Tuesday, February 15, 2011

TU-ND press conference a head-scratcher

If you say "big football announcement" it better mean a new conference.

Like a lot of people, I'm a creature of habit.
I get up a certain time.
I go to the gym a certain time.
I go to work a certain time.
I even blog at a certain time.
Always the same times for each task.
On big occasions, I'm able to rearrange my schedule.



TU and ND: Two schools with Subway Alumni
That's why I was excited a couple of weeks ago to hear about the Steve Addazio Meet and Greet, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 17, at 5:30.
Geez, I thought. I'm off Thursdays. I can go to the gym at my regular time and treat this Thursday like I'm going to work, except I'm meeting the new Temple head football coach instead.
Then I got this email from Temple University yesterday:
"Major announcement concerning Temple Football at 3 p.m., Fox Gittis Room, Liacouras Center."
Well, that does it.
I've got to get there a couple hours earlier than I planned. Whatever needs to be said will be said between 3-3:30 p.m.
Then, I thought:
"Geez, what am I going to do between 3:30 and 5:30?"
(I didn't feel like going to the Draught Horse or Maxi's for an early Happy Hour and I certainly didn't need two hours to browse the bookstore.)
All sorts of things raced through my head, but I narrowed it to these three, in no particular order:
1) Temple is moving to Conference USA for football only;
2) Temple is getting a practice bubble;
3) Temple is scheduling Notre Dame.
C-USA BOWL TIE-INS

Bowl (Site) Time (CT) Network

AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.) 2:30p ESPN

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas) 11:00a ESPN

Military Bowl (Washington, D.C.) 1:30p ESPN

Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl (Honolulu, Hawai'i) 7:00p ESPN

Beef O'Brady's Bowl (St. Petersburg, Fla.) 7:00p ESPN

Carriers New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, La.) 7:00p ESPN


Certainly, ONLY No. 1 rises to the level of having its own press conference, separate and apart from the Addazio Meet and Greet. If Temple held a news conference to announce a practice bubble or a scheduling agreement, it would hold itself up for ridicule and I don't like it when my school is ridiculed. No school in the history of college football has ever held a press conference to announce a scheduling agreement. Scheduling agreements, even with schools like Notre Dame, usually are released on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper and double-spaced, not the subject of press conferences.
Now Conference USA is, as Bum Phillips once said, is a horse of a whole other fire department.
No. 1 would be REALLY big news. Nos. 2 and 3, very good news, but those could be addressed at 5:30.
I made a few calls and was disappointed.
The news is not Temple to Conference USA or The Big East.
It's No. 3.
Yeah, that's right. Temple is holding a press conference to announce that it signed a 2-for-1 deal with Notre Dame.
Temple at Notre Dame in 2013. Notre Dame at Temple in 2014. Temple at Notre Dame in 2015.
That's all the news there is to print.
What was it cops say at the scene of the accident?
"There's nothing more to see, you can move along folks."
That's pretty much how I feel now.
When you say "major announcement" I expect a major announcement.
This is a good announcement, not a "major announcement."
Great news, mind you, but not big enough to make me waste a couple of hours. Certainly not big enough for its own separate press conference.
That settles it.
I will see everyone at 5:30 then.