It is 12:05 PM. One family has left and another will be coming soon. It was a great morning as Leah and I exchanged gifts and then Katy, Brad, Alaina, Nolan and Kaylen showed up in their Christmas pajamas. We had a hearty breakfast of eggs, bagels, fruit salad, pancakes, bacon and sausage followed by everyone opening gifts. Chris and Alexis along with Sean and Gregory will be here soon. Then it is zoom with my brothers and sisters and then off to Katy’s house to pick up our Christmas dinner and check out the grandkids gifts before coming back home to eat our Christmas dinner.
The B1G is having 4 men’s basketball games on Christmas day. Why they feel it is necessary to have games on Christmas day is beyond me. Both MSU and Michigan are playing today. The B1G must feel it is very important to have games on a day when they know everyone will be home so they will get good TV ratings and can charge a premium for advertising. They must feel it is more important to maximize revenue than it is to have student athletes home for Christmas. As a result of the BIG decision, approximately 30-40 team members, coaches and staff on four different teams had to travel yesterday and spend Christmas Eve in a hotel away from home and maybe their families just so the B1G could have the games on TV on Christmas day. This is only the second time in U of M’s long history they have played on Christmas day. It is is just more hypocracy from people who supposedly have the best interest of the student athletes in mind.
While I am on a roll, what is with the MHSAA and their fall sport championships? The state tournaments for three sports were suspended in mid-November before the tournaments could be completed. They are now scheduled for mid-January. This week the football teams remaining in the tournament were scheduled to begin practice, which they did on Monday. Then on Tuesday, MHSAA announced the suspension of practice while new covid-19 protocols are put in place. Practices are now not starting until December 30, with games scheduled for mid-January. In the meantime, many of the star players on a team have already signed a letter of intent to play college football. Some have even started early enrollment at the college and will not be eligible to play in the MHSAA football. The star players who did not early enroll in college or have not signed their letter of intent are faced with a dilemma. Do I risk my college scholarship to play in a high school game that I have not had adequate time to prepare? And what about the players who play winter sports? They will have to choose between playing on their fall sport team’s tournament team versus not practicing with their winter sport team. Most really good athletes play more than one sport. At smaller schools, the best athletes are usually stars on their fall, winter and spring sport teams. Thus, smaller schools who are still in the fall state tournaments, will not have key players for their winter sport teams during the early stages of practice. Let’s face it, this has been a wierd time and it is easy to second guess what the MHSAA is doing. I am not sure it is in the best interest of the student athlete to have a football tournament in which the players have not had adequate time to prepare and some teams are missing their best players because of early enrollment in college. That is just my opinion.
My Video of the week: Pardon the bad language.