The extra d in Budd is for dummy

With UF off this weekend, I'll be staying around Columbia. Probably a good idea anyway, given the gas panic that Ike has triggered. I'll be at South Carolina's game with Georgia, curious to see whether the Bulldogs are as great as they're hyped up to be. I don't think they are, although they're certainly good. It turns out Miami-UF was watched by the third biggest audience to see an ESPN College game. Imagine what the audience might have been if it had actually been a great game.

Ohio State - USC is the big game of the weekend, and the Buckeyes may have accidentally caught a break with this Beanie Wells injury. Now, if they get defeated soundly by the Trojans, OSU can rationalize it later in the year by saying they were missing their best guy. They'll DESERVE a rematch to show what they would have done this week.

FSU is about to finally release their NCAA response this morning. Their handling of the allegations against them in the academic fraud scandal has been embarassing at best. If there are no surprises in the documents, why refuse to cooperate with basic public records requests and make yourself look bad? As for another example of the way FSU has treated the situation like a punchline, Budd Thacker may return early by claiming a game he missed last year due to an unrelated issue should count as part of his suspension. Between that and the two 1-AA farces to start the year, FSU seems to be going out of their way to make it clear they feel the NCAA's punishment shouldn't have any meaningful consequences at all.

For the first time I'm aware of, content from this blog has turned up elsewhere. The Las Vegas Sun quotes my August 15th post in this article about their mayor Oscar Goodman's ridiculous idea for an eighty thousand seat stadium to host all the NFL Monday night games and Super Bowls. Since Goodman claims in response to my criticism of his idea that teams losing games could be reimbursed for the revenue they lose by not playing at home, let's make this clear. Indianapolis didn't build a palace like Lucas Oil Stadium so the Colts could play elsewhere. Jerry Jones is about to open an enormous new stadium in Dallas with marketing deals galore based on eight home games a year - you think he's giving one up just because Vegas is cool? These games are economic engines in places like Detroit. Unless you plan on compensating every stadium employee as well as every parking lot, bar, shop, restaurant and hotel owner anywhere near the stadium for their damage suffered by the loss of a home date (or two, for successful teams) the plan is dead on arrival, mayor.

Welcome to the blog, those of you from Vegas who've found me thanks to the Sun. Wish I could be there this weekend for a quick meal at T.C.'s Rib Crib or the Hash House A-Go-Go and some college football watching at the LV Hilton Superbook. Maybe later this fall. Have a great weekend and see you back here Monday.