Day four and it's lonely

Day four and still no sign of Sparky. He is not at Spankys and there is no sign of him at local watering holes BL's, Katie O's and the Rusty Nail. I'm beginning to think he may be lost in an avalanche somewhere.

Speaking of avalanches, how about the avalanche of babble about the Knicks brawl the other night. Hey, this is the NHL after all, right? Allowing fights in the NHL helps keep the sticks down and lets these healthy young men vent some of that aggression in an acceptable manner. Let 'em drop the gloves and go one-on-one; third man in gets tossed.

On the local front, did you see that Union College runningback Tom Arcidiacono led Team USA to a 28-7 win over a team of Mexican College All-stars in the 10th annual Aztec Bowl in Mexico. Arcidiacono had 59 yards rushing, including an 18-yard touchdown run, to lead the team of U.S. Division III all-stars to their ninth win in the series. That reminds me that I wanted to rant again about d3football.com (www.d3football.com).

This website, and its sister site d3hoops.com, do a great job of covering small college football and basketball. They work hard and provide a lot of coverage for teams and players that would not receive significant national recognition otherwise. My one beef is that they seem to have a lack of respect for Division III football in upstate New York. Now if an upstate team could get past the NCAA semi-finals that might change. However, national championships is not the only measure of the overall strength of the region. With teams like St. John Fisher (NCAA semi-finalist in 2006), RPI (semi-finalist in 2003), Ithaca (quarter-finalist in 2003), Hobart (first-round winner in 2004), doing well in post-season play against teams outside the region, and the strength of the football upstate overall, I think these teams are a bit underappreciated by d3football.com. Pat Coleman, the hard-working professional behind the site, disagrees. He says Rowan is the best team in the region over the past decade and if the upstate teams can't get by Rowan they are not going to be recognized as among the national elite. SJF smoked Rowan last month in the playoffs before losing to eventual national champ Mount Union, so we will see how the upstate teams are treated on the site next fall.