I stole this directly from Philip Marshall at AuburnUndercover.com... It sounds like a great idea for a change to the NCAA tournament:

The Marshall Plan

By Phillip Marshall, Senior Writer
Posted Mar 12, 2009
Copyright © 2009 AuburnUndercover.com

Is it time for a change in the NCAA Tournament? I say it is, and I didn’t just start saying that this season.

And I have a plan. Call it the Marshall Plan.

I think the mid-majors are a very important of the tournament. Some of the more memorable moments in tournament history have come from relatively unknown teams knocking of highly seeded powerhouses. I would not advocate taking them out of the picture.

What I would do is have 96 teams in the field. I would give the top eight seeds in each region first-round byes. The remaining 64 teams would play on the home courts of the higher seeds. When that was done, you’d have 64 teams left.

Bottom line: You’d be adding one day to the tournament, creating even more excitement, you wouldn’t leave out major conference teams that clearly have the potential to win games and even more mid-major teams would get in.

NEVER trust a 'free' trial

Did you really think it was going to be free? I did. I’ll take it from the top:

As most of you know, I’m an avid Auburn Tigers fan and college football recruiting season is football season’s little brother here in the South. A month and a half ago, I took out a seven-day “free” trial from Scout.com, a recruiting service Web site, so that I could keep up with recruiting around national signing day.

Anyway, I read all the fine print and found that I would need to cancel my “free” trial at least 48 hours prior to the seven-day mark. So I called Scout.com four days – FOUR - into the trial and did exactly that. The girl on the phone asked me why I wanted to cancel, then offered me a “free” three-month trial. So I asked a few questions and made her tell me that if I accepted her offer, my seven-day trial would be canceled – with my account NEVER being charged – and a new trial would begin – again, with my account NEVER being charged.

She absolutely assured me that as long as I canceled the three-month “free” trial at least 48-hours prior to it’s completion that my account would NEVER be charged. So I took down her name and a cancellation confirmation number and stupidly accepted the offer.

Well, a month down the road – March 2 – I checked my bank account on the Internet and low-and-behold, there was a $9.95 charge from Scout.com. I was livid.

So I called Scout.com with my cancellation confirmation in hand and reached a very nice girl named Morene. I explained what happened and she assured me that Scout would NEVER offer three-month trial, but went on to also tell me that they did, in fact, have record that the girl I talked to previously had told me that she would cancel my trial, but never did it. She said she would take care of it and refund me my $9.95.

Granted, I was a bit confused because I was quite sure I hadn’t simply made up my previous conversation, but I hung up happy that I would at least get my money back – after all, I don’t really read Scout.com anyway.

Now, here comes the complication: before Scout.com refunded me the money, their charge posted to my account and caused an overdraft fee of $35.00. So at this point Scout.com has cost me nearly $45 for a “free” trial. I called them back and told Morene my situation and she agreed that the bank should refund my money.

The bank did not agree. 

The lady at the bank told me unless it is a bank error, she cannot refund my overdraft fee. And she's right - this was clearly not a bank error. So I called Morene back and told her what the bank said and she proceeded to tell me that she cannot refund me more than the $9.95 they originally charged. I asked for her supervisor. Guess what? MORENE IS THE SUPERVISOR. She did, however, offer to hold a conference call between herself, me and the bank, where she promised me that she would beg for my money back – so I am not mad at her, just her employer.

Needless to say, I've also cancelled my debit card and ordered a new one - just in case. After all, I'd hate for that "three-month 'free' trial" to suddenly rear its ugly head in the future.

I have not yet held said conference call, but rest assured, I will. I guess at only 26 years of age I'm just young and naïve, but the bottom line is this: I’m the idiot who ended up paying $45.00 for a “free” seven-day trial.

Karlos Dansby comments

Check this out, too. This is Karlos Dansby on Paul Finebaum's radio show, explaining why he introduced himself not as an Auburn Grad, but rather listed his highschool. He pretty much calls out Paul Finebaum for being a Bama fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HA7ayMiHy8

Recruiting...

Check out this site. It is a fascinating approach to predicting where high school football recruits will sign, and it is strikingly accurate at 71 percent.

http://ssbea.mercer.edu/recruiting.htm

It is put together by a group of economists at Mercer University who happen to take an interest in college football recruiting. They base their predictions on factors such as distance away from home, whether the athlete has taken an official visit to the school, whether or not the school is in a BCS conference, the newness of the team's facilities and where the team ended up in the previous year's AP rankings, among other factors. Check it out, it's worth your time if you're interested in recruiting analysis.

Griffey Jr. update

Well, reports were wrong. The AJC reported that Ken Griffey Jr., had basically come to an agreement with the Atlanta Braves to sign a one-year deal. But in fact, he signed with the Seattle Mariners yesterday.

I apologize for prematurely reporting this. 

The move makes some sense for Griffey, as this is where he began his career and we all know how players love to come full-circle with their careers. Although rumors were out there for years that he wanted to come play in Atlanta at some point in his career, they are clearly not true, or he would have decided to become a Brave next year. After all, at this point in his career it can't be about the money. I mean, I may never make $5 million in my entire life - he's made it in just one year of his career, probably even as a simple signing bonus - and I'll probably be okay. 

Anyway, so much for that idea. I still think we'll have a pretty good team this year.