USC, The BCS & golf in New Orleans

[Joel_Stewart]

January 4th of this year, I plan to be in New Orleans to watch USC and Oklahoma play for the national championship.  That is if the Michigan has any balls and can win at home against Ohio State.  (I'm assuming Troy will crush UCLA and Oregon State over the next few weeks.)

I haven't been to New Orleans in over 10 years and I have never played golf there.  Is there any course worthwhile in the area and what type of weather do they get in January?

[Scott_Burroughs]

I believe Raynor's Metairie CC just went through a restoration, but I haven't heard how it turned out.

The home of the Invensys (?) - formerly USF&G - Classic is held at Nicklaus-designed English Turn.

Weather can vary greatly from cold to mild.  I was at the MNC on Jan 4, 2000 for VT vs. FSU, but didn't have time for golf.  Too busy on Bourbon Street till the wee hours.

[Mike Benham]

Well, if USC is in the Sugar Bowl, then that means LSU isn't and they will most likely be in the Fiesta Bowl against ... FSU?

Anyway, with all the Tiger fans out of town, you should be able to play at their home course(s):

http://www.lsusports.net/ad/sportlink.cfm?pagecode=mg-facilities

What's an 1 1/2 hour drive hungover ...

[JLahrman]

Joel, you'd better hope LSU wins out as well...

[ForkaB]

So Huckaby's alma mater (U. of Santa Clara) is going to the Sugar Bowl?

WOW!  Indeed!

PS--we don't get much US sports reporting over here in Scotland.  Thanks guys.

[THuckaby2]

Rich  - that younger school down in SoCal is USC.  WE are Santa Clara University, or in acronym,

SCU!

TH

[ForkaB]

Tom

Surely not that same USC that got hammered by the Cal Weenies?  What are they going to do when they play a real team?

[THuckaby2]

I'm sure they'll do the same as they did to all their other victims this year.  

Guess news DOES get over to Scotland pretty slowly.  

TH

[Mike Benham]

USC = nice sweaters

[ForkaB]

Great Post, Mike

The USC cheerleaders are second to none.  Pity that their band looks like one of the Village People who has been run through a Xerox machine, led by Greg Niedermeyer on his big white horse........

PS--vis a vis "BCS" I know what the "B" and the "S" mean.  What does the "C" stand for?

[Gary_Smith]

"C" stands for championship, I think.

Unless plans have changed, 2004 will be the last time the tour stop in New Orleans will be played at English Turn. The TPC course being designed by Pete Dye near the Mississippi River is scheduled to start hosting the tournament beginning 2005. The land in and around New Orleans is definitely not ideal for golf as the soil tends to be of the heavy, poorly-drained type.

[ForkaB]

Thanks, Gary

I thought it might be "Crap", which, of course, would have been redundant.......

[CharlestonBuckeye]

I hope you paid the extra jack and bought fully refundable airline tix.

The answer is 5.


The question is how many games has Ohio State won over this 23-1 stretch without scoring an offensive touchdown?

Ohio State 12
Michigan 9

[buffett_guy]

I played English Turn in October and was dissapointed. It's a very nice club, but the course is plain and the greens generally dictate an aerial approach game. The course was not in particularly good shape considering the fairly high greens fee.

New Orleans is one of the best places in the world for fun tho!

[Gary_Smith]

Thanks, Gary

I thought it might be "Crap", which, of course, would have been redundant.......

Rich,

I figured you were playing the straight man with the "c" question, but gave you what the real answer was in case you weren't.

In fact, the "c" would be better standing for crap or confusing. It is a silly little system which is going to backfire big-time one of these days.

[Scott_Burroughs]

BcS is exactly why I refer to the game between BcS ranked #1 and #2 teams at the end of the year as the MNC - Mythical National Championship.  Only a playoff can determine the real champion- as in what every other sport at every other level does.

[Mike Hendren]

Scott,  

1998 was very real to me

Mike

[THuckaby2]

Shivas:

I concur - no surprise.

One of the great things about college football is that every game matters.

BCS ratings aren't the problem - as screwed as my team might end up this year, there really is no better way to decide this.  The problem is a lack of meaningful playoff.

I'm hoping like hell this year that each of USC, Ohio State and LSU all win out, and then Oklahoma loses in Big 12 title game.  Perhaps the resulting chaos then will FINALLY enlighten people to how much a playoff is needed.

I'm thinking that we start with 4, see how it goes, then going to 8 likely would be more of an improvement than a hindrance... But at the very least they need something beyond just a one-game final.

TH

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Joel, I am so glad you want to come and see LSU play OU that day. OMG those USC cheerleaders are really OK. I had dinner last night with the greens committe chairman at Metaire CC. I had my second late afternoon tour after meeting but have yet to actually get in a round. I will be playing there alot very soon. I really like the restoration work Ron Forse did there. I would be happy to provise an introduction for you to play there but cannot help you with tickets to see the Tigers. lol Please email me if thinks work out where you are coming. I have alot of friends there. As for other golf in the area. New Orleans CC just finished a renovation by Bobby Weed. I heard he did a great job but have only seen it at mid job. English Turn is very average Jack work but better than no golf.  The TPC (Pete Dye) will not open till next spring. Money Hill across the lake is a pretty good Ron Garl course. There are more to talk about if anyone is curious.John

[THuckaby2]

JB:

If this turns out LSU v. USC (could happen!), then Joel won't be the only CA gca'er coming down.  Stay tuned, my friend.  

TH

[Lou_Duran]

For what it is is worth, I liked English Turn a lot, though it is not a course that I would go out of my way to play it.  I did find a ground game there, and if there was a propensity of left to right shots, I missed it.  The greens are smallish with some nice countours, and the course overall is low-profile.  While there is a lot of water, it doesn't get in the way of good shots such as at Muirfield Village.  The wind was blowing pretty good on my day there, and the conditioning was just a little better than average (bermuda wall-to-wall).  It does have some very nice finishing holes.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Shivas,

You CAN lose to Slippery Rock early and still win the MNC.  USC is proving that. You can lose and still win it.  Why is that WHEN you matters so much?  USC lost early and thus has climbed back up, but if you lose late, you plummet in the polls even though each team lost once AND the team that lost early probably lost to a MUCH WORSE team, negating your chance (only in the polls, not the computers) for the MNC.

How about if you don't lose and don't even get a chance (see Tulane previously, TCU this year)?

The regular season DOES count in playoffs A LOT, because if you lose enough games, you're not in the playoffs (but still get a bowl game).

I see no difference between football and basketball in terms of playoff importance, and the NCAA basketball tournament is wildly popular, and every winner is considered unanimous champion, even if they had 11 losses in the regular season.


The reason that college football has such devotion include:  1. your numerous (usually at least 4) years of toil and fun there, cementing your devotion to your school for life
2. there are only 11-12 regular season games, and usually 5-7 home games, making tailgating, etc. very infrequent but special times.
3. Tailgating is partying with 50,000-100,000+ people who share the same love as yourself.
4. rivalries.  If there wasn't rivalries, where would it be?

[Scott_Burroughs]

Shivas,

As it is now with the BCS, nobody outside of the two schools cares about the other bowls anyways.  You can actually say that about the 3 BCS bowls that aren't the so-called championship game, because they don't matter either.  In a playoff ALL games matter and the other bowls still only matter to those two schools only.

[Mike Benham]

If this turns out LSU v. USC (could happen!), then Joel won't be the only CA gca'er coming down.  Stay tuned, my friend.  

Ditto - although I won't be rooting for any team in particular, just paying off a bet ...

[Mike Benham]

But the other bowls would lose whatever prestige they have now.  Casual fans and non-hardcore boosters would not give a damn about the Poulan Outback Astro-Bluebonnet Florida Citrus Bowl, brought to you by Pepsi, if there was a playoff.    

Other than the Big 4, what bowls have "prestige"?  I assume Scott has the SF Walnut Bowl pennant encased in glass in his trophy room as it was the pinnacle in VT history of bowl victories.

No one, outside of the bettors, the participants, the boosters who get trips to the warm weather sites, care about the lesser bowls.  Most of the colleges break-even or lose money on going to a bowl, specifically the lesser ones.  Hard to believe that the bowl sponsors, who also have to buy TV commercial time "make" money on these bowls ... oops, hard to measure profit when it is considered advertising and marketing ...

Don't you think that the Bowl Committee (Can I get a job as Bowl Committee-man, flying around in a corporate jet and a snappy blazer visiting college campuses the last 2 or 3 weeks of the college season to court teams for our bowl ... what a gig) for the Poulan Outback Astro-Bluebonnet Florida Citrus Bowl would rather have a first or second round game of the playoffs, maybe a Oklahoma/TCU match-up the week before Christmas instead of the 3rd Place Big Eleven Team vs. 4th in the SEC?