When you whip someone when they're wrong, give them credit when they apologize. Sort of. Buzz Bissinger, interviewed by Spencer Hall (aka Orson Swindle, EDSBS) over at TSN:
What I did to Will Leitch was wrong. I've said that publicly-- ...
I'm a man of passion, and I speak what I believe, and I'm not doing it to spin it in my direction. It's too late for that, and I've been killed all over the place. It was wrong to treat anybody that way. It was wrong to use the profanity, and here's where my self interest comes in (because everyone's consumed with self-interest), it subsumed the valid points I made and that could have been considered for discussion.
And there's a telling motive buried in there:
I just don't generally have much interest in other people's opinions. I don't religiously read Maureen Dowd. I don't religiously read David Brooks. Because all they are are just spitting into the air with their spin on things, and I'm much more interested in fiction, I'm much more interested in magazines that are rooted in reporting like The Economist, like Fortune, like Baseball America, like New York Magazine. That's me. That's my failing. I'm really not interested in other people's opinions, because I think frankly most of those opinions are either misinformed and adding to this endless ball of hot air we have in our society where everyone thinks their opinion is valuable and sacred and what counts.
The man doesn't like opinions. That means he's probably not going to like most blogs.
And there's nothing wrong with that, in the end. C&F just wishes Bissinger had found a more pleasant way to say it.
But give him credit. Damage control or not, the man went to a blogger, admitted where he was wrong and stated his case more clearly. There are some bloggers out there who wouldn't do the same if put in his shoes.
APR: South Carolina avoids penalties. By the grace of the NCAA. Though it doesn't help that the only NCAA formula more complicated than RPI is ARP.
Schools falling below 900 must file an academic improvement plan to the NCAA. USC’s plan includes three components that the school has already implemented with the football and men’s basketball teams:
• sending an academic adviser to away games to conduct study-hall sessions during trips;
• strengthening its class attendance policy;
• conducting more one-on-one interviews with prospects during the admissions process.
All of which are probably good ideas regardless.
Ryan Perrilloux might soon be a Gamecock. Just not that kind of Gamecock. Instead, the Riverboat Gambler could be headed to Jacksonville State. But C&F must say, while admitting a bias, that the South Carolina Gamecock (right) looks marginally more intimidating than the JSU model (left).
Not that either of them are all that scary.
Jacksonville is land-locked and not known as a hotbed of sin -- or anything, really -- so it might be good for Perrilloux to go there.
Georgia really is a party school. Oh, the fun you could have with the pomp and circumstance of the University of Georgia's celebration of and victory in the Sugar Bowl, which cost the spelling-challenged Dawgs (gulp) $2.2 million. No, you didn't read that wrong.
A massive group, including the president's official party of 89 people, made the trip and went to numerous parties, all paid for by the athletic association. The 400-member Redcoat Band made the trip. So did the cheerleaders, Hairy Dawg and Uga.
Georgia spent $164,687 to take 123 players -- starters, substitutes, redshirts, and walkons -- to New Orleans. The money paid for mileage, meal money, per diems and incidentals.
In all, there were 745 people in the Bulldogs' traveling party.
The Georgia delegation arrives in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl.
Not only did they spend $2.2 million -- which is mind-boggling to begin with -- but roughly $2 million was not spent on the players. And the university blew its budget by almost $324 grand. The killer item was the ice sculpture that Uga sat on during the party.
Money quote -- no pun intended -- from UGA President Michael Adams: "It's a work week for me."
Hard, hard work.
This doesn't even sit well with some Georgia fans, who pretty much despise Adams for other reasons.
You can say this much in Adams' defense, though: His work week was almost as tedious for him as the Dawgs' defeat of Hawaii was for them.