NFL Overtime: A Flawed System

Disclaimer: I am a Minnesota Vikings fan, and Sunday's NFC Championship game most definitely "inspired" me to write this article. Yes, I'm bitterly disappointed, but my points stand independent of the result of that game.

Different sports have different overtimes: soccer simply plays an extra 30 minutes, and then goes to a shootout if the game is still tied. Baseball is similar, adding innings one at a time until the tie is broken. The "sudden death" or "golden goal" model is perhaps the simplest of all: the next team to score wins the game, period. It's unquestionably the most thrilling time in all of sports; every subsequent play has the potential to end the game. Leagues that use sudden death include the NHL, FIFA (until recently), and the NFL.

In light of Sunday's NFC Championship Game between the Vikings and Saints, the blog-o-sphere has exploded with editorials about how NFL overtime is or is not flawed. Here are most of the arguments that I have heard in favor of the current NFL overtime system (and why they're wrong):

WHY PEOPLE WANT TO KEEP THE CURRENT SYSTEM

1) Them's the rules. I've read countless articles and comments today that say "the defense should have played better," "they should have won the game in regulation," or ultimately come down to "they didn't deserve to win the game." Let me be perfectly clear: I am not here to say "The Vikings got jobbed." With 5 turnovers, they certainly didn't deserve to win Sunday's game.

2) Winning the coin flip does not mean a team will win. History has shown that taking the opening drive of overtime for a score does not happen nearly as often as one would think. The statistics vary, but the figure I have heard quoted the most is the team that wins the coin toss will win 60% of overtime games, In the complete history of the NFL, the team that won the coin toss has won 54% (239 of 445) of overtime games, and in 2000-2007, that number increases to 60%. Many fans (and apparently the NFL) deem this "close enough" to half-and-half to not warrant a change.

3) Sudden death works well in other sports. Hockey and soccer both implement a sudden death overtime format, and nobody ever complains about overtime in those sports (except the shootout, which is an entirely different can of worms).

WHY THE CURRENT SYSTEM IS FLAWED

1) The coin flip provides a statistical advantage. If 60% of teams that win the coin toss go on to win the game, the team that loses the toss will only win 40% of the time, which means the team that wins the toss is 1.5 times more likely to win the game. If an average NFL team were to go in to overtime in every regular-season game and lose every coin toss, they would go 6-10 or 7-9 on the season. To put it in perspective: the home team won 56% of games in the 2000-2007 season. So, winning the coin flip in overtime is almost as big an a larger advantage than being the home team. That's hardly a fair system; the rules should never give such an advantage to a team, especially in a way so arbitrary as a coin flip.

1b) Teams always elect to receive the ball in overtime. The opposite has happened only 7 times in the history of the NFL. Clearly, everyone that has ever played professional football (except for a few adventurous souls) perceives there's an advantage to going first, and since all those players and coaches are pretty good at what they do, I'm inclined to believe that there is.

Again, the the question here is, why should such an advantage be given out in the first place, let alone be awarded by a coin toss? Instead, what if the visiting team always got the first possession in overtime? Or, what if the team that lost the coin toss could only play with 10 players on defense? Surely such a rule would not stand for long.

2) Sudden death is not fair, given the nature of football. Sudden death is only fair in sports where changes in possession are significantly more frequent than scoring. As an example, let's compare hockey and football, both of which use sudden death overtime. I will estimate that in hockey, a possession lasts 30 seconds, for a total of 120 possessions per game, and that an average game has 5 goals scored. That works out to about 0.04 scores per possession. On the other hand, an average football game will see about 24 possessions (3 per quarter per team), and probably about 8 scores (2 TDs, 2 FGs per team), giving about 0.33 scores per possession.

What does this mean? According to our numbers, an average sudden-death hockey overtime will last about 24 possessions, which virtually guarantees that both teams will have an opportunity to make the winning score. However, the average overtime in football will only last 3 possessions; basic statistics tells us that quite a few football overtimes will be a one-possession affair, with the losing team never getting an opportunity to score (Update: the actual figure in 2000-2007 was 30%). What if baseball were to implement true sudden death, and the home team never got a chance to re-tie or win the game? Nobody in their right mind can argue that a high probability of a one-possession overtime is in the best interest of fairness.

3) Sudden death overtime in football changes the nature of the game. In other sports that use sudden death, a team can only score in one way: by putting the ball (or puck) in to the goal. The fact that the next score will instantly end the game does not change the ultimate strategy of the game, other than teams possibly playing more conservatively to avoid a loss.

However, in football, there are multiple ways to score, and naturally there is a trade-off between their ease of execution and their value. As a result, in regulation play, a team will obviously prefer a touchdown to a field goal, because it earns them more points. However, in sudden death overtime, a field goal and a touchdown have precisely the same value: a win. Clearly, it's not in a team's best interest to try to score a touchdown. Case and point: in the 2009 NFL regular season (by my count), there were 13 overtime games. Only two of these were decided by touchdowns. 70% of all overtime games have been won by kicking a field goal. You'd be crazy to say that's an accurate representation of the actual game.

If teams only need a field goal to win, the entire game changes. In regulation, holding an opponent to a field goal and then scoring a touchdown on the ensuing possession is a legitimate strategy; why shouldn't it be the same during overtime? In order to effectively win the overtime, an offense only needs to get to their opponents' 35-yard line; the defense is more or less playing on a 50-yard field with the game on the line.

4) The rules should work all of the time, not just most of the time. Using Sunday's game as an example, consider that it's equally likely that the Vikings could have won the coin toss and the "undeserving" team could score and advance to the Super Bowl. Perhaps some would say the Vikings deserved it because they won the overtime, but could you honestly say they were "deserving" when they committed 5 turnovers, and the #1 offense in the league sat on the sidelines, helpless to do anything to win the game?

Just because a rule works every once in a while (or even most of the time) doesn't mean it's not flawed; rules should work all of the time. For an example of this, look up the play that caused the 2003 Vikings to miss the playoffs (the rule was in fact eliminated in the off-season due to that very play).

WHAT SHOULD REPLACE SUDDEN DEATH?

1) Use the NCAA's overtime rules. This system has each team trade drives, starting on their opponents' 25-yard line. It's unquestionably fair in the sense that it gives both teams opportunities to score, but if we're trying to keep the nature of the game identical to regulation play, this is clearly not the way to go.

2) Add additional quarters as needed. This goes the furthest toward accomplishing the goal of not changing the game. Unfortunately, with an average overtime currently lasting about 7 minutes on the clock (by our calculations above), this would greatly extend the length of the game. Concerns about injuries and game broadcast length have prevented its implementation.

3) Require a team to score 4 points in overtime to win. This is my favorite, as a compromise between preserving the nature of the game and keeping game length to a minimum. In this system, the incentive to score a touchdown is not removed. Yes, there would still be one-possession overtimes, but only if a team scores a touchdown on the opening drive, at which point it's a much more convincing win. In order to win on field goals, a team would need to score two of them and prevent their opponents from scoring a touchdown in the intervening possession.

4) Hold a closed bid for possession. In this system, both coaches would secretly write down what yard line they would like to start on to begin overtime; the team that has volunteered to start further back would be awarded the ball, and the overtime would proceed as normal. I don't like this one because, as with the current system, it is played on a shorter field than regulation play, and it's very difficult to predict what would actually happen were this implemented.

4b) Choose where the opening kickoff/possession begins. One team (determined by a coin toss) would choose what yard line the opening drive (or kickoff) would start on, and the other team would choose whether they would like to kick or receive the opening possession. Again, I'm not a fan of this option, because while it's an interesting way to get teams to not automatically choose to receive the kick, it's still played on a short field.

----

Whatever is chosen to replace the current system, the point remains: the current NFL overtime system is flawed and ultimately unfair to the teams that play the game. Unfortunately, the league has not seen enough of a need for change to do anything about it; countless games that were decided by only giving one team a chance to score are apparently not enough of a reason.

It will probably take until a (possibly "undeserving") team kicks a field goal in the opening possession of overtime in the Super Bowl for the league to have a serious chance of changing the overtime rules. Until that happens, we can all hope that our team just wins the coin toss.

Fun Fact: Uptown Rainbow Edition

The Uptown Rainbow grocery store is built on the site of Minneapolis Arena, which served as the home of Golden Gopher Hockey before Williams Arena (old Mariucci) opened in 1950. [Vintage Minnesota Hockey]

Sportsmanship vs. Atmosphere

There has been a lot of recent debate in the papers and on the internet concerning the behavior of University students, especially in the context of the conduct of Gopher fans during and around sporting events. Issues range from complaints from the larger Minneapolis community about rowdy behavior on weekends and in the late hours of the night, to issues with the student section using foul language to intimidate opposing teams at games.

On one side of the issue, people take the side of the students: after all, they are college students, and they're doing "what college students are supposed to do." It is ridiculous to assume that fans of college sports will sit idly on their hands and applaud as if they were watching a golf tournament, and then go home and peacefully drink tea: college sports are special because of the fans and the atmosphere surrounding the games. It's no coincidence that 21 of the 22 largest stadiums in the U.S., including all of the top ten, house college football teams.

On the other side of the issue is the assertion that students are representatives of the University of Minnesota, and should conduct themselves as such. They should respect the community, opposing teams, and fellow students in the name of good sportsmanship. This does not necessarily mean “no fun,” but there are serious issues to be addressed in the conduct of some fans that are deeply engraved in their vision of the “college experience.”

It is here that we find ourselves at an impasse: the administration and community-at-large would like to see more respectful students, but students are unwilling to give up the culture and traditions that have developed on campus for the past 150 years. Both are advancing their agendas in the name of creating a "better game day experience." They are equally admirable goals, and are part of what makes our University great.

Possibly caused by the infamous "hockey riots" following the Gophers' 2002 and 2003 NCAA Hockey Championships, the University of Minnesota has repeatedly imposed sets of rules on the student body in a well-intentioned but feeble attempt to control fan behavior. These have taken many forms: the "Student Code of Conduct," the "Fan Bill of Rights," and most recently, the "Fan Code of Conduct."

Through all of these additions and changes to policy, one thing has remained constant: the University of Minnesota has not taken any real steps toward improving the atmosphere at sporting events. Yes, the rules technically absolve the University of any wrongdoing or responsibility for fans' actions (after all, it is ultimately up to the individual to obey rules), but if the University is truly serious about improving fan conduct, they must do more than develop guidelines for fans.

First, they must directly and non-arbitrarily enforce the rules that are in place. Aside from the alcohol policy, the "Fan Code of Conduct" is largely a joke--has anyone ever seen someone get kicked out of a game for swearing at the referees? Disciplinary action is currently only taken for offenses that are otherwise punishable under the letter of law. Publishing a newsletter doesn't do anything to influence fan behavior short of increasing the number of paper airplanes thrown on the field. If the rules in place are not enforceable, they should be replaced with ones that are.

Second, the University must actively help to replace the practices that they oppose. Tradition, no matter what it is, is still just that--tradition. For a tradition to "die" peacefully, a suitable alternative must be proposed and accepted. Currently, when the administration does manage to exact a change in the cheers (usually by prohibiting the band from playing the appropriate cues--hardly a good solution), students are liable to act out in ways that are worse than the original "offense." This is the cause of the viscous cycle in which we are currently trapped, resulting in increasingly Draconian policies dictating behavior that--as previously mentioned--are rarely enforced, and an overall disdain for said rules among the fans they are prescribed to.

To date, both the students' and administration's actions have been similarly polarizing to the opposite party. Admirably, neither has compromised their primary principles. It is an unfortunate consequence of the human condition that University policy is much more flexible than the mob mentality of 10,000 students; the University must begin to work proactively with fans to change the common perception of a “college atmosphere” to the kind of game day experience we can all enjoy.

Battle for The Axe

It can be said that I have a strong dislike for the University of Wisconsin's athletic teams. I was born in the Twin Cities, and was raised as a Golden Gophers fan. I received a degree from the University of Minnesota, and participated in the Minnesota Marching Band. As such, the Gophers' rivalries are engraved in my mind, including the "Border Battle" between the Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin, truly one of the best in all of sports.

But let me clarify: I do not "hate" the University of Wisconsin, or its athletic teams. I have always tried to remain in good spirits about the Border Battle; to see through the intense emotions, posturing, and slogans that inevitably arise every time the Gophers and Badgers take the field together, in order to enjoy the rivalry for what it is: a classic contest between two storied Universities, adding yet another chapter to a long tradition of competition. I have always respected the University of Wisconsin, as a quality institution, with a successful athletics program.

So, this weekend, as I cheered on my Gophers against their rivals from across the St. Croix River, I tried my hardest to exhibit nothing but the best sportsmanship. Fully aware of all of the slogans that inebriated students love to scream at anyone within earshot (especially toward those wearing red), I graciously welcomed fans of the Badgers to my home state, or at the very least let them be, hoping for them to enjoy their game day experience in Minneapolis.

At the game, I sat in my seat in the upper deck of TCF Bank Stadium, which happens to be directly in front of one the blocks of seats that are sold to opposing teams' fans. Again, I let the steady stream of Badger fans pass by me without incident; I was there to cheer on my team, not to ridicule and harass their opponents. As the clock expired, resulting in a Gophers loss, I accepted the fact that I would have to cheerfully endure yet another year of the good-natured ribbing that goes hand-in-hand with a rivalry such as this.

I sat in the emptying stadium, immersed in my own thoughts about how wonderful it would have been to see my Gophers hoist The Paul Bunyan's Axe Trophy in victory. I watched with quiet envy as the University of Wisconsin Football team cheerfully paraded around the field with the coveted prize, something that they had earned the right to do after a well-fought football game.

Then, I saw something that instantly made my dejection turn to silent rage.

Following the game, I stood and removed my hat to sing Hail! Minnesota (our Alma Mater) with the band, football team, and student section at the end of the game, as we do at every game. As I began to sing, the Wisconsin Football Team, Axe Trophy in hand, ran in between the Minnesota Football Team and Band, and began to "chop" down the goalpost that stood there, while fans of the University of Minnesota were singing their Alma Mater.

I have attended a decent number of contests between the Gophers and the Badgers; it seems that all too many of them ended in disappointing losses. I was mere yards away from the decisive touchdown in the 2005 "Miracle in the Metrodome." I was at the game at the Kohl Center when the Badgers' Men's Hockey team ended the Gophers' 22-game unbeaten streak in 2006. I was there when the Wisconsin Women's Hockey team defeated Minnesota for the National Title. But after none of these games did I ever say, as I do now:

Today was the day I lost my respect for the University of Wisconsin.

The University of Wisconsin football team should be reminded that they are not only an athletics team, but also are representatives of their institution and the state for which it is named. Today, in their rude and disrespectful actions following their victory against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, they have utterly failed in that role.

Now, I too can state with certainty: "When you say 'Wisconsin,' you've said it all."

Mmmm, cookies....

Tonight was Hockey Mom cookie night, when the Hockey players' moms make the band cookies for the game.

It's nice to know we're appreciated :-)

Sports Fan

Why do we watch sports? Moreover, why do we pay significant amounts of money to watch sports? Why do tens of thousands of people gather on a weekly basis to watch a few dozen people try to best eachother in events of skill and strength?

Theory: we, as humans, have the need to identify ourselves with a group of people that means something to the rest of society so, if nothing else, society will recognize us for that. Be it a fan of a sports team, from a city, or even a member of a race, we feel compelled to make sure that our peers remember us for something more than what we make ourselves to be.

Pro Football...Question Mark?

One of my co-workers asked me today if I had any big plans for the football game this weekend. I was momentarily confused, until he specified that the game in question was the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I suppose I'll watch, but you can't make me care.

Good Goli!

Alex Goligoski: 2006-2007 First Team All-American!

He has been my player for 2 years... I think I will probably get his name and number on my jersey.

Hopefully he will stay for another great year.

Hockey!

So, Hockey season is over. I'm mildy depressed at the moment. (or am I just tired?) It seems like forever until the puck drops again. (6 months and counting!) I don't know what I'm going to do with my Friday and Saturday evenings anymore, but I think I'm going to try to cut back on the time I spend on GPL, at least for a bit while the rest of my life goes by (lots of school-but-not-class-related stuff to do).

The regional final was a tough game to be at for the end, losing to NoDak and all (I think I dislike them more than Wisconsin right now), but the rest of the season was well worth the disappointment of not going to St. Louis: the win streak at the beginning, the development and excitement of some of the most highly touted Freshman in the nation, to name a few. My #1 highlight has to be the Final Five, especially the Championship game with Wheeler's Broten-esque goal in OT to beat the Sioux, I have never yelled and clapped so long and loud in my life. Too bad it wasn't on the other end of the ice in front of where I was sitting; but oh well, I can't have everything.

Next year will be even better than the last. We will hang 2 new banners in the ceiling at the beginning of next season (more than enough to ask for). The Freshmen will be Sophomores, the Sophomores will be experienced upperclassmen, and the Juniors will be the Senior leaders that they were always intended to be. Reload with one of the best Freshman classes in the nation, and you've got yourself another great season of good ol' Gopher Hockey.

I will leave you with this great excerpt from one of my favorite blogs to read (http://tnabacg.blogspot.com/), which pretty much sums up why I love this program so much:

(From March 4, 2003)

North Dakota may be a successful hockey program. Duluth may have its rabid fans. Mankato may be very important to people who hail from that city. But Gopher hockey is so much more than that, has meant so much more than that to me. It’s watching the first two periods of the game on MSC, then straining to pick up the third period on your alarm-clock radio after your parents have sent you to bed. It’s attending games in the new Mariucci Arena while wishing that you could have attended a game in the old Mariucci Arena, wishing that you had memories of the old arena when it was still Williams Arena Ice Rink. It’s John Mariucci, and John Mayasich, and the photos of teams going back too many years for anyone to have seen them all. It’s Herb Brooks, prowling the bench, leading three teams to titles. It’s Doug Woog, leading the team first as a player and then as a coach, leading them to a period of sustained greatness the likes of which today’s program can maybe only dream about. It’s Randy Skarda, hitting the post in overtime, and just how the heck did that weak backhander beat Stauber? It’s Neal Broten and the Hobey, Robb Stauber and the Hobey, Brian Bonin, and yes, Jordan Leopold with the Hobey. It’s the murals, where Leopold skates next to Crowley and Stauber makes a save on Woog. It’s the fact that nobody’s going to be wearing number 8 in maroon and gold on the ice anytime soon. It’s Broten chipping one over Iwabucci, Potulny sliding one under Yeats, it’s all the trophies in the concourse, so many that nobody knows exactly what they’re all there for anymore. It’s five gold banners, hanging over the east goal, spanning sixty-three years of Gopher champions.

But maybe most importantly, it’s the five-year-olds I see at the rink on Saturday mornings, when no one’s in the building except me and them, and all they know me as is as the kid who’s driving the Zamboni. They play their games, have their practices, and I see them warming up, skating the length of the ice (taking far too long) and faking this way and sliding one in and, hey, just maybe, if they were a little bigger, they would have looked just like Tyler Hirsch beating Wade Dubielewicz. And then maybe they make their first visit to the rink later that night, getting their first close-up look at the arena. Wow, Dad, how many guys are on that wall? Why are they up there? Dad, who’s going to be up there next? Hey, Grandpa, how many of these guys did you see play? How many banners are there up in the rafters, anyway? There sure are a lot. Why do all those kids say the same things after the other guys get a penalty, why do they all point at the goalie and yell? What are they saying? What do you mean you can’t tell me? Hey, Dad, we scored! What did everyone just say after the band stopped playing?

And then maybe Dad leans over to his son, as my father did to me, and maybe he wants to tell him about all the goals he’s seen, all the great players he’s watched, all of the championships he’s watched when he saw his team play this game, and what a game it is. Maybe he wants to teach him the words to the Rouser and the Minnesota March, and tell him just exactly how his dad reacted when Grant Potulny picked up Jordan Leopold’s shot after it deflected off Johnny Pohl, how Grant picked it up and slipped it under Matt Yeats and the whole state of Minnesota went berserk. But he doesn’t have time for all that. He knows that his son will pick that up in time, that soon, for his son, the game and the team will be the son’s and not just the father’s. Instead, he just sums all of it up in one sentence, with one word.

Instead, he just leans over and teaches him how to spell M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A.

2 Cups!

Today was without a doubt one of the best days of my life. Ever. I headed home for my little brother's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. I'm so proud of him! It was a great ceremony, I am very happy for him, and it was great to see a whole bunch of old Scouts and family friends that I haven't seen for a few years.

I found myself a ticket for the FF semifinal on Friday night, I was in the 3rd row of the upper deck at center ice, they were great seats. I enjoyed seeing us beat Wisconsin again, especially since I was at the game we lost to them earlier in the season. I still couldn't swear (little children in the vicinity, I'm not that much of an asshole), but at least I could say "suck" as loud as I wanted to! Wheeler had an amazing night (which he has not done all year), with a hat trick; 2 of his goals were with 4 seconds left in the period. The Gophers showed a lot of hustle and grit that I have not seen since before winter break. They recovered from an own goal and another 1-goal deficit to win by 2 against a defense-oriented team. Not bad at all.

Now, on to tonight. BEST. GAME. EVER. I managed to score 4 tickets for the game through my Dad's work earlier in the week, not even knowing if the Gophers would be playing in the game. Boy, was I glad I got them. On Friday, I was ecstatic because I was able to go to both the games the Gophs were playing in, which happened to be against our 2 biggest rivals, the badgers and sue. The seats i got were in the 12th row of the lower deck right on the Goal line, by far the closest to the ice I have ever been for a Gopher game (for only $20/ea too!). It was close all the way, finally going in to OT tied at 2. Wheeler made an amazing goal to win the game, everyone went nuts. The atmosphere at the Xcel was absolutely incredible, almost twice the number of fans that are in Mariucci. Here is a replay of the winning goal, which, as mentioned in the clip, bears a striking resemblance to Neal Broten's GWG in the 1979 National Championship Game against (who else?) the Sioux. On the way back, since we were on the band bus, I had the opportunity to talk with some of the Hockey Cheerleaders, who turned out to be some really cool people.

I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll complete and/or organize my thoughts if I think of it, maybe not.

OH MY GOD I Want One

BEST. LEGO. SET. EVER. I seriously just about pissed my pants when I saw it.

Speaking of spending lots of money, I ordered myself an mp3 player over the weekend, a Creative Zen Vision:M. It will be here in about 3 days, and I shall be happy.

Also over the weekend: Skate With The Gophers! Even though I spent 2 hours handing out posters, I got:
-- my MB hat autographed by the one and only Don Lucia
-- team poster signed by every player but Okposo and Flynn, plus Lucia and the Wooger. I'm totally framing this one.
-- Picture taken with the McNaughton Cup and the 2002 and 2003 Championship Trophies
-- Also got to skate around on the ice at Mariucci for a bit with Okposo and Goligoski (and 100 other people, mostly kids), which was pretty sweet.

Coming soon to a Campus near you!

Coming Fall 2009, across the street from Mariucci Arena: Bencriscutto-Luckhardt Marching Band Complex! (Officially named TCF Stadium, unfortunately)

That's right, the Minnesota legislature may be good for something after all...

All that remains is Gov. Pawlenty to sign it.

So long, farewell...

Today was my last WAB game. Women's Hockey lost the national championship game to wisuckSIN. I was suprisingly not distraught about it. It was, however, the best WAB game of the year by far. I was unusually belligerent before and during the game (yelling "better dead than red" to a wisc. fan's face, and screaming "stop desecrating the [U.S.] Flag" to bucky were the two highlights). I pretty much became the yell-starter for WAB, which I never thought would happen, since I'm usually pretty quiet. We played awseomely, completely blew the badger band out of the water (no bones, but a cowbell player instead? what the heck is that?), including stealing "time warp" from them before they could play it (they did anyway). Frodo also dirty monkey'd bucky. It was amazing, I can't think of a better person/place/time to do it. Remeber, the real losers are those who have to go home tonight to Wisconsin.

All things considered (despite the loss), this was not a bad way to exit WAB. I will miss WAB, its trips, and all of it's wonderful people dearly. (don't worry, I'll come back to visit, I promise!)

Hell Week: I am confident that this coming week will be by far the worst of the semester. I have 2 papers, 2 homework assignments, and one midterm this week, most of which I have not started. One paper is a 10-page research paper on music downloading that I have yet to begin (due Friday), another is a 5-page lab report on building a metal detector that doesn't actually work (due Wednesday). Math homework is 4 sections, of which I have completed 1 (due Tuesday), and physics homework (due Thursday). The miterm is for Physics, which is never fun. I also need to do laundry at some point. I am so stressed out about how much I have to do, that I have resolved to not caring. which is bad.

Opposites

- Men's Hockey lost. They were supposed to win. Screw you, Holy Cross. (Where the hell is HC, anyway?)
- Women's Hockey upset UNH, as the #4 seed in the frozen four.
- Watching the badger pep band, and then watching the UNH Pep Band. Pretty much could not be more black and white. All anyone could hear of the bucky band was the damn drums, and of course they are nasty people as a band. UNH, on the other hand, was a pretty good band (despite having the exact same repritoire of a high school pep band, and playing "The Hey Song" TWICE every time they scored) and was very nice to us. They even came over and said hi, and we would have hung out with them if they weren't staying by the MOA.

Sunday will be my final performance as a registered member of WAB. I am officially annoucing that next year (if all goes as planned) I will be upgrading to a full-time membership in Hockey Band, instead of a perma-sub. Seeing how Sunday's game is a National Championship game against Wisconsin, I can't think of a better way to end it.

Next week will be hell week for me. I have:
1. 10-page research paper due Friday that I was supposed to start a month ago
2. Physics Quiz/Test on Friday
3. 4 sections of Math homework due Tuesday that I again haven't started
4. Physics Lab report due on Tuesday that I haven't started
5. Prepare for Marching Band leadership auditions
6. Figure out what classes I'm taking next year
Wish me luck.

In conclusion, I would like to ask everyone to do 2 things:
1. Vote Ryan Putolny for Hobey Baker at http://www.hobeybaker.com/, so this Men's season won't be completely for naught.
2. Come to the Women's Championship game on Sunday at 3:00 (Did I mention we're playing WISCONSIN?). Sure, there's no checking, but its really not bad Hockey. Mabye we can have a sea of maroon and gold-clad band members sorrounding the damn badger band, yelling various anti-badger state slogans right in their faces. That would be sweet.

Remeber: Screw Holy Cross (the hockey team, of course. what'd you think I meant?), and Jesus hates wisuckSIN.

Nashville - Episode III: Revenge of the NCAA Postseason

Last weekend, I went to Nashville. For the third time. In a year. Episode I was in High School with Show Choir (no, I didn't sing and dance. I was in the band, of course). Episode II was none other than the Bowl Trip. Which now brings us to Episode III. The Women's basketball team apparently did pretty well this year (I didn't really follow them), which earned them a #8 seed in the tournament. This meant that there was an 11:00AM game on Saturday. Because of the early game time, instead of leaving the day before the game, we left TWO days beforehand, leaving approximately 36 hours to do whatever the hell we wanted. Among the highlights:

• FLYING THERE. No 18-hour bus rides this time!
  
• Twiggy the rah-rah was on the trip
  
• Staying downtown instead of at Opryland. There's only so much you can do in a mall and a hotel before you get bored.
  
• Walking across the bridge (yes, the one the 'bama fan jumped off) to the Coliseum, and contemplating breaking in
  
• Prank calling several people in the wee hours of the morning. The two best were suicidal Kermit the Frog (courtesy of Link) and Mittens telling Barmore that his uniform wasn't turned in and he puked on it.
  
• Watching "Trick my Truck" on Country music Television. It's exactly like "Pimp my ride," except without the black people, and they do it to Semi-Trucks instead of normal cars.
  
• Walking 3 miles to the Parthenon, an exact replica of the one in Greece. Nashville has culture outside of Country music? Who knew? We found out that I am 1" shorter than the statue of Nike. She wins. Also cool: we managed to get the group rate despite not actually having an appointment
  
• A Ghost Tour of downtown: apparently there are a lot of spirits not at rest in the area. The guide looked like the guy that played Arthur in "The Hichhikers Guide to the Galaxy."
  
• St. Patrick's Day: JoeD and Gary went on an all-day bender. Buttons went out and came back really drunk and felt up Katie. The rest of us underage people watched The Boondock Saints. Cramming 20 people into a hotel room so that they can all see a laptop screen is not easy, let me tell you.
  
• The Vanderbilt basketball arena feels and more like a high school auditorium, despite Vanderbilt being a basketball school. Their "raised floor" was pretty lame, since there was only a drop off on the sides, and then only after about 20 feet of blank floor. Williams Arena is so much better.
  
• We threw down some pretty sweet songs before and during the game, I'm pretty sure I almost completely lost my ability to play at least once.
  
• The highlight of the game was when I yelled "Take her out to dinner first!" during a particularly silent moment in the game. I got the impeccable timing award of the day, and many people have told me this was the best moment on the trip. I may be inclined to agree.
  
• As we were leaving, Prof. Diem got hit in the head with a drum case. He went to the only hospital in Nashville that he had not been to yet and got 9 stitches.
  
• We lost the game. To a certian extent, this was a good thing, because there really isn't that much to do in downtown Nashville. I don't know what I would have done with myself for another day, had we won the game.

Overall, it was a pretty sweet trip. I might go so far as to venture that it was my favorite Nashville trip. Since now I have more or less done all there is to do, I hope that I am never forced to go back. However, in the back of my mind, I think that someone, somewhere, will find it halarious to send us back there again. I'm probably not done yet.

See? I've only been registered for an hour and I'm already addicted.