socially liberal.  There are a LOT of people who fit that description but who don't have a party that gives them both sides of that coin.  Johnson does.

Does Johnson potentially have some shortcomings?  Yes.  He's probably not as astute on foreign affairs as I'd like and I don't necessarily agree with his position on some social issues.  However, he is unquestionably head and shoulders above the two major party candidates when it comes to honesty and integrity and that should count for something.

I'm not telling you who you should vote for - that is a personal decision that only you can make.  I'm simply pointing out that you don't only have to choose the lesser of two evils.  There are other choices.  Also, if you are truly sick of the political cesspool and morass that is Washington, D.C., what better way to try to change that than by electing a third party candidate?  I encourage you to do your research and not just automatically ignore anyone who doesn't have an R or a D after their name.

Thanks for reading!

College Football Review (after 3 weeks)

After only 3 weeks of college football this season, I think it's fair to ask "Are any of these teams good?"  While I've said countless times that pre-season rankings are stupid, it's still amazing how many highly ranked teams have stumbled already this season.  Consider:

• The Oklahoma Covered Wagons, who were a pre-season top 5, have already lost two games and are essentially eliminated from playoff consideration.  They lost a neutral site game to the Houston Commuter School Cougars and then got throttled at home by the Ohio State Tree Nuts.  The derisively named "Big Game Bob" has lived up to his name.
• The Florida State Tomahawk Chops, also a pre-season top 5, looked to be the class of the ACC (especially considering the early season shaky play by the Clemson Fightin' Dabos), but then they got annihilated this week by Louisville.....again, we're talking about football and not basketball.
• The Notre Dame Angry Catholics, another pre-season top 10, have already lost two games which definitely eliminates them from playoff consideration, especially given their stubborn lack of conference affiliation.  Their first loss was an upset loss to the Texas Burnt Orange Menace, who appeared to potentially be able to replace Oklahoma at the top of the Big 12-2, until they lost to Cal late on Saturday.
• The aforementioned Big 12-2 is a mess.  In addition to the aforementioned losses by Oklahoma and Texas, the Fighting Mullets from Boone Pickens University lost a home game to a directional school from Michigan on a bizarre Hail Mary Hook & Ladder play that should never have happened but, thanks to the never ending stupidity of the NCAA, cannot be reversed.  The TCU Sweaty Garys already have one loss (to the Arkansas Big Mouth Bretts), so they would have to run the table from here on out.  The Coach Handsomes from Texas Tech can seemingly score at will - what else is new? - but they also couldn't stop a Pop Warner team from hanging 50 on them - again, what else is new?  Baylor has made it through their Annual Parade of Non-Conference Cupcakes unscathed, but they don't seem to be anywhere near as dynamic as in years past.  Iowa State and Kansas are horrible. In fact, Kansas is so bad that their student body - well, the 34 students who were actually at the game - rushed the field after they beat an FCS team.
• Speaking of FCS teams, the North Dakota State Fargodomes beat an FBS team for a 6th straight season - this time knocking off a ranked Iowa Birdheads team.  How long before an FBS conference tries to add North Dakota State?

The only teams that appear to be formidable are some of the usual suspects:  The Alabama Elephants, Michigan Khakis, Ohio State Tree Nuts and the Houston Commuter College Cougars, who are trying to crash the party from outside the so-called Power 5.  The SEC and Big 10+4 appear to be the best conferences.  However, if we've learned anything from the college football season so far, it's to expect the unexpected.  We'll check in again in a few weeks to see if any of these teams can rise above the teeming sea of mediocrity that seems to permeate college football this year.

Thanks for reading!

The Class of 2020

I was watching the Baylor game last weekend and noticed the "20" on the back of the Baylor Line jerseys.  (For those who are unfamiliar with it, The Baylor Line is the freshman spirit group that rushes the field before Baylor home football games and welcomes the Bears to the field.  Every member of the Line receives a Baylor Line Jersey that has a nickname and their prospective graduation year on the back.  For this year's Line, that 20 represents that this year's freshmen will graduate in 2020.)  If these college freshmen are the Class of 2020, that means that they were born in (gasp) 1998!  To put that into perspective, here are some facts about the Class of 2020 (or facts about 1998, if you will.)

• Google was invented in 1998, which means that these freshmen have never known a world without the world's most popular search engine.  Put another way, they've never known a world in which people didn't routinely use the world "Google" as a verb.
• Viagra was also invented in 1998, which means they've never known a world without TV commercials telling them to call a doctor if they have an erection lasting more than 4 hours!
• They were either newborns or in utero when Bill Clinton wagged his finger and denied "having sexual relations with that woman."
• They were either newborns or in utero when Seinfeld ended it's acclaimed, award winning run, which means they've only known Seinfeld as one of the old shows they show on re-runs at night.
• MP3 players were invented in 1998, so they've never known a world without digital music.  They've probably never even bought a CD.
• in 1998, Ken Starr was known for his role as the prosecutor investigating Bill Clinton's sexual dalliances rather than his failings handling sexual assault offenses committed by students when he was President of Baylor.
• Apple has always been a hot technology company that makes cool gadgets and never a bad joke of a company that no one thought twice about.
• Panasonic introduced the first portable DVD player in 1998, which means these young people likely have never known the horrors of a long road trip without the ability to watch movies in the car to help pass the time.
• They've always known Billy Ray Cyrus as Miley's/Hannah Montana's dad and never as that guy with the bitchin' mullet who sang "Achy Breaky Heart."
• Leonardo DiCaprio has always been a huge movie star (and heartthrob) and never the young guy cutting his teeth in art house films like "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" and "The Basketball Diaries."
• Robert DeNiro has always been a comic actor and never bad ass mobster or criminal.
• George Clooney was always a big time movie star and never just a member of a large ensemble on a TV show.
• They can never remember a time when Survivor (debuted in 1997) and American Idol (2002) weren't on TV.
• The Big 12 Conference has always existed.  The Big 8 and Southwest Conference mean nothing to them.
• Houston's football team has always been the Texans and Nashville has always been a two sport city.
• The Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques never existed; the Grizzlies have always been in Memphis and the Rams being in Los Angeles is a new thing rather than the return to an old thing.
• Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan have always been veteran NBA stars, while Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing have always been retired.
• 62 is a meaningless number where baseball is concerned, because they can't remember 70 or 73.
• They never saw Brett Hull wearing the blue note or The Great One on the ice at all.
• Britney Spears has always been a pop star and never on The Mickey Mouse Club.
• They can only remember Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé as solo pop stars and never as members of a singing group.
• They can likely never remember a time when there were more than two living Beatles.
• The likely only know Darius Rucker as "that black country singer" rather than as "Hootie" (even though, contrary to common belief, he is NOT Hootie)
• Plymouth is a place in Massachusetts and Eagle is a bird, not brands of automobiles

Personally, 1998 wound up being a great year from me.  I moved into my own apartment for the first time (without roommates), re-connected with my best friend from college, and - most importantly - I met the beautiful woman who would become my wife.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the world of the Class of 2020.

Thanks for reading!

I Believe

• I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who died to take away our sins.
• I believe that I am incredibly blessed to have a wonderful wife and two great kids.
• I believe that I am also fortunate to have a good job that allows me to provide for my family without having too much undue stress.
• I believe my dog Yadi is the cutest dog in the world.
• I believe that many of Donald Trump's supporters are xenophobic bigots who have fallen for his politically incorrect campaign because it coalesces with their narrow-minded, warped view of the world.
• I believe that many of these same people would support an overtly fascist candidate if they thought it would put the "illegal aliens" and minorities in their place.
• I believe that Donald Trump doesn't actually believe much of what he says; it's a sham that may also be a frightening sociological experiment.
• I believe that Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States.
• I believe that Stan Musial is the most underrated baseball player in major league history.  7 batting titles, 3 MVPs, 3630 hits but the average baseball fan knows next to nothing about him.
• I believe that South Carolina and New Mexico have the two best state flags.
• I believe that everyone should visit the beach and the mountains at least once during their lifetime.  Few things can make you feel so small and marvel at the wonder of creation as much as looking out at seemingly endless waters or up at soaring mountains.
• I believe that The Object of My Affection may be the worst movie I've ever seen.
• I believe that the Warren Commission is a crock and that Lee Harvey Oswald did NOT act alone.
• I believe that I am extremely lucky to have two terrific parents who raised me the right way and put me through college so that I can have the aforementioned job.
• I believe that people should be treated with respect regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation.  Rather, people should be judged and treated according to their actions and how they treat others.
• I believe that people should be hired, fired, promoted or demoted based solely on their knowledge, skills and abilities as opposed to their gender or the color of their skin.  As such, I believe Affirmative Action programs should be ended.
• I believe that those who wish to defund Planned Parenthood are misguided.  While Planned Parenthood is the leading provider of abortion (something I abhor), they are also the leading provider of education and contraception that helps to prevent unwanted/unplanned pregnancies in the first place.
• I believe there are no bigger hypocrites alive than those Republicans who demonized Natalie Maines and The Dixie Chicks for criticizing President Bush in 2003 while themselves constantly criticizing President Obama a decade later.
• I believe that most people are fiscally conservative and socially liberal and that we need more people to represent those views in politics.
• I believe that we will never "fix" government in this country until we vote out all of the incumbents and replace them with new blood.  I believe mandatory term limits can help accomplish that.
• I believe that Turnpike Troubadours are the best, most talented country artist/band of the last 25 years.
• I believe that most of what passes for "country music" today is watered-down pop/rock drivel.
• I believe that there will be a rebirth of true country music within the next 5 years.  It happened in the 1970s (in response to the overly polished Nashville Sounds).  It happened in the late 1980s/early 1990s (in response to the popified country pitched by the likes of Kenny Rogers and Ronnie Milsap).  It's long overdue to happen again.
• I believe that we are also overdue for a rebirth of rock-n-roll.  It's long past time for the suburban teenager to be blasting rock music on his/her way to school rather than rap or hip-hop.
• I believe that everybody has a friend who will always be their friend, even if they haven't spoken in years; someone with whom they can start up a conversation as if those years apart never happened.
• I believe that the photo ID requirements for voting and the allegations of voter fraud are merely thinly veiled attempts to suppress voter turnout among a population that doesn't vote the way some people want them to.
• I believe that Colin Kaepernick has every right to sit or kneel during the National Anthem if he wants to do so; that is his right.  I also believe that the people who are upset by his actions have every right to say so.
• I believe that people who choose to send their kids to private grade schools and high schools should not complain about how expensive it is.  No one held a gun to your head.  You made the choice - which is your right - so stop whining.
• I believe that my daughter will wind up following in the steps of her mother and grandmother and become a teacher.
• I believe that all cops should wear body cameras at all times, less to infringe on their rights and more to protect them from the false accusations made by criminals.
• I believe that most cops are good people who are only trying to do their jobs and keep us safe.  However, I also believe there are some cops who are bad people and who chose that profession for the wrong reasons.
• I believe that John Oliver is the funniest man on TV.
• I believe that the Chicago Cubs will somehow manage to not win the World Series this year, even though they are by far and away the best team in baseball.
• I believe that people need to start taking responsibility for their own actions and stop waiting for the government to take care of them.
• I believe that the government could spur such responsibility-taking by citizens if it stopped incentivizing bad behavior via government handouts.
• I believe that the U.S. needs to stop nation-building and paying for the infrastructure of other countries when we have so many infrastructure needs at home.  
• I believe that I have probably said something in this blog post that you disagreed with or that upset you. Deal with it.
• I believe that I will probably do a post similar to this one in the future.
• I believe that I am going to wrap this up now because I need to go to bed.

Thanks for reading!

Big 12 Expansion

The idea of Big 12 Conference expansion has been in the news a lot lately.  As the smallest - and seemingly most vulnerable - of the so-called "Power Five" conferences, the common assumption is that the Big 12 needs to add teams in order to stabilize and avoid further defections as its seen in recent years (Colorado and Nebraska, Missouri and Texas A&M).  This, of course, comes on the heels of conference realignment that has led multiple schools to change conferences all in the name of the almighty dollar.  This reshuffling has destroyed traditional rivalries and led to anachronisms like a Big 10 with 14 teams, a Big 12 with 10 teams, Missouri (which is neither southern nor eastern) in the Southeastern Conference; and Pittsburgh and Louisville (which are in states that are nowhere near the Atlantic) in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Personally, I love the Big 12 having 10 teams.  I think 10 teams is the ideal size for a conference, as it allows for round robin play in football and double round robin play in basketball.  This helps foster and maintain rivalries, as well as provide a true test for which team is the best, since every team plays every other team every year.  In my view, this makes a lot more sense than these 14 team mega conferences where schools go several years without ever playing some of their conference brethren in football.

However, since it seems like Big 12 expansion is inevitable, I wanted to give my take on which schools will likely be considered and which schools make the most sense.  Here are my thoughts on the expansion possibilities, in alphabetical order:

Arkansas State
Pros: Expands conference footprint into Arkansas.  Adds solid mid-major football program that has won 4 of the last 5 Sun Belt Conference titles. 

Cons:  Lousy basketball.  While they would expand the conference into a new state, I'm not sure how many people in Arkansas care about Arkansas State.

Odds: Slim.  I think it's more likely that Arkansas State's football coach, Blake Anderson, is Baylor's next football coach (he's from Texas and went to Baylor) than it is that Arkansas State gets invited to join the Big 12.

Boise State
Pros: Expands conference footprint west into Idaho.  Adds good football program that has some national cachet.

Cons: Geography.  Boise is far from any other Big 12 school, which compounds the already difficult geographic challenges faced by West Virginia.  Middling academic profile.

Odds: Better than slim but less than several of the schools listed below.  Odds would be increased slightly if other western teams are added.

BYU
Pros: Expands conference footprint into the mountain west.  Strong academics.  Strong football and basketball programs. National profile and large fan base.  Clearly one of the sexiest options available.

Cons: Geography.  Similar to Boise State, having a conference that stretches from Utah to West Virginia presents travel nightmares for non-revenue sports that play their games during the week.  Some Big 12 schools may also have potential issues with BYU's honor code (rules outlawing homosexual behavior, etc.).

Odds: Likely - first tier option.  In my opinion, the geography is potentially the only deal breaker.

Cincinnati
Pros: Expands conference footprint into Ohio.  Solid football and basketball, solid academics.  Provides West Virginia with a closer opponent and eases their travel schedule.  Also, Cincinnati and West Virginia were former Big East opponents, so there is a bit of built-in rivalry as well.

Cons: There aren't really too many, especially if Cincinnati's addition is paired with the addition of a school like Memphis.

Odds:  Likely - first tier option.  I actually argued in favor of adding Cincinnati and Louisville or Pittsburgh several years ago, before the ACC scooped up the latter two.

Colorado State
Pros: Expands conference footprint into the mountain west, back into Colorado.  Solid athletics (football team has gone to a bowl game the last three years) and academics. Large school, decent sized fan base. 

Cons:  Geography is a potential issue, though that issue is minimized if Colorado State is paired with BYU.  The fan base is not as large as you would expect given the size of the school, so I'm not sure how many TV screens they add.

Odds:  Decent - second tier option.  As mentioned earlier, if BYU is added, I think that increases the odds that Colorado State receives strong consideration.

Connecticut
Pros: Expands conference footprint into the northeast.  Decent football, very strong basketball (men's and women's).  Strong academics.  Provides West Virginia with a closer opponent and eases their travel schedule a bit.

Cons: Geography.  While UConn is a closer trip for WVU than other Big 12 schools, it is a LONG way away from everybody else, which poses issues in non-revenue sports.  Selfishly, having UConn in the Big 12 might end Baylor's string of conference titles in women's basketball.

Odds: Decent - second tier option.  UConn's geographic isolation is the biggest potential issue.

Houston
Pros: Geography - easy travel for the majority of the existing Big 12 schools.  Greater access to Houston, one of the largest media markets in the country.  Strong recent football performance.

Cons: A glorified commuter school with mediocre academics.  While people in Houston may care about the Cougars when they are winning, they generally ignore them when they aren't.  As such, the value of adding a team in such a large media market is somewhat contingent upon the team's performance.  Also, UT wants to add them, which is more reason to not do so.  Texas's arrogance and greed is one of the main reasons why the Big 12 is in the predicament they are in in the first place. Finally, adding a fifth school in Texas doesn't expand the conference's footprint.  We already saw what happened to a conference that was too isolated geographically (see the all-Texas based Southwest Conference), so I don't know how much Houston really adds.  Also, if Houston gets passed over, it increases the likelihood that Baylor can nab Tom Herman as their next football coach.

Odds: Unfortunately, thanks to the meddling of UT and Texas's governor, I think this is a more likely, first tier option.

Memphis
Pros: Expands conference footprint into Tennessee, adds a decent-sized media market. Potentially adds FedEx financial largesse.  Makes WVU's travel schedule easier.  Solid football and basketball programs.  If paired with a school like Cincinnati, it significantly pulls conference's footprint eastward, which helps West Virginia and could be a big plus if the conference ever pushes for a TV network.

Cons: Middling academics.  I'm not sure how closely people in Memphis follow the Tigers and I'm not sure how many people outside of Memphis care about them.

Odds:  Likely - first tier option.  Likelihood increases if conference decides to add Cincinnati.

Nebraska
Pros:  Previous Big 12 member, so there are built-in rivalries that can easily be renewed.  It makes sense geographically and brings back another good academic school.  There has been some buyer's remorse among Nebraska fans over their decision to flee to the Big 10 and this fixes that.

Cons: None, besides it's not likely to happen.  Of all of the schools on this list, this is probably the least likely option.

Odds:  Doubtful.

Tulane
Pros: Expands geographic footprint into Louisiana while still offering fairly easy travel for most Big 12 schools.  Strong academics.  Awesome mascot - Green Wave.

Cons: Relatively small, private school in a conference that already has two of them. Mediocre athletics and I'm not sure how much people in New Orleans actually care.

Odds:  Slim.  Probably only an option if the Big 12 adds 4 to 6 teams, and even then, probably less likely than most of the other schools on this list.

There you have it - my thoughts on Big 12 expansion.  It will be interesting to see how it unfolds in the coming months.

Thanks for reading!