actually scott......
I dont want to say it was "fixed" but I think someone *cough*Rick Chryst*cough* wanted Marshall to be on TV more and get more exposure to the MAC....
here`s a good example of what every single MAC fan thinks...this was posted by a Miami fan...this fan was attending the game...
Questionable calls by officials handed Marshall an unearned victory against a superior Miami team. Much like a replay of the last presidential election when the Supreme Court handed the losing candidate the presidency, Mid American Conference officials gave Marshall 6 downs to score in the final minutes of the game.
Everyone expects homerism when on the road and MAC officials are notoriously incompetent. However, lack of holding and halo-infraction calls on Marshall, bogus pass inference calls for clearly uncatchable passes certainly did not seem a result from incompetent officiating.
But truth be told, the MAC is no longer the squeaky clean bastion of ethics it was when it kicked Marshall out over 30 years ago. The MAC, like most conferences is about money and this has fans of other MAC teams furious.
?What do you expect from a conference who pays $200,000 to a bowl to take a team they don?t want?? said one Toledo fan. The MAC purchased the bowl for a 6-5 Marshall team in 2000 and left a 10-1 Toledo team sitting home. George Perles did not want Marshall or its fans another year in Detroit, and the contract called for him to pick whatever team he wanted. But the conference office could only think about the dollars it hoped to gain through ticket sales to Marshall fans. They had been duped by the false publicity cranked out by the Marshall marketing machine which is known to double and sometimes triple actual away game attendance figures through their non-biased media mouthpieces.
The winner of the East Division in 2002 will be the hosts to the MAC Championship game, which, give the addition of the GMAC bowl hold little meaning. While talk previously considered a neutral site, MAC officials balked at neutrality after a moderate showing at least year?s MAC Championship in Toledo. Tickets sales were not as brisk as expected, following a heartbreaking Toledo loss to Bowling Green as a result of an injured running back Chester Taylor and sidelined quarterback Tavares Bolden. And two weeks devoted for sales was simply not comparable to the 12 months preparation award to Marshall through the cronyism that was Jerry Ippolitti, the former conference commissioner.
A Miami win would have put the game in Oxford. If the truth were to be allowed to be printed, the MAC administration was fearful of losing money at an Oxford hosted MAC Championship game and GMAC bowl. Marshall fans tend to travel in greater numbers than other schools? fans?that?s the myth at least. To others it?s just logical, ?Who wouldn?t want to get out of Huntington, West Virginia? one Marshall fan was quoted as saying in the Herald-Dispatch.
Conspiracy theories would indicate that the following discussion occurred between MAC administration and MAC officials. ?We must have the championship in Huntington, it?s the only place where we are guaranteed to be treated like royalty and can possibly break even on this bogus championship game. Do whatever you can to make sure that happens.?
And it did. Mystery pass interference calls allowed Marshall 3 extra attempts to win the game after the loss was evident to all watching the game. And like they say, ?three times is a charm?.
The truth won?t be told, however. Marshall law enforcement officials assured us of that. Minutes after the game, after fans had taunted a Miami assistant coach, that coach was led off in handcuffs for supposed battery. No doubt some ill-mannered fan got in the coach?s face and he pushed him out of the way. In true Hollywood fashion the fan threw himself to the turf and the coach was taken into custody.
The media now only has one ?script? to focus on: a Miami coach, angered by a fifth straight loss to the Thundering Herd at the hands, this time at the hand of the second place quarterback, punched out a fan in frustration?because it makes a much better story that the truth.
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Not saying your wrong Scott...trust me, I agree with 99% of the stuff you say....but I have to disagree with ya when you said games arent fixed...because some are...and some got proven to be fixed....
Now was last night a fix......well its something that makes you scratch your head and make you turn your head in disgust.
I know only laker fans think the game was fair and they were all fouls. If not the kings would be the world champions right now. Instead the Lakers three peated and think they are the greatest. This may change basketball history:bigun: :shrug:
