The Final Four of NCAA Division I basketball tips off this evening. The tourney’s top four seeds (Auburn, Duke, Florida and Houston) all advanced to San Antonio. They’re all from “power” conferences. Cinderella doesn’t live here anymore.
The very first game of the tournament was a “First Four” matchup between Alabama State and St. Francis University (PA). The game was at the University of Dayton’s arena, and I was there. Fun game! It came down to a last-second shot by Alabama State after a full-court pass.
That game probably marks the last time we’ll see St. Francis in “March Madness.” Because the school’s board of trustees voted to move their athletics from D-I to D-III. The university president, The Very Rev. Malachi Van Tassell, explained the logic behind that move in this Op-Ed in the Washington Post:
Father Malachi is a Franciscan priest. But prior to joining the order, he was a Certified Public Accountant (bio is here). He knows the math doesn’t work anymore for small schools, especially if they want to be known for schooling instead of for the semi-pro folks on the b-ball team.
Intercollegiate athletics is growing in complexity, based on realities such as the transfer portal, pay for play and other shifts that move sports away from a campus-based love of the game to one that resembles a business… Most Division I schools are forced to squeeze more money from student fees and fundraising to pay for their athletic programs and stay competitive, and often reallocate current and future operating dollars away from salaries and classrooms.
Players are transferring out of schools like ours to play for money and fame at schools with bigger name recognition and budgets. The fact that, for the first time, there isn’t a single program from outside the four major conferences in the tournament’s second weekend bears this out.
Father Malachi wants his student-athletes to be students first, and enjoy campus life. That’s not realistic in the power conferences. There, the “student-athletes” are mainly athletes, and grist for the money-making mill. Don’t get me wrong – I’m fine with the players cashing in. But how can they feel much attachment to a school when they’re likely to leave a year later for greener pastures?
the reality is that big-brand programs are farm teams for the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, and small universities have become farm teams for the big-brand programs.
As a proud alum of Xavier University, another small Catholic school, I really understand what the Padre is laying down. Nearly as soon as my Muskies lost in the tourney, our men’s b-ball head coach departed for the deeper pockets — for him and the players he recruits — at the University of Texas. Nearly every player on the team with eligibility left entered the transfer portal — with the best returning player joining his old coach at Texas (“Hook ’em” indeed… with dollars.) Xavier’s new coach, Richard Pitino, inherited a roster consisting of… one redshirt player. There’s no continuity for fans anymore. We’re not rooting for the student-athletes at our alma mater, we’re rooting for laundry, basically.
If you like the David vs. Goliath story, you’re out of luck. Unless changes are made to NIL and transfer rules, we’ll be watching the same big-money schools duke (ha!) it out every year, while Cinderella is forced to scour the country for new players every year.
I do think other schools should follow the lead of St. Francis, and put the emphasis back on the student experience, and invest more in the school, instead of funneling all that cash into being a feeder system for bigger schools and the pros. It just makes (dollars and) sense.
Howdy folks, “Honest Donny” here, and we’re really excited about the new car dealership I just opened at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C.
It’s easy to find – just look for the big white house! If that doesn’t work, maybe we’ll add one of those floppy people with no backbone. No, not the Republican members of Congress – although I understand your confusion. I mean one of these:
This month, we’ve got a great deal on some electric cars and tanks… er, I mean trucks.
These babies will really protect you when the rioting starts! (The bad kind, not the tourists visits the J6 folks did.)
Now I know in the past I’ve said some disparaging things about electric cars. Like:
“Electric cars are good if you have a towing company.”
And I said electric car makers “are looking to destroy our once great USA. MAY THEY ROT IN HELL.” And that President Joe Biden sold autoworkers “down the river with his ridiculous all Electric Car Hoax.” And promoting electric vehicles “was the idea of the Radical Left Fascists, Marxists, & Communists.”
But that was before I met this fascist. I want you to meet my new manager, Elon.
He’s a great American… well, he’s South African, but potato/po-tah-toe, right? And he’s making these Teslas – it’s a company he founded! (Oh, sorry, actually, he didn’t start the company, he just invested in it, then wrested control from the founders and tried to claim credit for starting it. Hmm, that’s a situation that could never happen with our government.)
Let me tell you more about these beauties… they’re red, of course, to match my tie, and my hat. And Elon took inspiration from the German automakers to design them. You know, he takes a lot of inspiration from Germany… you might even say he spends most of his time doing a German salute.
And if you put these automobiles into self-driving mode, they’ll take control of the wheel and do all the driving, so you can focus on putting on your orange tanner and combing your hair into a nice cotton candy shape that covers your bald spots.
And the tires, they’re fully inflated… because just like with the economy, inflation is good!
I can put you into one of these babies for just $35,000… or five dozen eggs. You’d better lock down this deal before you get locked up for saying anything bad about me.
We also take trade-ins. Just push, pull, or drag Chuck Schumer down here and we’ll give you a real sweetheart deal, without any sort of negotiations at all, just like Chuckie did for me.
And if you buy now, I’ll throw in a free* pair of gold sneakers. (*you’ll just need to pay the fealty fee of $400… it’s standard for deals like this).
Come on down to Honest Donny’s car lot at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. You can take public transportation… wait, I probably defunded that because it’s “woke.” Maybe take a Cybertruck Uber. Unless it’s snowing.
I’ve been doing some digital spring cleaning, and I encourage you to do the same.
WaPo may be sorry to see me go, but I call b.s. on the “absolutely nothing has changed…”
There are the two recent developments that made me unsubscribe.
First was the news from Jan. 4th:
And then the final blow (because it blows) came this week:
I agree with Amanda Katz, a former member of the opinion team at the Washington Post who stepped down from her role at the end of 2024. She called the change:
“an absolute abandonment of the principles of accountability of the powerful, justice, democracy, human rights, and accurate information that previously animated the section in favor of a white male billionaire’s self-interested agenda”
My $40 a year won’t put a dent in Bozos wallet. But I’m not gonna stand idly by while the free press gets gutted by a guy who sells trinkets and baubles (mostly from China).
And here’s a bit more spring cleaning you can do, courtesy of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Instructions are here. (I should’ve spelled out the URL, as it’s “JohnOliverWantsYourRatErotica.”)
I’m rarely on Facebook, but every little bit helps!
Finally, there’s the non-elected, non-citizen who is running our country. (Oops, sorry for the typo, I meant “ruining” not “running.”)
Getting rid of the Twit is a bit more difficult (so much for “efficiency”) as you’ll have to request YOUR data, then wait for an email with a download link. But instructions are here.
It’s chump change to the oligarchs. But dollars are the only noise they hear. And if we all do it, maybe democracy still has a chance.
[L to R: Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, and the Walt Disney Company/ABC News.]
Here’s Dave Chappelle’s plea at the end of his Saturday Night Live monologue:
A nice sentiment, but likely to fall on deaf ears. And Dave needs to save some “good luck” wishes for the American people who will be harmed by t-Rump’s policies, decrees, and whims.
OK, I’ve had my say. You know where I stand. As best as I can over the next four years, I’m going to try to not give any more oxygen to the dumpster fire. Lil’ Donny the broken boy needs a steady stream of attention, and I don’t want to contribute. I’d rather focus my attention on things that I can change.
Notice the dateline: January 5th. Two months after the election, when reporting like this two months before the election might’ve made a difference. And almost four years to the date of the insurrection, the biggest challenge yet to our democracy.
Grandpa Joe inherited a total cluster, and managed to right the ship.
Now the most aggrieved man-child in history takes the reins, full of bluster and b.s., hellbent on revenge, caring for no one other than himself, looking to turn the U.S. government into shills, lackeys and toadies, and making bullying, corruption and extortion great again.
January 6th, 2021 WAS the biggest challenge yet to our democracy. Until today at noon.
“Donald Trump and the cynics want us to believe that he is all-powerful, and that if you fight back you will lose. he wants you to believe that if you fight back you may face danger. and he wants you to believe that it won’t matter, because he is in control of everything — and it is not true. it is time for us to build not a resistance but an opposition — something that is durable, something that will last for four years, and beyond. and we need to build that opposition now, and we need to all gird ourselves for the long run.”
Elizabeth Willing Powel’s question to Ben Franklin at the end of the Constitutional Convention in September of 1787: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
Ben Franklin: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
It’s our country. It’s up to us to keep it. It’s not gonna happen in Washington, but it can happen at home.
“Nobody can embargo sunlight. No cartel controls the sun. Its energy will not run out. It will not pollute the air. It will not poison our waters. It’s free from stench and smog. The sun’s power needs only to be collected, stored, and used.”
— President Jimmy Carter, May 3, 1978
L.A. is burning up.
Southern California has been experiencing a protracted dry spell. the rainy season, which generally starts in November, has yet to arrive — since May, just 0.16 inches of rain has fallen in Downtown Los Angeles. Additionally, LA experienced an unusually hot summer.
Droughts, hurricanes, and floods are more extreme.
“Drill, baby, drill” will only make it worse.
We squandered 46 years… we may not have another 46 to spare.
blueandgolddreamer on Vive la Différence!: “Apathy is the worst. It says it all” Mar 25, 04:14
Thomas G Kuhl on (Basket)ball of Confusion: “So many thoughts. I agree that it should be about life lessons. Okay. I will go away quietly screaming” Mar 19, 02:57
You done said…