Dave Sez

Yeah, because there have never been high profile brawls in the ACC before. *cough* Art Heyman *cough* Larry Brown *cough*. The only reason this is 'news' is because ESPN has decided that, you know, 'actual game highlights' aren't interesting and that it must fill sportscenter with 'news', like Barry Bonds, TO, and now this. 5-10 years ago this would have been a blurb in Saturday's paper, and aside from another blurb about the suspensions, no one would have cared.

tieguy wrote:

Yeah, because there have never been high profile brawls in the ACC before. *cough* Art Heyman *cough* Larry Brown *cough*. The only reason this is 'news' is because ESPN has decided that, you know, 'actual game highlights' aren't interesting and that it must fill sportscenter with 'news', like Barry Bonds, TO, and now this. 5-10 years ago this would have been a blurb in Saturday's paper, and aside from another blurb about the suspensions, no one would have cared.

No, it's not the first brawl ever, but it's the worst the ACC has seen in a loooong time. That Art Heyman brawl was over 45 years ago!

And two things about the brawl - first, Miami has a long history of this sort of thing. Just like in the criminal justice system, you should be judged more harshly when you have a history of violence. It's part and parcel of Miami's image, both inside and outside of campus. Did you see the way the crowd reacted? They loved it!

Second, unlike that Duke-UNC brawl or the nasty Clemson-USC brawl from last year, these teams had no long-standing rivalry to heat emotions. They'd never even played before!

I agree that ESPN has given way too much media coverage of non-stories like what Barry Bonds had for breakfast or who TO snubbed today, but it's not fair to say that this brawl wasn't a legitimate news story. It was. Hell, it still is. It was not your run-of-the-mill football fight. No, it wasn't unheard of either (UNC and NC State had a tamer version including swinging helmets a few years back), but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be critical.

Speaking of gifts from Swofford, check out this link to the latest on Virginia Tech

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=112859&ran=108263

Note the headline--I think it's one of those canned ones newspapers have ready because they know they'll need it--kind of like "Pope Dies."

How's this for water cooler discussion... Which is the worst decision by President Casteen of UVa--pressing for the Chokies inclusion in the ACC, or persuading Al Groh to coach the 'Hoos?

Ed-Hoo wrote:

How's this for water cooler discussion... Which is the worst decision by President Casteen of UVa--pressing for the Chokies inclusion in the ACC, or persuading Al Groh to coach the 'Hoos?

Hmm, this may surprise you, but I don't think either was that terrible.

With Groh, he signed a guy who was a head coach in the NFL. I mean, I can't think of another situation ever where an active pro coach left to go coach in college. For a school like Virginia to land a guy like that was pretty impressive.

The Hokie-inclusion is a bit more complicated. I'd rather they weren't in the ACC, but I prefer them to Syracuse, who would have been the other team. (Actually, you can blame NC State dean Marye Ann Fox for having BC instead of Syracuse.) While Syracuse has a much better overall athletic program, at least VT fits in geographically and somewhat culturally. They were the only school under Swofford's consideration that made any sense in that regard.