Rhubarb Report 055

It is a sad time of the year. This is the first weekend when you realize that college football, for all intents and purposes, is done for another year. There are plenty of pointless bowl games over the next month where you can watch a 6 – 6 team play a 6 – 6 team. Yawn. But the conference rivalries are over. See you next September.

It’s not just the college football world that is quiet these days. The political world is tame right now in comparison to the hyperbole of September and October. With winter coming, maybe it is just time to hibernate? Is there any rhubarb to be found these days? Of course there is! Episode 55 of the Rhubarb Report is upon us. Enjoy!

1. Before we go into the BCS and all of its shortcomings (an annual exercise, I might add), we need to discuss our very own University Of Texas Longhorns. They went to the Little Apple (aka Manhattan, Kansas) for the final game of the regular season and were soundly beaten – again – by Kansas State. Mack Brown is now 2 – 5 against KSU.

While we’re talking about “nothing to be proud of”, how about the fact that in 15 seasons, Mack Brown has accrued 4 of the 5 worst losses against OU in the history of the Red River Rivalry. Now that is a statistic that will make most Longhorns fans cringe. You might also want to ask Bob Stoops how many Big 12 Championships he’s won at Oklahoma (8 in 13 years) versus Mack Brown’s 2 titles in 15 years.

The Longhorns did get a bowl game this year: Oregon State in the Alamo Bowl on December 29. Can you feel the excitement? Didn’t think so.

2. While we’re on the topic of bowl games, let’s talk BCS bowls. Another season is complete, and we have yet another year in which the BCS got it wrong – again. Northern Illinois (12 – 1) is this year’s BCS buster. They play in the MAC. Take a look at their one loss: Iowa – the worst team in the anemic Big 10. Their computer ranking was 19. Oklahoma – a co-Big 12 Conference champion with KSU – was left out of the BCS. Computer ranking? 8. Seriously? How did they not get an at-large berth? Pretty simple, actually. Human polls are manipulated by voters to effectively inflate/deflate a team’s rankings. Then you have conferences lobbying for their teams, which is just as bad.

Earn it on the field. With that said, a four team playoff isn’t going far enough.

Imagine if there was a “play-in” game like they have in college basketball. Northern Illinois versus Oklahoma. Yes, I suspect we know who would win that one …

3. Finally, there is breaking news out of Austin which reveals that Santa Claus does not really exist. I kid you not. Truth. This comes from an after-school teacher at an Austin elementary school.

What I found more intriguing about the news was this:

“Coming to the conclusion about Santa on their own is important for children as they develop the capacity to trust others and have faith, said Cindy Dell Clark, an anthropologist at Rutgers University-Camden who has studied children’s belief in Santa Claus for about 30 years”.

Studying children’s belief in Santa Claus? For 30 years? Is there a doctoral program in this field of study? And is there research money available? Tenure? Seriously? Just what exactly is there to study?

Photo credits: Wikipedia