The Good: Not that anyone cares about basketball news after everything that’s happened in the last week, but Navy’s first game in the season-opening Coaches vs. Cancer Classic has been announced, and it will be against none other than Texas. On top of that, the Mids will play three more games against teams that could include, among others, Rhode Island, College of Charleston, and Louisiana Tech. It won’t take long to find out what this team is made of.
The Bad: My air conditioner decided to crap out when Jacksonville is flirting with 100 degrees. That makes it about 130 with a computer on your lap. There is an epidemic of swamp ass at the Casa de Birddog.
The Ugly: Or The Good if you’re a fan of anyone else in the Pac 10… The NCAA has ensured that USC won’t be good for a while, taking away 20 scholarships and bowl games for two years. After SMU’s “death penalty” destroyed that program, the NCAA has been reluctant to go that far in punishing athletic programs that stray from the straight and narrow; USC got just about the max that the NCAA has the stomach for. They stopped short of a television ban, although considering how strongly-worded the report was, I’m not sure why.
USC AD Mike Garrett had this to say about the complexities of the investigation:
“As I read the decision by the NCAA, all I could get out of all of this was … I read between the lines and there was nothing but a lot of envy, and they wish they all were Trojans,” Garrett said to cheers Thursday night at the San Francisco Airport Marriott.
When the Pac 10 finally gets its network, the Mike Garrett Literary Review is sure to broaden minds across the Pacific time zone. A sampling:
“As I read The Iliad, all I could get out of all this was, they wish they all were Trojans.”
“As I read War and Peace, all I could get out of this was, they wish they all were French.”
“As I read the New Testament, all I could get out of all of this was, they wish they all were Pharisees.”
Air Force should make this guy their AD, since he sounds exactly like fans who think the only reason anyone dislikes Fisher DeBerry is because they’re jealous of him.
The Pipe Dream: …is over for the Richie Meade haters who thought John Tillman was ever coming back to Annapolis. Tillman is now the head lacrosse coach at Maryland.
The Cuban Missile Crisis: … has nothing on the behind-the-scenes drama of the Big 12’s miraculous comeback.
The Blogs: Along those lines, Barking Carnival has their doubts about the Big 12’s new TV deal that was supposedly the glue that kept the conference together. There are conflicting reports as to whether the Pac 10 has made an offer to Utah or not; Block U is staying on top of it. UHFanblog.com canvasses the Hawaii writers’ reactions to Boise State’s Mountain West move. One Foot Down ponders whether the preservation of the Big 12 also saved Notre Dame’s independence. They also rank their favorite running quarterbacks of all time. Navy quarterbacks as a whole get a generic honorable mention, although that’s sort of a copout. Chris McCoy is good enough to stand out on his own. The lack of any Air Force QBs on the list is also suspect; Beau Morgan and Dee Dowis have to get recognized on any list like this. Pre-Snap Read continues its countdown, including Navy opponent Central Michigan. And Patrick Stevens has a podcast.
The iPod: Fishbone– Unyielding Conditioning
The Padres: Slipped back into first place, even though they only score 3 runs per game. I’d say that there’s no way this can last, but here we are in June…
The Birddog 
Does the USC situation make Notre Dame more willing to remain independant? Wouldn’t they like to take advantage of the opportunity to beat USC for few years?
I don’t think wins and losses drive the decision.
Mike,
Do you think it’s possible that Navy, Army, AF might eventually try to form a conference with four or five other mid-major schools of similar size and academic profiles? In other words, get a seat at the table before all the seats are taken.
While we do have a reprieve, my sense is that it’s only that and super-conferences will sooner or later be formed. I agree with your assessment that the super-conference arrangements would be spell the demise of service academy participation at the major college level. That would be sad for all of us except, perhaps, the esteemed Prof. Fleming.
Finally, in your earlier posting, you made the sage observation that Navy going to Div-1AA would be disastrous. I don’t think most folks appreciate the subtle point that many of Navy’s football recruits love the idea of having the opportunity of going up against the larger schools.
I don’t think simply being in any conference means a seat at the table. I also don’t think that any team who would join that conference would gain anything financially from their current situation, including us & Air Force.
Mike, you echo the point made in many of the blog comments regarding the recent conference changes (and those almost made) – at the top of the list of forces driving any move is MONEY. Of the three SA, it appears that Navy currently has the best overall financial situation with AF is doing OK, and Army showing future growth potential – if it can put together a couple of winning seasons. Army certainly seems to be in a better position as an independent than it was as part of CUSA. For now, I’m just enjoying Navy football. Having said all that and just for purposes of discussion, do you think Army would join the Big 10 if by some crazy logic they saw them as a way to crack the New York city market?
I had the opportunity to have a beer with Reggie Campbell. He told me, among other things, it was about proving he could ball with guys recruited to Div I. As in “I Belong on this field with you.”
I want to add that Reggie was having one to my bajillion beers, thus showing why I was not the most awesome football player at the academy.
Or even a football player.
lol
I think the bad and the ugly are pretty much one in the same in this one