It's that time of year again. Quickly becoming as commonplace as luminaries like Homecoming and spring break in Cancun, it's the unofficial kickoff to the spring semester - UF finding itself in the BCS National Championship Game.
With this seemingly annual celebration of UF's football awesomeness comes trips to locales such as Phoenix and Miami, an extended drop/add period, and no class the day after the big game.
Oh wait - well, let's move on to the BCS/we-know-you-missed-it-oh-so-much edition of this semester's…
Darts & Laurels
What should have been a week full of smiles and schoolgirl giggling over the possibility of a second football championship in three years sadly found itself upended by the unscrupulous actions of our "beloved" president.
With his first DART of the new semester (insert shock here), President Bernie Machen is on a record-setting pace to reach epic levels of infamy on the pages of the Alligator in 2009. Early Vegas-line figures show Machen as an odds-on favorite to take home the crown as the most heavily darted individual of the new year.
Refusing to accommodate UF students while our football team battles for gridiron glory really strikes a chord with the Editorial Board. Homecoming gets a three-day weekend just so Fratty McFrat and Suzie Sorority can chug oversized quantities of jungle juice to the point of inebriation? Come on, Bernie, you have to admit you really stuck it to us on the fourth day of school.
Hmm, we wonder where the UF higher-ups will be at 8:30 on Friday morning? Fat chance we find them wide-eyed and cheery at another one of those, yawn, symposiums they just love to attend.
On a much brighter note, the Editorial Board would like to give the entire UF football team a goddamn-you-guys-are-good LAUREL for their accomplishments this season. Urban Meyer's tenure in Gainesville has seen unparalleled success for the program - giving us even more to brag about to our lowly friends from high school who have the unfortunate luck of attending Florida State.
Win or lose, we will not soon forget a highlight-reel season, from Superman, err, Tim Tebow's heartfelt press conference to a gutsy fourth-quarter comeback against then top-ranked Alabama - sans superstar wide receiver/every-position-imaginable Percy Harvin.
Back to the harsh realities that not everything can be as great as UF football, the Editorial Board frowns upon anyone who exploits the not-so-deep pockets of the Gator Nation, especially given the current economic climate.
We're looking at you, West University Avenue bars - guilty for jacking up the price of booze knowing damn well that hordes of UF students far more concerned about academics than football would be staying in town to catch the game. Here's a come-on-did-you-really-have-to DART for taking our business 364 other days of the year for granted and making a night out in Gainesville really feel like Miami for us - minus that whole charm and ambiance thing.
Hardly a shock if you've been keeping score at home - but the Editorial Board would like to present this week's final award to a former dart gone good. For his attempts to show Congress that bleeding blue and orange trumps all political obligation, we award Rep. Cliff Stearns a well-deserved LAUREL as a consolation prize for being stuck watching the game amid the undereducated wannabe sports fans who roam the streets of D.C.
That's all for this week. Win or lose - have a safe weekend.
