Strictness Falling By the Wayside

As college football bowl season is upon us, I've been thinking about the illegal, irresponsible, and dangerous actions taken by college athletes and administrations every year but are not fully punished. A number of events this season and during the offseason have led me to contemplate the need for stricter guidelines and harsher punishments for offenders. The rules need to be strengthened to teach these young men and women lessons that society doesn't tolerate these actions and our society straightens itself out with future generations.

Academic dishonesty, plagiarism, use/possession of and intent to sell controlled substances, reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, operating while intoxicated, theft, assault, and God forbid rape or murder. Not to mention taking impermissible benefits in the form of housing, vehicles, money, and services from boosters and agents. Fights during events between competing athletes happen as well. The greedy, disloyal, conference realignment fiasco that is happening across the collegiate landscape. And finally the administrative cover ups of sexual abuse of children by coaching staffs. Quite the laundry list.

First, the rules need to cover the gamut of these events and punishments need to be evenly and swiftly distributed. A few specific events that I can remember off the top of my head. The Cincinnati/Xavier basketball brawl, the UCLA/Arizona brawl, LSU's QB Jordan Jefferson's assault charges, Nebraska center Mike Caputo's DUI, Ohio State's overall program, and Iowa State's own WR Albert Gary's first-degree robbery charges are perfectly good examples of misconduct or alleged misconduct not being taken seriously enough by the NCAA, school, and team officials.

Second, better screening during admissions of students altogether can help. Criminal backgrounds can be forgiven, but the people attending your university and representing your alumni ought to have close to flawless character backgrounds. If you can't get a good job with these kinds of backgrounds, why should they get the privilege to play college sports and have the opportunity to move on to make millions playing a sports professionally.

The ideals and ethics of American society are beacons throughout the world not to mention to her own people. We pride ourselves in working hard within the rules and law, taking care of our neighbors as much as ourselves through charity, striving for excellence in everything we do. Our society should reward the hardworking, law abiding citizens and not the corrupt and criminal. The corruption that we allow in college athletics is a poor way to show that we won't stand for it in our businesses or government.

Maybe it is my strict upbringing in a Lutheran German-American family on a farm and willingness to accept the harsh realities of military life that makes me shake my head at so much that I see today. I hope I'm not the only one that's tired of seeing governmental organizations, educational institutions, and private businesses that the American people unfortunately rely so much on keep failing us by putting forward criminals/celebrities to be false leaders. All humans are fallible and have original sin as I've been taught and learned in my mere 25 years of life, but I believe we can be so much more.

Another Impossible College Football Theory

You know my penchant for college football realignment. I've come up with a plan to shrink the number of FBS programs while instituting a playoff and avoiding Congress interfering by involving public schools in as many states as possible. Otherwise a lot of these schools would be left on the outside looking in. The only states not represented would be Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine, but they don't have a FBS school or plans to move a school up to that level.

All of this came from a crazy idea of putting the FBS private, independent and/or federal schools into one national league. Also any schools below marked with an asterisk will be a member*or recently former member** of the Association of American Universities. Schools with this squiggly mark ~ are federal universities.

100 schools put into five 20 schools regions or leagues, as considering geographic proximity, current and former rivalries, academics, and future potential.  There will be no more FCS schools on these programs schedules to get easy wins. Each ten team division will play a nine game round-robin to decide their division champ. Schools will be allowed to schedule one cross division rival for every year then have to play one team from outside their region.

The winner of each division of the leagues will be automatically placed in the postseason 16 team seeded playoff. Since there are five leagues, that gives us 10. A third at-large team is chosen for each league by their standings in the league which puts us at 15. The final at-large slot will be given to a team from any of the five leagues that is highest in the final rankings but not present in the tournament. The rankings will be done each week by a vote of the leagues' directors and schools' athletic directors, coaches and balanced by a statistical computer program that only considers these 100 programs, is openly viewed and vetted by statistical scholars.

Here goes nothing. May I present to you the Oak League. An organization with the number of brilliant, dedicated, ambitious, and honorable minds (not to mention the money) like this could definitely rival the Ivy League. It would be a national brand, like many of these schools that compete to attract the brightest minds in the country to their halls of learning. Many of them are also in major metropolitan areas as well. Some of these schools haven't been relevant in football in years but there is always the potential.

• Southern California (USC)*
• Stanford*
• Brigham Young (BYU)
• Air Force Academy~
• Tulsa

• Southern Methodist (SMU)
• Baylor
• Rice*
• Texas Christian (TCU)
• Tulane*

• Northwestern*
• Notre Dame
• ySyracuse**
• Boston College
• Army~

• Navy~
• Duke*
• Wake Forest
• Vanderbilt*
• Miami (FL)

The West Region will be made up of form WAC, MWC, and PAC-12 schools. Keeping some states represented to keep Congress out even though the states are closer to being territories with their population. They are as follows:

• Washington State
• Washington*
• Oregon*
• Oregon State
• Idaho

• Colorado*
• Colorado State
• Utah
• Utah State
• Wyoming

• Nevada
• UNLV
• New Mexico
• Arizona*
• Arizona State

• Fresno State
• UCLA*
• Cal*
• San Diego State
• Hawaii

The North Region will be made up of former Big XII, B1G, MAC, Big East/ACC schools. I may have a vested interest in seeing this happen. CyclOne Nation would be firing up some border wars on all fronts. Only South Dakota wouldn't be involved. Also 16 out of 20 schools would currently be AAU members. Prestige worldwide. They are:

• Kansas* 
• Kansas State
• Missouri*
• Nebraska**
• Iowa State*

• Iowa*
• Minnesota*
• Wisconsin*
• Illinois*
• Northern Illinois

• Purdue*
• Indiana*
• Michigan State*
• Michigan*
• Ohio State*

• Ohio
• Penn State*
• Pittsburgh*
• Buffalo*
• Rutgers*

The South Region will be made up of former Big XII, SEC, Sun Belt, C-USA, and MWC schools. Football powerhouses with a couple basketball national title contenders (Memphis & Kentucky). 

• Arkansas State
• Arkansas
• Oklahoma
• Oklahoma State
• Texas Tech

• Texas*
• Texas A&M*
• Houston
• Louisiana State
• Louisiana Tech

• Mississippi State
• Ole Miss
• Tennessee
• Memphis
• Kentucky

• South Carolina
• Florida*
• Alabama
• Auburn
• Georgia

The East Region will be made up of former MAC, Big East, ACC, C-USA, and Sun Belt schools.

• UMass (FBS 2012)
• UConn
• Temple
• Cincinnati
• Maryland*

• West Virginia
• Virginia*
• Virginia Tech
• Louisville
• Marshall

• East Carolina
• North Carolina State
• North Carolina* (UNC)
• Clemson
• Georgia Tech*

• Florida State
• Central Florida
• South Florida
• Florida International
• Florida Atlantic

This setup leaves out the following FBS programs. Dropping their status down to the FCS level would probably be best for them as the number of people they draw to their games (other than Boise State but that will happen eventually) isn't financially stable.

• San Jose State
• Boise State
• New Mexico State
• UT-El Paso
• UT-San Antonio (FBS 2012)
• Texas State-San Marcos (FBS 2012)
• North Texas
• Louisiana Lafayette
• Louisiana Monroe
• Southern Mississippi
• Alabama Birmingham (UAB)
• Troy
• Western Kentucky
• Middle Tennessee
• Akron
• Ball State
• Kent State
• Toledo
• Bowling Green

Football Tournament Subdivision Theory

I'm still obsessed with college football. Go figure. Anyways, here's the temporary new look. I got rid of the music and made it simple until I can find a design I really like and/or decide won't make others' eyes bleed.

As I checked ESPN.com for new college football stories this afternoon/evening, I saw that the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA have set up to have a championship game. The winners of these two conferences plan to meet in a championship game for what they hope will be a coveted automatic qualifying bid to a BCS bowl game.

It is a bold move and as good a way as any of trying to stop the hemorrhaging of teams to other conferences. Boise St. and Air Force of the MWC, Central Florida, Southern Methodist, and Houston of C-USA are rumored to be going to the Big East with independent Navy.

With this merging of non AQ conferences and the potential departure of schools to the Big East, I'd like to see the remaining WAC programs join the MWC/C-USA as well as the MAC/Sun Belt merge. That would create a new subdivision of college football known as the Football Tournament Subdivision (FTS), just above the Football Championship Subdivision ( FCS a.k.a. Division II).

Let's be honest with ourselves. The most competitive college football programs in the nation have been in the SEC (13), Big XII (10), B1G (12), ACC (14), PAC 12 (12) and Big East (12). Those six conferences, if they survive these shifts in conference loyalty, along with independents Army, Notre Dame, and Brigham Young University are the cream of the crop and shall remain the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and home of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).

The programs of the FTS would span the entire country. A little reshuffling of schools to even out the conference numbers and help regional rivalries develop and give or take a few schools moving down to or up from FCS such as South Alabama, Texas State, UT-San Antonio and often mentioned Montana. They would only play among their own tier of football programs unless playing up to FBS to showcase their level of competitiveness. These following four conferences top teams would play for their own FTS championship and the potential of being added as a member of the FBS or maybe even an at large BCS birth if undefeated.


Mid American Conference (Rust Belt or Little Big Ten)

1. Akron
2. Ball St.
3. Bowling Green
4. Buffalo
5. Central Michigan
6. Eastern Michigan
7. Western Michigan
8. Kent St.
9. Miami of Ohio
10. Northern Illinois
11. Ohio
12. Temple
13. Toledo
14. Univ. of Massachusetts

Sun Belt (Little SEC)

1. Arkansas St.
2. Florida Atlantic
3. Florida International
4. Louisiana Lafayette
5. Louisiana Monroe
6. Louisiana Tech
7. Alabama Birmingham
8. South Alabama
9. Troy
10. Southern Mississippi
11. Middle Tennessee
12. Western Kentucky

Mountain West Conference (The WAC...oh wait...)

1. San Diego St.
2. San Jose St.
3. Fresno St.
4. Hawaii
5. Univ. Nevada- Las Vegas
6. Nevada
7. Wyoming
8. Idaho
9. Colorado St.
10. New Mexico
11. New Mexico St.
12. Utah St.

Conference USA (Texas & 5 Others or Little Big XII)

1. East Carolina
2. Marshall
3. Memphis
4. Tulane
5. Tulsa
6. Rice
7. UT-El Paso
8. UT-San Antonio
9. Texas St.
10. North Texas

This would allow the FBS/BCS to be overhauled and made into a more elite and more even playing field for 76 remaining schools. No more FCS opponents would be allowed on their schedule and they would only be allowed one FTS opponent a season. The three FBS independents would have to play all FBS opponents as the condition of their continued conference independence. And just for my two cents, Tulsa and Rice to the Big XII, and Tulane to the SEC ought to be the first three allowed back into the FBS based on academic standing/prestige of the schools. And we're going to outlaw colored turf that isn't green.

Again, do I think any of this is even remotely possible? No. I use too much common sense, focus too much on geography, academics/school prestige, fan base, and do not have the ear of school or conference administrators. I think it looks good, but I'll gladly take critiques and suggestions.

Conference Realignment Sucks

Why can't conference realignment make sense? Wouldn't it be rational for the PAC-12 to go after some regional teams? Brigham Young, Boise State, Utah State, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force, Nevada, Univ. of Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Hawaii, San Jose State, San Diego State, and Fresno State are all Division I FBS schools within their present geographic footprint. They should go after the four best schools I've just listed and leave any teams located in the Central Time Zone alone.

The way it is looking though is that Texas A&M will join the SEC, then Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State will bounce for the PAC-12 leaving Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri as the Forgotten Five once again. What happens then? I guess we wait and see, but it doesn't look promising for my alma mater unless the Big Ten comes calling or the remaining members of the Big XII hold together and can convince other schools to join in to create a new conference.

What seems the media wants to happen is the SEC will go after three ACC teams (Georgia Tech, Florida State, Clemson/Louisville) then the ACC will in return attack the Big East as it is attacked by the Big Ten in an attempt to get Notre Dame. Thus the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, and PAC-16 become the four super-conferences.

The schools/conferences left out will be left scrambling to create some patchwork conference to compete. The Sun Belt, C-USA, WAC, Big XII's Forgotten Five, and Mountain West plus Army and Navy will have to figure something out or attack each other for the best programs to be relative in the college football landscape in the future.

Some of the regional, state, and border rivalries will be things of the past for this expansion, but so long as  collegiate football brings the bacon to the table for universities, they'll sacrifice tradition, respect, and honor for greed, ego, and mercenary-like behavior.

College Super Conference Realignment Theories

College athletics, but most dramatically college football, could possibly be turned on its own head...and soon. Texas A&M University is pulling the Missouri card this time around and initiating this insanity. The anxiety that the conferences I remember for the most part (Big 8 wasn't all that exciting) could be gone or irrevocably changed is eating at a lot of people's insides so I thought I'd do my part to throw out my "expert" opinion.

Thanks to hours of me watching ESPN, listening to college football sports talk radio, reading articles online and wargaming potential scenarios in my own head and on paper has made me an "expert" with "knowledgeable sources" (*cough ESPN reporting is a joke) on the subject matter. So...in English, I'm bored, love college football, and like every other Joe College Football Fan out there, has an idea how it could all play out. Let's roll the dice and see.

Personally, if it all goes to hell in a hand basket, I wouldn't mind seeing Iowa State stay with our Big XII North rivals (Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri) and move into the Big Ten, now known as the Big 16. Not likely, but I wouldn't mind it cause we'd still have Iowa and Nebraska to duke it out with annually. More likely that the Big Ten would go after schools like Notre Dame, Rutgers, Pitt, and Syracuse to open bigger TV markets for their network.

The PAC-12 ought to go after Utah State or Brigham Young University to create an intrastate rival for Utah and then take Air Force or Colorado State for Colorado. Hell, they could even steal Nevada and UNLV to control the entire region.

The SEC will pounce at TAMU, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Clemson/Louisville/Virginia Tech. Then the Big East, Big XII, Mountain West and ACC will have been stripped of teams and begin feeding off of each other and Conference USA, Western Athletic Conference and the Sunbelt Conference. What happens from there is anyone's guess, but those scenarios seem reasonable to me.

Whatever remains of the WAC and MWC could merge into one, the remains of the Big East would be swallowed up by the ACC, the Sunbelt and C-USA would be stripped for new members to the Big XII and the remainder becomes a new Southern/Gulf Regional Conference. Question though...do Army and Navy stay out of all of this or do they offer to be part of the new ACC?

Lots of speculation and no real end in sight to the craziness that could unveil itself at anytime. Today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, or even a year after that? I don't know, the "experts" on ESPN don't know, but the university athletic directors and conference commissioners probably have a better idea than the general public. So we will just have to wait and continue to play games with our minds and restlessly wait for the new face of college athletic conferences to show itself.

Lost in the Woods Again After Some Time In Heaven

Hey Yall (notice what my time in Texas did to me? I've developed a drawl and say things like 'fixin to' and 'yall').  It has been quite awhile since my last post. So much for keeping up with my writing skills while in the Army right? Oh well, I'm writing now and that's all that matters. And...here...we...go.

Did someone say misery? Oh, my bad, Missouri. Ehh, anyone could make that mistake. I'm here in Fort Leonard Wood, but leave tomorrow for Fort Leavenworth, KS for in processing on Friday, then return to FLW that afternoon/evening. I just got here around four yesterday afternoon and they're already sending me away...Again, oh well, I get a chance to stop for barbecue in Kansas City on my way there or back.

Talked with my NCOIC today and he seems like a great guy. Definitely building the morale back up in the Veterinary Treatment Facility which apparently had been low, but it's changing and I can see that already. He's willing to work with me and my NCO to get me headed back to OCS in the near future as well as teach me as many things as he can in the mean time. That is what I was expecting out of the Army, so I'm excitedly (and surprised) optimistic about my time here in FLW again.

I was lucky to have gone straight to my hometown for a couple weeks of recruiting before heading back to the real Army. I did have to drive about 45 minutes to the office and then the same back every weekday I was home, and sit around, twiddling my thumbs, playing on my iPod, or reading my Kindle while I was there. I did end up talking a kid into an appointment over the phone while I was there. He sounded a lot like mean when I was first joining...all full of patriotic sense of duty and what not, but he had mentioned the Air National Guard being his first choice, so I had to push him towards the Army Reserves. I mean, he's got to have some pride right? I kid...kinda.

My family royally spoiled me while I was home with food and their awesomeness, even though they were gone for half of it on vacation in the Ozarks. My brother is still a smart ass traveler, my sister packed way too much for college, dad bit off a huge grain leg project on the farm, and mom works waaay too hard at the hospital than what she's paid to do. Life changes, but not much.

Grandma spoiled me with amazing food and company. She showed me how to play spite and malice the card game and whooped me when I thought I was winning. Unreal. A soldier can still learn from his grandma, especially about perseverance and strength when things aren't like they always were when grandpa was there.

I tried to save the best for last. Seriously, I almost brought her up in every paragraph so far. She's that big a part of my life. I'm talking about my lovely, brilliant, hilarious girlfriend. She visited me twice in San Antonio and for an entire eight days in Iowa (it seems very little but it was amazing). She's lifted my spirits more times than I can count when I was in the TRADOC suck, which is a very different kind of suck from deployment suck. She means a lot to me and I think she and everyone close to me knows it. I love that girl.

Anyways, that's my life lately in a nutshell. (Look, its me, in a giant case...I think it's a nut shell, where did a nut shell this big come from...) Alright, I'm done goofing off. SPC Hinkeldey, out.

Detours to Gold Bars

It has been a long time since I've written a blog, but thanks to some much needed inspiration from a special woman in my life (yeah, I'm calling you out Khristine) and a request for me to write again from a friend (that's you Bengston), I'm back.

Well as John Steinbeck once wrote...the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and I'm living proof of it. As many of you know, I had big dreams of being that high-speed, squared-away 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. I wanted to do Infantry or Armor Basic Officer Leadership Courses so I could be in the fight, go to Airborne and Ranger Schools cause that's where the tough guys go, the guys who can rough it through anything and still be good. I wanted to earn that respect and honor through hardwork. None of that is happening anytime in the near future.

Suffice it to say that the Army is cutting back on commissions through Officer Candidate School and I was one of the unlucky people who didn't get a chance to fight all the way through for one of those coveted commissions (even though I was passing everything and in my opinion kicking ass).
I'm no longer in Fort Benning, Georgia for OCS and now in beautiful Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio), Texas for 68T Animal Care Specialist Advance Individual Training (AIT).

To say losing that opportunity for the present is a bummer is an understatement. I'm not going to lie, I may have yelled, cursed, and kicked a few bathroom stall doors on my way out. I didn't damage any property though, thank God. I wanted that so badly and there haven't been many goals in my life that I truly started to work for and then been told in the middle of the process, "No, you don't get to compete". But my road has just begun and I've got new goals (such as becoming certified in level 2 combatives) in the meantime until I can show they made a huge mistake in letting me go, cause I'm going succeed regardless.

68T's, Veterinarian Techs, Animal Care Specialists, or Small Animal Repairs, whatever you want to call it does seem like an interesting job. I'll get to work with military working dogs and maybe do some civil affairs work with local nationals' livestock when I deploy. Winning hearts and minds one goat at time right? Who knows what the future holds for me, but I'll be fighting to get back to OCS or find another commissioning source such as ROTC or maybe the Green to Gold Active Duty Option if I continue my education.

So maybe this experience so far sounds more like Gary Busey's quote on the HBO tv series Entourage, "Confusion is like running naked through a cornfield backwards at midnight." For the record, I've never tried this (nor want to) but it gets the point across of the experience being painful and confusing. I'm lucky I've got a supportive girlfriend, family, and group of friends/battle buddies who'll back me up and most importantly tell me when I just need to embrace the suck and strive on.

I'll try to keep posting now. AIT is an interesting experience in and of itself and I'll have more time here to write than I had at OCS. Thanks for reading.