One Dog Sports Blog

Fitness Clubs

2008-02-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

One of the advantagews of having a sporting goods business and also having a website and blog is that when a company displays poor service and total lack of respect for the people who pay them, I can let them have it in my blog.

I have been a memer of this national chain of fitness clubs for over three years. My membership fees are paid in full and my monthly dues are on automatic payment through my credit card so the company has been had an issue with me paying my dues.

A while back I removed my young daughters name from my account because she was not using it. At the time I was told that with my account being one of their higher level accounts I could add her back onto the account whenever I wanted to with no problem at all.

In fact it was just a couple weeks ago that I called and asked if I could do that and they said again, no problem.

Well guess what? Went in tonight and tried to do just that and was treated very rudely and was told that I would have to sign her to a three year contract and that the fee was going to be higher then I am paying now.

I was so pi$$ed off that I just left with my daughter and will never go back into that building again. As soon as my wife quits using her membership I will close the account, by my own fitness equipment and put it in my office.

I would advise that others do the same. These clubs pray on the young user who is not smart enough to know what they are doing and just say yes to anything. This generation is so in tune with paying any price for anything just so they can have it now is wrong and at some point they will learn a hard lesson that they have been ripped off.

I will attempt to contact the corporate headquarters tomorrow but from what I have already read tonight online, this is a problem nation wide with this organization and I do not expect to have my problem resolved.

Radio vs Online Radio

2008-01-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

I am one of those people who like to listen to talk radio as well as music when I am at work or in the car much to the shagrin of my wife and kids.

My favorite shows are sports radio shows but only the shows that have intelligent conversation and not just the trash talking and stupid non-sports related conversations that are so prevalent in sports talk radio.

I have 3 girls who play sports, watch sports and love to talk sports from time to time. I like them to hear intelligent sports conversation rather then talk about the busty babes the sportscaster dated or the one that just walked past the window. A little bit of this stuff is ok but some take it to far.

In todays electronics world it appears that tuner manufacturers have given up on AM Radio. No matter what type of antenna I attach to my system I cannot get reception on my system in the office or the house. But the stinking little walkman type radio I have gets great reception. But I do not want to walk around the house or office with earphones in my ears.

So recently I discovered online radio on ESPN. Now I have known about it for some time but I just got around to trying it out and I tell you what, it is great. I love to listen to Colin Cowherd and Mike Tirico in the mornings and it prevents me from having to listen to Jim Rome on the radio. Cowherd and Tirico's shows are smart and funny. They have class and can cover subjects in an intelligent manner without having to stoop to the trash talking of the listeners to fill show time.

My problem now is that the local sports radio station requires you to have a membership to listen online. I find that to be an issue. Now I have memberships online for all kinds of things, but not one of them is something that I can get for free via another source. So why must they collect information about me? I know all about marketing, that is what I do. It just does not seem right.

There are a couple of the local shows that I would like to listen to on saturday mornings or during drive time. If the local station were to offer those services without the membership I would be there for sure and so would more listeners I think. So the demographics that they are collecting by requiring membership to listen is skewed because more people would listen if they offered the service without membership.

So unitl my local station figures this out and changes their policy I will continue to find ways to enjoy intelligent sports radio. I will listen to Colin and Mike online at espnradio.com without a membership and not on my radio that gets no reception.

More radio stations need to figure out that they would get more listeners online then over the air if they only offered the service.

To ESPN Radio, Colin Cowherd and Mike Tirico, keep up the good work. Don't let your shows slip to the dark side of talk radio. To my local stations, get a grip! Whatever happened to customer service.

BCS Playoff System - Oops! Part 2

2007-12-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

I was kindly reminded that I left out the Mountain West Conference from my playoff system bracket. Thanks for your input, it was a mistake. So lets revisit the subject with revisions and explanations.

I like the idea of the person who commented on my first version that the second round games be more regionally oriented so that fans could attend more easily. However by doing that you will always have the same teams playing each other like you get in pro sports. A better way to do it would be like the NCAA basketball tournament where after you have conference champions you seed them into the matchups based upon rankings.

The matter of the conferences that do not have 12 teams for a conference championship game would end up being the decision of the conference. They could just take the champion from the regular season and put them into the second round. Or they could split there current conference into two divisions based upon their current teams. Teams would still play the full conference schedule so no rivalrys would be affected.

Out of these 11 D1 Conference champions, you seed the first 7 teams based upon rankings of the 11 conference champions. The final spot in the round of 8 teams will be the winner of a mini playoff among the other 4 unseeded conference champions.

So you end up with something like this.

Round 1

Game 1
BYU (Mountain West Champion)
Florida Atlantic (Sun Belt Champion)

Game 2
Uni. Central Florida (Conference USA Champion)
Central Michigan (Mid-America Champion)

Round 2

Game 1 winner vs Game 2 winner

Round 3

Game 1 (ORANGE BOWL)
#1 Seed (example for 2007 Ohio State, BIG 10 CHAMPION)
#8 Seed (winner of round 2 game1)

Game 2 (SUGAR BOWL)
#3 Seed (2007 Virginia Tech, ACC Champion)
#6 Seed (2007 West Virginia, Big East Champion)

Game 3 (ROSE BOWL)
#5 Seed (2007 USC, PAC10 Champion)
#4 Seed (Oklahoma, Big12 Champion)

Game 4 (FIESTA BOWL)
#7 Seed (2007 - Hawaii, WAC Champion)
#2 Seed (2007 - LSU, SEC CHAMPION)

ROUND 4

ORANGE BOWL CHAMPION VS SUGAR BOWL CHAMPION

ROSE BOWL CHAMPION VS FIESTA BOWL CHAMPION

ROUND 5

BCS CHAMPION GAME

BCS Playoff System

2007-12-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

The state of the current system in major college football is a mess. Currently there is 1 undefeated team, 2 one loss teams and 10 two loss teams ranked in the top 25 of the final BCS Standings. Out of that we have a 1 loss team and a 2 loss team playing for the mythical National Championship.

So what makes that one loss team better then the other one loss team. You say it is strength of schedule. Well both played weak non-conference schedules but one team played a conference D-1 conference champion in preseason.

So what makes that two loss team better then the other 9 two loss teams in the top 25. Of those other 9 two loss teams, 7 are from BCS conferences that are, by diffinition better then the non-bcs conferences so there should be no excuses if a conference has a down year. If the powers who put those conferences on a pedestal now say there not worthy because the teams are no good then why is that conference a BCS conference? You cannot have it both ways.

The other 2 two loss teams come from conferences that are considered less worthy then the other 6 BCS conferences. However both those teams beat BCS conference teams last year in bowl games. So how does that work?

Do you see what I am getting at. With more and more players moving from the BCS conference teams to other schools because they can play and not just sit the bench, the so called lesser schools now have better talent and better coaches then ever before. BCS conference schools look to hire the coaches away from the non-bcs schools because of their success. How many NFL players on Sundays now come from the non-bcs conferences. The New England Patroits have 15 players of their 53 man roster from non-bcs conferences including Randy Moss.

So with so many questions about who is better, why can't we just put together a playoff system that will work. We already have the first 5 games of the playoff being played in what could be a 20 team, 17 game playoff system that would add a total of 7 games to what we have already. But not really since teams already would be playing in one bowl game so in reality it only adds a couple games to the current system and would extend the season by one week to Jan. 15th. It would require that 3 BCS conferences add a conference playoff to their conference schedules and it would also require the 4 independent teams to join a conference. That should not be to difficult as two of them already play in football conferences during basketball season.

So lets take a look at how easy a 20 team playoff system would work.

Five conferences currently have a conference playoff system. ACC, SEC, BIG 12, CONFERENCE USA and the MID-AMERICAN. Those would be part of the first round of the playoffs. They already exist so it would change nothing. The winner from the Conference USA and Mid-American conferences (non-bcs conferences) would seed into the first round of the 16 team playoff bracket. The conference champions from the WAC and the Sun Belt conferences would fill two more spots. No additional games yet. The conference championship games for the ACC, SEC and BIG 12 would be part of the round of 16.

The PAC-10, BIG 10 and BIG EAST would have to install a conference championship game. If you divide the PAC-10 into a north and south division you would have USC vs Oregon State this year in a conference championship game. If you split the BIG 10 into east and west you would have Ohio State vs Illinois in their conference championship game. The BIG EAST game would be West Virginia vs UConn.

That fills in your round of 16 teams. So after the conference championships you have; Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, West Virginia, USC, Ohio State, LSU, Hawaii and Central Florida say as winners coming out of those games. That brings you to the round of eight. Those 4 games could be played in the existing 4 BCS Bowl Games.

Now what I would suggest is that before the Championship game each year the NCAA announces how the brackets would lay out for the coming year. The Six BCS conferences would be drawn to see who plays who after conference championship games along with a draw to determine who of the 4 non-bcs conferences would play who first and where they would fall after their first round games. So each year the round of 16 teams would match different conferences against each other by draw. The bracket I have below is only one possible lineup.

Its really quiet simple so far and you could still have all the lesser non-bcs bowls for teams that did not qualify for the playoff system.

After the round of 8 you are left with 4 teams who play in the final 4 to determine the BCS Championship game. That is two of the 4 additional games needed to make this work. The other 2 games would come from the non-bcs teams adding to the numbers to get to 8 teams. So we add two additional bowl games after the 4 existing BCS games and move the BCS Championship game back one week to the 15th of January. That would tie into the Super Bowl hype and create a January Football madness of epic proportion. They could even play the BCS Game at the Same site as the Super Bowl each year to tie the games together. Imagine the money for the hosting city of both the Super Bowl and BCS Championship Game each year.

I think if the BCS and conferences put their collective egos aside for a few minutes and looked at the possibilites of this, it would make complete sense and we would finally have a true national champion for college football that would give a chance to the smaller schools as well as the bigger schools to hold up that coveted trophy.

Seattle Sonics, The NBA and NW Fans

2007-11-09T18:53:00.000-08:00

The Seattle Sonics are on the edge of a cliff and wondering if they should back away or get shoved off the edge. The new owner of the Seattle Sonics (Clay Bennett) is an Oklahoma Businessman who has announced his intention to move the team to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. This decision is being spurred along by the lack of effort and general attitudes that the city of Seattle and the State of Washington have with regard to his requests for a new arena to be built south of the city.

The NBA stated earlier this week that if Seattle were to lose the Sonics to Oklahoma City that the NBA would not put a team back in Seattle.

To the best of my knowledge the problem lies in the fact that the owner (Clay Bennett) wants a new stadium built in the Renton area that would be funded by public moneys and the City of Seattle and the State of Washington want to spend the money on a remodel of Key Arena as long as Bennett was to put funds into the project.

Sports franchises and the power they hold over cities have gotten out of control. But as long as there are cities out there who want a team in their town there will be owners who will hold a city hostage over new arenas. Key Arena however is out of date and undersized for a city the size of Seattle. Ford Arena in Oklahoma City is only 6 years old and has 45+ luxery suites, seats 20,000+ for Basketball and as we all know, sports in the south is king.

Sports in the Northwest is an after thought for most people. If teams are hot and winning people get excited and go to games, but if the teams are losing nobody goes. In the south, fans fill arenas and stadiums week in week out. It is a lifestyle, a party, a happening. It is the place that everyone wants to be and they go to the games to party and cheer for their teams. In the Northwest, most fans go to games because they got free tickets from someone and don't really care if the team wins or loses because they mean nothing more to them then being seen at the game and impressing a business partner or friend.

Seattle fans like Portland fans need to get their collective acts together. You cannot complain all day about not having a team in some sport and then not support the teams that you have. They need to know that Professional Sports is a business and the athletes are highly paid because that is what we have let happen as a people where pro sports in concerned. So when an owner complains that he cannot field a competitive team unless he gets the high paid player and is losing money because of the Arena he plays in is to small or does not provide what he needs to be successful. You have only yourself to blame.

If your going to be a fan, then support your teams do what is needed to keep them their. Otherwise let them go and stop complaining when you don't have a team to go watch. Perhaps in stead of spending money on a billionare owner who wants everything, you should support your college teams and help support the education of our future adults and not the spoiled professionals.

The NBA is struggling right now. Football is king and I don't see the NBA doing anything about that in the near future. Seattle has chosen the Seahawks and Mariners as their teams of choice and there appears to be no more money left for the Sonics or the Huskies.

So ok Seattle, get off the dime and build a new arena or let the Sonics go to Oklahoma and be happy with it. I am sure the Blazers and Huskies won't mind having all the former Sonics fans out there with extra cash in their pockets. When they need a sports fix they can go to a Huskies game or come down to Portland to see a Blazers game and help up keep our NBA team in Portland.

World Series

2007-10-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

The World Series is set and it will be the Colorado Rockies making their first ever trip to title series vs the Boston Red Sox who came back from trailing the series with the Cleveland Indians 3 games to one by winning three straight to send Cleveland home for the season wondering what could have been.

So, let the trash talking start! Already this morning I have heard from the Red Sox fans who once again are in the World Series after winning it in 2004. Where do all these Red Sox fans come from any way? They're on my daughters softball team, they go to our church. I see them all over the place. I never knew we had so many people living in Oregon that once lived in Boston.

Red Sox fan has become the stylish thing to be. People once latched onto them because they felt sorry for the woeful Sox because it had been 80+ years since they won a Title. Now since they won and ended that streak it seems that everyone has taken claim to the title of "the fan who broke the curse".

Red Sox fans, Cowboys fans, Notre Dame fans and (sorry Red Sox fan) Yankee fans have become the bain of my existense. Who are these people and why do they cheer for a team 2 or 3 thousand miles away from where they live? I can see it if they once lived in the area but I have never understood the ones who did not.

I have always been the type of fan who cheers for the local team. I grew up in California so I was a Giants and 49er fan. When we moved to Oregon I still cheered for the Giants (still do) and 49ers (still do) but I have adopted the Seahawks and Mariners as my primary teams in pro sports. But down deep I am a college sports fan. I find the games more enjoyable, you cheer for the team and not the player as much. Names of players change every year with graduation so each season is new and fresh with speculation about who will take whos place. The games for the most part are more enjoyable to watch as the passion of the young player comes through where the professional athlete views it more as a job.

That brings me back to the World Series. My regional affiliation will make me cheer for the Rockies in the series being as they are the closest team to where I live. But a signigicant part of me will be cheering, not for the Red Sox, but for Jacoby Ellsbury. Ellsbury is a former Oregon State player and since I am an Oregon State alum I must support my fellow Beavers.

So let the series begin. Lets hope we can get it done before the winter snows come to Denver or it could be the longest World Series in history.

Rockies in 5 games.

Parity, Is It Good For Sports?

2007-10-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

Parity in college sports has been talked about over the last 16 years (1991) since the NCAA cut scholarships from 95 to 85 for D1 football programs. Within a few years of the 1991 season, more and more upsets have plagued college football. Teams that were once doormats of their conferences have now become contender’s year in year out and teams that were once champion’s year in year out now struggle to survive against the once feeble.

I hear from fans of the once powerful that they think parity has ruined football. Sure, their team is no longer beating up and other teams because their financially secure program can no longer go out and give scholarships to players just to keep them out of the hands of the teams who cannot afford more scholarships. So those players are now seeking out the programs that will offer them playing time and a chance to build something.

It is because of the 85 scholarship limitation that programs like Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State, Louisville, Rutgers, Utah and Boise State have crashed the party and been in the national spotlight the past 10 years. Players who normally would have gone to USC, Oklahoma, Florida, and Miami for the scholarship and sat the bench waiting their turn are now starters for other teams and making an impact on the college football world.

As each year passes, more and more programs that were once down or never ever heard from are now contending for titles. And not just in their conference and national titles. Just look at South Florida. Seven years ago they were not even a D1 school, today they are ranked #5 in the nation. Cincinnati is another up and comer this year. 6-0 in the Big East and shaking up the football world.

So for all those fans out their that complain that parity is a bad thing, I say “Nuts to You”. Parity in college football has made it better then ever. Every week you never know who will beat who. Teams can no longer overlook the once weak schools on their schedules or they will get beat. It makes every game matter and gives every game the chance to be one to remember. Just look at the upsets this season so far. Appalachian State over #5 Michigan, Stanford over #2 USC, South Florida over Auburn, Notre Dame over #15 UCLA and many others.

The fact that you never know who can come out and beat another team each week is the best argument of all for a playoff system in D1 college football. Just think how exciting it would be to see a Cincinnati or South Florida make a run through a playoff system and win a National Championship on the field where it should be decided. We can still have the bowls in place for the teams to go to that do not make it to the playoffs, but imagine how much fun it would be to see a real champion on the field and not a champion that was picked by sportscasters or computers.

Thank God for parity in college football, it makes every week exciting. Already today we have an upset in the first game of the day on TV. I can’t wait to see who else shocks the world today.

Equality for All, Well Almost All

2007-01-10T14:25:00.000-08:00

Now that the college bowl season has come and gone. Lets take a look back at it to see what we have learned.

In 2006 there were 119 D1A teams that competed in football. There were also 32 bowl games over the holiday. That means that 64 out of 119 teams made it to the post season. And of those 64 teams that played in post season bowl games, 43 teams were from the 6 conferences that have ties to the BCS and the other 21 teams came from the 6 NON-BCS conferences that have been determined by the sportswriters and other so called experts that they are not worthy of the chance to play for a national title.

Twelve Division 1 conferences with 119 football teams. The elite 6 conferences have 65 teams competing in football. That means that 54 teams that play at the highest level of college football, Division 1, are not allowed to contend for a national championship.

Do you see a problem? How can the NCAA and College Football truly say that it has a National Champion when over 45% of the teams that contribute to D1 football are not even allowed the chance to play. How are they suppose to recruit players to their programs when the kids know that they have no chance of even being involved in the process.

This is America, the United States of America. The land of the free and the home of the brave. Where anyone can achieve greatness if they apply themselves. Well except those who play for those 54 teams. They have been deemed unworthy before they even set one foot on the football field.

If this country and the NCAA ever wants to have a true national champion in college football then they have to give the opportunity to all teams to compete for the title. That way the teams that are playing their best at the end of the season will win the title. Not the teams that someone decided was better at the start of the season and then did enough not to screw it up at the end.

Look at Boise State and Louisville. In the past 4 years those teams have played and beaten some of the best teams in the country. Louisville had to move to another conference to get the chance to prove itself. Boise State has stayed in the WAC and this season went 13-0.

Not enough people say.

Boise State beat six bowl teams in that 13 win season and a Fiesta Bowl win over mighty Oklahoma. Hawaii, San Jose State, Nevada, Utah, Oregon State and Oklahoma. Oklahoma played 9 bowl teams in its 14 game schedule but part of that is because the Big12 gets 8 teams in bowl games while the WAC gets only 4.

Louisville won the Orange bowl this year over Wake Forest in going 12-1.

A true playoff system would not be that hard to set up but it would take some compromises from conferences. In my system, conferences would be combined and eliminated in order establish the basis for the system.

Ten conferences with 12 teams each or something similar. Each conference would have 2 divisions like the ACC or Big 12 have now. At the end of the season you have 24 division champions. Those division champions play each other to determine conference champions (round 1). The 12 conference champions are then set up into a bracket with the teams with the 4 best overall records receiving second round byes. The next 8 teams play second round games, those 4 winners play third round games vs the 4 second round bye teams. That gets you to the final four (round 4) and then the finals (round 5).

Five rounds of playoff games that involved 24 teams in 23 games that finishes with the two teams that have earned their way into the finals playing for a national championship. No voting, no bubble teams getting left out because some committee did not like them. Just the best teams playing each other for the title.

It would take 5 weeks, no longer then the bowl season takes now. Ohio State did not play for 6 weeks prior to the BCS game. I bet they were practicing though. The argument that it would take teams away from the classroom to long does not fly because the so called smarter schools that play in D1AA, D2 and D3 have a playoff system.

So lets just cut the crap and get to a system that gives us a true champion and not a paper champion.

The Carousel

2006-12-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

Week 7

How many of you have gone to the fair and had the opportunity to ride "The Carousel"? It is one of those rides that is fun to watch. The lights, the sounds, the motion of the horses slowing going up and down, around and around. It's one of those rides that is fun at first but after while you begin to wish it was over soon.

College coaching in todays world is much like those carosels of your youth. Coaches move from team to team in search of more money, better players or a better situation in which to win a championship. We have watched coaches make promises one day only to do a 180 degree about face the next day and leave for greener pastures.

Coaches today rarely stay in one place long. This is probably due to the fact that in todays world a contract is not worth the paper it is written on and coaches can leave or be fired at any moment for any reason.

So to counter this world of “You are only as good as your last game”, coaches have learned the art of “Coach Speak”. The simple but skillful art of saying only what is true at that very moment in time but with a slight case of memory loss at the same time. For example “I plan to be coach at ABC University as long as the administration will let me”. Meaning that if I get a better offer and ABC University does not match it they must not want me any longer.

At the time of this writing there are currently several coaching vacancies around the country at major college programs. These programs look to the successful coaches at other programs to fill there needs. This then creates all new openings that programs scramble to fill, and this all happens in the middle of teams trying to get ready for bowl games and during the prime recruiting period.

The latest university of suffer from a coach coming in only to leave to soon is the University of Idaho. Idaho had just hired Dennis Erickson 9 months ago to lead their program to new heights, only to see him leave for Arizona State last weekend.

But coaches are not the only ones to blame. Universities also play the game of broken promises. Stanford resently fired its head coach after only 2 seasons. Arizona State fired their coach prior to hiring Dennis Erickson after just giving him a contract extension last summer.

What ever happened to player development? Whatever happened to loyality to a program and your players? Coaches expect the players to give their all to the program, what about the coaches? It would be nice to see programs with integrity again that keep successful coaches and also for successful coaches to stay and continue their success where they were given the opportunity. If the universities that hired them had not given them the opportunity they would not be in the situation to make more money somewhere else.

So we will continue to see the coaching carousel for many more years to come. Here is hoping a few of them can figure out that loyalty can play major dividends.

Paper Champions

2006-12-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

Week 6

Do you know who the reigning national champions are in college sports? Go ahead, take a guess.

Football, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer, Wrestling, Women’s Volleyball, Men’s Water Polo, Cross Country, Ice Hockey, Skiing, Swimming, Track and Field, Baseball, Softball, Golf, Lacrosse, Tennis, Men’s Volleyball, Women’s Water Polo, Gymnastics, Rowing, Fencing, Rifle, Field Hockey.

All these sports and a couple others have national champions that are determined on the field of play and not by votes or judges with the exception of Division 1A college football. D1 college football is the only sport in all of college sports that we are told who the two best teams are in the nation by coaches, sportswriters and computers in order to play a game to determine a national champion.

D1 college football is an animal unto itself. It is the biggest source of sports revenue for almost every school that fields a team and it is also the biggest drain on resources among all college sports. A single home game at a major university can bring in millions of dollars in revenue for the university from ticket sales, tv revenue, fan gear and boosters.

So why is it that this game, which most of us watch over all other sports and are more emotionally involved with then any other sport, spoon fed to us by the NCAA and the media? Every year we get to the same point in the season and have the same questions. There are 8 to 10 teams that have one loss with a few that have no losses. Every year we have this big argument over who deserves to be in the championship game and almost every year a few teams are left out who might have been able to overcome and win a title.

So why do we as fans continually sit back and take it from the NCAA and all the others who favor this type of segregation. Every year you have quality teams from the so called mid-major conferences that everyone dismisses because they play in the WAC or the Mountain West or Conference USA or others. Every year we hear about how great teams are from the PAC-10, ACC, SEC, BIG 12 or BIG 10 and that no other team could possibly compete against them.

Frankly I am tired of being told who the best teams are and would much rather watch the teams decide for themselves who the best each season is. Who has the right to tell Boise State or BYU or Hawaii or any of the other teams considered the poor step children of college football, that they could never win a national championship in D1 college football. Can anyone say without a doubt that no mid-major team could ever beat a major college team to win a D1 football title? Perhaps if they were given the opportunity to compete for a national title each year they would be able to recruit players to get them to that level. Perhaps more kids would stay closer to home to play and not travel across the country to play for the “Big Schools”.

If we as fans are being asked to pay more and more money to watch our favorite teams play then I think we deserve the right to be able to watch the game decided on the field from the beginning of the season to the end of the season without the input of all the others who are making millions of dollars by telling us who the best are in their opinions.

If we were to apply the same philosophy that football uses to all other sports, then teams like the 2006 Oregon State Baseball team would have never won the National Championship because they came into the post season ranked 8th.

Teams like the University of Portland. The little school on the bluff in Portland Oregon would never have won two national championships in womens soccer because they were just a little school and could never compete against the Texas or Notre Dames or UCLA’s of the world. By the way, UP beat all three of them in winning their titles.

I don’t know about you, but I find it exciting to watch the David and Goliath matches. That is what sports is all about. Coming together as a team to overcome all odds and win. Our movie theaters are full of movies that represent just that. Glory Road, Rudy, The Rookie, Hoosiers. We revel in the stories of the little guy who overcomes everything to win the big game. It is the cornerstone story that we tell all our youth athletes and our children. We tell them that if you work hard enough, anything is possible. Would you ever tell your child he or she cannot do something simply because of where they live or who their parents are?

So why then, on the biggest stage in all of college sports, do we slam the door on the little guy and not invite him to the party. Why don’t we let the real winner be determined through the self-determination of each team and not by the so called experts who keep telling what they think is best.

We don’t want just a paper champion in college football any longer. We want a true national champion. One that is determined through the hard work, heart and effort of the players alone and not in some boardroom by suits who think they know it all.

Lets stand up as fans and let the sporting world know that we want a real champion, not a paper champion.

Oh and I will have the answers for you on who won what last year in my next blog.

A Wild And Crazy Season

2006-11-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

Week 5

This season of college football has got to have been the strangest in recent memory. The season was strange early with teams like Rutgers coming out of nowhere and going undefeated early in the season. But was just 4 weeks ago that the strangeness of this season started to really take shape.

For three straight weeks the number 3 ranked team in the nation lost to lower ranked or unranked teams. There were other big upsets as well with teams like Tennessee losing at home in a wild game with LSU. Oklahoma getting hosed by the officials in a "loss" at Oregon.

So we come to this weekend. Ohio State and Michigan play another great game that proves that those two teams are at the top of the nation. Then you have the strange game again. How can one conference have this many weird games in one season. First Louisville upsets West Virginia. Then Rutgers upsets Louisville. And now Cincinnati upsets #5 Rutgers. That leaves 3 teams tied at the top of the Big East Conference.

So now with a boat load of one loss teams and only two undefeated teams left in the nation, what is going to happen. We now fall into that wonderful time when all the coaches and sportswriters try to decide who the best two teams in the country are. What ever happened to playing the game on the field and not leaving it up to coaches voting for their favorites or voting to influence where their team will fall in the shuffle. And don't think that there aren't a few payoffs and favortism being played out among the sportswriters to get their teams into the national championship game. AD's and SID's are working overtime to get their teams into the best possible game.

Once again, the BCS will leave us all wondering, WHAT IF? Should it be Ohio State - Michigan, Should it be Ohio State - USC, Should it be Ohio State - Notre Dame? What about undefeated Boise State? Everyone will have their opinions, everyone will have their complaints about who goes where. The final result is once again we have a paper champion in the biggest sport in all of college sports. D1 Football!

When oh when will someone have the balls to get a real playoff system in place in D1 football that will give us a true national champion. If it were not for the playoff system in college baseball, Oregon State would never have won the national championship. They came into the college world series ranked 8th.

Lets all go to our teams bowl games and be happy for our chances for a holiday vacation in some warm distant destination, to watch our teams play against an opponent that we don't see everyday. But until we have a playoff system, we will never have a true national champion in D1 college football.

Sucks to be #3

2006-11-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Week 4 Extra

For all who follow college football, the last 3 weeks of the college football schedule has been a wild and torturous ride if you have happened to be the team ranked #3 in the nation in Division 1A football. It also is strange that as of the writing of this blog it has only been 13 days since the first game was played.

The wild ride started just a little over 13 days ago on October 28th, when the then undefeated and #3 ranked USC Trojans came into a packed Reser Stadium in Corvallis to faced the unranked Oregon State Beavers. The Beavers took a huge lead in the 3rd quarter, 33-10 and then held on as USC made an amazing comeback only to lose a chance to tie the game on the final play of the game, when the try for the 2 point conversion was knocked down preserving Oregon States upset of the #3 Trojans 33-31.

Now move ahead 5 days to Thursday November 2nd for a nationally televised game between two undefeated teams. The new #3 ranked team in the country West Virginia Mountaineers and then #5 ranked Louisville Cardinals. Once again the underdog, Louisville Cardinals, gave a solid performance through 3 quarters and hung on through a wild shoot out in the fourth quarter to get the upset win over then #3 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers 44-34.

Now move ahead 7 more days to another nationally televised Thursday night game on November 9th, once again between two undefeated teams. The new #3 ranked Louisville Cardinals facing the #15 ranked and undefeated Rutgers Scarlet Knights. This time the story was reversed and perhaps even more amazing then the OSU – USC game in the fact that the #3 ranked Louisville Cardinals ran out to a 25-7 lead in the second quarter, only to be shut down by the Rutgers defense and find themselves in a 25-25 tie with just minutes to go. Louisville had the opportunities to stop Rutgers. Rutgers had third and long on their own 35 with fewer than 2 minutes in the game only to have the next play go for 26 yards and put Rutgers into field goal position. Then with 21 seconds left, it appeared that Louisville would survive to fight on as Rutgers field goal try sailed wide left. But wait! The Louisville DB on the left side of the line was offside! Rutgers reloads from 5 yards closer and seals Louisville’s fate as the ball splits the uprights. Rutgers 28 - Louisville 25.

So now after the remaining games of this weekends college football schedule are played, which lucky team will have the dubious honor of becoming the next #3 ranked team and, dare we say, the next victim to some under rated opponent. We will have to wait and see.

The State of Youth Sports

2006-11-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

Week 4

What is the state of youth sports in your area? What do you think of the people in charge of teaching your kids about sports, how to compete and about good sportsmanship?

From recent articles in the Oregonian and from reading posts on Oregonlive, I find that the state of youth sports in the Northwest varies from area to area but it seems that only a few are able to find a balance between the two extremes. One extreme is the "go for broke, win at all costs" attitude that is within some organizations and the other extreme is the "pat everyone on the back and tell them what a good job they are doing, give varsity letters out to all regardless of ability or what their actual accomplishments are" that is happening in other organizations.

Within single communities the same comparisons can be seen from youngest of teams and coaches to the varsity levels as well.

What seems to be lost in all this is that sports is a means to an end. And the end is not what most coaches and parents think it is.

Sports are a character study in how to succeed in life and learn to work with others within a system to achieve a common goal. No single player on any team can accomplish a team goal without the help and input from their teammates and coaches. Even in so called "Individual Sports" like Golf, Tennis. A player cannot achieve his goal without the help and support of another individual at some point along his journey.

Sport is meant to be a competition. The purpose of competition is to WIN by bettering your skills to the point where the team can succeed in overcoming the opposition. The individuals who can best achieve those ends are the ones who become members of the team. The goal of the team is to continue to work to improve to the level necessary to WIN. The goal of each team member is to know their role within the team and to continually strive to improve their abilities for the betterment of the team.

Teams that are not endorsing these philosophies are teaching their players the wrong things. Sports competition is only a small part of a person’s life. Life is the ultimate journey that all of us take. Learning life skills that will help you deal with conflict, competition, failure and success are keys to making productive individuals who will be asset to our community and our world.

So, back to the first point of this article, what is the state of youth sports? Are the coaches and administrators in your area working to make successful individuals who know how to overcome obstacles and opposition, to work with others to achieve a common goal? Are the coaches of your teams so bent on winning at all costs that they are overlooking the damage they are causing to the self confidence of the individual? Are the coaches and administrators in your area emphasizing only fun and not teaching the important life skills mentioned above to better the person and the player? Is winning being written off because they want all to feel good about themselves without having done anything to achieve it? These are the extremes I speak of. Striving to win and be successful should be the goal for everyone in all things. But it is the journey one takes to achieve that goal that makes them the better person, not the achieving of the goal.

We have to teach our youth that life is not easy. Life takes work, life takes time, and life takes effort to be successful. When you think you have done enough to be successful is when you should do more. You can never stop in your effort to be the best you can be, it takes continuing effort.

In life you cannot just step into a job and be successful at it without the training, skills and confidence necessary to do the task. In marriage you cannot just expect things to always go the way you want them to go, it takes constant effort. In life you won't win every argument but you can win many more then others if you prepare properly.

If winning was not important we would not keep score. Like it or not, we live in a world that keeps score. But sometimes the scoreboard overshadows the real importance of sports. The betterment of the individual.

A Win for the Ages

2006-11-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

Week 3

In my 40+ years of watching Oregon State Football. I have had the great luck to witness in person many of the greatest games in school history and all three wins vs USC over the last 40 years. I was 9 years old the first time I saw USC in Corvallis. My brother was attending OSU and I spent many weekends on campus having a great time pretending to be a college student. It was those days that made me want to become a Beaver Believer myself, attending every home game from then till graduation in 1981. And although other opportunities in life have kept me attending games right after graduation. Since coming back to Oregon in the late 80's, I have not missed many games.

When Mike Riley came to Corvallis in 97 I could tell right away that something special was about to happen to the program. Mike got it started and Dennis Erickson brought it home. Since 97 I have not missed a home game and have the luck of attending two of the 5 bowl games.

Since 97 the Beavers have been to 5 bowl games in 8 years and never had fewer then 5 wins in a season. The bar has been raised as to the fans expectations on the field and it should be. The program is growing, new facilities, more exposure nationally and more revenue for the University. When I hear all the bad talk going on about how poor the program is or how bad a player or coach is I wonder? Where were these people prior to 1997? Don't they remember just how bad it was? 28 straight losing seasons. They only sold 6 to 7 thousand season tickets each year. Attendence averaged in the mid 20's for a home game. The big excitment each week was to see if the Beavers could hang onto the #1 ranking in the bottom ten.

Over the last nine seasons we have enjoyed watching our team climb to a #4 national ranking in the top 10. We have beaten twice each, two of the most respected and storied programs in college football history. Notre Dame and USC. We have won a PAC-10 championship, won 3 bowl games and seen the construction of a beautiful new football practice facility and stadium.

The future of football at Oregon State is bright. It is our job as fans and supporters of the program to continue to cheer on these young men, support the program through ticket purchases and travel to away games.

The administration at OSU is committed to continuing the success on the field and off the field. Will we continue to be successful? Yes and no, all programs go through droughts. Florida State is having one, Nebraska has had them and so has USC. We as fans just need to keep the faith and scream as load as we can at every game.

So hear are my greatest games of the past years in no particular order.

1. OSU 3 #1 USC 0 - 1967 - By the way the Beavers were 3-2 entering that game and had lost to Washington and been blown out by BYU.

2. OSU 20 Duke 16 - 1942 - Rose Bowl win at Duke because of WW2

3. OSU 21 Washington 20 - 1985 - Beavers had been losing for 14 years and had not been to a bowl game since 1965 Rose Bowl. They had only 21 wins in 14 seasons. Huskies were 38 point favorites to win and OSU set an NCAA record for upset margin.

4. OSU 17 Cal 7 - 1999 - guaranteed a winning season for first time in 28 years.

5. OSU 44 Oregon 41 - 1998 - Double Overtime, fans rush field thinking game is over but its not. Fans line field as Ken Simonton scores winning TD. What a game.

6. OSU 31 - USC 21 - 2000 - First win over USC since 1967 Giant Killers Upset of #1 ranked USC 3-0.

7. OSU 23 - Oregon 13 - 2000 - Both Schools come into game ranked in the top 10 nationally. An OSU win means a share of pac-10 title and possible trip to a major bowl game.

8. OSU 41 - Notre Dame 9 - 2001 Fiesta Bowl - First ever meeting between two schools. Notre Dame is the school with the storied past and OSU is a team with a great story. The Phoenix paper reads the next moring. "Tradition takes a beating Oregon State 41- Notre Dame 9"

9. OSU 38 - Notre Dame 21 - 2004 Insight Bowl - Notre Dame fans were talking trash before game that 2001 Fiesta Bowl was a fluke. That they would beat the beavers easily. "Tradition takes a beating - Part 2"

10. OSU 33 USC 31 - 2006 - Beavers had been stinking it up and had been blown out by the previous ranked teams they had played. Beavers dominate trojans for 2.5 quarters and hold on in one of the most exciting games I have seen to win the game on the last play of the game.

GO BEAVERS!

Beavers and Ducks Football

2006-10-26T17:08:00.000-07:00

Week 2

I know it is really week 3 but I got all messed up trying to get stuff done and totally forgot to do the blog. So here you go.

OK, a lot has happened in the last two weeks. The Ducks who were looking all powerful have lost 2 in a row and the Beavers who looked like they were on life support have won 2 in a row.

Now the shoe is on the other foot for both teams. Duck fans are in hesterics and wondering what is up and Beaver fans have found new life and hope that the season may not end on December 2nd. Life and sports can be so fickle can't they.

The Ducks get a chance to get feeling better about themselves with what should be a blowout win over Portland State and the Beavers face the currently 3rd ranked (I say currently, because I don't feel they will finish #3) USC Trojans in Corvallis. Since both teams are at home we had better all leave a little extra early to make sure we don't start a real civil war on I-5 heading down to the games. All those Beaver and Duck car flags on I-5 at the same time will look cool but might start road rage.

So after this weekend how will the fans of both teams feel? The Duck fans will most likely be quacking proudly about how they thrashed the Vikings and Beaver fans will most likely be all over Riley and Moore after their, what?, 6th straight home loss?? Although I do feel that the Beavers can beat USC if their defense continues to play the way it has the last two weeks and if the offense can get their act together. The Beavers have played USC tough the last few years.

Now that both the beavers and ducks have pending quarterback controvercies, the forums on oregonlive will no doubt be all fired up again after this weekend. Lets all just remember that these are young men and college students and not pro athletes.

Should make for a great weekend of sports. Lets all pray for good weather and wins!

My prediction - - - Oregon 45 - PSU 14. Oregon State 24 USC 21.

Have a great week.

Welcome to the One Dog Sports Blog

2006-10-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first addition of the One Dog Sports Blog.

Weekly editorials on various sports topics will be posted here.

Week 1

I do not claim to be an all powerful sports personality or any other type of professional sports writer. I like many of you are a true fan of sports. I have played competitive sports may entire life (some at high levels) and have coached competitive sports for 20+ years. Sports and competition are a way of life for me. I have always been around it or involved in it and I hope to always be around it.

The best moments of a sports enthusiasts life are often those moments when the simple or unexpected happen and you are just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to be a part of it or witness it in person.

Standing on the 18th tee, staring down the fairway as the last rays of sunlight bathe the course in burnt orange softness. The smell and feel of the baseball glove on your hand at the first practice of the spring. The joy of seeing the young inexperienced player on the team come through in the clutch to win the game for his or her team. The roar of the engines and the smell of fuel and rubber as cars race around a track at over 200 mph. The calm still piece of the water, with the morning light warming the sky as you crawl out of the tent to view the day just beginning. To be there when your team upsets the mighty as the clock clicks down to zero.

These and hundreds of other moments like this are why sports fans do what they do. To be a part of something that is greater then themselves. To be "A sports fan". I count myself lucky to be a part of many such experiences.

To all of you sports fans out there who know what I am talking about. I hope in the weeks to come, to pass along my observations, opinions and experiences about this wonderful thing we call sports.

Have a great week.
The Dog Blogger