BCS, Part II

It's been an interesting weekend for the BCS. Fox Sports, which currently televises the BCS bowl games, has announced its dropping its bid to renew the package, which means ESPN is virtually guaranteed to become the new BCS home. While this was going on, president-elect Barack Obama stepped into the BCS muddle saying on 60 Minutes that college football needed a playoff system. But almost as soon as the interview had concluded the people who run the current system pretty much told the soon-to-be leader of the free world to take a hike. Check out these comments:

Big XII Commissioner Dan Beebe: "I am disappointed that there isn't more full discussion before he comes to a conclusion on this. I would only hope that [he] would take under full consideration all the aspects."

Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delaney: "Whether it's the president-elect or college football coaches and fans debating it, the First Amendment is alive and well."

ACC Commissioner Jim Swofford: "I'm glad he has a passion for college football like so many other Americans. For now our constituencies--and I know he understands constituencies--have settled on the current BCS system, which the majority believe is the best system yet to determine a national champion."

If you read between the lines it seems like Obama will have a much easier time creating world peace than he will trying to create a football playoff.
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On a completely unrelated note:
CALL FOR PAPERS: SPORT LITERATURE ASSOCIATION

June 25-28, 2009

London, Ontario

Deadline: April 24, 2009

The 26th Annual Conference of the Sport Literature Association will be held June 25-28, 2009, at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. The Program Committee of the Sport Literature Association invites proposals for individual papers and complete sessions. All submissions should relate to the literature of sport in some way.

Scholarly and critical submissions for the conference should follow general guidelines set forth in the association's publication, Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, which "celebrate[s] the intersection of literature with the world of play, games, and sport." Submissions "should address

treatments of sport in texts or textual media (print, film, performance, digital or other media)." We invite essays on sport literature (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, or film) or on the rhetoric of sport. Cultural-studies approaches to sport texts are welcome. We also encourage sessions focused on presenters' original fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

Those interested in presenting should send abstracts of individual papers or original work or proposals for complete sessions by April 24, 2009, to the program chair at the following address:

Dr. Mark D. Noe

Professor of English

School of Integrated Studies

Pennsylvania College of Technology

One College Avenue

Williamsport PA 17701

Email: mnoe@pct.edu

Phone: 570-320-2400, x7508

Fax: 570-320-2424

Submissions (preferably electronic) must include presenter's name, phone number, postal and email addresses, paper title, and a 250-word abstract. (Abstracts are mandatory since they will be printed in post-conference proceedings). Indicate the type of presentation as critical study, fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry. Proposals may also include suggestions for possible panels.