By the time our announcer had uttered his last cliché of the night, the parking lot was empty. It made it easy to find his car, but when he turned the key, nothing happened, so much for the line about the non-stop motor. No, someone or something had short-circuited his high-powered attack and now he set out on foot.
Face it, the NCAA is a buzz kill. It’s genetically predisposed to buzz killing and to instituting the arbitrary rule that confuses and irritates and generally makes dealing with them a pain in the ass. Exhibit A is the so-called rule against “targeting”. Let’s first establish that no one targets, that is, no college player, in a premeditated fashion, says to himself, On this play I’m going to launch my body as a missile and use the crown of my helmet, intentionally aiming it, at the helmet of my opponent while in the act of making or attempting a tackle. It doesn’t happen. “Targeting” therefore is a silly and inaccurate term and concept. What does happen is that, while hurtling themselves at one another with