Serving another batch of “David’s Appetizers,” assorted musings and observations from the sports scene:
The addition of five new members of the Southland Conference (Oral Roberts, Incarnate Word, New Orleans, Abilene Christian and Houston Baptist) have forced league administrations to go back to the drawing board as far as future scheduling.
Incarnate Word, Houston Baptist and Abilene Christian play football.
The league’s athletic directors met this week in Frisco, Texas, to work out preferred schedule formats.
“We came up with recommendations for scheduling in every single sport,” said Brad Teague, UCA’s athletic director. “Now, before the conference can approve it, the formats will be sent to the computer guru we use in Colorado to see if what we decided can mathematically work.”
The AD’s have recommended a nine-game conference football schedule, and an 18-game schedule for basketball and volleyball. The recommendation is for basketball to have doubleheaders for men and women on Thursday and Saturday in keeping with the format that will be implemented this year.
It’s interesting that UCA finished the football season at the University of Montana last year and began at Ole Miss this season.
These observations:
Even though Ole Miss attracted 50-000-plus, the atmosphere and noise in the stadium was nowhere close to what the Bears experienced at Montana, which prides itself as one of the loudest venues in the country.
While Ole Miss is king of tailgating in elaborateness and scope, Montana’s is just a cool on a much-smaller scale. And the Grizzly fans may have more passion to go with their tailgating, although that may be a reflection of Ole Miss’ struggles in recent years.
The hospitality at both is incredible — Ole Miss in the classic Southern tradition, Montana in the tradition of Big Sky Country.
Ouachita Baptist University suffered a blow last week when Great American Conference quarterback Casey Cooper, a former Conway star, suffered a season-ending knee injury.
AND AT LITTLE ROCK CATHOLIC
Little Rock Catholic officials acted appropriately and cleverly in not pressing charges but dealing out punishment to the Little Rock Central student who vandalized their new football field.
The 16-year-old, who turned himself in, must pay for the damages, do community service on behalf of Catholic and write a five-page essay about the school’s icon, Father Tribou, that will be graded by the school’s English faculty. Anything less than an A would require another essay plus an oral presentation.
Instead of pressing the usual charges, Catholic officials are trying to both educate and reform, particularly on a person (Father Tribou) who was depicted in a despicable manner.
Vandalism involving fans of rival schools has been going on forever but this was over the stop and went well beyond playfulness
(Sports columnist David MCCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)