Pump It Up

Here’s Fox Sports analyst Charles Davis promoting the Pac-12 title game.
“The Pac-12 is not a driving conference, yet it’s one of the most perfectly modeled travel conferences,” Johnson said. “By comparison, the SEC is a driving conference. You can pretty much get where you need to get to by hopping in the car and that’s not easily done in the Pac-12.
“Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott and his conference did a great job in deciding early on to put it at home sites because atmosphere is what makes a championship game too. We’ll have that championship feel on Friday night. And remember, the team that’s hosting has earned that opportunity.”
Wait, was that last sentence a dig at UCLA?

13 thoughts on “Pump It Up”

So, here’s the thing.

Although my investigative journalism skills clearly pale in comparison to Scott’s many, many years of training, I did take the crazy step of picking up the phone last night and, you know, actually calling the bookstore to ask what was up with the T-shirts thing.

To my surprise, the manager there told me quite freely that there WILL be first place T-shirts and they will be on sale NEXT WEEK at the bookstore and online.

Why is it that I’m able to find this out so easily but someone who’s job it is to cover the team can’t, despite pumping this very issue over the past few days?

Because Scott Wolf makes up most of his news, and the rest is just speculation that he steals from other sites.

You missed the beautiful, subtle nuance that is Scott Wolf. His “secret sources” told him that USC wouldn’t be selling the exact shirt that Haden had printed for the team at Kinko’s or wherever. Scott just never bothered to get off his butt and ask whether any _other_ shirts would be sold. Genius!

Barkley for Heisman! Wolf for Pulitzer!

um, it’s not going to be the same T-shirt. It’s going to say something like Pac-12 Southern Division, First Place… which is letter of the law ok with the Pac-12. Enjoy.

Jesus Christ, I don’t know which is more asinine: Davis’s comment or Wolf’s comment.

Let’s take Wolf’s first. No, Davis wasn’t taking a dig at UCLA, you moron, at least not directly. He was pointing out that the home field selection is a meritocracy and goes to the team with the better record. In other words, it’s earned on the field, not given out at random.

While that may indirectly speak to UCLA’s record, even if USC had been eligible to play in the game it still would have been played in Eugene because Oregon had a better record than 10-2 USC. Hell, even if 11-1 Stanford were in the South Division they’d be playing in Eugene because of the tiebreaker.

As for Davis’s comment, there will be no championship feel on Friday at Autzen. It will be a coronation ceremony meant to annoint the Ducks. Yeah, they’ll get to enjoy the same spectacle of a beat-down that we got to experience last week. But a championship feel? Really?

Still, at least I can understand why Davis said what he did: he’s just shilling for the network since no one outside of 97403 will give a crap about the game except as a curiosity. Not sure what Wolf’s point is though. Is he trying to stir up the dozens on Bruins who stream to this blog like ants to a pile of sugar? Isn’t that Gold’s job?

@Trojan in Seattle

Careful. You may find yourself smited by Scott’s alterego, Trojan Rewind. The answer to your question is that it doesn’t play into Scott’s decision to bad-mouth Lane Kiffin at every opportunity. But, when his small mind finally draws some tangential conclusion as to how selling these t-shirts is an indictment of Lane Kiffin’s character, he’ll be sure to report it.

Hey, Charles Davis, the game on Friday won’t have a championship feel because when the Ducks play in a championship game it always ends with them losing.

Here is just another example of how bad Larry Scott has screwed this conference up!
NO it will not have a championship feel, Larry! You put the game on FRIDAY, Larry! Big time conferences play on Saturday, Larry!
I live in Portland amongst a LOT of Quack fans, season ticket holders even. Being that the game is both ON FRIDAY and AT 5PM Pacfic Time, most people are not going, or they are giving their tickets away. They are calling for the first non-capacity crowd at Autzen Stadium for a Duck game (where they usually pack an additional 2500+ people in for SRO) in about 20 years. THIS is what you’ve done, Larry!
The game is officially the laughing stock of all of college football.
DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS LARRY!?

Hey Keith 15:

Not sure, but I think maybe Larry Scott could not care less about all of your points, valid as they may be to us. The only thing that matters to Scott and many other suits in the Pac 12 is the many millions of $$$ coming to each school via the new TV contract. If TV wanted to play the game at 2AM in Bumfuck Egypt, Scott would reserve the stadium. Never forget: Money Talks and Bullshit Walks…

Keith15….to be fair, this game would be SRO if USC was playing in it, or if ASU didn’t collapse the second half of the year. Hell, even if Utah had beaten Colorado this game would have had a sellout.
Seriously, why didn’t USC self-impose a bowl ban for 2009? I can’t even remember the name of that bowl game in San Francisco.