Sports Saturday

This post will be a little bit of a mixed bag. Normally, I would subject you to some cheerleading, and home team propping with my blog post. Not today.

As I sit here in the hospital with my dear Mother-in-Law, who has loved me from the beginning of my serious courtship of her eldest Daughter, I have taken the time to reflect on the happenings in the sports world. Momma, as I call her, is doing really well, and should be headed home early this coming week.

AUBURN

I would be inglorious if I didn't start with our two teams in the playoffs of their respected sports. The Auburn women suffered a setback at the hands of the Bayou nemesis LSU Tigers in their first game ever in the Women's College World Series.
Trivia Question: Who was the first Auburn woman to score in  WCWS competition?
I look forward to your answers.

Unfortunately, the Auburn Baseball team also lost their opener in Regional competition to College of Charleston in Tallahassee, FL. It's a long road to the Super Regionals for the Men, but they can pull it off with timely hitting.

Both the Men and Women play today(Saturday) at 11:00 am CT

FIFA

Money, Greed, Corruption, and God only knows what else is going to be uncovered in the joint investigation of the largest sports entity in the world. FIFA has not had anyone to answer to in its entirety, so now that legal problems are being uncovered publicly, we will find out the depths at which this international organization has been operating.

Reports have arisen for years eluding to FIFA and the way it does business. Everything from bribes to money laundering, to indentured servitude, and falsifying records have been charged in the investigation.

The saying: Absolute power corrupts absolutely, may be the correct description of those in charge of running the World Cup. We shall see. Thus far however, FIFA officials have denied any wrong doing. Smoke, meet fire.

BIG12 Football

In the most absurd new release of the week, the BIG12 has issued a statement about their "Sportsmanship Policy."  BIG12 schools will now be fined for showing replays of controversial calls inside their stadiums.

What constitutes a controversial call? Isn't every touchdown a reviewable play? If so, can a school not show the replay of a TD until it is cleared by the officials on the field? What are we trying to hide?

The replay officials can and do use all replay footage available to them to determine whether a correct call has been made on the field of play. Now, the BIG12 thinks you the fan are incapable of making an intelligent decision based on the footage you would see on your teams JumboTron. 

Are they afraid to expose what we all know to be fact? BIG12 officiating, and indeed all officials have been under intense scrutiny since the advent of High Definition screens that allow a clear picture of what has taken place in each play.

It's part of the game. To keep the TV audiences, and in turn the advertising for that TV time, college football needs the fans watching. We want to know, we want to see exactly what happened. We deserve to be treated with the respect due anyone that would support a particular sport.

Instant replay, for better or worse, is part of the game experience that every college fan has demanded since it's inception. Watching a replay in High Definition and slow motion is revealing. It makes the fan experience 100 fold more enjoyable. The BIG12 would do well to accept this.