Tubasaluki: Quoting music since 2003

Long time, no see…something about school getting in the way. In this episode…would you belive more plagarism at SIU, my work load, and the plight of the Idaho Vandals fan.

Oh, and football picks. These were actually requested.

We’ll actually start with my workload. Lets flash back to the “I’ve made a decision” post where I said that I wanted to end college, find other things to do, and be done with it all. So, I decided to take a semester that I knew would be rough, but it should be tolerable. Well, its barley tolerable. A lot of readings to do, lots of assignments to stay on top of. Basically, it hasn’t been a great semester. Throw in some random frustrations with various other things and, well…December looks further and further away everytime I look at a calendar. 3 months though, it will possibly go by quickly.

The big news on campus here is dealing with President Poshard. When we last left, our intrepid hero was accused of plagerizing his doctoral thesis. Well, now the Board of Higher Education has looked into the matter and found some dodgey passages in his master’s thesis. I only mention this because I had talked about it before and I felt you, the reader should know.

Personally though, I think I’ve done a 180 on this subject and have been purley apathetic about it. I don’t care! Its great! The way I figure, this was done in the 80s, and while it might get Poshard in trouble, and eggs the face of the institution for awhile, in the long run this will ultimatley blow over. Does it look bad? Of course. But, at the same time, I highly doubt that any of my future employers are going to say, “Well, he went to SIU where their president committed plagarism…can’t hire him.” One man, even if he is president, does not represent an institution as a whole, and what he did 20 some years ago certainly doesn’t reflect the institution now. Its actually quite entertaining to listen to students get so worked up over this. I have my own things to worry about, I’m not going to get into passionate debates over the proper punishment for the crime.

Anyway…moving on to football picks…

SIU @ Southern Utah

After beating Northern Illinois last week, Southern returns to action with a game in Ceder City, UT. U had the privelege of sitting with my parents at McAndrew Stadium in the freezing cold to watch these teams play last year. 59-0 was the final there, Salukis win. Its a completely different circumstance this week though, as its still early in the season, and SIU comes in a little beat up. No matter…Southern Illinois wins it 45-17.

Washington State vs. Idaho

I used to be a Vandal fan. Check that, I still am. I check their scores, I’m happy when they win, and once loss #7 rolls around on the season for UI, I feel bad for the program. Here’s a team that was constantly in contention for Big Sky titles, was winning games, and got huge crowds to the Kibbie Dome. Then, they saw the riches of 1-A ball, followed Boise State (who had a) a bigger stadium and b) a bigger market which c) did not compete with a Pac-10 team for fan support). The Vandals attended the Humanitarian Bowl, which reuired them to go to Boise in late December, so you can decide how big of a reward that is. They even won that bowl game. Then, they went to…well…it went bad. Horribly bad.

I remember attending a playoff game against Boston back in the day. Kibbie Dome was rocking, game day felt alive. I loved Vandal Saturdays. Now…I honestly can’t imagine it. I’ve seen pictures, I’ve seen scorelines. I wonder if Idaho can ever become good again and then, are they making any money off of the move? Has it been worth it financially for the Vandals thus far?

At any rate, Idaho has traditionally been WSU’s favoite non-conference punching bag. I think it happens again…WSU 51-Idaho 13.

UW vs Ohio State

The fact that Washington is only 4 point underdogs kind of scares me. I think that UW is better then advertised, and I think that OSU has had enough Big Ten bashing for awhile, and while its close…Buckeyes win it 23-17.

Seattle at Arizona

Its 4 am. Seahawks win, 23-10. Rejoice.

Alan