2008 Week 9
October 30, 2008
Apparently the Big Eight has combined with the Southwest Conference to form a league called the Big 12.
This seems a bit strange because you've got eight teams in the Big Eight and last I checked there were nine teams in the Southwest Conference, so I don't know how you combined the two leagues and end up with 12. And just imagine fan confusion between new Big 12 soulmates Kansas and R. Kansas.
Of course leagues with strange numbers of teams have been a problem for years. I've pointed out numerous times that I don't know why they call it the Big 10 when everyone knows they have 12 members.
Meanwhile the Big East has something like 20 members for basketball. When it comes to football they strip things down and kick out all those basketball-focused Catholic schools like DePaul, Georgetown, Syracuse, Boston College, and Notre Dame.
ESPN has been expanding their football coverage of late. Last Friday night they showed a very exciting game between Boise and San Jose. It's great that ESPN is devoting Friday nights to high school football.
I missed last week's ESPN high school game between the Yukon Huskies and the Cincinnati Gary Moeller Martinis (guess the nickname makes sense given that the game was the nightcap). I'm glad that struggling Canadian teams like Yukon are playing a more appropriate level of competition.
It's good to see Moeller HS play again. I still fondly recall Moeller's glory days, back when Jerry Faust was the head coach and they were putting out all those great future Irish Heisman winners like Blair Kiel.
Perhaps the most exciting game of the weekend was Penn State's narrow win over Ohio State. I'm sure coaches Hayes and Paterno were smiling down watching the fine defensive battle.
It is with great sadness that I must report the resignation of my good friend, Washington University head coach Ty Dillingham. It's been a rough few years for Coach Dillingham. He moved from Stanford to Notre Dame and immediately faced a nepotism controversy after he played his son Pat Dillingham at quarterback.
Then he had trouble when he allowed ESPN to film a new show called "Playmakers" in South Bend, showing his players in compromising positions (very compromising, like the wing-T formation). I think his biggest struggle, though, was with recruiting. When fine young Irish men like Larry Fitzgerald don't want to play for the Notre Dame, that's a problem.
So Ty had to move on to Washington U. Now taking over there had to be a challenge. It was similar to the situation Bruce Snyder faced at Kansas State, trying to build a program at a school without great football tradition. But Ty did his best, unfortunately the Huskies weren't able to turn things around. Good luck, Ty.
I've been saluting the history of the Song Girls this season by recognizing a different one each week.
Bertha was a part of the 1943 squad. Due to the war, USC did not field a football team that year, but fans turned out by the thousands to watch Bertha and her teammates perform at the Coliseum each Saturday.
Bertha and her friends later took their girl on girl performances up to Van Nuys, where they started the San Fernando Valley's greatest industry and expanded their audience from thousands in the stands to millions at roadside 25 cent peep shows.