So, just as I’m getting ready to leave work today, a Facebook chat window pops up. It’s from a friend of mine, a guy I used to work with. I’ve never chatted on Facebook with him before, but I saw him not long ago, so it’s good.

He starts telling me he’s in London, got mugged at gunpoint last night, they took his cash and phone. Luckily, I’d heard of this scam before, so it became pretty obvious to be that this wasn’t him. I called his cell – got voice mail. Called a mutual friend and asked, “Is he in London, do you know?” She said he wasn’t. Just then, another co-worker who also knows him comes into my office saying she’d gotten the same Facebook chat line of bull.

The conversation is after the jump. I wanted to string him along for a while longer, but I had an appointment to keep, and he bailed (and my friend regained control of his account) before I could keep it going for a while and really nail him.

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Dan Wetzel‘s plan for a major college football playoff is pretty close to the one I’ve espoused – but I don’t believe I’ve ever written about – for a while now. You can read his, I’ll give you the short version of how I think it should go down: (more…)

This whole nasty split between the USL and the new NASL seems to inevitably bring up the question “Can there be more than one Division II league in this country?”

While the NASL waits for US Soccer to rule on its application for Division II status, I went digging and found an article in the 1996 USISL Media Guide.

(Quick history lesson: What we know today as the United Soccer Leagues began in 1986 as a small indoor league, eventually added an outdoor component, then split into pro and amateur divisions, then split its pro division into two tiers and, eventually, merged with what had been the A-League.)

USSF gave the USISL’s “Select League” (which was supposed to be a slightly higher-echelon league than its “Pro League”) provisional Division II status for 1996, with the understanding that if they continued to grow and to get their house in order in terms of organization and budgets and things, they would have full DII status in 1997.

On October 8, 1996, though, the USISL and A-League merged into a new, 24-team Division II circuit that kept the “A-League” moniker. Six of the seven existing A-League teams joined up, along with 14 USISL teams and four expansion sides. So we never got to see two competing, fully-sanctioned Division II leagues in operation at the same time, but this passage from the article linked above (you can read a .pdf file here) was interesting:

“The A-League, which operates in the U.S. and Canada with seven teams, is the only other Division II league sanctioned by the USSF, whose rules allow for up to four Division II leagues.”

Now, that was written in 1996, and USSF’s rules could have changed since then. I’ve not heard any official word on the subject from Soccer House, but this would seem to indicate that there’s no real reason there couldn’t be more than one DII league here.

We can debate the wisdom of competing DII leagues all we want, but that’s another story.

Old and busted:

“…the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.”

New hotness:

“I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart.”

“It’s still all your fault,” he (basically) said to the media.

Meant to get to this yesterday: Bobby Bowden is stepping down after 34 years as the head football coach at Florida State University.

There’s not a lot I can say that will honor the man – his accomplishments speak for themselves. While FSU hadn’t matched the quality of its amazing run of 1987-2000 in recent years, college football was better with Bobby Bowden in it. It’ll be worse without him. But, such is the way of things. Bowden is 80 and the impatience of today’s sports society demands results.

As you all may know, I’m a proud graduate of the University of Florida. But my first job out of college was at the CBS television station in Tallahassee, where I covered that 1987 Seminoles team that started Bowden’s ridiculous run of 14 straight top-five finishes. The photo above is from the day before the Fiesta Bowl against Nebraska – held, coincidentally enough, here in the Valley of the Sun, where I now live, at Arizona State University, where I now teach.

I had that photo blown up and took it to FSU’s football offices to see if Bowden would sign it for me (hey, I was 23, what did I know about crossing ethical lines?). His secretary took it, and in a couple of days, it was waiting for me, signed by the coach: “To a much promising (sic) sports commentator. Best wishes, Bobby Bowden.”

More than two decades later, that signed 8 x 10 still hangs on a wall in my house. It’s a reminder to me of a gentleman I’ll always respect and admire.

Godspeed, Bobby. This Gator wishes you well, always.

I love Jimmy Conrad. Stalwart player. Thinking man. Clever guy. Funny.

Those are all the types of disclaimers you write just before you make a blog posting that says, basically, that someone is full of shit.

I do love Jimmy Conrad. And he is full of shit.

Derisively calling those of us who recognize that promotion and relegation (between MLS and the vaporware MLS2 or some other second division) isn’t going to happen here “all-knowing talking heads” ignores the reasons why we believe it won’t happen. It’s not because of this:

“We are Americans, and as such, we should be ourselves: We embrace playoffs and conferences, and we don’t copy the incredible success of the top soccer leagues from around the world.”

To be sure, there’s a tiny bit of American exceptionalism at play here, but the real reason why “we should be ourselves” is because of this: economically, it doesn’t work here. There’s no big pot of gold at the end of the promotion rainbow in this country, New York’s not going down a league to play Charleston, and the second division (whatever it ends up being) isn’t strong enough at this point. Just not happening. (Dan has a good analogy here; mine is this: should we scap our interstate highway system and beef up Amtrak just because that would be copying the incredible success of Deutsche Bahn?)

And I have news for you, Jimmy – just making American soccer look like European soccer is not magically going to lead to “the incredible success of the top soccer leagues from around the world.” Hey, push a button, American soccer is successful, just like the EPL! And, in Jimmy’s world, having two ten-team leagues (you remember a ten-team league, right? That was fun!) is better than having one twenty-team league because it will look like Europe!

Would promotion and relegation be interesting? Sure. Would the last week or two of the regular season be more dramatic than it is now? For some teams, sure. Would Americans grasp the concept? I have no doubt they would.

But economics trumps all. And – let’s not kid ourselves – promotion and relegation is a holdover from a time when, realistically, there wasn’t a whole lot of difference organizationally between Woolwich Arsenal and Accrington. Bit of a difference today, isn’t there? You think if The Football League was invented in 2005, they’d have installed promotion and relegation? Or that if you got rid of it in England and Italy and Spain and Germany, that those countries’ leagues would stop having “incredible success?”

There’s a reason Brian Billick said “owners own, coaches coach, players play and writers write.” We don’t let players make policy – they’re the instruments of that policy.

Plus, if players are so gung-ho about how great promotion and relegation is, why do they all bail on their teams as soon as they’re relegated?