On Monday, I spent the evening at Hill Country in Manhattan with Horndogger, a BON semi-regular, and hundreds of other Longhorn fans, eating, drinking and watching Texas pull out a miraculous yet somehow never in doubt comeback win over Ohio State.  Following is my take on the night and, for your amusement, a collection of musings (think BZ's News and Views) recorded during the game by my girlfriend, presented Sports Gal-style.  Click through the jump to read it.

Continue reading this post »

This season, Tyrone Willingham, Ron Prince and Sylvester Croom were all either fired or given a nudge out the door at major college football programs.  They all are also black.  At the same time, zero black coaches have been hired at any schools, leaving only three black coaches at the division I level: Randy Shannon at Miami, Kevin Sumlin at Houston, and Turner Gill at Buffalo.  The firings of Willingham, Prince and Croom (for the purposes of this article, we'll just say they were fired) were not necessarily unjustified, especially in the case of Willingham.  But the paucity of black head coaches in division 1 college football is astonishing and, to my mind, sad.  And now comes rampant speculation that Auburn was uneasy about hiring Turner Gill away from Buffalo (where he has turned an unmeasurably moribund program into a bowl team) because of potential backlash from the Tiger faithful due to the race of Turner Gill's wife, who is white.

It's not that I think racism is exclusively to blame.  There are numerous reasons that black head coaches have a hard time getting hired, perhaps most notably the clubby atmosphere of the former head coaches circle from which it seems most head coaching hires are drawn--once you're in the club, getting fired is just a means to the end of getting another job somewhere else, but good luck getting into the club in the first place if you're young, as most black head coaching candidates are.  And insofar as I do think racism is to blame for this lack of black head coaches, it's more the notion that racism exists than the actual existence of racism that is the progenitor of such a sad state of affairs.  Social psychologists call it pluralistic ignorance and I'll explain what I mean by it after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

BON is getting bigger and bigger by the day, with the quantity of Fan Posts being published increasing exponentially over the last few weeks, and so I thought it would be a good time to remind everyone of the purpose of Fan Posts.  They are not for you to just post funny pictures, or videos, or links to articles elsewhere, just to say, "hey, check this out!". Not that we don't want that sort of thing on BON.  Far from it.  But if you want to post something like that, please use the Fan Shot function, which is located a little bit lower on this right hand column.  

Fan Posts are for when you have something thoughtful to say.  Note the word "thoughtful" in that sentence.  Put some thought into what you're writing and it will invariably be better written, both stylistically and substantively.  Moreover, there's a reason that Fan Posts have a minimum word limit.  If you're struggling to come up with enough words to meet the minimum, consider whether your post would work better as a Fan Shot or as a comment to someone else's post.

Questions for other community members are sometimes appropriate, but there should be some sort of broad applicability to the question (i.e. the answer to your question should be something that a lot of BONers would want to know).  Otherwise, throw the question into a comment on a related thread or e-mail one of the authors. Also, this is not craig's list.  Do not try to sell anything.  Your post will be deleted.

Finally, and I can't stress this enough, please scan other recent Fan Posts to see if you're about to post something that someone has already posted.  If that's the case, but you have a completely different, thoughtful and somewhat lengthy take on the issue, then it might be worth a new Fan Post, but if not, then you should just comment on the previous post instead.  That "BCS Declares Winner of WWII" e-mail forward was sort of funny the first time, and aggravating beyond belief the 7th time it got posted.  Just think before you post.  That's all.

I don't mean to discourage anyone from posting their own thoughts.  This is a community after all, and everyone who is civil in their discourse deserves to be heard.  Let's just all try to follow these guidelines a little bit more closely and I think we'll have an active, vibrant community with plenty of meaningful conversations.

I mentioned this last week, but the FanPost got buried quickly, as is the tendency these days, so I thought it was worth mentioning again.

As I hope you know, the Texas basketball team plays Villanova at Madison Square Garden tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 9pm, immediately following the Davidson-West Virginia game at 7pm.  A few BONers and I are getting together at Stout (around the corner from MSG) at around 5:30 to say hello and imbibe a few adult beverages before heading over to the arena to see Stephen Curry score 40 points on the Mountaineers, followed by what hopefully will not be a continuation of the Horn's historic ineptitude in the greater NYC area.

So if you're interested in joining us and meeting one of your authors, drop a comment below or send me an e-mail at billyzane.BON@gmail.com.  I'd love to have a big turnout.

[Also, if you put a comment up last week saying you were interested and haven't gotten an e-mail from me, send me an e-mail at the above address. Thanks.]

First of all, here's hoping everyone in the city can make it out to the Texas-Villanova game at MSG next Tuesday.  The game is at 9, following a West Virginia-Davidson game at 7.

Additionally, Commenter Horndogger got in touch with me and we're trying to perhaps put together a BON happy hour at Stout (right around the corner from MSG) before the first game, maybe from 5:30 to 7 or so.

If you're interested, throw up a comment.

This article isn't going to win me any friends, I'm certain of that.  Why?  Because the other thing I'm certain of is that you hate the BCS.  This sentiment has never been as fever pitched in the great state of Texas as it is now.  Choruses of "we got screwed" ring out from every corner of Longhorn fandom.  I've had countless friends unsuccessfully try to console me by mentioning a playoff.  President Elect Obama went on Monday Night Football the day before the election and, while predictably behind the times McCain was rambling about steroids, made a brilliant political pitch to the South in advocating for an 8-team college football playoff.  He repeated this advocation on 60 Minutes after the election, showing that he's legitimately serious and wasn't just pandering to a constituency he coveted.

But I beseech you, Mr. Obama, if you are serious about this whole "Team of Rivals" business, bring someone into the fold who has thought endlessly about what the college football postseason should be and who, while agreeing with you on the fundamental issue that the BCS is flawed, does not agree with you on the best way to fix that flaw.  This is an incredibly nuanced issue and there should be an incredibly nuanced debate.  But to be honest, sir, for someone as enamored of nuance as yourself, you display a shocking lack of nuance in your college football playoff position. Bring someone into the fold who understands the nuance, knows the political angle of it all, and above all else who won't blindly agree with you. Someone like, say, me?

Kidding aside (NB to Obama transition team: not kidding; please call), this mess merits looking more closely at the BCS than most of us have been in our blind calls for a playoff.  So let's do that, shall we?

Continue reading this post »

Well, that sucked. Everyone needs to read Peter's beautiful tome on how to handle ourselves in this incredibly unfortunate (and in our minds unjust) situation. But the chances of Texas going to the BCS National Championship game are not gone. Take a look at the BCS standings:

Follow me after the jump for a little bit of thought on Texas' remaining opportunities.

Continue reading this post »

Bama is predictably destroying a terrible Auburn team, and Florida is likewise beating up on the Seminoles.  But alas, there is hope!  Your adopted fightin' Baylor Bear football team is leading Texas Tech 28-21 heading into the 4th Quarter.  If the Bears win, whatever happens in Stillwater tonight means absolutely nothing to Texas, as the Horns will be headed to Kansas City regardless.  And a win in Kansas City unequivocally sends Texas to Miami.  So the moral of the story is: SIC 'EM BEARS!!!