My Thoughts on Barack Obama's Thoughts on the Playoff

(or the lack of a playoff, as it were).

As it turns out, even though I have friends and family who did not vote for Barack Obama, they heartily agree with what he said on "Mike and Mike in the Morning" a few weeks ago. "I would have my attorney general investigate possibly a college football playoff system via executive order". That's what he said.

It's a shame, an absolute shame, that the college football post season cannot get anything better than a bunch of computers and a few humans (who didn't play or coach any of the games) decide who the national champion should be.

It's broken. It needs to be fixed.

Since the bowls can't go back to the way they were (and fix the national championship problem) then there should be another option. The sweet sixteen plays the first week of January. This is the top 16 teams in the country playing in eight games, weighted so that the better team plays at home. Then, the following week, the 'elite eight' plays in the bowl games, with the final four playing (and rotating) through the four bowl sites and the national championship being played the third week in January.

I think this would make it much better and not depreciate the value of the bowls.

Of course, in an effort to fix it, it got broken in the first place. Who knows what's actually right?

Olympic Greatness and Other Olympic Thoughts

The Olympics are upon us. And for someone who loves sports, this is a time when I watch more television than I normally do. And that's saying a lot.


I watched all of Michael Phelps' races. I observed history in the making. I am happy to say this because I was not even two years old when Mark Spitz won in Munich, and while I believe we watched a good portion of his swimming back then (we were in the same time zone as Munich) I don't remember a bit of it.


I loved watching him, all of what he did and was very proud of the good sportsman he is.


I love the stories of the Olympics. I love the Olympics because countries that have no hope anywhere else have hope in the Olympics. They have joy because they finished. I have been the person who cheers for the German 33 year-old woman in the vault. I'm the one who cheers for the Namibian because, well, Namibia hasn't won many medals. And they didn't this time. But I still see them and root for them once in a while. I feel for the people from the countries where there is so much pressure that they don't feel the thrill of competition.

I love the good of the Olympics. I don't like the bad at all. And that's just something to think about.

And all ESPN can really chatter on about is football preseason. Just another cent or two of my thoughts...

Going Back to School

This relates to my blog.

I'm going back to school for my Master's degree. We see what my undergrad (and my lack of tenaciousness) has gotten for me. I've finally decided I would grow up and become a college professor. But in the process, I have decided to combine my love of sports and my love of politics and make the world a better place in the process.

Okay, maybe not 'make the world a better place', but I will try to make the ideas, with which I agree, a little more prevelent in American and, possibly, international thought.

If you have ever heard of PeacePlayers International, then you might get where I am going with this. But you may not.

As I have said plenty of times in my life, I am extremely passionate about sports. I have favorite teams, but I almost always think about the betterment of the sport than about my own team. But I don't think this is about professional sports. I say that because I'm still formulating my own thoughts on the subject.

I am pretty sure I will stick with just using sport as a way to resolve conflicts (long term, of course). I believe that sometimes it's a relatively inexpensive way to work towards peace without even knowing it. And that's just something we should think about.

Of course, many people are not focused on international relations. A lot of people don't see that what happens there (outside the US) does affect us here.

That's simply what I am interested in: peace-making through sports.

Thoughts

I keep thinking about horse racing and the horses who run.

I used to live in Lexington, KY and I used to drive out to the horse farms and I would see the colts run. They were beautiful in the early spring morning, fog rising, burning off the heat, colts running through the fog, playing. I had seen that scene too many times, so I truly believe that the horses are supposed to run.

I seriously think something needs to be done. I have been listening, only a casual fan, to the debate, reading and thinking about what could be done to improve something that is obviously broken.

Horses are meant to run. They run because they want to run. I've seen more than my fair share of horses. They aren't cows: acquiescent to standing in a field. That want to run, they want to feel the wind in their mane. I truly believe that.

But horses shouldn't be breaking like they do. Eight Belles, or Vinstar today, both euthanized because they were not able to be fixed. I don't fault the vets for making the decision (strangely enough, I know the vet who euthanized Eight Belles). I fault the system for breeding horses who are breakable.

It's a shame. I don't know what'll fix it. It just needs to be fixed.

Olympics = Peace

What I am about to express is an opinion that may or may not be shared with others. I rarely put my strong opinions out here, but I feel as if I should share for discussion's sake alone.

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The Olympics are a time every two years (winter, then summer) where we as a world need to forget our differences and find joy in the simple act of sport for the sake of sport.

I must state clearly and unequivocally that I was not for the Olympics being granted to China. I thought it was a travesty and one of the biggest mistakes the IOC has made in a long time. I did think, however, that the IOC did grant the Olympics to China much like they granted them to Moscow in 1980. There is always the hope that something like a peaceful movement will push a country towards peace.

I was not for free trade with China either. I know it helped my parents but that only tempered my anger. Please bear in mind: I'm all for international cooperation and international understanding. I don't think that democracy is always the right thing for a country at a certain time. I think that reality dictates that we must make the mistakes before we can correct them. I just, simply put, think that China is the closest to an enemy we have had since we were in the Revolutionary War.

With all this thought process about how much I dislike and do not trust China, I think that the Olympics are there now, therefore we must have an understanding that we should respect the Olympics in a peaceful manner.

I don't believe that our President should sit in the Opening Ceremonies. I think he should send a letter to each of the American Olympians expressing his support. I just think that if he's there, he should do something extreme (like wearing a Tibetan flag on his lapel). Since that's not going to happen, he should not be there.

I believe our athletes should go there with a fervor to win more than ever before. We cannot let the Chinese machine (similar to the Soviet machine) be dominant.

I believe that the protesters have every right to protest. They should, however, never ever endanger the torch bearer in any way. They did that in Paris and that was highly disappointing for me.

The torch bearer is generally an athlete or someone who is important to the country that the torch is in. I just find that this whole set of protests going on outside of China are doing a good job of making those of us who have shouted Free Tibet before get a little disillusioned with the whole process.