As I sit here on a cold (44 degrees, which is cold for South Carolina, yes I know they are babies) Saturday morning waiting to have my room inspected, I can't help but thank god I grew up in a sports town like Pittsburgh. Down here in Charleston, South Carolina where I am (thank god) spending my last semester at The Citadel, people from around here follow two sports mainly: college football and baseball. Now, I don't have anything against college football, but when a true "champion" isn't crowned, doesn't it really take away from the whole league? Both my parents went to the University of Oklahoma so I root for them and I take a casual observation in Pitt and root for them, but I could really give a damn about college football to be honest with you. It's such a corrupt, money making business at this point that it really just takes away from the games. That's why there hasn't been a playoff system installed yet. It's just insane to think that college football is literally the ONLY sport I know of that doesn't have some sort of playoff system.
This brings me to an idea and I don't really know if this is legal or viable or anything like that. Would it be possible to make some sort of semi-pro league for kids out of high school. They play for three years then can go pro. No illusion of class. No more bull shit talk about the so called student athlete, it's all bull shit. All these kids get handed whatever they want as soon as they step on campus. This would allow the college game to return to the purity we once saw and also allow these big time college athletes to get some money together thus increasing their shelf life. It's not like players have a big window to make their dollars in, they should take advantage of it. I could really see this league taking off too. you could have the first game of the season immediately after the Super Bowl. Put teams in cities where the NFL is wildly popular (Pittsburgh, Green Bay, ect.), give these kids money management classes and advisers before they receive their first play check. Most these kids have no formal classes with financing or things of that nature which sets them up to be screwed later on. I think that is the biggest injustice colleges are doing to their big time going-pro athletes, not getting them ready for what they are actually going to be doing, throwing/catching/running the ball on Sundays.
Anyway... like I said, Pittsburgh, great sports town. These people down here honestly have no clue what they are missing not being in a reasonably big sports market. All they hang on to is the Clemson Tigers (one national championship in 1981, 0 Heisman Trophy winners), South Carolina Game Cocks (what the fuck is a game cock anyway, and I hate all the jackasses down here that wear the bar hats with just COCKS on it and think its hilarious. Complete total jerk-offs. 0 National Championships 1 Heisman Trophy winner) and the Atlanta Braves (well they've clearly been better than the Pirates lately but they are honestly over 300 miles away how can you really claim them. The best story I have about that is I was talking to my buddy Kevin from home on the phone about the start of the baseball season and my friend Joe from down here was ripping on the Pirates and naturally I told Kev about it and he simply said, "Why don't you remind Joe the entire state of South Carolina is too poor to support a professional sports team." and you know what he's right). People down here also love to claim the Panthers because they are the Carolina Panthers. Well bad fucking news, they play in Charlotte which last time I checked was in North Carolina. They played their first season in Clemson's stadium, the town that Clemson is in could never support a pro team. i would like to see the attendance from that first year, I promise it's awful.
Anyway, this Marine is here now and he's screaming at me to stop typing, so have a good weekend. I'll attempt to get to the only hockey bar in town tonight to watch the Penguins battle the Leafs to move up another spot. God I hate this state.
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