Word of The Day=Annoyance

I'm annoyed by the fact that my beloved Bearcats are "rewarded" for their best season in 46 years with a trip to Birmingham...are you serious? Now with some apologies to folks in Alabama. (I have relatives there) but the PapaJohns.com bowl was not the type of bowl I wanted to see the Bearcats in. I wanted a post Christmas bowl like the Meineke Car Bowl or the Sun Bowl on New Years Eve. The powers that be still see Cincy as an inflated MAC team. Not a squad that won 9 games and beat three ranked teams. Two of these teams UConn and South Florida are going to the respective bowl games that I mentioned. Dave1965 might get a bit upset at me, but I'm sorry how the hell is UConn ranked ahead of UC when 1) UC beat UConn by the very convincing score of 27-3 2)lost to conference champ West Virginia 28-23, while UConn lost to that same team 66-21??? Okay, UConn does have better standing in the Big East (5-2 for UConn vs 4-3 for UC) but both teams getting passed over for the Sun Bowl by South Florida? The Sun Bowl execs whined that they didn't want a possible rematch of UC and Oregon State, whom the Cats stomped on national TV 34-3 in September. Isn't that ironic? UC winning a game coming back to haunt them. So now UC will play Southern Miss, a team that they used to joust with in Conference USA, thats a real step up. In the three years that the Cats have been in the Big East they have made two bowls but they are still being treated like a cinderella mid major. I'm not saying that they need to be playing Big Ten and SEC teams all the time, but the bowl committees are giving the Cats the shaft, with absolutely no respect at all.
Like the old Springsteen song goes "Ohhhhh, I'm on Fire!"
While I'm on this rant, I'm annoyed at the media wonks, that includes a number of alleged pro writers on TSN that are trying to speculate on UC's coach Brian Kelly to be in their opinion "the best man for the job" at various openings. One of the openings being Michigan. Now you may say hold on Bandit, aren't you a Michigan fan? Didn't you make the trip to Ann Arbor to see the Wolverines? I am indeed a Wolverine fan, but I am a Cincinnati grad (B.S. 1996) My loyalties will always be with the school that I grew up in and around. The last line of the alma mater says "thy loyal, loyal children we will be." Fan interest aside, I'm a Bearcat. So the speculation of Big Ten teams raiding my school (again) to decide to pluck our coach and "move him up to the big time" really rubs me the wrong way. I read on one of the comment posts that "Kelly needs to get away from a dinky school like Cincinnati with its small time asperations (sic) and really prove if hes a good coach at a big school"
I'm not knocking Michigan or Nebraska but believe it or not Cincinnati is not a small school. It has 37,000 students in it (source: wikipedia and the University of Cincinnati website) and its the 2nd largest school in the Big East (South Florida is the largest with over 41,000) I have a question for the Matt Hayes' and other pundits that think the Kelly should go elsewhere. Why can't Kelly stay in Cincinnati and bulid a national power there. I have a slightly biased answer. Hayes and their ilk would rather see Cincy stay a lower echelon team in the state like an Akron or Bowling Green rather than grow in stature and seriously compete with an Ohio State.
Now before you Buck fans get your Scarlet and Gray jerseys all in a bunch let me state that I know that any kid in Ohio that State wants they will get, but they logistically can't get them all and some of those can float down I-71 to Cincy which makes the Bearcats that much more viable. I know also that Cincy will never be able to realistically be on a consistent par with OSU and I don't seek that. I just think that Cincy could build a small power here and I hate to see it torn down by speculators that don't want to deal with a good team that they don't know or are not used to. Hayes and their ilk loath to deal with two solid teams in the Buckeye state, so they raise the speculation that UC's coach needs to go somewhere else, somewhere "bigger" to prove themselves. I feel that Cincy could realistically compete for a BCS berth as soon as next year, don't laugh. They had a real shot at it this year. To those that seek to pluck our coach and decimate our squad again, I say go somewheres (sic) else!

I guess I've bored you enough with my annoyance. I fully expect a nice share of thumbs down from those that think my rants are ruffling the feathers of the "established order" but thats what I do. Lets gte to the Phat Dap/Head Slap

Phat Dap
I read a story on ESPN about Texans players Ahman Green and Jason Simmons. Green wanted the number 30 a number that he had since he was in college. Simmons had it and told Green if he wanted it “It would cost him.” Instead of paying money for it, Simmons laid out a plan that he would give Green the number if he donated money to help a deserving single mom get a house. Green kicked in $20K and Simmons added 5K of his own, Texans owner Robert McNair heard about the project and matched the contributions of the players and Regina Foster was selected from a pool of applicants. Foster, a single mother of an autistic child was given the 50K as a down payment on a house. Houston area business contributed items such as furniture and food. You got to give it up to the players who are the antithesis of the stereotypical selfish pro player. All that for a jersey number switch. Bravo!

Head Slap
I'm gonna mention this and let it go after this. I will award the head slap to those who instantly assumed because Redskins DB Sean Taylor was shot that it was because he was living the "thug life" I'm really tired of folks, especially the sensationalitic media who have been jumping to conclusions and overly speculating about Taylor's "lifestyle" These people that assumed that becuase Taylor had been arrested for DUI (Charges dropped) and again arrested on weapons charges (charges sizably reduced) that he was instantly a gangsta wannabe that was asking to be shot. Lets get all the facts out before one tries to paint someone with such a broad brush.

Well now since I have all my ranting out for the day, I'll prepare my report on the best college games to watch as well as the best NFL game of the year that you probably won't see. Until Next Post Fellow Sports Fans!