With Tyrone Willingham's firing at Notre Dame just three years into a five-year contract, that means three of the five black head coaches in Division I-A are gone in just a few weeks -- along with New Mexico State's Tony Samuel and San Jose State's Fitz Hill (do I smell a bonus here?). Left are Carl Dorrell at UCLA (just two years in) and Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State (who had a trying first season).

BTW, for anyone looking to fill the coaching vacancies, how about Norm Chow, who would be the first Asian-American head coach if he gets hired?

Choking on a pineapple
Surprisingly, Crissy doesn't have too much to say about her trip to the NU-Hawaii game that knocked the Wildcats out of bowl contention. Thankfully, I didn't stay the whole time at work listening to it, although I picked up the WGN broadcast very clearly in my car on the trip home before stumbling with some issues at home that got me just in time to hear the final drive.

It's unfortunate the 'Cats won't go bowling, but in a way I don't feel so bad since I was going to be in Baltimore for Kristin's wedding and wouldn't be able to go, even though it's a manageable drive to Nashville. (And if things had shaken out right, we could've even done a potential BC bowl game in Charlotte, head back to Atlanta, and then go to Nashville the next day for NU's bowl. But alas, that's not happening.)

I've heard it over and over again in all the BCS talk that there should be no preseason polls because it unfairly screws up rankings down the line, and that rankings should start in October or something like that.

And while it's true that many voters are hesitant to knock down highly-ranked teams from early in the year if they haven't lost, I think everyone is forgetting about the practical purposes of the poll that has little to do with crowning national champions (at least in August and September): People covering college football on a national basis are trying to figure out who to watch/cover/hype.

Yes, it is the media's fault -- we need an outline as to who to cover, other than angry letters that say "your definately a moron because you said my team will loose". (Yes, the misspellings are intentional.)

While the rankings numbers are a bit of a crutch, it does give plenty an idea what is important to cover/mention/etc., especially early in the year when no one is sure what to expect. In fact, doing away with rankings until October puts the lesser teams at more of a disadvantage because many will be paying even more advantage to the major conferences and the major teams. The lesser teams will only get on the initial October polls if they're undefeated, and probably only lower on the list (like it is now).

The polls are getting shot down so much now because they are such a huge part of the BCS formula now, despite their obvious inherent flaws that have now been beaten to death, even though we've all known about it for a while. But what does it say to a system that relies heavily on polls that were designed as much for sports editors and assignment producer as it was for the sport as a whole?

Of course, some conferences even take advantage of some of human polls inherent flaws toward keeping the top teams at the top. Of the three BCS conferences without a title game, only the Big Ten has a somewhat logical system for rewarding a spot in the top bowl game in case of a tie atop the standings. Both the ACC and Big East tied their berths in the BCS bowls to the BCS rankings, pretty much assuring them that Florida State and Miami (when it was still in the conference), respectively, would make it in case of tie -- mainly because both would be ranked very high and only move down so much in case of a loss or two.

Both conferences could see a potential mess for rewarding berths to the BCS this season since there's a shot at a four-way tie atop the ACC and a three-way tie atop the Big East. Instead of using traditional paper tiebreakers like head-to-head matchups, it's putting it in the hands of the rankings since they're just looking for the most "marquee" name to get in there. It won't be so bad in the ACC, given there are four teams with reasonable credentials. But if BC loses Saturday, you've got three teams who potentially may not even be in the BCS rankings at all tied for the top in the Big East and relying on those systems to determine its bid. Use a paper tiebreaker, Pittsburgh would win since they beat both BC and West Virginia, but who knows if that will happen.

Who needs tryptophan?
I'm in here on a smaller turkey day shift, although that meant having to spend most of my time watching this snoozer in the office. Thankfully there was some stuff to work on and a little KenJen to watch during the fiasco.

-- As for reactions to other things going on, just like the Janet Jackson incident, I actually didn't see the Terrell Owens skit when it aired. I was playing Madden, which includes some ridiculously drawn cheerleaders, to stay with the topic. I wasn't too shocked or outraged about it, but if you've got kids, I suppose you'd have some issues with it. (On the other hand, I might've been more intrigued by the skit had they used Eva Longoria instead of Nicolette Sheridan, but that's just me.)

-- As for the Malice in the Palace, I did see that at work and that was wild all the way through. But even though it involved Ron Artest, you've got to wonder about the punishment had it not been the ESPN game of the week. Even though the Fox Sports Detroit affiliate also had tape, it might've been much harder to get a Zapruder-like coverage if it was just some local cable game. Other incidents have happened before, but few during an ESPN game, with all the talking heads ready to pounce.

-- I got an interesting e-mail through my fantasy mailbag about a convergence of quizbowl and the media. While it may or may not happen, I did happen to come across this decent Web site, which is really worth reading.

-- Trashmasters is coming up next week, and it's another loaded field, as usual. It should be fun seeing everyone. That's also why some of the entries are short, nonexistent, etc. -- no need to play my hand and/or give regular readers an edge since a lot of stuff comes from whatever interests me at the time (and possibly would be linked here).

-- It's a bad time to be a Mizzou fan, what with the problems with the football and basketball team, not to mention the namesake of the new arena getting charged with outsourcing her homework.

-- I know John Madden would give out those turkey legs years ago, but why are both networks trying to continue the tradition with special Thanksgiving awards when it seems like the announcers are constantly mocking it throughout the show?

I guess it's time to play catch up, no? It's been busy here at work with everyone leaving and my subsequent promotion by attrition. Plus, I had to finish off regionals questions, which is why entries had been sparse -- no need to link/mention stuff I know I'll be writing about.

Indecision 2004
On the other hand, I've kept my reflections on the election to discussions with certain people, it just made sense to me that way. Yeah, I voted for the other guy, but I'm more than accepting of what happened; besides, I split my ticket. And voting was easy here -- that's what happens when you go to the polls at 2 in the afternoon.

Fore!

More exciting to me was going to see the second round of the Tour Championship, which was just a few minutes away from me. I followed Mickelson and Garcia for most of the day, including watching Mickelson nail an eagle from the fairway on the first hole. (He then went 4-over the rest of the day.) I saw most of the field at some point during the day, including Tiger, obviously, but I was most amused by Darren Clarke, who was puffing away on a cigar while waiting to take a shot.

East Lake is a really nice, simple, old course, with many of the holes close together so you can take in much of the action at numerous holes without much effort. It's an interesting transportation situation, though, as I had to park at Turner Field and then take a bus (a nice touring coach, not a MARTA one) to the course. Going to the club, you pass some nice houses and the rebuilt areas nearby. On the way back, you pass through the 'hood.

Let's get quizzical
Regionals went over well, and we nearly used up all the packets in Athens, if not for some inevitable delays that forced us to close up when the building did. I've seen reports from a number of different blogs, so it's good to see questions went over reasonably well.

Bird is the word
Went to the Falcons-Bucs game today -- decent atmosphere at least early on, but it seemed to dissipate after Atlanta took a 17-0 lead. It is fun seeing some wild Michael Vick plays in person, although you're never sure if it will be something exciting, or a 10-yard sack. Saw a bit of both.