Dec. 3, 2007
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A Little Bit about Several Things…
A Holiday Gift Idea
What about a beautifully framed and matted Vanderbilt sports photograph? Vanderbilt has recently partnered with a leading on-line photography company and now this is idea is as easy as click, click, click.
Just go to www.replayphotos.com and scroll down to Vanderbilt. You will find outstanding athletic or campus landmarks photography, taken by our own photographers. The buyer selects the photo and its size, and then chooses the desired matting color and frame style (cherry, black, mahogany, etc). Your classy framed photo is then shipped within a few days to the address you indicate. All this can be done on-line in less than five minutes.
Prices are very reasonable and there is a 15% discount for all orders placed before December 10. Just enter VU15 in the area for promotional codes at checkout if you are beating this deadline. I just placed an order and know it will be a hit on Christmas Day. This is high-end artwork, suitable for the fanciest office or the coziest den.
One Man’s Opinion
Don’t come knockin’ on my door pleading the case for college football playoffs. They wouldn’t work, at least not how you might think.
I offer the last month of the regular and especially the games of December 1 as Exhibit A. The long college football season becomes a war of attrition. Oregon was dynamite, lost its quarterback and took a dive. LSU sustained numerous key injuries, including its starting quarterback and was on the verge on needing its No. 3 signal caller in the SEC title game. West Virginia thought it was on its way to the BCS Championship game but, stop me if you’ve heard this, lost its quarterback early against underdog Pitt and went punchless. There are dozens of other examples.
Which Oregon, LSU, West Virginia, et al are we talking about? The high octane one or the one with the key performers wearing casts and braces?
About the only thing a playoff would accomplish would be to see which team was luckiest dodging injuries or had the best bench. Football, unlike basketball, is not a “survive and advance” tournament sport. You can play two or three basketball games a week but you get young men much beyond 10 football games and you need Florence Nightingale on your speed dial.
Besides, college football already has a playoff system. It’s called the regular season. If Florida beats Georgia during a February basketball game, so what? They can both still make the Big Dance. But if the Gators top the `Dawgs on the gridiron, the bowl pecking order is further established.
You say this year’s 1-versus-2 game is a sham? Suppose we had a FOUR-team playoff this year and you were judge and jury; which of the Top 10 teams would you include? Or better, which would you exclude and why? LSU-Ohio State is closer to the truth than Kansas-Hawaii.
Isn’t it obvious that no system is perfect? Sixty-five teams make the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the first thing we do is argue about who didn’t.
Oh ya, there is that pesky matter of football players missing too many classes. The playoff advocates like to poke fun at that one. Attending class is a quaint notion held by those that see major college football as a professional feeder system.
Going, Going….Almost Gone
For the first time since 1992-93, we are probably going to sell out our men’s basketball tickets on a season basis. We have just a few hundred season tickets left and they will go quickly.
This support for our fine team is encouraging but it means some of our fans accustomed to picking up extra single game tickets, especially for Kentucky and Tennessee games, will not be able to do so. (It also means opposing fans won’t be able to order single game tickets either)
Speaking of Tight Tickets
Baseball is around the corner and we’ve had a number of discussions about our tight ticket situation. (Roy Kramer used to call this a first class kind of problem.) In short, season ticket holders from 2007 will have first shot at reordering these tickets, which means anyone that was not a season ticket holder last year will have a hard time getting inside Hawkins Field other than on a single game basis.
Discussions about enlarging our beautiful 2,000-seat capacity stadium are ongoing. In the meantime, we continue to seek a balance between those long-time fans already in the house and others, especially NCC members, who would like to be. One of our main objectives is to maximize attendance at each and every game.
With a great team and strong ticket demand, the person that purchases a season ticket and only attends a couple of games is not really doing the program much good. We want “seats in the seats” at each and every game.
Those of you receiving your season ticket renewal application should also pre-order the 2008 NCAA Regional tickets. This will help you and our ticket office should we be fortunate enough to host again this spring. Anyone at last year’s regional won’t need a reminder on how exciting that was.