When they tell you it’s not about the money…

it’s about the money.

The other shoe should start dropping today.

… In an interview before the hearing, Barton called the BCS system “more about cartels and revenue sharing” than athletic performance. “It’s big money,” Barton said. “We’re going to start looking into where the money goes.”

Oh, he knows where it goes.  He’s just looking to redirect things a bit.

More to come, no doubt.

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UPDATE: Teh stupid commences.

Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas said Friday that efforts to tinker with the BCS are bound to fail. He told a House hearing that the BCS is like communism and can’t be fixed.

Bad analogy, Joe. You’re the one who wants to share the wealth. The BCS guys are the capitalistic greedheads, dude.

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UPDATE #2: Doc Saturday provides a breakdown on the hearings, which mercifully only lasted two hours.  It’s about what you’d expect – equal parts threats, whining, denial, bullshit, etc.  Another great moment in American history, in other words.

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The wit and wisdom of Mike Leach

Kyle gives Leach what for in this post, and scores some telling points.

But honestly, I’ve got to tell you that some of what Leach has directed at the Texas A & M coaching staff in the wake of their Stephen McGee dustup is high grade, laugh-your-ass-off sarcasm.  Take a look at this quote that Chris Brown posted:

“I’ve always said that it is truly exciting to play Texas A&M – the quality of coaches they have, the great team and great tradition and, above all, the quality of players they have,” Leach continued. “I’ve always known A&M had great players. The fact that they have the luxury to put a third- or fourth-round draft pick on the bench, to me, identifies what a truly great team they are.

“It’s an honor for us at Texas Tech to have the opportunity to play them. There are numerous players on our team that will never get a look or play a down in the NFL, so you can imagine how exciting it is for me and them to go play a team the magnitude of Texas A&M and look over there on the bench and see third- and fourth-round draft picks.”

Bam!

This stuff is even funnier when you contrast it with Mike Sherman’s lame “official comments”.

“Coach Franchione’s job wasn’t to try and make Stephen an NFL quarterback, it was to win football games…”

Judging from the record, you could have fooled me.

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UPDATE: I should have known somebody in the Volnation would want to make the analogy between Leach and the Laner.  The problem with that comparison is that Junior isn’t funny.  At least not intentionally.

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UPDATE #2: From Double-T Nation, another point in Leach’s favor – “Complain about Leach all you want, but he has the highest public university graduation rate among football players in the NCAA.” Touché, sir.

Kiffin watch: where is the love?

If you think I’m harsh on Junior, you don’t know what harsh is.

Now this is harsh:

… it is hard for us to understand where Lane Kiffin learned to be such a brat. He certainly didn’t learn these shenanigans from Pete Carroll, because Pete Carroll did not come into the Pac-10 and start demeaning other coaches and accusing them of cheating and it is just very damn hard for us to understand what Lane believes he has accomplished that he is “entitled” to pop-off with all of these outrageous statements since he got to Knoxville. Maybe the key word in “entitled,” because by any measure Lane Kiffin is the head coach of Tennessee for one reason and one reason only, because his last name is Kiffin. There were at least 50, maybe 100 assistant and head coaches that were more qualified for the Tennessee job than Kiffin last fall and it defies belief that Kiffin even got onto Tennessee’s possible hire list, forget about the young man actually getting hired. We chalk Lane Kiffin’s popping off since he got to Tennessee up to foolishness, immaturity, even stupidity, because we cannot think of even one college head coach that had done so little in his life, and that would be out in the public spouting such horseshit...

There’s also something in there about a tuna – the fish, not Bill Parcells – being able to outcoach the Laner, but you probably want to read the whole thing for yourselves. Like I said, I’m sweetness and light by comparison.

Friday morning buffet

It’s May already?  Damn…

• “Although Coleman was granted his release from UT last weekend, Volunteers coach Lane Kiffin did exclude several prospective schools from that release.” Shoot – I was hoping he’d end up with one of the many coaches that Junior’s managed to endear himself to already.  Spurrier would have been perfect.
• “Orgeron said he has only read portions of Lewis’ book…” Only the parts only where he was mentioned? Only the words comprised of less than three syllables?  What exactly?  Inquiring minds want to know.
• The Dread Pirate Leach likes the Grateful Dead.  Nobody’s perfect.
• You’ve probably already read David Hale’s latest on the state of the program, but if you haven’t, go do it now.
• Does this kid have a future at Ole Miss?  “Angelo Hadley was having sex with 14-year-old female at the residence while his brothers committed the burglary, according to the report.” That’s not quite as bad as using a dead girl’s credit card, but it’s got a certain panache to it, nevertheless.  Plus, he’s a safety and he’s available.  (h/t The Wiz)
• The player whose stock has risen the most from spring ball?  More and more, the meme says it’s Terrell Pryor.  Personally, I don’t think I’m emotionally prepared for another Greatest Player Of Our Era.
• It’s easy to make fun of Congressional stupidity when our representatives stick their noses in foolish ways into things like the BCS.  But we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that sometimes these clowns can be dangerously stupid (h/t Overlawyered).   Could you imagine trying to moderate a football message board if a law like that passed?
• On the other hand, here’s populism we can believe in (h/t The Wiz):  the University of Minnesota tries to limit the sale of booze to those in the premium seats, but the state legislature says no dice.  Salut!