Bobref

I’m talking about from the perspective of the people who get to decide who plays who and where.

It is a mistake to think of the bowls — other than the playoff games — as anything other than entertainment with a financial goal. What you’ve “earned” during the season by your play is not as important as whether you can deliver TV ratings and tourist dollars for the host city.

By which I meant, the “line” will be established in the usual way: litigation. A terribly inefficient process, but there it is. Don’t expect the line to be bright.

All will undoubtedly be revealed ... in the fullness of time.

School bus drivers will be glad to hear that. 😆

“Athletic possibilities” would be the last reason to consolidate two high schools.

The Bears with another dose of fool’s gold yesterday. If they end up making the playoffs, that will make it very difficult to root out the evil cabal known as Phillips-Pace-Nagy-Trubisky. I can’t believe I’m saying this. But the Packers could do the Bears a big favor by smoking them in Soldier Field next Sunday.

I had that game at Sheridan. Kid was phenomenal.

Absolutely horrible red zone interception near the end of the first half.

Technically, tournament regulations are enforced by the on-site game tournament manager — which is usually the host AD.

OK, for those that were fooled by Trubisky’s play the last few weeks, that was Ex. A in why it’s time to move on from him.

That is not something that is enforced by the game officials.

Don’t get all warm & fuzzy about Glass. If you’re going to give him some credit for what IU football has done this season, then you have to assign him blame for the fact that they haven’t done in the first 10 years he was AD.

Well, it just occurs to me that you may have not accounted for a variable or two in your determination of causation, rendering the conclusion a little suspect.

How do you know it “didn’t benefit them one bit?”

Merry Christmas everyone!

I don’t believe so.

Not for me to say. What I will say is I’ve known him a long time as a coach. He really cares about those kids. He gets the benefit of the doubt from me.

I have my doubts. But if anyone could do it, he’s the guy.

Kids don’t want to play that way anymore.

I don’t think anyone can recreate magic these days anywhere by having a tailback to give the ball to 30 times, a fullback with a butt an axe handle wide, and a willingness to run iso up the middle until the opponent’s mike wishes he had never been born. It’s a different game today.

In high school, when a few teams dominate the rest, we impose barriers designed to “level the playing field.” In other sports, when you’re successful, you end up with worse draft order, in the name of competitive balance. Why can’t we do this in college football? Currently D1 programs can award up to 85 full scholarships at any one time. How about if a team wins 11+ games, they get cut to 75 for the next year? If they win 10, they only get cut to 80? And so on. I think that might work, over the long run. Change my mind.

Haven’t heard anything. Man, I loved those Lowell teams!

When I was starting high school at St. Ed’s in Cleveland, Dowling had just finished at our rival, St. Ignatius. His name was spoken in hushed tones. 56 years later, he still holds the Ohio high school record for career interceptions ... by 6! Carmen Cozza, the legendary Yale coach, tells a story that during the waning moments of the famous Harvard - Yale tie in 1968 — one of the greatest games in college football history — when Harvard was mounting a furious comeback, Dowling begged to be put in on defense. Cozza said he didn’t do it because he didn’t want to humiliate the kid playing safety, because Dowling hadn’t played defense all year. But, having said that, Cozza said he was 100% certain that if he had put Dowling in, he would have found a way to win the ball game. Of course, he was also an honors student, homecoming king, played pro football, etc. But his greatest claim to fame is he was used by his Yale classmate, Gary Trudeau, as the model for “BD” in the comic strip, “Doonesbury.”

I remember working games when Chip played. He was always one of my favorite coaches. Very, very smart guy. But the real All American boy was a guy named Brian Dowling. Look him up sometime.