Here we go ... my plans for the college football national championship. Call me crazy, but I think this would actually work - without much hacking involved. Not that anyone is listening, but that's beside the point ...
The roots of this are simple. They will look familiar to many as the structure, in many ways, is modeled after the March extravaganza that we call college basketball. Hey, it already works - why reinvent the wheel?
College basketball has a March Madness that ends in an April national championship. How about a December Dream ... or December Delirium ... that ends with a January national championship? Marketing mavens, start writing the theme music.
Let's look at the process in a step-by-step fashion ... then utilize it in a "fantasy 2008-2009 national championship". Hold on to your seats ...
I might as well warn you now - expect a little bit of sarcasm in this post. Somehow, the BCS always seems to bring this out in me. Surprises? Seriously though, more of the same insanity, just a different day.
It's two days post-"National Championship" game, so I thought it would be time to reflect on that which is the BCS these days. A good departure point is the "game" we witnessed on Thursday night. Some things never change. Bob Stoops loses another BCS game - "Big Game Bob" is getting pretty consistent on that one. What's the record now, Bob? Oh, right, 0 - 5 in the past 5 BCS games. That isn't even best in the Big 12 South Division. That would be on par with - Baylor.
Florida beat Oklahoma by ... 10 points. I think we saw something like that, on another neutral site, back in October. It was ... yes ... Texas ...
It all started with Jerry Maguire and Rod Tidwell ... or should I say, Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr ... in "Jerry Maguire".
To Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Tidwell, "quan" meant "love, respect, community, and money".
To the Texas Longhorns last night, "Quan" meant "one hell of a senior wide receiver".
In last night's Fiesta Bowl, Quan Cosby was the go-to guy. He had a career night ... 14 receptions ... 171 yards. Add to that Colt McCoy's 41 of 59 for 414 yards, and you would think it was a blow-out.
Well, it wasn't ... 24 - 21 Longhhorns over Buckeyes, for those of you who missed it.
The first 30 minutes gave us a good hockey score - 6 to 3 - and not much more than that. This was the #3 team in the country? Somewhere on the way to the game, the coaching staff simply forgot what got the 'Horns there in the first place. Then at the start of the second half, the real Horns arrived. They logged in a solid 15 minutes - and pounded the Buckeyes with their two minute offense. Fortunately, a total of 20 minutes of great football (and coaching) was all it took to win the game last night. The rest was a bit of a living nightmare for a team that called itself a true number one candidate - before last night. Sorry folks, that will have to wait until next year.
So what happened?
Iit's January 1 and I was thinking that it might be a good idea to start the year on the right foot ... so let's just say that it's going to be Mighty Fine in Oh-Nine. I like the optimism that the phrase holds.
It is the Year of the Ox (not quite such an appealing title), though it does represent a "sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work" ... so I guess I can go with it. It is also the International Year of Reconciliation, so I guess that's a positive as well. Oh, and let us not forget it's the beginning of President Obama's first term in office - which does seem to have the feeling of hope attached to it.
The passage of time ... oh how our perspective on this changes with age.
When I was a child, it always seemed like it was an eternity before the first snowfall, or my birthday, or Christmas, or the first summer day. Time would just drag by, slow as molasses in January (ever tried pouring molasses in January in Canada? I rest my case). But I can also remember my mother once telling me that I shouldn't be concerned, because as I got older, time would go by faster, so fast in fact that I would want it to slow down. I can also remember thinking that was just crazy talk from an adult.
The power of self-expression takes many forms - it could be writing, it could be art, it could be poetry. There is some surreal element to any form of creativity that grabs your heart or turns you on your head. And so much of the response is purely timing - your mind is ready, primed, and waiting - and BAM it hits you like a ton of bricks. And it changes your world forever.
One of those prime examples for me is the band Living Colour. This is a band that made a resounding echo in my soul, for reasons that defy explanation.
At first glance, I probably wouldn't have discovered them on my own. They formed in 1983 in NYC and were a wild mix of reggae, funk, free jazz, punk, hip hop and hard rock. This all-African-American "funk metal" band was in the same genre as Jane's Addiction, Faith No More, Primus, and (the great) 24-7 Spyz. At the time, it wouldn't have been a band that I would have thought that I would have gravitated towards - until one day ...
In 1988, they released their first album, "Vivid" (released May 3, 1988) - and one of the videos, "Middle Man", was in regular rotation by MuchMusic VJ Michael Williams (MuchMusic being the Canadian "equivalent" to MTV).
As fate would have it, my friend (and fellow musician) Terry picked up the album - and I won't forget the first play of it. Good gawd - that was something that definitely grabbed me by the throat, spun my head around, and turned my musical ear on it's proverbial ear! It was a perfect example of hearing the right music, in the right frame of mind, at the right time in life.
Many are counting down the days to Christmas, and many are counting down the days to the New Year. Personally, I am counting down the days to the Inauguration - as of December 18, 33 days remain before President-Elect Barack Obama steps forward to take the reins of the country. Many are already starting to ponder President Bush's legacy and how he will be noted in the history books.
And now, we may have a fitting image in the last days of his presidency.
The shoe. Or actually, a pair of them - right and left.
The shoes in question were thrown at Bush by an Iraqi journalist.
"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as much as you please." (Mark Twain)
If the American public knew what was going on in the undercurrents of their health care, I don't think they'd stand for it much longer. Regardless of whether you have insurance or not, if the average person was a better consumer of their health care, they would demand accountability. They would demand results. And they would do so just as they do with any other free enterprise industry.
First of all, it doesn't matter whether the care is good (outcomes-driven and evidence-based) or not, your insurance carrier is likely going to pay for it. What is currently accepted in our community may not in fact be a part of any accepted clinical guidelines, or, worse yet, it may be totally unsupported in the scientific literature. Though we are finally seeing some examples of “payment for performance” (something I wrote about here in 2007), the third party payment issue produces a potential level of mediocrity, whether we like it or not. Is there any reason to do what is best when you're going to be paid regardless of what you do?
Second of all, this is another issue of trust. For years, we have gone on the assumption that the one person you can trust implicitly in your health care is your primary care provider. Why not? These gatekeepers are the revered ones, and thus we believe that what they do for us is in our best interests. The same is true of specialists like orthopedists. “Of course they will do what is best for us” ...
Up to 60% of runners will sustain an injury within any given year. Poor running mechanics, in conjunction with poor, ineffective and outdated training methods, can pose a significant injury risk. "RunSmart" was written to address these issues in the running community.
"Running Injuries: Etiology And Recovery- Based Treatment" (co-author Bridget Clark, PT) appears in the third edition and fourth editions of "Clinical Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: A Team Approach" by Charles Giangarra, MD and Robert C. Manske, PT.
Allan Besselink, PT, DPT, Ph.D., Dip.MDT has a unique voice in the world of sports, education, and health care. Read more about Allan here.
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