Tuesday, June 08, 2010

06/08 Quickie: Strasburg, Harper, CFB XL

For starters, type "World Cup" into Google and check out the bottom of the screen, where you see the layout to see more pages. Nice little treat.

Oh, and count me in for an iPhone 4 in two weeks.

Both are great examples of manias this week, and it is a sign of the hugeness of Stephen Strasburg that tonight's "Strasmas" can join that kind of list.

As I lead in today's SN column, it is hard to believe he could live up to expectations tonight -- should it be a perfect game or a 20-strikeout game? (Honestly, I'll settle for a W plus a couple knee-buckling Ks?)

You could forgive DC sports fans from a bit of triumphalism: Drafting hitting prodigy Bryce Harper last night, Strasburg's MLB debut tonight -- with the prospects of drafting John Wall in two weeks. You have to love a fan base that can find satisfaction in something like player drafts or rookie debuts, rather than, say, winning a championship.

(Then again, "championship or bust" is well-traveled territory here, and it is not recommended. That's how I experience life as a Florida football fan, and it is complemented nicely by my life as a Wizards fan, where winning the draft lottery felt like winning a championship.)

So all eyes on Strasburg tonight -- unless you don't like baseball, in which case you probably will be watching the NBA Finals Game 3 from Boston. It is rare to see a "pivotal" game happen so early in a series, but this feels like it qualifies.

Meanwhile, in conference expansion (which I need a short-hand for, so I have dubbed it "CFB XL"), it looks like all the dominoes surround... Notre Dame? If ND goes to the Big Ten, it is possible the conference yoinks its presumptive offers to Mizzou and Nebraska, which means the Big 12 has a chance of staying as-is. Here's the rub: ND insists it has no offer and doesn't seem compelled to seek one out. That means the Big Ten goes to Plan B -- the two teams from the Big 12. Then the Pac-10 offers the B12 South en masse and the Big 12 is extinct.

(I think the Big 12 has enough cachet that the remaining teams -- Kansas, Kansas State and Colorado or Baylor -- should poach the best of the Mountain West, WAC and C-USA: Boise State, Utah, BYU, TCU. That gives them four perennial Top 25 teams that are actually better than any of the remaining Big 12 teams. The question: Would the Big 12 get to keep its contractual BCS designation? That would be appealing to those non-BCS schools, wouldn't it?)

Anyway, there's that and a whole lot more in today's SN column. See it here. More later.

Merry Strasmas!

-- D.S.

2 comments:

Biff said...

"poach the best of the Mountain West, WAC, and C-USA..."

Dan, which of those four teams is in the C-USA?

MWC: BYU, Utah, TCU
WAC: BSU
C-USA:?

Unknown said...

So does "triumphalism" mean SEC dominance, or just a dumbshit regional opinion?