2B - January 12, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Why FOX's coverage of the BCS was atrocious 4 Calls to change the Bowl Championship Series are now louder than ever. In Utah, the state's attorney general is investigating the BCS as a possible violation of federal anti- trust law. In an inter- view with The New York1 Times, Pres- ident-elect Barack Obama NATE reiterated his SANDALS desire to see a playoff system at college football's highest level. But fortunately, he said bringing change to the college gridiron wouldn't be the top priority of his administration. A day before the "national championship game," Texas Con- gressman Joe Barton introduced legislation that would eliminate the BCS system, accordingto The Associated Press. Barton's legislation didn't even suggest what type of system he'd like to see in place of the BCS. But his message was clear: the current system is more represen- tative of "B" and "S" than a fair way to determine college foot- ball's National Champion. Even with all the talk about changing the system, if recent history teaches us anything, it's that it will have little impact upon university presidents, the people who actually call 'the shots. So next year, we're all likely to be in the same place - having to swal- low the inconsistency of a game between two very good teams who have been separated from three or four other very good teams by a few computers. But there is one necessary change the BCS needs to make before the charade begins again on Jan. 7, 2010 at the Rose Bowl: Find a network other than FOX to broadcast the game. The display put on by play-by- play man Thom Brennaman was beyond disgusting. Don't just take my word for it. Here's Spencer Hall of the Sporting News: "FOX puts on an incompetent broadcast. No. Incompetent doesn't cover how inept their clodfooted work on the BCS has been." Anyone who had the displea- sure of watching last week's game with the sound on got to hear Brennaman and company pontificate on the greatness that is Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. Did you know that Tebow is the greatest football player, teammate and person of all time? If not, just call Brennaman. He'll be happy to enlighten you. Tebow could be a nice guy, and he's certainly a good college foot- ball player, but to have the play- by-play announcer fawn over him as some sort of messiah took it way too far. It was a disservice to millions of fans that just wanted to watch a good football game. Letting FOX broadcast the BCS Championship game just doesn't make sense. FOX doesn't have a national contract to broad- cast college football during the season, and none of their broad- cast crews are particularly adept at calling the college game. Most important, all of the research in the world can't make up for a lack of experience Thankfully, ESPN put out the big bucks to lock up TV rights for the BCS starting in 2011. But col- lege football fans deserve better than the half-wits at FOX, even if it's just for one more year. The BCS and its supporters will continue to cling to this broken system instead of giving the fans what they want, but the least the BCS could do is make sure that someone competent is given the duty of broadcasting the game to the entire world. Obama has promised that change will come to America as soon as he is inaugurated in eight days. Change must come to the BCS, too, and it should start in the broadcast booth. - Sandals can be reached at nsandalsJoumich.edu. 4 4 SAIDALSALAH/Daily Redshirt junior Phil Goldberg and the Wolverines want to prove themselves nationally during the upcoming season. 'M' shoots for NCAAs Blue's first test a shaky one as team drops game against Georgia Tech Players and coaches remain optimistic even after disappointing finish By ANDREW CLAUW Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's tenniss team performance in the three- day Key Biscayne Invitational in Florida can be summed up by one word: mediocre. The 16th-ranked Wolver-t ines came out strong yesterday against Alabama but faltered " against Texas and Georgia Tech. The latter caught Michigan by surprise, No. 58 Georgia Tech ranking didn't seem imposing, but its play certainly was. Thought Michigan fell short Senior Andrew Mazlin topped players from Alabama and Georgia Tech in the meet. of expectations, coach Bruce Berque and his players were cau- individual tournament. the conditioning looked really tiously optimistic following the "The skills looked good and good," Berque said. "The goal was to get ack into the nmode of competition and to see where we are and what tan: helpwe have to work on." V . .The team didn't play inCirCle well, but Berque added that there were some stand- Like Facebook for out performances, naming senior Andrew Mazlin the WoLverines. best Michigan player. "(Andrew) did a really -=ALUMNIASSOCIATION good job," Berque said. "He UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN competed the most over break and it showed. Every- one respects him as a com- petitor." Playing No. 2 singles, Mazlin posted wins against wo SAlabama's Billy Mertz and Georgia Tech's Kevin King, winning the latter in three sets. Wolverines fared well 8 1 3 6 5 9 at the start of the invita- tional. The singles players, which went 6-3 with all of 6 its victories coming over - - - - - - -Alabama, were led by soph- 3 4 8 1 6 omore Jason Jung. But Berque was disap- 9pointed with Michigan's doubles teams, which 8 3posted four losses against opponents from Texas on Friday. 7 9 6 The second day ended poorly. 1 7 8 DePietro contributed to the Wolverines' lone win 8 11417 3 at No. S singles while the rest of the lineup suffered against Texas. 8 4 "The level of competition was very strong," Berque I'11 I said. "(Texas) was pretty dominant. If we play a team as good as Texas, we need to play our absolute best." Gymnasts want nothing short of national prominence By COLT ROSENSWEIG Daily Sports Writer The Wolverines aren't going to accept disappointment anymore. Every year, the Michigan men's gymnastics team begins with high hopes, only to watch its goals slip away in the postseason. Only in the outstanding 2007 season did the team defy the low expectations of the gymnastics world by holding a No. 1 rank- ing most of the year and finishing fourth at the NCAA Champion- ships. This season, it's all about the Big Ten and NCAA Championships. The many intrasquad competitions in the fall, the seemingly endless workouts and conditioning and the extra pressure each Wolverine has heaped on himself at every oppor- tunity are all designed to make the team confident in clutch situations. "Every single year, it gets more intense in this gym," said assistant coach Derek Croad, who has been involved with the team since the 2002-03 season. Each gymnast has added at least one new, high-quality skill to his repertoire and the entire team has been staying at the gym longer and working out harder since the sum- mer. "Since I've been at this school, we have not collectively as a team been staying this late, working this hard," senior Ryan McCarthy said. "Everyone's got a really focused, positive attitude in the gym." Unlike the vast majority of its opponents, Michigan lost just two seniors to graduation. Michigan coach Kurt Golder said he believes his team's experience and depth are big parts of the overall improve- ment he's seen since last April. The Wolverines also have an eas- ier schedule than in recent years. Michigan won't face No. 2 Oklaho- ma until NCAAs and only sees No. 1 Stanford once before then. Michi- gan lost to both teams in 2008. The squad also has one more bye weekend than last year. The extra break could be a mixed blessing, because it could help Michigan add difficulty and recuperate from nag- ging injuries but could also inter- rupt the gymnasts' competition rhythm. Matching up against weaker teams like Iowa and Illinois-Chica- go will also give Golder the oppor- tunity to rest his top performers and give some of his backups a chance to compete. The sixth-ranked Wolverines have a little added motivation - at the start of April, Michigan will host the Big Ten Championships. "It means a (championship) ring, that's what it means!" said junior co-captain David Chan of having the meet in Ann Arbor. "No ques- tion about it. No excuses, no noth- ing. It means a ring." Big Tens have been a major stumbling block for the Wolverines recently, with Michigan finishing fourth each of the last three years. Each season, the team was still try- ing to recover its confidence after an unsuccessful Pacific Coast Class meet. And except for 2007, when the Wolverines were fourth, the NCAA Championships haven't been much better. In 2006, the team failed to make the Super Six and Michigan came in sixth in 2008. Those lapses are part of the rea- son the gymnasts, captained by Chan and redshirt junior Phil Gold- berg, have been pushing themselves to the brink. Intrasquads at prac- tice were more frequent than ever.. In the fall, seniors Kent Caldwell and Ryan McCarthy devised a sys- tem where each gymnast declared a goal for the week, then had just one chance to accomplish it with the entire team watching. "You want to do something that's a struggle for you," sophomore Ben Baldus-Strauss said. "It pushes you every week to find something-that pushes you beyond the usual. Then, when you have the extra support from the whole team, with every- one watching you, a lot of times you can do things you didn't think you could do." Michigan will still face an uphill battle when it comes to filling out lineups for the rings and high bar, two events that nearly every gym- nast said may be a weakness. Nei- ther lineup has much depth. On rings, all connection bonuses have been eliminated, forcing ring men 4 to increase their difficulty just to maintain their start values. Despite the physical and mental difficulties ahead, the Wolverines are working to maintain an upbeat, positive attitude in the gym. "I think we're going to be in the best shape that we've ever been in, and I think we're going to be in bet- ter shape than any other team out there," Goldberg said. "We're working really hard and we're going to be in the best shape ever. Period." After teaching himself the sport Caesar thrives in A2 Freshman is finally benefiting from solid coaching support By COLT ROSENSWEIG Daily Sports Writer Let's get this out of the way: Yes, freshman Syque Caesar (pro- nounced psych) is in a Psych class. The interesting part of the story is how he came to be taking psy- chology classes at Michigan instead of Florida International - and how he put himself on the verge of break- ing into the men's gymnastics team's starting lineup. At the start of September, few would have tabbed Caesar as a force to be reckoned with this year. His arrival in Ann Arbor was unlikely. For six months, his gym in Florida didn't even have a high bar. A set of rings was also slow in com- ing, and the ancient pommel horse belonged out to pasture. For years, he switched gyms annually, at one point making an 80-mile commute three days a week to practice. He applied to Michigan and was admitted but planned to go to Flori- dainternational,which doesn'thave a varsity men's gymnastics team. Fortuitously, a Florida coach at the junior nationals tipped Michigan coach Kurt Golder off about Caesar. "We had to shake the bushes to - get in contact with him," Golder said. "One thing led to another, and in the middle of the summer, he jumped ship from Florida and came here. ... It's all because one coach just mentioned it." With help from his father, a for- mer professional soccer player in Bangladesh, Caesar had coached himself for the previous two years. Caesar's talent was evident; sophomore Chris Cameron, a fel- low Floridian, used to see Caesar at meets and wonder how far he could go with good coaching. But teaching yourself techniques and skills from YouTube videos could only take him so far. With the Wolverines, Caesar now has all the coaching he could want. Not only are Michigan coach Kurt Golder and three assistants all available to him, but his 23 team- mates are just as eager to share their knowledge. Caesar's transformation has impressed every Wolverine. "He came in here and had a little gut on him, and a month later, it's gone," fifth-year senior Paul Wood- ward said. "He's just ripped. There's somebody who's picked up more skills than I can probably count right now." Even Caesar finds his progression little hard to believe. "I think I've improved on a scale, like an unbelievable rate," Cae- sar said. "I'm learning such high- level skills that I never would have dreamed of doing if I hadn't been here." But the first few weeks were tough. He'd never had such intense 4 or lengthy workouts - or had so far to walk just for classes. "If I even looked at the high bar, I'd rip," said Caesar, referring to when the skin on a gymnast's hand tears during high bar workouts. But after about a month and a half, he had settled into his new rou- tine and everyone took notice. Nearly all his teammates com- mented on Caesar's exceptional lines and beautiful style on floor, vault and parallel bars, his three main events. After supplying most of his own advice for two years, the Port Saint Lucie, Fla., native applies constructive criticism with light- ning speed. The one lingering question about Caesar was whether he could show the same promise in competition. In the Maize and Blue Intrasquad, he was in the top three for the Blue team on all three of his events. If the meet had been scored like a regular- season competition, with the top four overall scores counting, all of 4 Caesar's marks would have contrib- uted to the team total. Caesar's - performance only strengthened his quiet confidence. "I feel the way I've been training in the gym and the way (assistant coach) Scott (Vetere's been pushing me, I can be reliable," Caesar said after the meet. "I want to be the person that everyone can count on to hit that set and not mess up when it counts."