Why are they even published?

A little more for the College Football (CF) fan. I was talking to some friends and they were calling this past season, THE GREATEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON EVER! We witnessed Appalachian St. beating Michigan, no team was able to stay unbeaten (well Hawaii, but you see how that played out), and the fact that #1 and #2 teams where losing every week (sometimes to unranked teams).

That is where I had to insert my dissent. The week I published the blog entry May Never Happen Again referencing the fact that it was the first time in history I agreed with the weekly ranking system, all but one of those teams proceeded to lose that week. The other team lost the following week. Everybody laughed….. But by the end of the season all but 1 of these teams was back in the Top 10! What happened in the polls in those subsequent weeks is precisely the point I was trying to make. The #1 and #2 teams were losing every week, Top 10 teams were losing every week. As that does establish that there is more parity in CF. What it really establishes is that the pollsters are I-D-I-O-T-S!!! Most of those teams should have never been ranked that high in the first place.

Those teams were not victims of upsets, they were victims of a ranking system full of idiots. Just because USC loses a game doesn’t mean that KU is a better team. Just because West Virginia loses a game doesn’t mean that BC the next best team in the Big East is the 2nd best team in the nation?

This played out beautifully in the Big 12 Championship when the #1 team in the nation is going into a game as a 7 point underdog against a team they loss to earlier in the season. You are left thinking the bookies in Vegas appear to be more qualified to rank teams for the polls as Mizzou went on to get rolled by OU. Doesn’t mean Mizzou was not a good team, but #1 in the nation?

If the #1 team goes into a game and is an underdog your entire ranking system is worthless… Maybe if they are playing the #2 or #3 team on the road, but otherwise they should never be an underdog…..

So I ask the pollsters, go out to Vegas spend a long weekend and get the proper training on how to rank teams. Then at the end of the year the teams you have ranked high all along will be the teams that are playing in the BIG GAMES, and not the team that is getting knocked off week after week! Read more!

How 2 Know Right from Wrong

Proverbial wisdom says if you have to ask if something is right or wrong, it is most likely wrong, but here is a very simple formula that asks 4 questions:

1) Is it helpful spiritually, physically, and mentally?

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial.

2) Does it bring me under its power?

Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

3) Does it hurt others?

If what I eat causes my Brother to fall into sin, I will never eat again. I will not cause him to fall.

4) Does it glorify God?

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Very simple, but powerful in developing conviction. These questions are searching, but they must be asked if we are to pursue an ethical way of life. Read more!

PLAYOFFS!

Unlike most sports fans I have never really been all that in favor of a playoff system for College Football (CF). Keep in mind I am not a really big CF fan, as my love is for NFL Football, and working in Corporate America it is very difficult to devote your Saturday and Sunday to watching football all day. So it’s not that I don’t like CF, I actually think it is really great I just don’t have the opportunity to follow both CF and the NFL every weekend. That being said my argument for not wanting a CF Playoff is very different than the norm. I actually probably agree with 80% of the arguments for a Playoff system and 20% of the arguments against one.

My reasons are simple in reference to what I said before, I am just not that interested in devoting a month of my time to following a CF Playoff. My love for CF essentially comes from growing up (and still today) being able to sit down on New Years Day and watch CF all day long. On a day I am able to watch it all day, it used to be great to sit down and watch some meaningful games and some great match-ups a-l-l d-a-y l-o-n-g.

Not only has the BCS failed as a good system (a discussion for another day), but it has really created a lot LESS interest in the sport for people like me. At the beginning of the season I picked LSU and USC as the best teams in the country , at the end of the year that argument still rings true and it did not take the BCS or a Playoff system to prove that. I am disinterested in spending the next 3 days after New Year’s watching Bowl games. I mean really most of us have to go back to work.

The 1 week period (or what seems like a week) between the BCS Championship and the last Bowl Game is also a hype killer. By the following Monday you have watched the NFL Playoffs and you pretty much satisfy your interest just to find out who won the game instead of watching it.

I will say that I became a little more interested in CF one Saturday when I relaxed at home and watched game after game after game. No exaggeration I think there was as many as 20 games on at one time with all of the channels available on my AT&T U-Verse. This is without paying for any of those extra packages. I sat down the next weekend on Sunday, I had an entire day to watch more football. The Cowboys were playing the Bears in the Sunday Night game, I had friends coming over to watch the game with me that night. I was going to spend an entire day watching football. I rushed home from church grabbed a bite to eat, got everything set up. ONLY 1 GAME showed all day…. Out of 4 programming slots they showed 1 GAME! I was taking a nap by 3:30….

I appreciate that you have to pay for the NFL Ticket to be able to see all of the games, but to only show 1 GAME on Network TV?? I realize there are agreements in place not to show games opposite the Home Team games, but in this case there was no game? Starting to feel I was getting a lot more bang for my buck watching CF..... Read more!

The Power of Oprah

I mentioned some time ago I was going to do a blog on the immeasurable sphere of influence of Oprah Winfrey. Not one of those academic pieces that illustrates all of her life achievements and the impact she has made on the life of others. More simply I want to make note of a few personal observations I have experienced of Oprah's power. More notably the recognition and awareness of Black arts and entertainment that she has instilled in her White audiences.

Remembering a conversation I had with a friend of mine that is White, that was sharing with me how much she appreciated Black entertainment. Later, after a few drinks she was sharing with me about this time she was in NY and saw Samuel Jackson and ran up to him and said, "OMG!, it's Danny Glover can I have your autograph?" To which she said he gave her a look like, "Stupid White B****, thinks all N*** look alike," and got in his car and left.

This is awareness of Black entertainment? She sees a movie with Will Smith in it and says she went to go see a Black movie.........

More recently though as I walked into a theatre to see The Great Debaters (which is a great movie and a must see) and it was semi-full, but wait all of the people in the theatre were White. Mind you I live in a neighborhood that is probably 80% (actually closer to 90%) White, but typically when their is a Black movie out (particularly if it is not a comedy) the audience is almost always completely full of Black people. I turned to my wife and said they must have talked about this movie on Oprah. Sure enough as the movie began to open flashing across the screen the movie was produced by harpo films....

My wife and I have always resigned that White people do not go and see Black Movies. Especially at the theatre, and especially if it is not a comedy. Not that this isn't a well chronicled and widely known fact, but we have always kind of took pride in the fact that Black Movies have become huge Box Office successes without support from the White mainstream. Most recent occurrence is a friend that told us he went to the theatre hoping to see a Christmas movie, but said he really couldn't find one he wanted to watch. So we were like, "This Christmas," which at the time was the #1 movie in America. He said he saw it on the marquee, but he didn't know anything about it. Hmmm, you never heard of it, but you know that you didn't want to go see it??? No big deal this is typical!

I digress though this is about Oprah. So the Oprah machine has a theatre in a White suburban neighborhood full of White people to see a movie about Black people. Where all of the main characters in the movie were Black. A racially charged movie in fact! This is the Power of Oprah! It transcends the general indifference that White People have towards Black arts and entertainment. I recall a neighbor that was at my house and on my bookshelf they saw the novel The Pursuit of Happyness. They were like we saw that movie. I was like really what made you go out to see that movie? They said we heard about on Oprah, but it wasn't a very happy movie though in spite of the title. I said, you should read the book, he is a billionaire now! The early days were even darker than what the movie shows, but there is a Happy Ending!

No way that is happening, they don't go to Black movies, no way they are reading a Black book. Obviously these are just a few colorful examples that pale in comparison to the true sphere of influence of Oprah. As I look at all of the #1 sellers that are listed as books to read in Oprah's Book Club, to the unprecedented weeks at #1 that Josh Groban's Noel album spent at #1 after appearing on Oprah. Be honest have you ever heard of him?

Now Oprah is on the Campaign Trail for Obama who pulled a major upset in Iowa and is gaining ground in New Hampshire.. Although Republicans crossing party lines to vote in the Democratic Primaries should raise as much concern as it does excitement. As this is an age old tactic to ensure that the opposition has a candidate that would galvanize your own party to go out and vote instead of being apathetic.

Oprah wants to help Obama "Change" the political landscape of America, as Obama said, he wants to make Politics "cool" again! With Oprah on his side his odds are much better! Read more!