Last night, tornadoes hit downtown Atlanta. Among other things, the twisters caused damage to the Georgia Dome, site of this weekend's SEC Championship.
The activity led the SEC to postpone one quarter-final game and to push back the semi-final games from this afternoon to this evening. The games have also been moved to the arena on the Georgia Tech campus, which while I'm sure it's nice doesn't have the capacity the Georgia Dome does. It can hold a bit more than 9,000 people meaning that fans won't be allowed at the games. Just family, cheerleaders, bands and credentialed media.
Now, I'm a huge sports fan, but there are times when real-world events are bigger and take precedent. From what I heard, the SEC tried to just cancel the rest of the games for the weekend to allow those affected by these storms to concentrate on the bigger and more important issues. But the story I heard is the NCAA and the selection committee wouldn't allow this.
And that just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. For one thing, it's going to be surreal to be playing games in front of no fan support. Second of all, Kentucky and Georgia have a distinct disadvantage..the winner of that game has to play two games in one day. And they face Mississippi State tonight should they win. And really, I have to wonder how focused Georgia will be since the damage happened in their home state. Thirdly, I think all the cases for bubble teams and seedings have that could be made have been. The only real factor could be whether or not Arkansas should be in or do they need to win one more game to get to the Big Dance. All the other bubble teams pretty much choked their way out of the tourney Thursday evening. I realize it's bizarre to say, but while it could cost the Vols a number one seed, I think there are bigger issues here. And that they should have just cancelled the rest of the games and moved on.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 3/15/2008 10:06:00 AM |
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