Rivalries

* One note before I get started on the college football. Last night's Celtics v. Raptors game involved something you will almost never see in an NBA game, 2 red heads occasionally covering each other. Brian Scalabrine for the C's and Matt Bonner for the Raptors. Okay so we're not talking about all stars but they combined for 7 points and no rebounds...never draft a red head in the NBA, never.

Sorry, I have to take advantage of any opportunity to trumpet the achievements of carrot tops whenever they appear.

Anyway, today is one of those days that were made for picture-in-picture. I don't think they even make those kind of televisions anymore but for this afternoon it would be worth the investment.

For example right now I'm fulfilling my alumna obligations by watching the BC v. Maryland game (14-10 BC with 9:00 to play in the 3rd) but I'd really like to keep an eye on the biggest spectacle in college football Ohio State at Michigan. For my money this is the second best rivalry in college sports (Duke / UNC in hoops) and since I've seen a Duke game live at the Dean Dome the UM / OSU game is tops on my list of college events to attend in my lifetime. It's just beyond my comprehension that a college team can fill a stadium with over 100,000 people on a Saturday afternoon, regardless of how good Michigan is at the time. BC can barely fill their 45,000 seat stadium.

As with every UM v. OSU game you can throw out the records and the rankings at kickoff. The emotion and the hype almost always trumps the discrepencies between the two teams. Trying to pick a winner or a score in this game is basically impossible. I just go with the home team, and since my parents live in Michigan now I'm a proxy Wolverine fan.

Some of the other big games today are in state rivalry games like Auburn and Alabama, which is probably the second biggest game in college football.

Marcus Vick and Virginia Tech at Virginia. This game was preceded by a great prank by someone from VTech. Last night someone snuck onto the field and added a T to the V at midfield to change the Cavaliers logo to something closer to the Hokies'.

Clemson at South Carolina, Tennesee v. Vanderbilt, and LSU at Ole Miss round out the great southern rivalry games.

In New Haven it's the nerd bowl as Harvard and Yale play "The Game." It's been a long time since this was "The Game" to anyone outside of the Ivy League but it's still an institution of college football, evidenced by the fact that it's actually televised.

As great as all these games are there is something missing from this weekend for me. Rivalry week makes me think of one thing: Notre Dame v. BC. The Irish have never wanted to admit that BC is a legitimate rival, even though there has been a trophy involved in this game for the last 6 years and the game has been dubbed "The Holy War". To eliminate this rivalry that the Irish consider beneath them they have omitted BC from the schedule for this season. After this year they will play for the next 3 years then Notre Dame has decided to replace BC on the schedule with Rutgers. Huh?

This Notre Dame arrogance has bothered me from the beginning of my time at BC. The fact is that that over the last 7 years the Eagles lead the series against the Irish 5-2 despite the fact that Notre Dame has always been more highly regarded. Someone at Notre Dame must have considered BC a rival when they decided, foolishly to come out in the green jerseys in the 2002 matchup. There is a pilgrimage in either direction whenever the teams meet, the students flock to either location and it's an event for both sides. Everything about the schools and the teams to this point has pointed to a great developing rivalry.

Now I understand that Notre Dame is an emerging program about to simply explode over the next 10 years under the genius of Charlie Weis and that BC will always be mired in mediocrity while they are coached by the ultra-conservative dinosaur Tom O'Brien but to replace the game with a guaranteed blowout against Rutgers makes no sense.

Or maybe it makes a twisted kind of sense. They must be thinking that it is better to avoid a loss and eliminate your second biggest rival than to suffer what you consider to be an embarassing rivalry regardless of the outcome. They hate the association with BC to begin with so to actually lose in a rivalry game, and have all the stats of BC's dominance played all over SportsCenter would be more embarssing than running and hiding from the contest. The problem is that it is no longer embarassing to lose to BC and while they will never challenge for a national title as ND is almost sure to do in the near future they are a legitimate top 25 program. Maybe what they're worried about is a trap game on the schedule every year. Say the Irish are headed to a one loss season with BC coming to town on the last week of the season, there is at least a 50/50 chance that they would end the season with 2 losses, one of which being to a team that they consider beneath them.

It's a strategy of avoidance that reeks of cowardice and stains this great day of college football in my mind.

Play BC every year Notre Dame, at least until you beat them 5 out of 7, then you can consider yourselves above them.