FOOTBALL

In college football, the Bowl selections came out this past weekend.  Auburn will face Oregon for the BCS National Championship.  But a team that was in the running all season, Boise State, has seemingly been punished for losing a game.  Instead of taking on one of the other powerhouse teams, their loss to Nevada earned them a date with #20 Utah, a team that started hot, and has been steadily declining. Yesterday Boise State’s President lambasted the BCS system because there was an error that put Boise State at #11, when it should have been #10.  This didn’t really have an effect on their final bowl placement, but Boise’s president was mad that an error like this could even happen.  He says that the NCAA is always on them for being transparent, but they keep the inner-workings of the BCS system, a system with a lot of money attached, under wraps.  This was just his outrage at Boise’s disappointing end, but he does have a point.

Elsewhere in college football, a long-time coach is stepping down.  The Pitt Panthers have enjoyed a great deal of success under Dave Wannstedt, but they have been sub-par the past few seasons.  He coached the Eagles star running-back LeSean McCoy, and the star Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis.  And this was supposed to be their big comeback year.  They were expected to compete to win the Big East.  Plus, they had a Heisman candidate in running-back Dion Lewis.  Unfortunately, they lost their opening game to Utah, and it was pretty much a bumpy ride the rest of the way.  The Pitt Athletic Program has opted to remove Wannstedt now before their Compass Bowl Game.  This is because they want to recruit a solid coach now as opposed to after the new year, as many top coaches will have been hired by then.  Good luck to Pittsburgh — they deserve to have a good program.

Finally, in the NFL, the Washington Redskins have simply… had enough of Albert Haynesworth.  Haynesworth was brought to D.C. from Tennessee by Redskins owner Dan Snyder.  Snyder paid him $100 million dollars, a contract that had almost everybody shaking their head.  And from Day 1, Haynesworth didn’t want to be there.  This year, when new head coach Mike Shanahan took over, he wanted to change to a 3-4 defensive scheme.  Well, Haynesworth didn’t like this scheme, and was thus very difficult to deal with in the locker room.  He refused to practice and was disruptive to the team.  Now, with just 4 games remaining, the Washington Redskins have decided to suspend Haynesworth for the season.  The official reason cited:  “conduct detrimental to the club”.  This is almost a guarantee that Haynesworth will be in another jersey next season.