It's college football's offseason. That's not my problem. It's not your problem. It's our problem. And collective problems call for collective solutions.
Thus we present Free Form Friday. Until further notice, I'll spend Fridays posting a vaguely organized compendium of non-sequiturs, pop culture observations and college sports miscellany which you may discuss in the comments, or ignore in favor of your own topics. Think of it as your weekend open comment thread.
In case you missed it, Anthony Grant's Virginia Commonwealth team was knocked out of the NCAA basketball tournament yesterday by UCLA. Thus commences the tracking by tail number of every airplane flying into Athens, Georgia.
I'm guessing, however, that it will be a while before the coaching search really heats up, and I hope that Damon in fact does take his time with this one. We don't need the best basketball coach in America. We don't need the hottest coaching commodity in America. We just need the best basketball coach for the University of Georgia program, given its current state of general brokeassedness. Let's get it right this time.
Speaking of the tournament, the first day made my decision to put Memphis and UCLA in the Final Four of my bracket look less like a gutsy move and more like proof that I should really just stick to college football. Let's not even discuss the fact that I had Northern Iowa taking out Mississippi State to reach the Sweet Sixteen.
Seeing this post on SB Nation blog True Blue L.A. got me wondering: do kids still collect baseball cards? Being childless at the moment (and having friends whose children are still working on controlling their bodily functions), I have no idea whether 8-14 year olds still buy and swap baseball cards. Not to go all Andy Rooney on you, but I hope they do. Because I sure enjoyed that.
And speaking of swapping things, there's a rumor out there that the Atlanta Sports Council would be interested in bringing the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party to Atlanta to be played in the Georgia Dome once every four years. I cannot express how strongly I disagree with this idea.
For starters, Jacksonville may be Lake City with five additional Waffle Houses, but it is a traditional location with a rich tradition. Second, indoor football is an abomination, though that's a diatribe all of its own. Third, the Georgia Dome has to be the worst tailgating locale in the southeastern US that doesn't involve striped prison jumpsuits, process servers or Terry Bowden. It's Jacksonville with worse weather and more indecipherable foul odors. And the panhandlers aren't as nice.
Finally, we're danged if we do win and darned if we don't from a rivalry perspective. If the current regrettable trend holds, Florida fans will crow "they moved the game to their own backyard and still couldn't win!" If they lose, we'll hear the inverse of the argument made by some Georgia fans for years: "They only won because it was essentially a home game!" Plus, I have some friends who I don't entirely trust to show up in the correct city if the thing gets moved. My cohorts are the type of folks to tape Post-it notes to their Blackberries.
Also, I hope you'll feel free to insert your Spring Practice and Pro Day observations from this week in the comments. I could try to run down all the news on those fronts, but I'd miss something and then just end up kicking myself over it. I will say this though: I predict Carlton Thomas returns kickoffs for us this season. After watching him to it at the Under Armor game last year, the kid's a natural at it. Have a great weekend, win your office pool on the first weekend of the tournament and . . .
Go 'Dawgs!!!