...Archie Goodwin

Archie Goodwin is a highly touted basketball recruit. Many colleges are hoping he will join their team next year. One team has already been eliminated, Baylor. Though Archie has a great relationship with their head coach, something turned him off about the school. In his own words, "Coach Scott Drew is a great guy. I love Coach Drew. They were one of the first schools that were recruiting me. But I didn't like that they were an Adidas team, but that's not to say I wouldn't go to Kansas because Kansas is a great team. I can look over the Adidas thing — I own some Adidas stuff. [Goodwin played recent summers with the Arkansas Wings Elite team, which is sponsored by Nike] I didn't like their colors, either. I don't like green and gold. That's ugly …. When you got ugly colors like that, you gotta be Nike. …. Baylor has some ugly shoes, too." Ha! Though I do not find green and gold ugly, I am a huge Packer's fan, I find it funny that he passed up a school for such superficial reasons. Not only did he not like the colors but he did not like their sponsor, Adidas, are you serious? Maybe that was just his way of saying your school is not that good but I do think your coach is a cool guy, in a nice way. Who knows where Archie will go or if he will even be any good. I see a little DIVA growing in him, which is typical of a highly touted athlete. If it continues I expect to see him in the news for not so good reasons. But until then I will give him a Digit Up for his funny decision.

...Weather

Wow this weekend's weather has been major. Can we blame it on Lee? Sure why not, though that only explains the weather in the South. College football games were stopped and restarted because of lightning strikes, some were even called early. Nascar was postponed until Tuesday. TUESDAY! I will be able to watch so I am okay with that. The NFL season starts this Thursday and next Sunday it will be back to football. I am sure the weather will be much much better but his Labor Day weekend has been very wet. I guess it matches the nation's mood. A lot of people are laborless so this 3 day weekend will feel the same as the weekends before. I am giving the weather a Digit Down.

...Jim Tressel

So as you may know Jim Tressel resigned as head football coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes. This comes after months of lies, scandals and cover-ups stemming from an incident that in which players received cash and discounted tattoos from the owner of a local tattoo parlor who was the subject of a federal drug-trafficking case. Tressel said that the ongoing investigations were a distraction for himself and the team. I assume he though tit would be best if he resigned. He and 5 other players were already suspened the 1st 5 games of the upcoming season. Tressel signed a NCAA compliance form in September stating he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by athletes. His contract, in addition to NCAA rules, specified that he had to tell his superiors or compliance department about any potential NCAA rules violations. Instead he chose to forward emails to Ted Sarniak, reportedly a mentor for Pryor back in his hometown of Jeannette, Pa. I am going to end that there and talk about how sad and stupid this is. Tattoos!!!! Seriously? You did this over tattoos and cash. It is well known that many student athletes are broke and hungry. A lot of them receive illegal cash payments from boosters and outsiders looking to get a piece of their future pie or to just do whatever it takes to get a championship and money for their school. Whatever the case is do student athletes need to be paid for their participation? Possibly. This has been an issue for years and some say yes and others say no. How much would they be paid? What sports deserve the most money for their athletes? Many other questions come up but so far no solution. A lot of fans are going to be upset with Pryor for what they see as getting their football coach fired. This is understandable and he should accept it. While I agree with their anger I would like them to eventually get over it. While he is a man, he is a young man, and he will make many more mistakes, though this may be the biggest one. I am giving Jim Tressel a Digit Up for owning his mistake and not taking anyone down with him. He was willing to impose a 5 game suspension on himself, and now he is will to lose his job to try his best to take the heat off of Ohio State before the season starts.

...Snooki

There has been a lot of talk about Snooki recently for going to college...Rutgers. Though she did not enroll she did make a commencement address. The whole hubbub over it was that she was paid $32,000 for her address while Nobel Prize winning novelist Toni Morrison was paid $30,000. To be fair...Snooki is more relevant. She also has to split the money between her managers and opening act. Her money also came from a student run committee while Toni's money came from the school. She did not do much either. She spent an hour answering questions, teaching students the signature fist pump and styling a student's hair in her "pouf" hairdo. She also introduced her father, who was in the audience wearing a "Papa Snooki" sleeveless T-shirt. When she was asked what her advice was for students she said: "Study hard, but party harder." This is something that most college students already know. If you are upset with any of this too bad. Blame society and culture. She is a minor "celebrity" and she is here to stay, in fact I see her staying power lasting longer than most of her cast mates. She is just taking whatever she can get while her 15 minutes are still ticking, and I am okay with this. I am giving Snooki a Digit Up.

...Andrew Luck

All year long I heard about how good Andrew Luck was and how he had a shot at the Heisman Trophy, and it was all true. Over the season I became a fan, he was like a more realistic Tim Tebow and he was not being shoved in my face every time I turned to ESPN, thanks to Cam Newton. If Cam Newton was found guilty of the whole "pay for play" scandal or if Auburn would have lost a game or two then Andrew Luck might have won the Heisman, but that did not happen and he came in a distant 2nd place. Luckily people predicted that he could become the 1st overall pick in the NFL draft with a shot at a $40-$60 million contract. With all of that being said today Andrew Luck let it be known that he will be returning to Stanford next year and he will not be entering the NFL draft. Everyone is wondering why!?! Does he want a BCS Championship? The Heisman? No, a degree, a degree in architecture. Who cares!!! We all remember how Sam Bradford skipped the draft, came back the next year and got injured and was out for the season, this could happen... Also something more serious, the NFL is mulling a major change in the rookie pay scale after the 2011 season which could ultimately cost Luck more than $40 million, and possibly as much as $60 million, even if he is the 1st player off the board next year. He could always go back to school, or not. If he gets injured in the NFL he would still have millions in bonus and guaranteed money. If he gets injured in college, he gets remembered as that kid who could have been. Also what if his coach does not return? NFL teams are trying hard to get him. Without his current coach Luck may be out of Luck. HA! I used it. And if that does not help him, take a trip to Washington and ask Jake Locker how it feels to go from a possible top draft pick last year to a nobody this year. Besides if there is one thing that we all learned int his recession; degrees are worthless. CEO's work at Pizza Hut while college dropouts become millionaires...billionaires. I am going to have to give Andrew Luck a Digit Down. On a serious note, maybe they should check this kid's head out for possible concussion trauma.

...Women

We are still in a recession and there are still millions of people without jobs. Despite all of that there is a constant trend that i would say is growing. There are more women with jobs than men. Why? Well maybe it also has to do with the fact that there are more women in college than men. With so many companies looking for highly educated workers, that gives women an edge. This is benefiting them as well. Not only are there more women working, but the wage gap is shrinking because of it. It use to be that women earned 71 cents per every one dollar a man earned, but now it is 83 cents per every dollar a man earns. Minority women are also seeing more work and better wages, while on the other hand minority men are seeing less work and shrinking wages. This is a plus an a minus. Will it last? Possibly, but this reminds me of World War 2 when the men were off to war and the women had factory jobs, but when the men came home the women returned back to the home to do their domestic duties. Now this is 2010 and the recession will probably end around...2014, although I thought they technically said the recession was over already... Their words not mine. This is good for women though and it can only go up from here, maybe, we will see what happens when more men return to work. As for college, that is totally different. College is expensive and it is school and most guys, although they want to succeed and be successful, they do not want to put in the time and effort. Beyond that the short-term gain of a paycheck looks and feels better than the long-term gain that college could offer. College is not a guaranteed success for everyone and yes there are millions who have made it without going to college, but it is growing very difficult to do that these days and I can only imagine how much more difficult it will be in the future. Can you see McDonald's asking you to have a college degree in hospitality to flip burgers? Still women are on top at the moment and for that I will give them a Digit Up.

...School

School starts tomorrow. I am not ready for it but I will deal with it. I have classes that are during my 5PM to 8PM nap time, but I will deal for now. I doubt I will be able to change them since I waited too long to get them, oh well. I have been here before, it was okay, not my favorite thing. Will this time be different? I doubt it, but I could be wrong, this year seems to be all wrong for me. I am going to put a smile...well half smile on and think positive thoughts and see what becomes of me. I may or may not stay the full time, depends on what I find outside of the campus, which always seems to be better. I am still youngish and college is college, it will always be around. I will of course have to get back into the going to class groove and maybe then my attitude will change. Everything is singed and paid for though so why not give it a go. One semester, 18 weeks, something like that. I have so many other things on my mind at this moment. A wedding, a job, a new style to define the new me, money management, etc. How will I clear my mind in order to get everything done? That is the most important tool of all, my mind. It is all over the place and not cooperating with me or itself. Anyway it starts tomorrow, it will be whatever it will be. I am going to give it a Digit Up, just because that is what positive thinkers do...right?