I like to think of the Western Conference as an old Sam Peckinpah flick.  It is a conference with a minority amount of teams that have managed to bring order to an otherwise unruly mob separated only by few games.

There are undefeated gunslingers at home like the San Jose Sharks, rebellious renegades like the Dallas Stars and sheriffs who’ve come back from near death like the Chicago Blackhawks.

Quite frankly the conference standings say next to nothing about the great stories that have come out of the West.  I’m going to start with my personal favorite: The Chicago Blackhawks.

The Hawks were a team that was left for dead in the West, however, they came back to life when former owner Bill Wirtz passed away and left the team in the hands of his son Rocky Wirtz. Rocky, in turn, shook up management and helped to re-design a team destined to go the way of the Dodo.  Today, they are an invigorated franchise that Chicago fans have re-fallen in love with, they are packed with young talent and they win hockey games.

Next in the lineup is the San Jose Sharks.  It seems that the Sharks have got their eye on Lord Stanley’s cup this year.  In fact they are still undefeated at home and sit on the top of the conference standings.  I wrote an article on them a couple of weeks ago and still pick them win the West as long as they stay injury free.

Chomping at the heels of the Sharks is the NHL’s new dynasty, the Detroit Red Wings. They are a team packed to the gills with talent and are looking to add to their growing collection of Stanley Cup Banners.  They have won 9 out of their last 12 games and also look like they are gaining momentum.

But no good western would be complete without a villain, and the Dallas Stars are a shoe-in for this spot.  They made their intentions clear in the off-season when they picked up the player everyone loves to hate, Sean Avery.  Unfortunately for the Stars however, the Ott/Avery combo puts them behind the eight ball almost every game with a lot of penalties which explains the team’s last place standing.

Finally, there are the Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings, and the Anaheim Ducks.  All of these teams are in the running to try and sign Mats Sundin.  Already, they are teams that have proven themselves to be solid, but the addition of a player like Sundin could send them over the top.

Needless to say, the West is full of excitement and no team has really had the time to distinguish themselves as a clear winner.  But like a good western, the movie has to play out until a final showdown that will write the winner into the history books, or at the very least into the Stanley Cup Finals.

–Ryan Matwiy, RED Editorial Staff.

One of George Carlin’s most famous routines (man, he had a lot of those) was the comparison of football to baseball, “Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.  Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.”

And some of the most recent technological advances in football are proving how right Carlin is–not that it needs to be proven.

In an effort to close a growing technological gap between players and coaches, especially on the collegiate level, a growing number of services are gaining traction in the football world to try and incorporate this whole Internet thingy into the gridiron.

Coaches are beginning to use a website called OnePlaybook to help manage their teams by posting announcements, game video and updated practice schedules.

OnePlaybook works like a private social networking site (great, another one?) or other academically-based sites like Blackboard where teachers can post syllabi and due dates for classes, affording many teachers the luxury of not pitying students who aren’t responsible enough to check it and turn assignments in on time.

It also saves paper.  Sweet.

Another company, XOS Technologies, has teamed up with EA Sports to provide coaches and players with an action simulator, as reported by ABC News, allowing players to “review specific plays in a simulator modeled after the popular video game ‘Madden.’”

And then, there’s ZEUS.  This one is the problem; or at least, people are fighting its principle on principle.

ZEUS is football’s answer to Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing supercomputer of the late 1990’s.  According to their Website, ZEUS is developed by EndGame Technologies (not the most uplifting name) and is essentially a program powerful enough to “simulate the equivalent of every game played in the history of the NFL in a matter of seconds,” and can also “objectively assess critical play-calling decisions with startling accuracy and confidence.”

Translation: everyone’s a critic, and now computers are too.

The creators of ZEUS say it can help coaches decide whether or not to go for it on 4th and long or help calculate the odds on whether or not that two-point conversion is a bad idea.  But ZEUS also has the ability to–and here’s the rub–prove the most talented and famous NFL head coaches wrong.

That’s some risky business, Jack.  Try putting that one past Ditka and see what happens to your face.

We don’t need a machine to call out the boneheaded moves coaches and players can and will continue to make in the NFL.  We’ve got an army of analysts and commentators for that, and trust me, players and coaches are already annoyed enough.

Technology should do everything it can to help advance, support and innovate a game as cherished in this country as football, but we don’t need a computer to sit there like a Vulcan on the sidelines and tell a coach how illogical it is for Brett Favre to take such a huge risk by making such an ill-advised pass that actually ended up working.

That sort of thing is called “fun.”  It’s why we play, and why we watch.

And if past experiences have anything to tell us about the future, we should already know this is taking technology in sports too far.

The BCS uses a sophisticated computer program to help rank its college teams as well, you know.

And it’s widely agreed to be stupid.

–Joey Alfino, Red Editorial Staff.

A contemporary of such wild comedians as Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl, guys who pushed the border of what was considered acceptable, Bob Newhart’s humor was grounded in who he was–a guy from a stable middle class Oak Park, Illinois home who had a degree, of all things, in accounting.  Someone had to speak for the average man, and Newhart, who personified middle of the road, was just the right guy.  Droll, unassuming, but hysterically funny he found his niche early on and now almost 50 years later he remains a star.

Newhart, who stars in TNT’s The Librarian: “Curse of the Judas Chalice” with Noah Wylie and Jane Curtin, has had two hugely successful television series, sold millions of comedy albums worldwide, appeared in over 14 feature films and also continues to perform stand-up. Taking time out from filming the third Librarian installment, Newhart talked to Red about, well, whatever he wanted to talk about.  

In The Librarian you play Judson, the head of the library, and it’s a role where everything around you seems crazed but you always remain calm. Is that hard to do?

This role was kind of tailor made for me. It’s the story of my life, like The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart. Remember, I had Daryl, Daryl and Larry.  I’ve always been surrounded by this mayhem and all these quirky people.  And it’s like that in The Librarian as well.

Are you surprised that the Librarian franchise has been so amazingly successful?

I was. It isn’t that I didn’t think it was good, but it was very different from a lot of what is out there because it has this message that it’s all right to be smart, which is not the most common message in popular culture. That was what appealed to me, and I loved the script, which is intelligent, and my character. When I first signed on, I didn’t realize that there were going to be three movies, now I realize there may be six and the next one may be a theatrical release.

Is The Librarian’s popularity because of you?

(Laughs) If you ask me, I’d say yes, but if you’d ask Noah and Jane, they’d probably say something else. The thing is that people found it and then, bang!

Are you funny in real life?  Do you make your family and friends laugh?

Yeah, I think my family and friends think I’m funny.  I’m kind of proud of my kids because they have the same type of humor as I do.  They’ll read a horrible story in the newspaper and say let’s show this to dad, he’ll get a kick out of it.  I’ve been married for 45 years, imagine that, and she thinks I’m funny too.

So humor is a family trait?

I think one reason for our marriage working is laughter; it gets you through the rough times in a marriage.  Jack Benny, George Burns and Don Rickles all had long, successful marriages.  So I think there’s some type of connection between laughter and a good, long lasting marriage.

Bob Newhart, who had two hit TV series, The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, first rose to fame with his stand-up routines.  And though it took a while, fame finally found him. In 1960, only 15 gold records were issued and Newhart’s The Button-Down Mind, which sold over one and a half million copies, won a Grammy and topped Elvis Presley and The Sound of Music on the charts, was one of them.

According to Wikipedia, the album (now available in CD) was a 2006 entry into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry and is the 20th best-selling of all-time on Billboard’s charts. Newhart would go on to record six more albums and win two more Grammys.  Later he would add an Emmy and Peabody to his list of awards. Reprising his role as Judson in TNT’s The Librarian: “Curse of the Judas Chalice,” Newhart talked to Red about comedy.

Who made you laugh growing up?

I was raised on Bob and Ray.  I saw George Gobel perform in the 50s and we later became friends. Jack Benny, he wasn’t afraid of silences, he was fearless in that way.   George Burns was another.  I would watch them, see how they worked and see what made them so funny.  They also made me realize that you didn’t have to wear women’s clothes or walk on your ankles to make people laugh.

Other comedians who were very successful have come and gone, but here you are still going strong for almost a half-century.  Any thoughts on why?

I don’t know, and I’m afraid if I knew, it would all go away. It’s like those tribes in the jungles of the Amazon that won’t let you take photos of them because you might capture their souls.  If I thought too much about it, it just might not work anymore, so I just let it happen.  I’m just amazed that it’s lasted so long.  It didn’t start off very well.

I take it the first few years were lean?

I think I earned about $1000 total one year.

You were still living at home when you started doing stand-up.  Did your parents wonder why you quit your job as an accountant to do such a thing?

They had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it.

So given your success in show business, I guess it was a good career move to quit your job as an accountant all those years ago?

I’m not sure I would have made it anyway. I worked in petty cash and we’d close at 6 p.m. and at 8:30 I’d still be searching for the 30 cents that was missing.  They were paying me $6 an hour, so I just put the 30 cents in.  The next day I couldn’t find $6, so I put it in.  They told me that wasn’t solid accounting procedures.  Those would be perfect for today.  I could cook the books better than anyone.

TNT’s The Librarian: “Curse of the Judas Chalice” premieres on TNT Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT).

–Interview by Jane Ammeson, Red Editorial Staff
–Photo credit to Mark Hill

There are always options in life you can take. Take the wrong one, and you may think you’ve made the wrong decision. Like the Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, Jimmy Stewart ponders how life would be if he made a different choice.

Similarly, each Thanksgiving, the millions of people who usher in the holiday season with turkey and cranberries have to make choices. A choice between having Thanksgiving with relatives they see once a year and a trip into the city to see the “Big Parade” in New York City.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade features canned Broadway music, character balloons that are tethered to their volunteers and high school bands from around the country.

While approximately 2.5 million parade enthusiasts brave the chilly November Manhattan weather to catch a live glimpse of the Snoopy balloon, over 40 million people watch this parade on television each year as the traditional sofa riding marathon goes on and the scent of roasting turkey gives you hope there is light at the end of the tunnel.

As most of you do, if you choose to ride out the Macy’s Parade from your sofa, you’ll recall the drama and suspense this choice provides. Thanksgiving with relatives has always been a kind of blood sport for some–planning and preparation are key.

First, you’ll need the Cliffs Notes prior to this get together from a family elder who knows what relatives will be in attendance and what the latest hot topics are in the family: which kids have flunked out of medical school and are now traveling the world to get it back together, who’s divorcing who and what subjects not to bring up in front of Uncle Ernie.

Next, if you decide it’s safe to camp out on the sofa watching the big parade, you’ll have to remember when to diplomatically leave the room when the remote control battle heats up between the jocks who want to watch the football games and the traditionalists who demand watching the big Parade.

If you are one of the 2.5 million who choose to see the parade live in New York City, then you have your own challenges. Don’t think that just because you escaped the political battles of your family, you are “scott-free” absconding away to the cold streets of Manhattan.

Remember, if you choose seeing the parade live, Global Warming has forgotten this day for the past decade. Expect chilled rain, ice, snow and a nasty combination of all three. Dressing in layers may sound smart, but when each layer becomes soaked, what protection will they really provide?

Lines start forming at 5am for the best viewing spots and tolls and parking can run you over $50. And lucky you, the tiny spot you have staked out to see this famous parade may be cursed by someone sick with flatulence–too late now to find another spot.

So maybe your choices aren’t looking too great at this point. It may be a decision between the lesser of two evils.  But truth be told, when Uncle Ernie has passed away, the next Thanksgiving without him, the tales of his grumpiness have morphed into family myths. You’ll remember his “snarky” parade commentary as more witty than bitter.

Similarly, if you decide to join the parade live, the gassy man next to you will provide memories and giggles for a lifetime.

This Thanksgiving, channel your inner Jimmy Stewart. Learn from his traumatic time travels that much can be learned by your decisions in life, both good and bad.

Parade Details:
9am, Thursday, November 27, 2008
Official Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Website:
www.macys.com/campaign/parade/parade.jsp

COOK’S NOTES:
To help make both choice feel like the right one, there is one piece of advice to be given. Apply alcohol. Yes, a warm mulled wine will produce happy and bright memories for all. Sip from a mug or flask of your choosing!

SPICED MULLED WINE

One bottle of red wine, preferably Burgundy (750 ml)
1 cup apple cider
2 cinnamon barks
1 teaspoon allspice
5 whole cloves
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 orange with peel, sliced
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cayenne

Heat all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for fifteen minutes. Pour wine mixture through a strainer into a thermos or large bowl.

–Shelly Connors, Red Editorial Staff.

The San Diego Chargers have had their heart broken more times than a whiny country music singer this season, but they’re staying positive, gosh darn it.

It’s really cute; it’s pointless . . . but it’s cute.

Well, all right.  Maybe calling San Diego’s chances of playing football in January pointless is a bit harsh.  It’s still mathematically possible, but if the Chargers see the light of the postseason it won’t have anything to do with how they win football games.  It will have everything to do with how Denver loses them.

It’s been a rough year for San Diego.  Norv Turner and his “No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day” has been a sob season for the ages.  They began the year as a Super Bowl favorite, but after blown calls, bad luck, poor execution, injury and a failure to seal the deal when the game is on the line, their only hope is that other teams will fail as miserably as they have.

Luckily, the Chargers are in the AFC West.

Yesterday, QB Phillip Rivers said, “We’re the only 4-7 team this year that still has a chance.  That’s the only positive spin you can put on this whole deal–we’re still two games out with five to go and we get a chance at the team we’re chasing the last game of the year.”

Positive spin, eh Phil?  Well, I don’t want to get too deep into a semantic argument here, but what do you mean by “positive?”  It sounds to me like Rivers is saying: yeah, we can’t win, but the good thing is that no one else can win either so we like our chances.

Man.  That’s sad.  And things could get worse when you look at the rest of the schedule in the AFC West.

San Diego is 4-7 after losing to the Colts two days ago.  Next week they play Atlanta (7-4) at home while Denver’s 28th ranked defense tried to put the leashes on Brett Favre and a Jets team that embarrassed Titans 34-13 last weekend.

I don’t think anyone would be surprised if both the Chargers and Denver ended up dropping those games (a fair assumption), taking them to 4-8 and 6-6 respectively.

Week 14 has Denver playing a home game against Kansas City, which the Broncos should win, and San Diego hosting Oakland, which should be a win for the Chargers as well. So hypothetically: Chargers are 5-8 and Denver is 7-6.

After that, it gets interesting for all the wrong reasons.  San Diego finishes the season playing Kansas City and Tampa Bay before seeing Denver again in Week 17.  Denver has Carolina and Buffalo, so it’s possible (not probable) that the Chargers and Broncos could be headed into the last game of the season both with 7-8 records.

Meaning the winner of that game would make the playoffs with a pedestrian .500 season before getting knocked out by whoever they play, and the loser would go home with a massively broken heart.

And that pretty much guarantees the Chargers are doomed.

By the way, here’s something to chew on:  you can run this same type of scenario with Oakland . . . and it works.  Yes, it’s also mathematically possible for the Raiders to see the postseason.

Start digesting that now so you can get your appetite back by Thursday.

–Joey Alfino, Red Editorial Staff.

Every time you looked up on Sunday, Tony Romo seemed to be stepping in the pocket or scrambling or both, and then winging the ball downfield. Romo has mobility that sneaks up on you, but, well, no offense, you don’t play NFL football (at least not in person). NFL defenses should know by now that Romo can shake loose and let loose–including 213 total yards to Terrell Owens in Sunday’s rout of the Niners.

But San Francisco didn’t get it. And it’s not likely the Seahawks will fare much better in the traditional Thanksgiving game at Dallas than (ugh, hate to say it in Mike Holmgren’s last NW season) the turkeys they’ve been all year. Romo, TO and others will devour Seattle like the starving-artist son home for holiday dinner.

The question is, can the Cowboys get their groove on long enough and strong enough to dethrone the Giants, who returned to their Super Bowl victory stadium Sunday to tamp down the Cardinals. The answer is . . . well, you know, yes. That came out of nowhere but so have the C-boys in recent weekends.

While Arizona played with heart, they never looked threatening to the Giants or all those satisfied fans in all the gin joints throughout NYC. Carolina? Sheez, get to that in a moment. Philly, hah-hah. Bears? No chance. Minnesota? Interesting, but Dallas is the only team that will make the Giants take pause.

And Romo’s kookiness–this is a guy who helped a stranded couple change their tire a few weeks back and took a sidewalk sign-holder for a furniture store to the movies this week in a totally random gesture–along with his entire body had a good bit of down time earlier in the season.

When January comes, Dallas will be heading to New Jersey to see about the Giants. Unless, of course, the Atlanta Falcons keep defying the laws of gravity and NFL power rankings. Rookie QB Matt Ryan was 17 of 27 for 259 yards with no TDs during a victory in which Atlanta scored 45 points.

If you wondering, Michael Turner scored four on the ground and Harry Douglas dashed for two, including a 61-yard punt return. Mike Smith is doing masterful work in Atlanta; the Sunday win over the typically well-coached Carolina Panthers was wholly impressive. And completely nuts.

I mean, the next thing you know Jim Zorn will take his Redskins into Seattle and beat mentor Holmgren at Qwest Field, the noisiest stadium in the NFC. Oh, wait a minute, that happened too.

–Bob Condor, Red Editorial Staff.

Four prestigious programs, three title winning coaches, two back-to-back games and one new arena featuring a lone banner hailing Garth Brooks and his nine sell-out shows. Put ‘em together and you get the 2008 CBE Classic at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.

The pre-Thanksgiving tournament showcases three of the last four NCAA Tournament champs in Kansas, Syracuse and Florida with the University of Washington Huskies playing the odd man out. The programs’ coaches include the legendary Jim Boehiem for the Orange, two-time winner Billy Donavan for Florida and Kansas’ Bill Self.

But last night the name-dropping didn’t stop there thanks to the half-time induction of the 2008 College Basketball Hall of Fame class.

There was the bow tied coach Jim Phelan with his 830 career victories, Nolan Richardson, the only coach to win the NJCAA, NIT and NCAA titles, Danny Manning, who would have been there anyway since he’s a coach for the Jayhawks, the iconic announcer Billy Packer, an un-tucked Charles Barkley and the one and only Dick Vitale.

Oh Baby!

After the induction ceremony Vitale challenged Barkley to a game of one-on-one, which was, as Charles would say himself, “just terrible,” although very funny.

Bobby Knight was there in his new capacity as an ESPN color commentator.

Hall-of-Famer George Brett was in the audience and embattled Chiefs running back Larry Johnson was welcomed by the local boo-birds when his face flashed on the screen.

(Alert fantasy owners: don’t count on L.J. to break too many records this weekend)

And yes there were the games.

The Orange took on #18 Florida for the first game of the evening downing the Gators 89-83. Forwards Paul Harris and Jonny Flynn each had 18 points and Andy Rautins drained five first-half threes for his 15 points.

The nightcap of Washington and Kansas was a blowout 73-54 in the Jayhawks favor.
Center Cole Aldrich put up career high 16 points, nine rebounds and six blocks all while remarkably staying out of foul trouble.

The Huskies shot a dismal 29 percent from the field despite having a player named Isaiah Thomas (although he did lead his team with 17).

The win was the first real test for the depleted champs and sets up a rematch of the 2003 NCAA Finals.

In ‘03 the Orange beat Kansas 81-78 to capture the school’s and Boehiem’s first title.

–By Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

Dublin sits damp and gray on the banks of the River Liffey (she becomes even damper and grayer on rainy days, which occur more often than not). But this compact city brims with creativity–much of it literary.

Dublin’s most famous literary treasure, the Book of Kells, lies within the vaults of Ireland’s oldest university, Trinity College, founded in 1592. This manuscript of the four gospels dates to the year 800 and is undeniably exquisite, its pages of carefully-prepared vellum; its text painstakingly transcribed by candle-light; its illuminated frontispieces crafted by as many as half a dozen monks, each one specializing in painting faces or fabrics or animals, as the case may be.

But the Book of Kells isn’t Trinity’s only literary contribution. Trinity’s list of alumni include Bram Stoker (of “Dracula” fame), Jonathan Swift (who wrote Gulliver’s Travels), playwright Oscar Wilde (famous for The Importance of Being Earnest) and Samuel Beckett (who penned Waiting for Godot).

The Dublin Writer’s Museum further celebrates Ireland’s literati with small, inspiring  exhibits relating to writers you read (or should have) in college: James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and others who called the city home. Visitors further absorb Dublin’s literary vibes while enjoying modern Irish cooking in the museum’s lower level restaurant, Chapter One.

The truth is, literary haunts lie around every corner in Dublin. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the largest and most famous Irish church, was led by Jonathan Swift from 1713 to 1745. It isn’t often that a single person embodies a church dean, a political satirist and a skillful writer, but Swift did and his tomb takes a prominent spot in the cathedral. There’s a 2-hour guided Dublin Pub Crawl that focuses exclusively on pubs with literary connections. And the mid-19th-century Clarence Hotel is frequented by Bono and the Edge of U2 fame, who now own the property.  (OK, they’re not your typical Irish writers, but you get the idea.)

But Dublin’s true literary jewel lies off the radar for most visitors to the city: the obscure but superb Chester Beatty Library.

Tucked into a corner of Dublin Castle’s grounds, the library houses a priceless collection of ancient manuscripts and books, many of which outshine the Book of Kells: ancient religious texts on papyrus and vellum; jewel-encrusted and illuminated Christian and Muslim texts; hand-written Jewish and Buddhist tomes; and books and scrolls from throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. And entrance to the library is always free.

For more information about Dublin visit www.visitdublin.com or www.discoverireland.com.

–Amy S. Eckert, Red Editorial Staff

At this point the Detroit Lions stand a better chance of getting a handout than Detroit’s auto industry, and it looks like the majority of America would rather it happen that way, too.

Apparently there’s a Bastille in Detroit . . . and we’re storming it.

A Gallup poll conducted last week found that 49 percent of Americans are opposed to giving “major financial assistance to the Big Three U.S. automotive companies.”  That 49 percent also includes former (and future?) presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who wrote an op-ed for the New York Times with the headline “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

Now, I had mentioned last week that letting the Detroit Big Three go under would be like cutting off Rocky Balboa’s arms, and I still think that’s true, but since that opinion is obviously in the national minority, allow me to clarify:

I firmly believe, and I’m not alone on this, that we can’t allow the American auto industry to fail.  Who we CAN allow to fail, however, are those three clowns who flew to Washington in private jets to ask for money like a homeless man asking for bus fare while he’s still on a bus; or asking for food with a mouthful of food.

While I can’t be sure of Detroit Big Three CEOs Alan Mulally, Robert Nardelli and Rick Wagoner’s educational backgrounds, their indifference to symbolism tells me they haven’t studied much literature.

In a letter released Nov. 21 to the CEOs of Detroit’s Big Three, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi notes that “One in 10 American jobs is related to auto manufacturing;” adding, “our national security depends on the industry’s technologies and manufacturing capacity; and our competitiveness in a global economy depends on its pursuit of excellence.”

Speaker Pelosi is aware, as I’m sure we’re all aware, that the automotive industry is an irreplaceable thing in this country, and to lose it would start an economic endgame the likes of which we’ve never seen. So at least they aren’t flippant.  But the subtext of the rest of the letter pretty much reads like this:

“You suck.”

It isn’t that Pelosi and others in Washington are opposed to bailing out the auto industry, they just want the auto industry to be very clear about how they intend to use the money (they probably won’t get) and what the industry intends to change about their antiquated business model.

You know, the business model centered on the more “practical” uses of a Ford F-150; like hauling entire planets or bragging about how much seating space there is for all those workers to carpool to the local factory in Kansas that isn’t open anymore.

And during these frightening economic times, it’s very important not to let our wont for accountability mutate into mob mentality.  We don’t need to scream for every head in the automotive industry, folks.

Not when we only need three.

So let’s hope that when Mulally, Nardelli and Wagoner return to Washington on Dec. 2–hopefully in a horse-drawn wagon–to deliver their plan and hold out their hands a second time, they’ll realize that America wants its auto industry.  But even more than that, we want our auto industry to move forward under leadership that hasn’t failed in the past.

It’s important for these CEOs to know that we like our automotive history, we need the work, and we miss the sense of pride we used to have for it.

But we won’t miss them.

–Joey Alfino, Red Editorial Staff.

Need more proof that 2008 will ultimately prove to be the BCS’ death-knell? At the end of November, the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams, Alabama and Florida, still have a lot to prove, since really, they haven’t proven anything at all.

Sure, there isn’t anything out of the ordinary with Alabama’s No. 1 ranking. They are 11-0 after all. But a closer look at their season will reveal a strikingly pedestrian list of achievements.

Similar scrutiny of Florida’s schedule reveals a troubling duality between the nation’s top two teams’ “accomplishments” in 2008.

Let’s start with both schools’ signature win, Georgia.

You may remember that the Bulldogs were college football’s preseason number one. The ranking didn’t seem to be based on much more than the fact they played in the SEC and had a high number of returning starters, but they there were.

Except from the very beginning they didn’t look like a number one team. After struggling at South Carolina, narrowly winning 14-7, and sleepwalking through a 27-10 win over Arizona State, the pollsters responded, dropping them to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, after each uninspiring weekend. They knew something was afoot in Athens.

Only then, they vaulted Alabama from No. 8 to No. 2 after the Tide crushed the obviously overrated Bulldogs.

The pollsters followed a similar strategy with Florida, moving the No. 8 Gators to No. 5 after they crushed the still somehow No. 6 Bulldogs on November 1.

Georgia has since beaten Kentucky (6-5) and Auburn (5-6) by a combined eight points.

Post Georgia, Alabama followed up their speedy coronation with three straight . . . middling games against even more middling opponents: a three-point win over Kentucky, a four-point win over Ole Miss and a 20-point win over the dreadful Tennessee Volunteers.

After a week off against Arkansas State, they rolled in to Phase II of the “get Alabama and Florida ranked really high without really doing anything” plan, LSU.

But where Florida at least crushed the hapless defending national champions, Alabama needed overtime to outlast living-legend Jarrett Lee and LSU’s “high-powered” offense.

That’s more time than No. 25 Ole Miss needed to beat LSU and four fewer points than Troy put up on the Tigers.

If you examine Florida and Alabama’s big wins vs. the Big 12’s top two teams’ big wins, Oklahoma and Texas, things look even more embarrassing.

Oklahoma’s big win: A 65-21 romp over then No. 2 and now No. 7 Texas Tech. Oklahoma’s only loss: a 45-35 setback against now No. 3 Texas.

Texas’ big win: a 45-35 victory over then No. 1 and current No. 4 Oklahoma. Texas’ only loss: A 39-33 setback against then and now No. 7 Texas Tech.

Florida’s big win? A 51-21 beating of then No. 4, and now (somehow) No. 18 LSU. Florida’s big loss? It wasn’t at the hands of a top five, or even top ten team, but instead a 31-30 setback to then unranked and now only No. 25 Ole Miss–at Florida no less.

You already know about Alabama’s “triumphs” over Georgia and LSU.

Further, the combined SEC record of the SEC opponents Alabama has played so far is 20-29, while Florida’s is an only slightly better 26-33.

The Big 12 record of the Big 12 opponents Oklahoma has played so far is an at least .500 25-25, while Texas’ is an impressive 29-19.

The point? Alabama, as the nation’s only undefeated power-conference team, has to be No. 1, even if their season really isn’t befitting of a true number one.

But to have Florida leading the nation’s cluster of one-loss schools while far more accomplished teams like Texas and Oklahoma sit behind them is a truly egregious error.

We can only hope it doesn’t screw things up further come BCS selection time.

–Patrick Daugherty, Red Editorial Staff.