it's not cool to be a progressive and a sports fan. we're supposed to be "better" than that, to recognize these activities for what they are: opiates of the masses, marketing opportunities, and expressions of deeply (in)bred violence. and to an extent, often an overwhelming extent, this is true. but it misses the better points of sports.

1. they're fun! there's nothing quite like a cold friday night in autumn with Corvallis High kicking hell out of Crescent Valley. a sunny afternoon at Safeco, watching Ichiro going 3-for-4 and playing amazing defense. the Detriot Pistons embarrassing Kobe & the Lakers. checking the soccer scores from England saturday morning. in a world where everything is as serious as death, sports is a nice break. but then again, so is Spongebob!

2. they mean something. i was conceived in 1955, the only year the Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series. the NCAA tournament means one thing to me: baseball season has begun!! the Dodgers are getting ready to defend their division title and this year, to celebrate the anniversary of the Boys of Summer's triumph with one of their own. whether or not "my team" wins is not life-or-death, and the fact that the 49ers were the worst team in football last year sucked, but i did not lose any sleep. but i was pissed.

i love sports, but i'm glad i no longer feel the deep passions for them i once did. i've balanced them with many other things, including the ultimate sport of politics! (if only kerry could have taken on bush in something sporting -- like mountain biking!) i think hating sports is foolish, when done to proclaim how one's politics are so much better. if you just don't enjoy hoops or the great american pasttime, fine. go have your own fun. let those of us who do have our fun.

go Dodgers!!

Yet another service provided by Blue Oregon...if y'all hadn't reminded me about the NCAA tournament I would have completely forgotten about its existence. Of course, living in Britain, it isn't exactly dominating the news. To be honest, March Madness never captured my attention much at home either. Basketball just isn't my sport.

What IS dominating the news is the Six Nations rugby tournament, in which England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, and Italy have been playing one another. Gotta say, never seen rugby before this year and now I'm totally hooked. The big final game this weekend has 4-1 Ireland and 5-0 Wales playing one another for the championship. So, if you can find it on ESPN35, it should be a great game...

Honestly, I'd give up political activism (but not politics) in a hot second before I ever gave up college hoop. It's the new national pastime, having supplanted baseball by virtue of being relatively cloistered in comparison.

You don't have to like one team and one team only to get it. I had to ask where Hampton was when I first got to Boise last time, but that didn't stop me from falling in love with that school oh, about the first time the Band played.

There's a Cinderella story every year in this tournament, and I'm not afraid to admit that I shed a tear at some of the locker room speeches they play. I even temporarily put aside my adoration of English soccer (Come on, Carlisle!) for this.

The "You Never Know" pool run by Pop Kelly back in Old Greenich, CT has been a part of my March madness since 1992. Each year I study the stats, fill out the bracket and stick $5 in an envelope with the hope that this might be the year I'll be the winner who takes all. My picks are secured by magnets on the fridge. No social events are scheduled. My husband who has no interest in the big dance, disappears to read fly fishing magazines. He looks in on me once in a while when he hears screaming obscentities. Another year. I can hardly wait!

This is a good post, and reminds me why I always have to watch regional games in Boise or Salt Lake. As to your slagging of Boise, let me say: Hey, that's the city of me birth!

Duke is to be admired. I don't know of a program more in line with lefty ideals. Coach K recruits good kids, most of them get a degree, the students get to watch the games free, and the university doesn't have to bend its rules to get kids to come. It's the model for student athletes. I save my derision for schools like Miami (Fla). On the other hand, I always have them losing early in my brackets, and they never do, so I do sorta hate that.

Vegas doesn't have the arena for a F4, not that they'd want one anyway as the revenue they generate from betting the games easily outstrips the revenue they'd generate from hosting games.

Actually, Thomas and Mack Center there would do in a pinch (although it doesn't probably seat enough for the new Final Four stadium guidelines), all other considerations being moot, but that's not the point I was trying to make. (Thomas and Mack could still host a regional, but the NCAA will ensure that's not going to happen.)

To speak to your larger, better point:

As for Oregon, what do you think the schools need more - the revenue generated from Sports Action or the revenue generated from the Oregon Pear Bowl - you know, that scintilating matchup featuring the 5th place team in the Pac-10 and the 4th place team in the Mountain West? Last I checked, the Seattle Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl and Silicon Valley "Classic" weren't exactly selling out.

The "schools" aren't at issue here. The Biology department in LaGrande, for example, doesn't see a dime of Sports Action revenue. Athletic departments get most of that money, and I totally have an issue with that.

So, to answer your question, I make no secret of wanting Sports Action GONE. Even if my four-game parley bets were feeding janitorial staff at the schools, or going to charity, the most noble such causes I can think of, there are too many problems with this "source." And in the meantime, that is exactly the reason that Oregonians have to miss out on any March Madness in person, unless they travel.

First, I'm pretty sure that the major college athletic departments are "flush" right about now. What money they missed could be made up the same way every other school does it: through boosters.

And now we're beginning to see recruiting excesses at our Pac-10 schools: the U of O Hummer, for crying out loud? U of O and OSU both have brand new Athletic Complexes.

It still doesn't seem to keep us, speaking as Duck Fan, from stinking up the joint in either major sport, or our football recruits away from the cheeb at parties, or our only effective post scorer from pissing dirty three times in a row. It also doesn't keep Mike Riley's football recruits out of the police blotter, either, to be fair.

Meanwhile, we chuck our chance to net about $25-30 million infused into a community (for just the first two rounds, more for the Regionals, and usually, it's every 3 years) for what my research says is, if we're lucky, about a net of $2.5 million per year for the "schools." It's a bad trade.

But what mostly chaps is that the NCAA (in the times I've communicated with them) has said, effectively, 'yeah, we'd love to be in Portland for the West regional, or put Corvallis back in the rotation. We know your game doesn't bet basketball anymore. Still, if you shut it off, we'll come back.'

Do you think they WANT to make people come to Boise?

<h2>(and Sorry, Jeff, but I used to live in Nampa myself, and tend to go for the aforementioned tournament games. Boise's just not impressive, no matter how you slice it. I feel the same way about Schenectady, NY, the city of my birth, if that helps.)</h2>