The Coach Jag Firing

I'm still in Washington DC with the issue of genocide occupying my days, but I wanted to comment very quickly on the bizarre Jeff Jagodzinsky firing at Boston College. Apparently a huge part of the issue comes down to BC Athletic Director Gene DiFilippo's sense of betrayal. In many ways this reminds me of the sense of betrayal that pervaded the dissoution of Bill Belichick and Eric Mangini's relationship when Mangini took the Jets coaching job. But isn't there some irony attached to Boston College reacting to Coach Jag's potential breach of contract by breaking their contract with him by firing him?

The BCS, BC and VTech

Soon enough I'll have my annual rants about the Bowl Championship Series and the patent fraud that is the end of the major college football season. But let me give you a little preview:

Can someone please explain to me how Virginia Tech is ranked ahead of Boston College? The two teams play in the same conference. They have the same record, as both teams are 10-2. And they played once this year. Boston College won. And so what we have here is a case in which the voters (I realize there is the computer component to consider as well) have decided, despite what has happened on the field when the two teams played, that Virginia Tech is better than Boston College despite the fact that all things are equal and Boston College won when they met on the field. The experts have chosen to place themselves above the action on the field. And yet at the end of year we are supposed to believe that things have worked out because the very people who have a say in the system tell us that they have finally gotten it right.

I realize that neither Boston College nor Virginia Tech is going to be in the national championship picture. And I realize that BC and Virginia tech will meet again tomorrow in the ACC championship game. But if the supposed experts can allow this pretty clearly unjustifiable glitch in the system to happen largely because of their own belief that their opinions matter more than what has happened on the field, how can we take them seriously as the final arbiters of a system that everyone else knows is flawed?

Soon enough I'll be making my case for Hawaii's deserved place in the BCS Championship game (if they hold up their end of the bargain in the last game of the regular season at home against Washington tomorrow night).