Because who would dream of making their employees work on a day when the the best three-year-old fillies in the world are taking part in a race?
Nine conference commissioners and (eye roll) Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White ensured unrivaled fan frustration and seasons that begin with only 1/4 of the participating teams having a realistic shot to win the sport's biggest prize for at least seven more years by rejecting the four-game college football playoff scenario proposed by SEC commissioner Mike Slive.
My position on this issue has been pretty well documented here, so there's really no reason for me to say anything further on this latest development...but just for fun, let's think of as many sports-related items that are/were more intelligent than the move by all but two D-1 conference commissioners to not even consider an alternative postseason:
--Rafael Palmeiro's actions between March and August of 2005
--Billy Packer's commentary
--The decision to end the 2002 MLB All-Star Game in a tie
--Lenny Dykstra
--The 2004-2005 NHL strike
--The existence of the NIT and the CBI
--Jean Van de Velde's play on the 18th hole of the 1999 British Open
--Changing the names for "Division-I" and "Division-II" to "Bowl Championship Subdivision and "Football Championship Subdivision"
--The film Game Day
--Bill Curry forcing Tim Couch to run the option and thinking nobody would object
--The clock rules in soccer (is it really that hard to press a button every time play stops, and then press it again once the game resumes? if they do it in basketball, I'm pretty sure you can handle it.)
--Mike Patrick's play-by-play work during ultra-tense overtime moments in big SEC football games
--Richard Nixon taking things into his own hands and declaring Texas the national champion in 1969 (actually, that's sort of the same thing)
--Preseason polls
--Trying to get in Tiger Woods's head before a tournament
--Rhythmic Gymnastics
--Thinking you can beat me in NHL 2003 on Playstation 2
All more intelligent than rejecting a playoff and retaining the BCS. Stand tall boys.
Gracias: Burnt Orange Nation
The Cardinal Nine roared back from a 5-0 deficit to knock off Western Kentucky 8-7 at Jim Patterson Stadium Wednesday night. The win ended a nine-game homestand for the Cards in which they went 7-2. Overall, Louisville has won 12 of its last 15.
As BR noted in the diaries, Packers.com has a good piece up on Jason Spitz's reaction to being reunited with former teammates Brian Brohm and Breno Giacomini.
"I talked to Brian, and I offered that he could either cut my grass or wash my car," Spitz said. "He kind of laughed, thinking I was joking."
And Breno?
"I'll let Breno slide for now," Spitz said. "All the offensive linemen, we're going to get on him enough during the year."
Good news for future 6-6 Big East teams, as the league announced Wednesday that it has formed a partnership with the brand new St. Petersburg Bowl. The game will pit a mid-to-lower-level team out of both the Big East and Conference USA against one another. Because, really, who doesn't want to have that on in the background with the sound on mute during a casual holiday party?
In slightly better news, the Big East also announced that the Papajohns.com bowl will be moving to Dec. 29, and the opponent will now be a team from the SEC and not C-USA.
God I hate college football's postseason. Have we done the list? OK, good.
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey got just the player he's been lacking for the past seven years when scrappy, unathletic, sharpshooting Ben Hansbrough announced on Wednesday that he was taking his game to South Bend. Hansbrough - better known as both Tyler's little brother and the 57th player to transfer from Mississippi State in the last two years - averaged 10.5 ppg for the Bulldogs as a sophomore in 2007-2008.
And finally, here's North Carolina point guard Bobby Frasor - who's supposed to be nursing a torn ACL - jumping off the balcony of a fraternity house into an above-ground pool.
Not pictured is Ty Lawson pulling the same stunt moments later from the top of the house's roof, making everyone watching instantly forget that Frasor ever jumped.