Bye bye Sweet Sugar

I have been thinking about this post for awhile. I still am a little bummed about the whole affair and I think that is why I have let a few weeks go by without posting anything. Life is interesting in the twists and turns that it takes and the end to 2008 was no different.

On Thursday, December 11th, I went to bed having decided that I was going to go to the Sugar Bowl eventhough it looked like I was going to be heading down by myself. I was excited thinking that the Utes had a good chance and promising after the Fiesta Bowl of 2005 that I wouldn't miss another opportunity to see the Utes in a BCS game if it happened again. Of course, Michelle has posted about what happened on December 12. As Grace said, "Well this sucks!" Indeed it did. Instead of waking up for work and waiting to buy tickets online, my day started at 4 AM with a flooded basement, a sick child, and a rush to Home Depot. With the water rising and getting near our furnace the decision was made to buy a generator. I got to Home Depot about 20 minutes after they opened and they had already sold out most of their generators. Long story short, $900 later I had a generator and was running the essentials in the house, but instead of sweet, sweet sugar, I was dealing with some raw power. In the end I guess it worked out. Instead of the satisfaction and high of the biggest Ute victory, I get the satisfaction of knowing if (when) we have another ice storm I'm all set. I can power our well pump, furnace, refrigerator, tv, and internet. What more do you need?

I also got to watch the game with my brother Brian. That turned out to be fun and we enjoyed watching in HD from the comfort of my living room. While it was fun to watch the game and see the Utes dominate a "strong" SEC opponent, it was bittersweet. Over the last couple of weeks I have read a lot of sports writers around the country and the Utes still don't have the respect they deserve. While it was nice to reap the rewards of a big BCS payout it really is shallow knowing that the Utes will never get a chance for a national championship. I am a proponent of a 16-team playoff. Reduce the regular season to 11 games and then only 2 teams will play 15 games (1 more than most play now). The bowls games can still be in play for the majority of the teams left out of the playoff and the big bowls can be used for the 16-teams to maintain semi-neutral playing field. Of course it won't happen since those in power with all the money see no reason to spread the wealth.

Now when is it that someone besides from the PAC-10 will be playing home-and-away game with the Utes? Yeah, that is what I thought.