You Need a Slide Rule

Four teams from District 2-5A made it to the playoffs, but you can’t decide how they did it without a slide rule, and most people nowadays don’t know what a slide rule is. That makes it all the more amazing. What ever happened to the coin toss, or did it disappear with the tradition of going to first downs or yardage gained to decide overtime games.
Perhaps, the saddest part of all was the Lee-Odessa game. Lee beat the only undefeated team in the district, but it didn’t matter a whit in deciding a playoff berth, one of the best games of the year and it didn’t change anything. The Midland-Permian game is the one that counted. If Midland won, Lee is out, no matter any magnificent effort by the Rebels against the Bronchos. But Lee beat Midland, and if they had wound up in a tie for the last spot, shouldn’t that have some bearing …..that’s where the slide rule comes in.
Some say it doesn’t make any difference. All the 2-5A teams will be eliminated early, if not in the first round. Hey, doesn’t Lee catch El Paso Coronado? A playoff game against an El Paso team once equated with a “bye” week, and who’s next?.However, that, too, has gone the way of the first down and slide rule.
One year three teams tied for first in the district and they didn’t even go to first downs to decide the winner, a damned coin flip eliminated Midland High, although it was district tri-champion. Bring back the first downs .
Who said the law of averages isn’t at work. After losing 40 or so games in a row to Notre Dame, Navy now has won the last two. That means, according to the iron clad law of averages, Notre Dame will next beat Navy around 2050?
A horrible thing happened to Oregon Saturday when they took the field against Stanford and realized, “Wait, this isn’t Eugene, it’s Palo Alto.” However, Oregon State discovered Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley is just like home.
I hope you didn’t see that sickening hit on the California’s Best who hurdled a tackler into the end zone and then was hit eight feet up by a Beaver. An eight foot fall, feet in the air, landing on his neck and shoulders, the helmet flew and Best didn’t budge. I winced when I saw it and still wince whenever they replay it.
Although the fall knocked him out, he somehow held on to the ball. What’s disturbing, he is supposed to have suffered a concussion a week earlier.
It’s true, Stanford has a new football stadium. The last time I saw a game there, it was a big bowl, surrounded by a track with the seats way away…maybe that’s why an end zone seat cost only $8. The new one is double decked, track eliminated, with chair seats and end zone bleachers have backs. The most remote seat is closer than the best seat before. They razed the old stadium almost after the 2005 season was over. “Almost” because the last game was still in progress when they started tearing down the old to make room for the new.
But is all is not lost, The dirt parking lot for tailgaters remains in the grove of Eucalyptus trees and is no place to get out of in a hurry.
Although the Heisman seems to be between Colt and Tebow, last week’s Heisman class performance was turned in by Stanford’s Toby Gerhert, 223 yards in 38 carries, no broken field runs, all right up the gut, between the tackles.
Incidentally, the string of goal to goal portapoties (?) at the top of the south stands at California are gone, apparently part of the $30 million renovation to make the field safe for, oops, from earthquakes. The Hayward Fault runs from goal line to goal line.
Although all ticket prices run from almost reasonable to out of sight at most major powers, depending on the opponent, Army-Navy is the most expensive ticket of all, according to NCAA figures, $117,144.