Williams College was a Bad Choice

Before I use the writers strike as an excuse to continue my literary procrastination, I wanted to delve into ESPN Gameday's awful decision to air their show at Williams College last Saturday.

I have given Gameday several shout outs on the pages of Mac G’s World this fall and deservedly so. It is one of few things that ESPN continually does very well. Finding a blog who gives ESPN credit is as rare these days as spotting a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker or an authentic FEMA press conference.

Seriously, Williams College? WTF.

In week 11 of the D1 college football season as conference races are being decided and the national title picture is becoming just a tad bit clearer, Gameday chooses to visit a D3 match up of small elitist liberal arts schools in nowhereville Mass? HUH?

Did an ESPN producer or executive attend of one of these 2 schools? The puzzling decision is downright laughable when you say it out loud to a buddy.

Over the years, the Gameday crew have become like rock stars with their tremendous popularity growth. Their show almost becomes as big as the event they are there covering. Students wait in lines forever and come up with clever signs.

The whole college community buzzes at their arrival. It is must see TV before viewing your favorite college team every Saturday.

I thought the whole point of the traveling Gameday crew was to capture the enthusiasm and environment of big time college football. You know, those games that the overwhelming majority of college football fans actually follow and watch!

The Gameday crew did not earn their rise to fame and relevancy in the college football world by telling fans what a great game something was because fans already knew that and their appearance just added to the game day experience.

I understand Williams/Amherst is the longest rivalry game in D3 or some crap. Cool, Neat, Super! Go send Desmond Howard up there during the week to do some 5 minute video package like you did earlier this season of Chadron State’s Danny Woodhead breaking the all time NCAA all divison rushing record.

If ESPN was looking for a sentimental choice ala Va Tech on the opening week then they should have chosen to take their show to the Orange Bowl for its last game ever. Corso, Fowler, and Herbstreet all gushed on air about their first hand experiences at the OB.

Granted Miami was blown out but I think you understand my point. Any one of these games would have been solid picks: Illinois/Ohio St, Auburn/Georgia, Kansas/Okie State, USC/Cal. Anywhere but Williamstown Mass.

It is bad enough that ESPN censors their online content, allows Tony Kornhieser to babble on MNF broadcasts, refuses to link to sports blogs, down plays steroid use by one of their ex-jock radio hosts, provides a constant stream of irrelevant OJ trial updates but now they are attempting to ruin one of the few top notch critically acclaimed things that fans still enjoy on ESPN.

In summary, Williams College was a Bad Choice.

The Gameday crew will be in Ann Arbor for the Mich/Ohio State game and I am fine with that selection. I just do not want to view anymore D3 ESPN football coverage until their national title game pops up at some random time next month on the Deuce.

Here are some pictures from other Gamedays this season, courtesy of my boy Joe, aka Tree, aka dude with the coolest job ever, aka Corso’s mascot bitch.

Past College Gameday Mac G Posts
Fake FEMA Press Conferences
Signs at Williams College
More Signs
Golic Finally Talks about his Steroid use on air
Williams College was a bad choice
Tree has Best Job Ever













Mac Gs World

Tree's Trip of Thoughts

I decided on a weekly post about my friend Joe's pictures and words about his kick A$$ job as a vital crew member for ESPN College Game Day. He informed me of his elated disbelief on last Friday of making both the USA today and Mac Gs World in the same day.

To recap that makes: Gannett Corporation 1, Poor blogger with a drinking/sports habit 1, BRING IT FISHWRAP!

Here is his rant about MLB playoffs and Husker football. I would email him for his take on Norman last week but he is in Lexington, KY right now setting up for tomorrow. First trip ever to UK for Gameday. He did run into Tim Couch last night and he was accompanied by some serious eye candy. Awesome.

While half the country wonders when Colorado got a baseball team.....What a story the 2007 Colorado Rockies are. Just to close out the regular season on that streak wasn't enough, how about the Monday night game against the Padres to get into the playoffs? Knocking off Jake Peavy and then Trevor Hoffman? Going 7-0 the first two rounds sweeping the Phillies and now the Diamondbacks.

And Kaz Matsui. KAZ MATSIU!!! This guy came to the Mets and looked like he had never played baseball before. He couldn't hit or field any position. Now, he's played a pivotal role for the Rockies on their run to the Series. I don't even think the Rockies were selling out games a month ago. Now, the middle of October, the Broncos suck and the Rockies are going to the World Series.

Everyone in Colorado will now tell you they've always been a die hard Rockies fan and even remember the three games Todd Helton started in '94 for the Tennessee Volunteers or Matt Holliday calling the signals for Oklahoma St. Maybe the worst thing that could of happened to the Rockies was sweeping the NLCS.

Now they have 8 days off before the Series Starts! They can kill a team's momentum. Can you imagine Cleveland/Colorado in the Word Series? All the snowed out games? Maybe the series gets over before pitchers/catchers report.

Just like the Oakland Raiders, the Nebraska Cornhuskers and finally, it's fans and boosters have quit on Bill Callahan. Looking at the remaining schedule, the Huskers probably won't win another game this year. How's this gonna look for recruiting? Probably the only thing to save Nebraska football will be T.O. They need his name more than ever.

Osborne is Nebraska. He is the typical Nebraska personality, work ethic, and attitude. I know he retired because he had a great and long career and wanted to ride out in the sunset and be able to spend more time with his family.

He'll come back to help, but not full time. He cares about Nebraska and it's people too much. I'm sure he doesn't want to go back to working 18 hour days, seven days a week. He'll restore the order. It's a tough task, right now, there are many more football programs more dominant than Nebraska.

Thanks Steve Pederson and Bill Callahan for totally screwing up the best program in college football.

GET OUT!!!!!!

Speaking of Nebraska, I heard that at Boondocker's they give free shots out for Hukser Touchdowns. Now they started giving them out for field goals!


Gamdeday Norman Pictures










Peace OUT!

Mac Gs World

My Boy Tree makes the USA Today

I try not to talk about my personal life here on Mac G's World but when of my boys makes the pages of the USA today, it is time to give him an official shout out. Joe Andreasen has the rough job of working for the ESPN gameday crew and getting to travel to all these college towns, aka, POON Meccas!

When he is not blasting me with text messages about how "the SEC is the best" or "Joe Torre has ruined the Yankees," he does seem to work his A$$ for Corso, Fowler, Herbstreet and company. I am jealous of his ability to be close to the best poon water fountains in America.

He recaps his experiences in a weekly email and I should start posting them on here. They are pretty classic and hilarious. Here a snippet from last week's trip to Baton Rouge.

Also, don't stand in one place. Louisianna has these pests called fire ants. Holy Sh%&!! However, LSU does bring it when it comes to tailgating. These guys have 4 foot gators on the grill. And I can't think of a more beautiful sight than women's keg stand tournaments!

Maybe 4 hot chicks wearing purple and gold sundresses with purple and gold high heels walking down the street each with a case of beer! They tore up Baton Rouge Saturday night after that thriller. Freakin Crazyyyyyy!!!!!!! The biggest surprise? That the town did not run out of alcohol.
Some gameday signs that come to mind....Tebow wears Jorts......Dont tase me bro.....Seperated at birth? (A pix of Lou Holtz and Sylvester the Cat.)

His nickname is Tree Rat and here is his blurb in today's USA today.

Playing head games with Corso

Each Saturday, Joe Andreasen makes one of the highest-profile handoffs in college football.

Technically, it's more of a head-on: Andreasen, crouching under flamboyant Lee Corso's desk on the set of ESPN's College GameDay, plops a school mascot head on Corso to signify his big-game prediction.

Yes, they actually practice. They first tried to get their timing down on turning Corso into the Southern California Trojan, complete with sword and breastplate.

With each school's heads stashed in ESPN production trailers, says Andreasen, Corso "will take me aside when he's getting makeup for the Friday SportsCenter report to practice.

"He takes it so seriously. He wants to go through it so we don't get heads on backwards." Says Corso: "This is serious business for me."

Andreasen, a freelancer who does other errands for the show and also works on ESPN's college basketball GameDay, almost had a busted play this season when Corso was trying to put on an Alabama elephant head — "it was almost life-size and barely fit in a 40-gallon trash bag" — and it wouldn't go on. "It just got stuck for two seconds, but it seemed like five minutes."

Saturday's show is at Oklahoma, where the Sooners will host Missouri. Andreasen expects to call an audible: "I'm almost sure he'll pick Oklahoma, but they don't have a head. There, we've ended up picking a goofy hat from the crowd."

Here are some pictures from his trips so far this season and Tree, if you are reading this, BRING THE CAMERA TO NORMAN!







USA Today Article

Mac Gs World

Football is Paradise Part 1(Long)

The Summer was a very long one for sports fans. The headlines were dominated by dismal stories of dog fighting, NFL player suspensions and a crooked NBA ref scandal. Baseball's climatic moment, Barry Bonds breaking Henry Aaron's Home Run record, was marred by the media's constant pounding of the steroid storyline of his accomplishment.

Even Arod's monster 07 season seems diminished due to the fact his own fickle Yankee fans spent the off season solely blaming him for their recent playoff futility and even openly booed him at every chance late last season. The Yanks struggled out of the gate and ESPN's typical Yankee/Sox intoxicating coverage seemed more out of place than usual for your average baseball fan.

To make matters worse, Sports fans suffered through ESPN's putrid month long "Who's Now?" segment on Sportscenter. LT or Tiger? Who Cares? Is this a sports channel or VH1? I actually have switched over to ESPN news for my sports highlight needs and they are far more reliable than Sportscenter anymore. Sad but true days for the good Ole Big show that I grew up on.

I love baseball but if your favorite team is out of contention, of course my Orioles always are, the dog days of summer can seem longer than Tommy Lee's G unit. That could be what the MTV VA fight was all about.

Preseason NFL games and the opening of college practices start to satisfy your football taste buds. Both of those, particularly the NFL preseason, reminds me of the feeling you get when you leave a gentlemans club. Sunshine, who winked at you all night, was being dishonest about you being her only special friend.

Your wallet is much lighter and this wicked case of blue balls now overcomes your body.This cheap feeling is how preseason football leaves me, highly teased but never truly satisfied.

This shallow brief arousal finally ended with this past stellar sports weekend. Second Week of College Football on Saturday and Opening Day of NFL on Saturday.

Throw in the US Open tennis Final, a Brazil/USA soccer match at Soldier Field and another Tiger domination of a final round of golf and it was like all the summer futility never took place. One of the best sports viewing weekends of the year so far.

I watched at least over 25 hours of football over the past 3 days. I have 3 TVs going, all the packages from Direct TV and a no commercials allowed rule with a quick trigger finger. People think I am nuts, YES, sir, may I have another!

Aside from my obvious contributions to bottle recycling and liver decay, I feel like giving back to my 8 readers by recapping my thoughts here on Mac Gs World every week about the games I viewed.

I will try my combination of couch potato humor, drunken kill the coach crazy fandom and buck fifty worth analyst skills. Feel Free to rip on me all you want, I encourage it.

Week 2 of College football contained some of the same story angles of Week 1.

• Michigan and Notre Dame both still suck. OU/LSU looked fast, hungry and dominant.
• Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr post game quotes sounded like a defeated man. 4 games ago, Carr's undefeated team was playing Ohio State for a spot in the BCS title game and now he is dead man walking in Ann Arbor with his coaching career pretty much over. Crazy how quickly things can change. "Boy that Escalated quickly!"
  
• My Hawkeyes Crushed the Cuse 35-0 and my home state Huskers escaped Wake Forrest with a W. I would go in to further detail but I will save those comments for Hawkeye/Husker blogs and message boards.
  
• I love watching West Virginia play and their lethal spread offense. More teams should copycat their style and raid Rich Rodriguez's coaching staff. Slaton/White is the best 1/2 running punch in America and the new true frosh RB is legit. The question mark is whether they are able to stop anyone on defense.
  
• Washington Huskies are 2-0. Hey, Golden Domer fans, Ty Willingham might not be such a bad coach after all. Fat Chuck Weis is now 0-2 with starting QBs not with Brady in their name. Coincidence? Jimmy Clausen, welcome to Major D1 football and this is not small school California High School ball anymore.
  
• Does Hawaii QB Colt Brennan play real football or his own video game version? His weekly stats are SICK!
  
• The Big Ten is going VERY slow out of the gate as the Suckeyes had 3-2 lead for WAY too long over Akron.
  
• SEC appears its usual force but had a few slip ups with Auburn and UGA upset losses. I am sucker for a Southern Poon Bell. Ring a Ding, Ding!
  
• Pac 10 will be its typical overrated self. Aside from USC, name me one Pact 10 school that has won a major BCS bowl in the past 5 years? I think Cal maybe won a Holiday bowl but I could be wrong.
• The Big East could be better than the ACC.
  
• The most entertaining game I witnessed was the Fresno St/Texas A&M, triple OT thriller. Fresno has a squad this season and A&Ms defense looks VERY shaky.
  
• Miami/Florida St have still lost their edge as premier programs and both of their offenses look very pedestrian. Bobby Bowden's time is up. I am convinced that Paterno and Bowden are both destined to coach until the other one croaks.
  
• ESPN College Gameday Crew still brings their A game every week and continually prove to be one of the few things right about the 4 Letter. A blog giving Props to ESPN? STOP THE TUBES! My Boy Tree Rat provided me with his pix from Baton Rouge and Blacksburg.
  

I will write my NFL recap on a new post. I still love Poon POON, and more Poon!




Mac Gs World