The NCAA

So I read in the paper that Tennesse is under a self imposed probation for their recruiting violations.  I hope that's the extent of it and the NCAA doesn't add more sanctions.  I think that the NCAA needs to take a step back and re-evaluate the rules and regulations to determine if they need to make a philosphical change in terms or what they are regulating and why.  I'm sure they will take my advice, because the NCAA is a very humble, self analyzing, honest organization seeking to serve the best interest of the student athletes (I wrote that with a completely straight face, no smile or smirk.)  I recently read an article with a comment from an NCAA employess that said the NCAA rules are so exhaustive that coaches can't possibly know all the potential violations. (Like my wife can't possibly know how many pairs of shoes she has.  I know how many I have...2 pair black dress shoes, 2 pair brown dress shoes, 2 pair brown casual, 1 pair black casual, 2 pair of tennis shoes, 1 pair of mow the grass tennis shoes, 3 pairs of flip flops/sandals, and 1 pair of golf shoes.  That makes 14.  I'd like to see my wife do that off the top of her head like I just did.)  Anyway, schools have compliance officers that try to monitor compliance with the rules (like a super strict Mom and Dad), but even they can't keep up with all of the potential violations, many of which are so obscure that people wouldn't think they are violations.

Take for example the Terrell Pryor situation at Ohio State.  Why is it an NCAA violation for a private business owner to give a discounted or free tattoo to Terrell Pryor?  If I own a business, can't I choose what price to charge?  Or who to give discounts to?  I'm sure if I were a business owner I wouldn't make my sister or my mother or my child pay for a product or service that I provide (cousins would definitely be full price, aunts and uncles a nominal discount)....so why couldn't I do the same for Terrell Pryor if I so chose?  I understand that they are trying to prevent abuses to the system, to prevent Terrell (or whomever) from getting a cheap car just because he plays football, or getting a nice paying job that he just happens to never show up to work for because he's too busy getting tatted up.  (I know I ended that sentence in a preposition, but I'm not rewording it.  I'm bablling about college football, and that doesn't warrant 100% compliance with grammar conventions as long as I am reasonably coherent.)  Or even worse than the discounted tattoos, what about selling a jersey?  Or a ring?  AJ Green got in trouble for the same stuff last year.  If it is your personal property, what's wrong with selling it?  He didn't pilfer merchandise from the athletic department and sell it for profit, the items were his.  Again, I understand that allowing it would open Pandora's box for boosters to pay obscene amounts to a player for merchandise as a way to get around actually paying him.  I just think that to a great degree the rules are impossible to comply with and impossible to police, so why bother? I guess the publicity of a bust like the ones at OSU and UT help scare straight the other schools (I typed that with a completely straight face).  I think schools do whatever they think they can get away with.  I have had a little bit of experience with the recruiting process with an athlete at my school and have talked with principals at other schools.  Every, and I do mean every, school violates the rules about contacting athletes during non-contact periods, coming to the school and accidentally on purpose bumping into them.  Every single school did this.  Every one.  Now maybe those 25 or 30 schools are the exception, and all the others follow the rules to the letter.  But it's more likely that they're all doing it (dang mom, come on, everybody else is doing it!)....and this is a rule that they are very aware of.  There are hundreds more rules that they are not aware of - I can't imagine that their compliance with those is much better.    It just seems like a losing battle.  D-I sports, at least football and basketball, are big business, maybe the NCAA should start treating them as such.

Now, after saying all that, I do think Pearl was wrong.  He knew he committed a violation and then lied about it.  And we all know how that is..."it's better to just be honest with me now than to lie and be in more trouble".  Yeah right, I've never seen anyone evade trouble by being honest, from a kid with mom and dad to a student in the principal's office to an adult with the police.  You are getting in trouble anyway.  But being honest is the right thing to do, and though it might not eliminate your troubles, it will minimize them later.  Bruce should have known better....my 9 year old certainly does.

Speaking of....Cole caught some fish the other night, pic is below.

Sasquatch

My son is enamored with Sasquatch.  He watches some show on Animal Planet where these groups go looking for Sasquatch and interview people who claim they've had Bigfoot encounters.  If my son does not become a journalist, or a detective, or a psychiatrist, or some other profession that requires asking ridiculous amounts of questions, then he will really miss his calling.  He is the most curious kid I've ever seen.  I know all kids ask "why", but I think he is pushing up the average for every kid in America.  He watches it so much that he spooks himself late at night and doesn't want to be left alone.  It's funny, I remember doing the same types of things when I was a kid, watching things that I knew would scare me but watching them anyway.

Took him to a friend's pond last night and went fishing.  My friend came out to talk to us and fish a little, and they spent half the time talking about the Sasquatch show...I guess he's a fan too.  Cole discussed most of the details of every episode with him.  Then he told Cole that he knew a game warden who claimed to have seen one.  Cole enjoyed that as much as catching fish.  Some fish pics to come....

The New Math, Marco Polo, and dentistry

I went to the gas station and put 10.99 gallons of gas in my car, which cost me $40.  10.99 gallons = $40.  Wow.  I know that gas has been expensive for quite some time, but sometimes it just blows my mind how much we pay for gas.  I certainly don't have a lot of knowledge about the cost associated with extracting crude oil from the ground, refining it until it is gasoline that will power my automobile, and shipping it to my local convenience store.  And I've read the emails that tell me how much more expensive per gallon things are like bottled water, coca cola, and milk.  But I don't care about all that.  I don't need gallons of milk from a cow's udder to get me to work every day.  I don't need gallons of Zephryhills to transport me and my family to the grocery store or Wal Mart.  But I do need gasoline.  I wish there was some way for people to come and listen to a story bout a man named Brent who found some black gold and at least I could profit from these ludicrous gas prices. Maybe I'll start drilling in my back yard to find some, or get lucky while I"m shootin at some food like Jed.  Until then, I'll keep moaning about gas prices.

Summer time and swimming with the kids made me wonder some things, and I'd love to know the answers.  Was Marco Polo really blind?  Do trips to the dentist increase in summertime because kids slam into the sides of swimming pools while they are Marco, and therefore blind, and chip their teeth?  Or break their noses?  Do horseflies bite or sting?  Whether it's a bite or a sting, why does it hurt so bad?  Why is that no matter how filthy you are, you feel clean after 5 minutes in a chlorine pool?  Why does chlorine burn my eyes?  Why do I keep opening my eyes under water even though chlorine has burned them since I was about 6 years old?  Why do kids like to go under and push their hair up into a mohawk and then come up and see if it stays?  When I was a kid, you'd ask "do i look like Mr. T?"  Or we'd slick it straight back and ask "Do I look like Pat Riley?"  Why do I remember things like that and can't remember what my wife told me to pick up at the store?  Or the name of a colleague?

darkness is the absence of light

The power has been out now for about 3 hours.  For some reason I don't mind the power outage and the quiet, but it makes the rest of the family crazy pretty quickly.  Cole says its like the 1800s with no electricity.  We went swimming after the storm was over, then settled in to wait on the lights to come back on.  I wasn't aware that asking "when are the lights coming back on?" helps the power company employees to work faster and more efficiently.  I know this is so...why else would my kids ask this  38 times each in the last 3 hours? Hopefully the workers appreciate our family doing our part to improve their efficiency and we'll be back in the 21st century soon

My blog 2.0

I had a blog a few years ago, but the frequency of my postings and pictures decreased to the point of being nonexistent, much to the dismay of some of my family members who love the updates on our children.  I tried to log back in, but couldn't....guess I forgot my password.

So - I'm going to try again.  I'll post updates and pics of the family, as well as some ramblings and thoughts that tend to go through my slightly crazy mind.  I need a place to vent from time to time, and I think this might be it.