College sports, celebrity citings and visiting a landmark

The wise philosopher (and guitar legend) Keith Richards once said, "you meet a lot of great people on the road." I found this to be true at the CSRI conference last week. http://www.csriconference.org/ Ironically the first people I met in Chapel Hill, NC were from a school here in Pennsylvania about three hours away. The next person I met was a professor from a school in Massachusetts. Despite being a Montreal Candiens fan, he was all right. I learned a lot from talking to him. A lot of the people I follow on Twitter were at the conference as well. It was another interesting aspect of the conference. The panels, speakers, and presentations were excellent. The thing I didn't really hear were voices for the solutions to some of the problems in college athletics. I've always felt that smart guys in college athletics, like Bob Knight and Joe Paterno, have good ideas but often seem to be dismissed as old men trying to turn back the clock on college sports. Paterno has spoken about possibly paying players and Knight has too many ideas to mention in a single blog. I understand that college presidents and athletic directors may be hesitant to bite the NCAA hand that feeds them, particularly at BCS schools. Jeremy Bloom gave a passionate speech about changes and things coming from his well publicized dispute with the NCAA. He's one guy who's been through the system but lacks a lot of power. The NCAA is as tough to challenge as Major League Baseball's players union, the most powerful union in sports and the third most powerful in the world. College sports have become big business like it or not. The days of people seeing Larry Bird for the first time in the 1979 finals are over. Nowadays, you could see Bird on YouTube or ESPN, among other media outlets. I myself have good ideas to eliminate the BCS and create a playoff as well as a solution to the one-and-done player in college basketball. Much like Jeremy Bloom, I have minimal power with the NCAA. Heck, the power i have in my own household is often called into question. Despite my one negative thought, the conference was great. The professors and students who run it did a hell of a job and lined up some quality people to speak and present their research. Also a shout out to the Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery, Marriot Chapel Hill, and 007, the greatest cabbie in all the land. Other than that there were other interesting aspects of the six hour road trip. We met comedian Lewis Black at Top of the Hill Thursday night. He was great and very friendly to all the autograph/photo seeking fans. BJ Surhoff, former Orioles outfielder and Wyatt Cenac, best known for his work on the Daily Show. We took an eight mile field trip to Duke University to take in some of the architecture and Cameron Indoor Stadium. It is one of the great sports places I've been to and someplace you should go, like Wrigley Field. Looking at the banners, the retired jerseys, scoreboard and all the history was a special moment I won't soon forget. The other cool thing about the trip was the chance to spend time with classmates I might not get to otherwise. It was also a chance to see two of my professors let their hair down. I do want to apologize to hockey fans. I know I promised some in this week's blog, but my ability to watch games was limited due to attending events and limited tv coverage in some places. Next week, a life altering epiphany I had on our trip and playoff hockey. Until then, go Bruins and keep learning!