Fields should be green, courts should be wood-colored
Northwestern is one of the best universities in the United States. It’s close to Chicago, one of our nation’s best cities. It’s going to have a heck of a football team this season (shameful tease for The Daily Gamecock 2011 football preview tabloid, which hits newsstands Aug. 31!).
In other words, they shouldn’t feel the need to use athletic gimmicks as a crutch in Evanston, Ill. However, for some reason, they do. In an attempt to drum up buzz for its men’s basketball team, which has never made the NCAA Tournament but returns enough talent this winter that making the Big Dance should be a realistic goal, the school is asking fans to chime in on Facebook about a new court design for Welsh-Ryan Arena, which will be announced later this month.
There are four design options to choose from. One of them — the one pictured — is almost completely purple.
Enough is enough. The Boisification of collegiate athletic playing surfaces has got to stop.
I don’t have a problem with Boise State’s blue football field. It’s unique and a part of that program’s heritage. Obviously the groundskeeper who came up with the idea to try and boost attendance had no idea a guy named Chris Peterson was going to show up and build a midmajor behemoth. It’s like the guy with gray hair who dyes it jet black and then realizes he looks stupid; there’s no graceful way to change directions. The Smurf turf is part of the fabric of college football and here to stay.
However, that doesn’t mean everyone else should be able to alter the natural hues of what the games are played on. The NFL very quietly passed a bylaw preventing teams from changing the color of their playing fields a while back, and the NCAA should do the same.
Grass should be green. Wood should be, well, wooden. I’m partial to parquet, but any shade or variety will do. Colored surfaces are just dumb, and there’s no good reason to create them. It’s what those in the professional wrestling industry call “cheap heat.” It’s a less-than-creative easy way to get publicity — which, I suppose, is what I’m giving Northwestern.
Alas. Something’s got to be done. Chances are Northwestern won’t go with what’s being derisively called the “Barney court” by some. However, the school shouldn’t be given the chance.
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UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni claimed there are no “bad teams” in the Big East during the conference’s media day Tuesday. Nope, just eight highly mediocre ones.
For a moment, imagine Rob or Rex Ryan coaching in the SEC. They’d make Lane Kiffin look introverted.
The Big 12 has placed a one-year moratorium on The Longhorn Network broadcasting high school games. Yeah, that’s going to keep the band together indefinitely. No report as to what the restrictions are for middle school games (don’t think Texas won’t go there).
Pardon the humblebrag, but I’d like to close by tipping my hat to all my colleagues here at the Gamecock who busted their humps to get us to where we found ourselves Tuesday — No. 17 on the Princeton Review’s list of the 20 best student papers in America. Pride doesn’t begin to explain it.