The Super Bowl is played on Sunday night, and it shouldn’t be.
The NCAA men’s basketball national championship game is always on a Monday night, and it shouldn’t be.
The future landscape of big and wanna-be-considered-big college sports programs is being discussed in courtrooms and Congress, and it shouldn’t be.
The latest, and last, hearing on the cornerstone issues of that topic took place Monday in beautiful downtown Oakland, of course. After nearly seven hours of testimony the session was rushed to conclusion because the courthouse was going to be locked down at 5 o’clock. Anyone left inside wouldn’t get out until morning coffee. ‘House rules in the House settlement agreement.
Is this a crazy country, or what?
“It was a bizarre scene – a federal judge rapidly moving through items of one of the most consequential cases in college sports history because of an arbitrarily set closing time in a federal building,” wrote Ross Dellenger in his excellent Yahoo.com Sports coverage.
I’d argue that it’s rather appropriate, considering a retiring 75-year-old California judge is making the call that will redefine all of Division I sports, from the high-end neighborhoods in the SEC and Big Ten all the way around to places like Grambling, Monroe, Natchitoches and Ruston. The reason the Hon. Claudia Wilken is in this position is repeated duck-and-cover cowardice by NCAA leaders for more than the last decade.
That’s something we’ve seen for way too long in government, a lack of backbone to deal with problems and no consensus to collaborate for substantial and viable reforms. Seems voters said last November they’re fed up with it.
This isn’t the space to dive into a Dennis Miller rant (yes, I’m old school like that) or a Real Time With Bill Maher monologue (giving both sides of the aisle equal time!). I always liked Miller because 1) like my folks, he’s from the Pittsburgh area; 2) like me, he roots for the Steelers; 3) he went to college planning to be a sportswriter. And he graduated in journalism (Point Park U., 1976).
But he realized “I’m just not that interested in other people’s business and that’s a tragic flaw in a journalist.” Instead he worked as a clerk at a deli, a florist delivery man, and an ice cream scooper, then ran the campus bowling alley and rec room. He started telling jokes to the bowlers and pool sharks, liked making people laugh and was good at it, and a few years later met a couple of rising stars at Pittsburgh comedy clubs — young Jay Leno and even younger Jerry Seinfield.
Enough about Dennis Miller, except to point out that after he rose to fame on Saturday Night Live, he had a brief turn on Monday Night Football, which is an appropriate sport on that day of the week.
Not the Final Four championship game. Why – especially now that women’s basketball is on a TV ratings par with the men – why aren’t the semifinals on Thursday and Friday, and the finals on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, a day that is good enough for the NFL, which has no ratings problems.
As for the Super Bowl, it’s not a novel idea – play it on Saturday night. There’s an open date the week before giving the players time to soothe their bruises. After a fabulous Super Bowl party, nobody would need to call in sick on Monday morning. All day Sunday to rest, recover, clean up, and get a good night’s rest going into the work week.
It’s not that complicated.
Although the college sports quagmire is very complicated, at least we’ll have a decision and a direction shortly. What we do know: can’t go with the status quo.
Besides, if invading Greenland and usurping Canada are topics being discussed on Face the Nation and not only SNL, we can consider a Saturday night Super Bowl. And giving college athletes more than a little something for their efforts.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com