You Heard It Here First - Take Seven - MCLA Division 1 2010 Playoff Seeding

The committee has some decisions to make, sort of.  This year's committee should have about five minutes worth of work to do, or less, if the favorites hold serve tomorrow.  The list below is simply by looking at the playoff brackets for each conference and placing their winner, and in some cases their runner up, and then for the RMLC a third team, the only league to have three teams.  It is possible that The Sage will be right again and the committee will view the SLC as a stronger conference overall then the RMLC, but how do you leave a team out that in the past four weeks has three top ten wins, including a win over # 1Michigan?  Colorado is 6-6 on their regular season, 4-1 since the coaching change, and a team that has split what turned out to be a home and home with # 4 BYU with an overall goal differential between the two teams of 1 goal.

The RMLC has # 2 and # 4, and the SLC has # 3 and # 5.  UCSBs body of work is probably a bit stronger, at least their record is, but how many big wins do they have? None.  Colorado's first half of their year was horrible, with two "bad" losses, New Hampshire and LMU, UCSBs next closest competitor so not sure how bad a loss that was, but they have three "big" wins, Michigan, Michigan State, and BYU.

I think it has to be Colorado with the top ten wins and the victory over Michigan.

Final seeding will be determined largely by what happens tomorrow, and with possible upsets in the PCLL, and the WCLL, possible, but not likely, then the committee will have more than Colorado and UCSB to discuss.  Those are the only two leagues where an upset would put a team from outside the top sixteen in as the AQ by replacing a top sixteen team.  Illinois could get upset tomorrow in the GRLC, but it will have no affect on the bracket at all, except to change the name of the sixteen seed.

If New Hampshire beats Boston College tomorrow, and/or Cal beats Cal Poly, BC being upset by New Hampshire seems possible, Cal beating Cal Poly not so much, but if either of these happen, or both, then the committee has a lot of work to do, because numbers 10 and 11 will have been upset by # 23 and an unranked Cal team.  Woops.

Again, not expected, but if it happens then at least the committee will have earned their money!!  Again, sort of.

The only thing that would really screw this whole thing up is if the first two upsets both happen, and somehow Minnesota beats Minnesota-Duluth, not really possible, but would really make life interesting, and would make this a Big Ten tourney.  Their last game was a 16 to 2 affair, so again, not really possible.

Michigan
Colorado State (CSU gets # 1 if Michigan State beats Michigan tomorrow in their final, not probable)
Chapman
Arizona State (ASU gets # 2 or 3 with win over Chapman tomorrow)
BYU
Simon Fraser
Oregon (Oregon gets 6 spot with win tomorrow over Simon Fraser)
Minn-Duluth
Colorado (the committee could, but shouldn't, choose UCSB) (this spot gets dropped with first upset)
Cal Poly (I don't think they get dropped if upset tomorrow, but they would drop to 13 or 14)
Florida State
Michigan State (gone with second upset)
Boston College (If they get beat by New Hampshire they will drop a spot, maybe)
Florida
Texas State
Illinois

Thank you again for getting this far with me.

Defeated

Depleted.  Drained.  Discouraged.  Disappointed.  Disgusted.

Education.  Educator.  Educate.  Educated.

Main Entry: ed·u·ca·tion 

Pronunciation: \ˌe-jə-ˈkā-shən\

Function: noun

Date: 1531

1 a : the action or process of educating or of being educated; also : a stage of such a processb : the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process education>
2 : the field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools

Main Entry: ed·u·cate 

Pronunciation: \ˈe-jə-ˌkāt\

Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): ed·u·cat·ed; ed·u·cat·ing

Etymology: Middle English, to rear, from Latineducatus, past participle of educare to rear, educate, from educere to lead forth — more ateduce

Date: 15th century

transitive verb1 a : to provide schooling for home> b : to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially in a skill, trade, or profession
2 a : to develop mentally, morally, or aesthetically especially by instruction b : to provide with information : inform <educatingthemselves about changes in the industry>
3 : to persuade or condition to feel, believe, or act in a desired way intransitive verb

Main Entry: educated

Function: adjective

Date: 1588

1 : having an education; especially : having an education beyond the average 
2 a : giving evidence of training or practice :skilled  b : befitting one that is educated  c : based on some knowledge of fact 

— ed·u·cat·ed·ness noun

I am an educator.  This is news to me, but I am an educator.  I am also a philanthropist, also news to me.  I am a social worker, a psychologist, a mathematician, an entrepreneur, an artist, photographer, writer, producer, coach, teacher, but most of all I am an educator!!

I am an advocate.  This is also news to me, but I am an advocate.  I am an advocate for my mother, my grandmother, my sisters.  I am an advocate for my students, and my players.  I am an advocate for my friends and for strangers.  I have become an advocate for anyone and everyone that needs advocacy.

I am the keeper of the cause.  I find causes everyday all day long.  I do not actually see it that way, I just simply like helping people, but others have pointed out that I seem to have an awful lot of causes that I have taken up.

All of this is probably very true about me to some extent or another, and probably to a great extent, but my question for everyone on the planet would be why is everyone else, everyone, not the same way.  I know I have written this at some point along the way, but how great a world would this be if everyone on the planet was always trying to help others, always doing what they could for people in their lives, always trying to help a stranger in need??  The answer is it would be an amazing place.

I have no ability to understand anyone who does not do all they can every day for the betterment of the planet.  I do not understand anyone that does anything specifically aginst the betterment of the planet, or even of a small group of people on the planet, and I most definitely cannot understand how anyone can be employed at an educational institution, be it nursery school, kindergarten, elementary, junior high, high school, preparatory school, private college, or state university, and probably most importantly state university, that is not, does not want to be, or has no ability to be, an educator.

State university systems exist to allow those less fortunate in those states get a quality education for a reasonable price, and in some cases essentially no price.  I am now living in Boise, and helping with some of the activities on the Boise State campus, and I am amazed, and impressed with the level of commitment on that campus, in the community, and in the state, to provide the highest possible environment of learning humanly possible.  The students at Boise State pay very little, relatively speaking, as compared to other states.  These students pay a lot relative to their ability to pay, but very little in the grand scheme, and they get a very high level of education.  The people I have been involved with here really care about not just maintaining that level of education, but increasing the level.  The motto that is everywhere in this town is New U Rising.

Why are there other state universities, in other states, where so many people are allowed to be a part of the "educational" process on those campuses, and I use the term very loosely, that either don't care, or don't have a clue, or some combination of both.  There are examples where from the president down the level of educational INTEGRITY is so far beyond low, that it is truly non-existent.  Where the almighty budget is what rules the decision making process, not sound educational principals.

Why have a math department, or a math curriculum, if no math is actually going to be taught, where all math courses that fall under general education, or remedial, or both, are allowed to be taught ON-LINE.  Math cannot be taught effectively on-line, and any IDIOT knows this.  I do not think you could stop a single person on the street and ask them "do you think that teaching algebra over the internet is a good idea," without them making a scrunched up face and saying that is a horrible idea.  How about Statistics??

Likewise, what about the universities that have athletics, but do not support those athletics to any extent.  How is that educational.  How is good education to allow athletic teams to be ill-equipped, whether it is from a coaching standpoint, training standpoint, recruiting, scholarships, travel, scheduling, or anything else that is key to building a successful, competitive program.  It is not about winning and losing, necessarily, at least not from an educational standpoint, but it is about caring enough, and having pride enough in what you do on a field, or court, and especially as part of a team, to be as prepared, focused, and physically ready to give everything you have mentally and physically for the duration of the contest in question.  If an athlete has prepared well, played hard, "left everything on the field," to steal a phrase, then at least they are learning life lessons that they will use as they progress beyond the safe confines of their campus life.

However, if a president, or dean, or vice president, or athletic director, or any and all of the above, allow, even if it is through apathy, athletes, and especially athletic teams, to go out and represent themselves, their teams, and their schools or universities in anything but the best way humanly possible by that athlete and those teams, then not only are those SO CALLED educators not doing their jobs, but they are doing irreparable harm to all involved, and to allow this is as immoral an act as anything imaginable.  These people are stripping these students and athletes of all potential learnings available to them through the building of a strong team environment, but they are also damaging their souls permanently.

It is not ok that we allow this in this country, or in this world.  It is not ok that such apathetic people exist in an educational system, especially in a system built for higher learning, and it is not ok that no one does anything to address or fix these problems, but then again when the president or head of school, or principal does not care enough to instill these educational values and cornerstones then why should anything below that point be any better.

In case anyone is wondering, I am not saying this is a question of pay people more in education, although I know overall for education in this country that is true, but if a president is making $ 280,000 a year, or a professor is making $ 120,000 a year, or an athletic director, or similar position, is making $ 60,000 a year, or more, in a tenured position, this is not about money, this is about disgraceful human behavior, and it should be made to stop.

Thank you again for getting this far with me.

You Heard It Here First - Take Six - MCLA Division 1 2010 Playoff Seeding

First congrats to Florida and Texas State for being the first two in officially, two teams I had written off a few weeks ago.  After spending most of the year believing that Texas State was the best team down there, I faded on them after some last season losses, and solid play by Texas, but they got it done when needed most.  Now it gets interesting.

Second, I fail to see the wisdom with the MCLA Mag and Website guys giving us a poll every week all season long and then not putting one out after the last regular season week, but then again I often fail to see their wisdom.  I also fail to see the wisdom of Laxpower using the CollegeLax poll in their calculations.  Eventually some of the egos are going to have to come together for the betterment of the MCLA.

Third, I have just done what I gave the committee a hard time for doing last year, which is I have moved Colorado to the five seed.  This will be at the very least controversial because some will argue they do not belong in the tournament at all, but based on what they have done in their past six games they are just as good, and in most cases better, than everyone in the top ten, including Michigan, so how can you leave them out, especially when you compare them to the team that would probably take that spot, UCSB.  UCSB went last year when they didn't deserve to be there, maybe this year they deserve to be there, but don't go.  There just isn't room with two teams taking AQs from outside the top 16 and a third, either Illinois or Lindenwood, about to do the same thing.

No matter what happens, this is the field as of now, and it is a much stronger field than last year for sure, at least from top to bottom.  By the way sorry VTech, but you didn't deserve to ranked as highly as you were all year and now you get bumped as well.

Michigan

Colorado State

Chapman

Minn-Duluth

Colorado
Simon Fraser
Arizona State

BYU
Michigan State

Oregon

Florida State

Cal Poly
Boston College

Florida

Texas State

Illinois

Thank you again for getting this far with me.