M.A.S.H on Call (Big East vs. MWC)

Well ten days ago I lit a fire under a fairly high traffic conference message
board by posting a little Ross Report redux. The amazing thing is that it ended
up creating a battle royale between fans from two conferences on the cusp
of the BCS. One on the inside edge and one on the outside edge.

Not only did the post thread spool rapidly before my eyes, but frayed ends
found themselves quickly intertwined with other threads which have now
knotted themselves in page after page of unsupported misinformed rants,
not so subtle insults, and outright rage.

The entire cast of characters was present:

The self appointed pseudo intellectual was first to arrive to clarify to all
would be readers that my post lacked any validity, credibility and in later
posts, I was revealed by this bastion of wisdom to be nothing more than
a ego hungry charlatan. He held no punches when he critiqued my
writing and further exposed my love affair with Roget.

The well meaning would be warrior was there fighting my battle as he
saw it. Of course this young (his expressions painted him as such) fighter 
lacked the pondus of automotonical emotionality posessed by the
pi(short for pseudo intellectual), and in his heated state fought on grounds
that carried him truly away from the initial point of my post.

Other characters joined in the fray including the regular supporting cast
of pro and con artists looking to score a few points for their respective sides
to an argument that I never even broached, but somehow had initiated.

A few posts into the life of the thread, and the real opponants began to
arrive. These were inside the edge fans looking to defend their maligned
conference on the enemies “turf”. Their missiles fell harmlessly in
no-mans land where this argument quickly found itself.

More and more began to pile on with various adaptations of the standard
fighting tactics used in most conference a' conference verbal battles.
Stats were fired left and right to motivate everything from
superiority, butts in seats to athletic directors paychecks. When that failed
to dent either side, weapons were exchange and political salvos began to fly.

Scenarios that would make John Grisham proud grew out of thin air as
claims of poll rigging, payoffs and extortion were aimed at those whose
launchers will filled with grenades of bad tv market, poor ticket sales, and
unadept administrator schrapnel.

When all else failed, last ditch efforts of emotionally charged arguments
of “we're better than you” combined with personal attacks on the posters
character were used like bayonnets on the end of an M16 with an empty
banana clip.

The BCS most certainly has created a charge, and this experience is stark
evidence that for college football fans, there is no room for standoff-ish
Swiss diplomacy, here there is only FOR or AGAINST.

On Friday I will make my way into this knotted ball of craziness that
pitted Big East fans against those of the Mountain West. In an effort to
help many of these embattled football veterans to make sense of it all.
Stay tuned...

Ross Out-->