Salvation Army Band

Doyle Dykes on Guitar

Are Football Bowls Worthless?

I’m going to answer yes for a variety of reasons.

1. When more than half of all Division I football teams qualify to play in a bowl; when teams that barely had a winning record get a bowl invitation; when we get treated to the likes of Houston vs. Air Force or Louisiana Tech vs. Northern Illinois, then bowl games have become worthless.
2. Except for one game - the National Championship game - bowl games mean nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  No one’s conference standings change.  For the most part they aren’t even real games.  Nothing next week, or next month, or next year depends upon the outcome.
3. There is very little interest in them.  There were 34 bowl games this year.  How many did you actually watch from beginning to end?  Even as announcers would tell of a “sold-out” game, the overhead blimp cam would reveal lots and lots of empty seats.  Even at some of the more interesting ones.
4. They foster the continued and agonizing debate over “who really deserves to be number one?”  So far I’ve already heard Tyrone Wittingham of Utah and Mack Brown of Texas say that they will be voting their own teams number one in the final poll and every on-field announcer seems to feel the need to ask every winning coach and every winning player in every BCS game who they think deserves to be number one.  [Side note to all of the Texas and Utah fans out there: Neither Texas nor Utah will be crowned National Champions at the conclusion of this bowl season.]
5. Many teams realize that the game is meaningless and simply go to the bowl destination to have a good time.  Nine times out of ten Oklahoma will beat Boise State, but not when Boise is playing for pride and Oklahoma is playing for nothing.  They simply aren’t real games.  The week heading into bowl games is not a “normal” week of preparation.  Focus is often on things other than the game.  Things like interviews.  Limo rides.  Party spots.

So, except for the National Championship game, in any given year there is only one bowl game that matters and that is the National Championship game.

These Things I Know

Ok.  The NCAA football National Championship will be played on Thursday, January 8th.  In a rare occurence the game will pit two Heisman Trophy winners against each other for the right to take home the crystal ball.  There is a lot of intrigue in this game.  Apparently Tebow felt snubbed by coming in third in Heisman voting.  His teammates have taken it personally.  And the young man has some grit to him.  He did a masterful job of motivating his team past the Mississippi loss.  He will probably have a few heart-to-hearts with his teammates both before and during the game.

I’m a little hesitant about this game given OU’s recent bowl performances.  I can still hear all of the jokes from the end of last season (thanks to all my OSU “friends”).  So, I’m not going out on any limbs to predict a Sooner victory - at least not today.  I may make a prediction before the game, and my Creskin-like abilities have been pretty good so far (note the date on that post - August, 2007).  But today I do know this: OU has plenty of its own motivation, being the underdog, all of the nay-sayers out there who don’t think they should be in the game at all, the SECers who don’t think the Big XII offenses are all that good - only that the Big XII defenses are really that bad.  I also know that Florida will not win the National Championship simply because Tim Tebow wills it so.  They will have to come out and play some really good football of their own.

Superman

This season Sam Bradford will set an NCAA record for pass efficiency. When you consider that he has thrown the ball 442 times that is a remarkable feat. I am predicting that his reward for his accomplishments will be a stiff-armed trophy bestowed upon him this Saturday night. He will deserve it. He will become the fifth Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Oklahoma. Space is reserved in Heisman Park just outside of Memorial Stadium in Norman for another statue, be it for Sam or someone in the future.  However, it is my belief that no amount of kryptonite, no Lex Luthor, no Tim Tebow, no Colt McCoy, will be able to keep young Mr. Bradford from delivering his acceptance speech at the Downtown Athletics Club in New York Saturday night. Read more

There’s Only One

There’s Demons Swirlin’ Around That Thing

That’s a line adapted from something I remember hearing Jamie Ragel say at one of our state Evangelism Conferences a few years ago. He was talking about drums in worship and how some people react to them. This wasn’t how he said he felt, but how some people do.

Dan Kimball has written about how the organ, in its early days in church, created the same sort of controversy we have these days about drums and guitars in worship. Not only that, but some of the most dearly loved hymns, especially in our Baptist churches, were criticized as worldly.

It’s interesting how we are so embedded in our own culture and how our cultural perspectives influence what we think about worship, doctrine and the like. A hundred years ago some people thought that What A Friend We Have In Jesus was too worldly and unspiritual for the church. Sometimes I wonder if a hundred years from now people in our churches will think we were strange because we didn’t like drums and guitars or because of the songs we use in worship.

(HT: Art Rogers)

Slap It, Son

Psalm 137 For The Year 2010

Alan Roxburgh shares this poem that was written by a participant at a conference he was leading a few years ago.

137 For 2010

In the midst of this crazy world I look around and
wonder what has happened.
How do I talk to a kid with a ring in his nose?
Does “The Old Rugged Cross” mean anything to him?
He asks me to sing a song about “my Jesus”.
From what I can tell he is from another planet,
or am I the stranger here?
I think it’s time to sell the wurlitzer.
So how do I tell Martians about Jesus,
when the only language I speak is 1955?
How do I write a headline for them
that doesn’t screw up the Good News?
I kind of wish it were the way it was,
but it’s not. So I need to figure out
how to sing the old lyrics
with a whole new tune.

Annoyed

Ok. So this is a bit of a “culture rant.” I haven’t ranted in a while, so now seemed as good a time as any. This will be a little stream-of-conscious.

I saw Miley Cyrus on an internet clip that was reporting on her bare-backed expose for Vanity Fair. [Side note: it also made the point that photographer Annie Leibovitz, the extremely talented photographer doing the photo shoot for Vanity Fair, is a lesbian. Well, DUH! No offense, but have you seen Annie Leibovitz? Men naturally flee her presence.] Anyway, little Hannah Montana was shown posing for the paparazzi at some public event, a camera flash going off every millisecond, and Billy Ray was standing around in the background as his fifteen-year-old daughter was being exploited for profit. Someone should have slapped his achy breaky skull. Word to Billy Ray: you’re sending your daughter down the path of future freakdom. You said you would protect her from that. You appear to be failing.

On a related note, I live in shame knowing that I can sing the theme song for the Hannah Montana show. I can name her TV brother and all of her TV friends. This should not be. I’m almost fourty-freakin’-three years old. Why can I sing a song performed by a fifteen-year-old? Any fifteen-year-old?

While I’m on the subject of the Disney Channel (one of two channels our TV seems to be tuned in to regularly), let me say that I hate the Naked Brothers Band. I’m sorry, but those boys have no talent. Well, apparently they have enough talent for the Nickalodeon people to put on their TV station. But in a day and age when television executives will produce a show where grown adults get outsmarted by average fifth graders, where Howie Mandel can host his own ridiculous show, and where Joanie Loves Chachi I suppose one more mind-numbing show is only to be expected.

I hate it that I, a grown man, actually know who Miranda Cosgrove is. And who Drake and Josh are.

I’m getting old. Maybe I’m already there. I hate the vacuous music of today. Pop. Hip-Hop. Country. Has it always been so absolutely void of anything meaningful to say? Has the musical talent always been this poor? Have you actually listened to a song by Britney Spears or Ashley Simpson? Or how about this. These are (some of) the lyrics to the number one song on the Top 40 chart right now. It is compellingly titled: Lollipop and it is performed by the legendary Lil Wayne (whoever the heck that is): Read more

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