Tidbits.....

Not a lot going on right now as I wait on the edge of my seat for Saturday's match up between Northern Illinois and Fresno State.  But we have had a few things go down this week that caught my attention, and not especially in a good way.

Let's start with Missouri's opponent in the Insight Bowl in just a couple of weeks, the Iowa Hawkeyes, where star wide receiver Darrell Johnson-Koulianos was dismissed from the team after Iowa City police arrested him for allegedly operating a drug house.  The rumors were flying this week as internet reports had up to 11 other players being dismissed or suspended due to failed drug testing.  This has proven to be overblown, but several other players suddenly deciding to leave the team absolutely caused some eyebrows to be raised.   Sad to see a kid that had an excellent chance to be drafted next April just piss his life away in his early 20's though.

The Big Ten conference held a presser to announce that they'd selected the names for their 2 divisions in football next season.  They also unveiled a snappy new logo that obviously was designed by the same guy that decided to put the United Nations peacekeepers in baby blue army helmets.  Going North/South or East/West simply wouldn't do for a conference such as the Big Ten, so they named the divisions the Leaders and the Legends.  This immediately led to jeers and derision as sports shows and fans alike now discuss the pomposity and arrogance of Jim Delaney and the Big Ten board.  Myself, I don't really care what they decide to call themselves, but I sure would like to know how much some advertising agency was paid to come up with a logo that I could have slapped together with Microsoft Paint in about 3 minutes.  And sky blue?  What the fuck is intimidating about sky blue?  And, 18 new post season awards?  What's next, participation medals?   

But when I was surfing around yesterday I came across the biggest gaffe of them all in my opinion.  The Oregon Ducks, home to college athletics sexiest cheerleaders and ugliest uniforms has absolutely outdone themselves with their new championship uniform, complete with neon green socks.  As I read, I realized that this will not only be the 13th game of the year for Oregon, it will also be their 13th different uniform.  Don't get me wrong, I'm jealous of all the Nike money that flows into Eugene and the fact that they broke into the national title game, despite playing the nations 71st most difficult schedule.  But lose the damn socks for the love of God.  Let's invest a little more money into some new cheerleader uniforms for those beautiful girls that make all of us Duck fans when they're on television.
That's all for today.  Time to get to the closet and see if I can find that old BYU cap from 30 years ago that I bought because I thought Jim McMahon was cool.