Thoughts From The Road

Here's a little tip I learned today. If you only have one day to live, go to the eastern-most part of Wyoming and drive West. By the time you get to Nevada, you will welcome death with a warm and loving embrace. Why? (1) The roads suck. At one point I thought my vehicle was going to go airborne due to the massive dips in the road. (2) Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada are the reason satellite radio was invented (which I did not have). (3) The scenery, while pretty good, is the same no matter where you are. It's like your car is on a treadmill or you are in a Flintstone's cartoon.

Before the radio went to a dull buzz, I was able to glean a few things from the local and national sports shows I could catch. A few observations:

• Why does a team (actually two) with an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament have to play in the play-in game? I thought an "automatic" berth meant they were "automatically" in the dance? If your game is off the side of the page on my bracket sheet, you aren't in the dance.
  
• Related to that, why does the winner of the play-in game get to match up with Kansas? Isn't Florida the #1 overall seed? Shouldn't the #1 seed play the #64 seed in round one?
• Does the NCAA tournament committee hate the mid-majors so much that they are making them all play each other in the first round, thus ensuring that half of them lose? I don't buy the argument that it guarantees a win for a mid-major either. By playing each other they lessen the chance of a BCS school being upset in round one and that seems to be CBS' the committee's main goal.
  
• Does anyone else find it wrong that a team in a small conference can play great for three months, but then if they lose one game in their conference tournament they are excluded from the dance? What is the point of the regular season? Just to arrange the seedings for the conference tournament? Seems like it makes the regular season a big waste of time.
• As for all the whining and crying by the Syracuses, Drexels, and Air Forces of the world, does it really matter if you are the 64th best team or the 70th best team? You are not going to win it all no matter what happened, so shut up and go win the NIT and prove you are the 65th best team.
• In a post a while back, I discussed the fact that the people of Salt Lake City were upset with the Jazz's arena being named after a company that deals in toxic waste. So I found it interesting that as I was blowing through SLC today that the highway signs that tell you what exit to take to get to the arena still call the arena the "Delta Center" even though that hasn't been the name of the arena all season.
• How about Viacom suing Google/YouTube for $1 billion? As a blogger, that makes me nervous. Don't mess with our YouTube! We need those clips!
• Though if you'd asked me if it was possible prior to this trip, I would have said no, but the Tom Cochrane song "Life is a Highway" was actually able to made even more annoying. Country group Rascal Flatts has managed to turn a catchy but annoying song into a complete abortion.
  
• And lastly, how stupid is it that a trek to the North Pole to study global warming was canceled because the idiots doing it found out to was "too cold" to continue? That is priceless!
  

That's all I got. I need some food and try to get some feeling back in my ass. I wonder if the casino across the street serves any? I'll try to check in once I get to my final destination tomorrow. Keep enjoying the guest posters! They're holding down the fort quite well!