The weather is thick, hot and stifling - Check.

Pryor is officially leaving Ohio State - Check.

Teams are starting to announce game start-times - Check.

Winding down to the home stretch before College Football season starts.

Just saw the LSU/Florida game has a 7pm start time, which means I'll see a night game in Death Valley.  

Now, what other games will I go to this year?  That's the next question to address!

And the winner is? No one.

Here it is.  The posting all 5 readers of this blog have been waiting for.  After months of controversy in Columbus, Jim Tressel resigned as head coach as Ohio State.  REM said it best people, Everybody hurts.

Where to begin....

Hopefully by now everyone knows how I feel about students & coaches accepting special benefits and not being punished for them.  I feel the same way about it when its' my own team, so I admit, they (you know, "The Tainted Five") deserve their punishment and then some.

But Jim Tressel?!???  The Vest?  Jimmy?   It hurts.  I love that man and love everything he did for Ohio State.  And the thing is, HE loves Ohio State and I have no doubt, whatever it is that "he did" - he did it for the Buckeyes.  I bet you he could tell you right now how many days there are until the Michigan Game.  He is a buckeye and always will be.

That's all I'm going to say about this.  Thanks for a great ride, Tress!

April Showers....

Contrary to popular belief, I didn't boycott my blog for the month of April simply to avoid the wrath of what is going on with the Ohio State football program.  But now that you bring it up, it would be nice if the old saying "April Showers bring May Flowers" would start to prove true.  

While at a wedding this past weekend, I was asked by a fellow avid college football (and Texas fan) what I thought of Jim Tressell.  My response was the same it has been and will continue to be until everyone (yes, EVERYONE, including those on the teams I follow) stop acting like total crooks and start taking things seriously.  College athletes are students that are getting a college education for playing sports.  It has been the same story since the beginning of time and for the love, can we just keep things innocent and right for their 3-4 years in college before they go pro?  I don't want to hear about, talk about it or think about it.

My only hope for right now is that come August everyone can begin to focus on the good things going on in this sport.  And if that means one of my teams needs to suffer with punishment, well, it is what it is.

At this point, I'd much rather continue to focus my attention on the new Duke & Dutchess of Cambridge.

Bracket-ology

Before things get too out of hand (This Florida/BYU game is a little too close for comfort) I figured all 6 of the people reading this would like to know how I'm netting out in my first bracket.

Rather than your typical red X's and yellow high-lighting, I opted for a much warmer combination of Purple for wins and blue for losses.  Makes it much more enjoyable to look at, don't you agree?

Read it & Weep

Yep, you heard it.  For the first time in my LIFE I have entered into the basketball bracket at work.  It's SUPER high tech.  All I remember about brackets is my dad driving around with all of his hard copy print outs of his 10 different brackets with marks in red where he messed up and teams circled that he picked right.

MY bracket is electronic and all I had to do was click on the name of the team I wanted to win (that's right, the team I want to win.  Surely you don't think I pick this based on who will probably win, do you?) and it automatically populates.  So cute.  And fun!

So here's my bracket - read it and weep.

Potential Awkward moments to come:

Sweet 16 - Ohio State vs. UNC - You know I'm a closet Carolina fan and I happen to live with an open Carolina fan.  Sorry Court, I'm buying Gracie an Ohio State bandanna!

Semi-finals - Although I picked Kansas to beat Florida, I might secretly be hoping Florida wins.  I would love nothing more than Ohio State to beat the pants off of them in the National Championship.

National Championship Game - It might become awkward the number of times I refer to this game as "the dance."  See, I've always called the football national championship "the dance" - which it isn't.  Now that I'll actually be watching, I'll be throwing this lingo around like it's going out of style.

Dare I say it?  I'm excited!!!

Turning a new leaf

Nope, you're wrong.  I'm NOT going to comment about Jim Tressell's suspension.  And I'm not going to comment about the possible allegations at Oregon.  I'm sick, sick, sick of all this mess.  It's ridiculous and terrible.

Instead, I'm going to make a very serious confession:

I. watched. a. College. Basketball. Game.

I mean, I REALLY watched it.  As in, went to my fave game-watching location in Richmond with my dad on Sunday (Love me some Home Team Grill) decked out in OSU gear, ate chicken fingers, drank Blue Moon and cheered.  I guess it also didn't hurt that Ohio State beat the pants off of Wisconsin...

There's a lot of fun things to consider when watching college basketball (a sensible championship system, weather-control, only 2 half's) but here are a few areas where I think it's lacking:

Camaraderie - There really isn't a "tailgating" scene in basketball.  It's winter, after all.  So, I think you miss out on all of the fun and smack-talk that happens before and after games.

Week-day games - Football games are on Saturdays (with a Thursday night game thrown in here and there...) Basketball games are mostly during the week.  For example, Ohio State plays today at noon. Um, hello?  I'm going to miss the game due to a little thing I like to call, work.  Fail on Basketball's part.

Number of games - I mean, 3-4 games a week is exhausting for fans!

That being said, I feel I've turned a corner in the fact that I watched an entire game and really enjoyed it.  I MIGHT even pay to be in a bracket this year....Come on, I said MIGHT!

2011 Tour of Stadiums

That's right everyone, things are starting to book up FAST!  

I just got the most AMAZING news that I'll be sporting purple & gold for one week this year at the LSU / Florida game in Death Valley.

I pretty much have the best dad on all of planet Earth.

Geau Tigers!