THIS and that to chew on over lunch: WAC champion
could end up in
local bowl gameSo, the Holiday Bowl has decided maybe it doesn't want a Western Athletic Conference team in its football game.
No doubt the jilted eight will point to that game's decision as further proof that the breakaway eight either A) didn't think through their decision to form a new league, or B) didn't fully realize the financial ramifications of their breakaway.
Looks to me as though it's further proof that big-time college sports is all about business. Period.
The Pac 10 and Big 12 conferences are driving the Holiday Bowl deal, not the breakup of the WAC.
When two elite conferences come to you and say they'd like to play in your bowl game, you listen. And then you book them.
The whole thing might work out well for the Aloha and Oahu bowls, though. The WAC champ conceivably could play in one of those two games.
Wouldn't it be a nice ironic twist if, say, Colorado State won the conference title and got to play in Aloha Stadium.
The only thing better would be if the Rainbows were the opponent.
Speaking of the WAC breakup, the sooner the University of Hawaii realizes that the rest of the college athletic world doesn't give a rip about the poor little jilted eight, the better off it'll be.
I've heard a lot of tongues wagging in town lately about how UH has done the honorable thing and how the university is right to act like a scorned lover over this whole affair.
A lawsuit will get you a few million in the short term, but in the long term, the breakaways are going to earn that money back, no problem.
Utah and New Mexico are going to the NCAAs in basketball no matter which conference they're in. Brigham Young, Colorado State and Air Force are going to play in bowl games regardless of their affiliation.
And after the first few times the Texas schools start shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to send their volleyball teams over here for one game, they're not going to want UH around for long.
The college landscape is going to change fast. Running around trying to save face for a drastic error in judgment isn't going to make UH any money.
This university needs to get on the stick, develop a long-range plan to become a player instead of roadkill and then -- at the risk of sounding too much like a football coach -- get after it.
If that doesn't happen, the University of Hawaii might soon find its teams getting their butts kicked by the Montana States of the world.
And that will hurt a heck of a lot more than being dumped by eight schools that had the sense to get on with the future.
Gotta love Mark McGwire. In an age when over-hyped players actually charge people for autographs, it's refreshing to hear Big Mac's comments on sports collectibles: "There's not a piece of memorabilia that's worth a dime."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
McGwire, of course, was referring to the price his 62nd homer would fetch, should he hit that many (which, by the way, he won't).
A collector has said the ball would be worth more than a million dollars to the person who retrieves it.
The great part of it is, some knucklehead will pay big bucks for the ball. And then he'll be stuck with a million-dollar baseball that no one else wants.
P.T. Barnum said there is a sucker born every minute. For proof, I offer this: The founder of the Psychic Friends Network paid half a mil for Eddie Murray's 500th career homer.
It takes one to know one.
