Today’s Jackson Clarion-Ledger runs quite a bit of material on the fallout from the University of Mississippi’s decision to dump Colonel Reb (nobody calls him “Colonel Rebel,” at least nobody I’ve ever met). Of everything I’ve read, I think Ronnie Agnew’s column probably sums up the case best:
Ole Miss is no longer an institution stuck in the old South. It is one of the most culturally enlightened and culturally diverse schools in the Southeast. It deserves a mascot that outwardly demonstrates the progress that has been made.
Now, I fully agree with those who think the administration has handled this with their standard level of ham-handedness, not to mention their penchant for failing to consult with anyone else before acting. On the other hand, it’s hard to see that even an “inclusive” process would have led to a different decision; if they’d gone through the charade of soliciting opinion, most of the same people complaining now about an underinclusive process would now be complaining about Khayat et al. having made up their minds beforehand.
More fundamentally, I think they’re also doing what’s in the best interest of the university and its alumni. Where many southerners—black and white—see an inoffensive, cartoonish mascot and nothing more, I suspect many outside the region see the Colonel as something more sinister: a symbol of nostalgia for Jim Crow and the thankfully-dead Mississippi of Barnett, Bilbo, and Eastland. Mississippi is a state with plenty of accomplishments to its credit—lifting the Delta out of poverty, attracting major new industries, and bolstering education. We should be able to focus on those achievements without needing to be sidetracked into debates over the meaning of symbols that no longer represent who we are today.
Dixie Leigh Barron’s column in Monday’s DeSoto Appeal is worth a read, too.
As expected, today’s Daily Mississippian was full of the controversy: the editorial (laying on the “the administration lied” meme very thick, as is the wont of DM editorials), the cartoon, two staff columns (proish and conish), a reactions piece, and two letters (one picking up the “they lied” meme and the other, er, picking up the “they lied” meme).
Also, from the blogosphere (via Feedster): Mason Wilson at Unlearned Hand, an Ole Miss alum, approves of the plan, while Big Jim doesn’t.
Can I just hide for the next few months while the furor over this proceeds without my involvement? Please?
More details are in this Daily Mississippian story. And if you think this was done without the “high sign” from U of M Chancellor Robert Khayat, you haven't been paying much attention to how Ole Miss works.
Patrick Carver is displeased (along with the rest of the Alumni Association, no doubt). For the record, I've always thought the Colonel was a pretty dumb mascot, but in a league where Auburn can’t even figure out what its mascot is, Vanderbilt has a “commodore,” Georgia has a succession of ugly-ass dogs, and Alabama has the inexplicable “crimson tide,” it’s pretty clear that Ole Miss isn't exactly out-of-place in that regard.
The AP reports (via ESPN.com) that Archie Manning has softened his stance against an “Eli for Heisman” campaign. Now let’s hope it doesn’t turn out to be the colossal flop that “Deuce for Heisman” was.
It was a fun baseball game at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field tonight as your Ole Miss Rebels defeated the Florida Gators 2-0. Ace freshman pitcher Stephen Head (3–1, 0.94 ERA, team-leading 0.360 BA), slightly hobbled by a leg injury, played as designated hitter (DH) and also closed out the final two innings for his 11th save. Head and starter T.J. Beam (7–1, 2.34 ERA) combined for a three-hit shutout with six walks and no errors, despite Beam looking pretty wild early.
I was sorely tempted to start a “We Want Head” chant in the sixth, but somehow I didn’t think the double-entendre would go over well with the crowd (or at least with little Ricky Santorum).
Incidentally, I wonder if pitchers are allowed to serve as the DH in the American League. I suspect not (since I’ve never heard of it happening, although that may be because most pitchers live below the Mendoza line), but I could be wrong. A question for the baseball experts in the blogroll, I suppose.
The story that won’t go away in Mississippi is a flap over the Daily Mississippian’s “sex columnist,” Sumer Rose, who wrote a column last month about nooners. Apparently appalled to learn that college students have sex (who’d a-thunk it?), the Rev. Donald Wildmon’s Tupelo-based American Family Association (best known for its completely unsuccessful effort to get NYPD Blue taken off the air a decade ago) has been trying to spin the incident into a full-fledged brou-ha-ha, calling on Chancellor Khayat to censor the college newspaper, and generally being the self-promoting flim-flam artist that he is. The Jackson Clarion-Ledger’s Sid Salter today rightly slaps down Wildmon’s dopey self-promotion/fundraising campaign.
On Wednesday, Koigi wa Wamwere will speak on the “Western Betrayal of Democracy and the Rule of Law in Africa” at the Croft Institute here at the University of Mississippi; a little more information is at the campus newsdesk.
They’re replacing the grass in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium with something called AstroPlay®, which is also used at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium and at the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. Considering that the field looked like absolute crap at the end of last season (and looked pretty shabby during the Red-Blue Game this spring), I think they’re doing the right thing.
Patrick Carver was fortunate enough to catch up with Antonin Scalia, and get his autograph, after his speech at Fulton Chapel here at the University of Mississippi Thursday; a somewhat different take is from an anonymous reader at How Appealing.
I’m not entirely sold on “original intent” as a jurisprudential philosophy, nor am I really sold that Scalia practices it (he may believe he practices it, but as a good student of political psychology, and judicial behavior in the attitudinal tradition, I’m unconvinced). But by all accounts Scalia is a smart guy, and possibly next in line to be Chief Justice of the United States, so it’s certainly nice that he dropped by. (I would have been there but I’ve been sicker than a dog for the past three days; I must have caught something in Chicago.)
The perpetrators of the Kincannon Hall grafitti incident got off with probation, instead of the expulsion that many in the university community, including the student senate, thought was warranted in the case; nor are the perpetrators being identified publically, although it is allegedly common knowledge who they are (shades of a Boalt-style coverup?). Allan Innman's editorial cartoon sums the situation up nicely.
Previous coverage here. (For the record, I am a university employee, so I'm probably bound by the Buckley Amendment in this case — but surely the Daily Mississippian and Oxford Eagle aren't.)
Our long local nightmare is over; Eli Manning's coming back for his senior season. No word yet on whether David Cutcliffe promised to find something better than the prevent offense in return.
Bowl season will be over tonight with the Miami-Ohio State contest in Tempe (my prediction: OSU 27, Miami 24).
A few miscellaneous notes:
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The SEC goes 3–4. Ole Miss, Auburn and Georgia held up their ends of the bargain, at least, while Arkansas showed how thoroughly one-dimensional their offense is (how, again, did they win the SEC West?), Florida and LSU put in respectable showings, and Tennessee, well, played like Tennessee has all season long.
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Alabama fans are wondering if they can return Mike Price after the 34–14 drubbing that Washington State got at the hands of Oklahoma. (They're probably also wondering how many more years they're going to be on probation.) Price's system would be a move away from the option attack that served Alabama well in 2002, tending more toward the play action style favored by most of the conference (except Arkansas).
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The SEC's team to watch in 2003 is Kentucky; fresh off sanctions and with a new coach, they're likely to make things interesting in the SEC East. (However, Georgia will repeat as SEC East champion — you read it here first.)
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The SEC West will be the same clusterf*ck that it was in 2002, although Alabama will not go 4–1 in the division. Mississippi State will remain the “Vandy of the West.”
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If Eli Manning returns to Ole Miss, the Rebels probably have the inside track to win the SEC West, with a largely favorable schedule (with just Vandy, Florida, Auburn and MSU on the road, along with an early trip to Memphis — where Ole Miss fans will outnumber Memphis fans at the Liberty Bowl). Without Manning, Ole Miss will have to rely on an untested QB: either Micheal Spurlock or Seth Smith.
Finally, my early pick for 2003 National Champion: none other than Georgia.
By the way, what's the over/under on how many times Keith Jackson retires during the game? He and Dan Fouts almost give CBS's SEC crew a run for their money in the “worst booth in college football” sweepstakes.
Despite the bizarre speculation around David Cutcliffe (would you hire the master of the prevent offense? — apparently Kentucky would, if you believe the rumors) and not-so-bizarre speculation concerning Eli Manning, the Ole Miss Rebels defeated once-mighty Nebraska 27–23 in a game they weren't expected by anyone to win.
Again, I don't see Manning going to the NFL this year, not with the risk of being picked by the Bengals, the QB overload in the draft (Palmer, Leftwich, Ragone, Wallace, Kingsbury, and probably Grossman), and the possibility of having a real running game in 2003.
Rich Brooks is apparently the Kentucky hire, beating out Grambling State coach Doug Williams; the latter's cause might have been hurt by anti-SEC comments he made two months ago, singling out the five Deep South programs. Frankly, if Cutcliffe had gone to Kentucky, I'd have expected an African-American hire at Ole Miss (most likely Charlie Strong, late of South Carolina): the basketball program has had success with black coaches, and it would fit with Robert Khayat's emphasis on racial reconciliation. Strong would have also been a good football choice; a defense-minded head coach would be an asset to the program.
(Via Glenn Reynolds) Michelle Malkin talks about the Ole Miss hate crime hoax. I briefly noted it earlier in a sea of Lott postings. (A Daily Mississippian report is here.) To summarize: a number of African-American students had racist graffiti drawn on their dorm room doors during the "Open Doors" celebration of James Meredith's integration of the University of Mississippi; after an investigation, the perpetrators turned out to be African-American friends of the victims, rather than racists.
I somewhat disagree with Malkin's premise, though; hoaxes or pranks usually don't earn the perpetrator the punishment that genuine crimes do, unless death or injury results, whether the events are racially charged or not. However, the students involved ought to be punished and the university community ought to seriously consider how different this offense is to the blackface incident at Ole Miss last year that resulted in a one-year ban for Alpha Tao Omega. (The ATO incident largely revolved around a single photograph from a Halloween party; no black students were directly threatened, so in some ways the recent hoax is more egregious.)
For what it's worth, the Daily Mississippian editorial board is calling for the students involved to be expelled, the maximum punishment that's still on the table.
I'm not convinced that expulsion is appropriate for a first offense, no matter the races of the perpetrators, but that's my opinion (my authority on such matters is nonexistent). However, if the university is serious about Zero Tolerance (not a policy I'm fond of, but precedent suggests it), I think in light of the ATO punishment, for an arguably similar offense, the students involved ought to be thrown out, at least for a year. The students also ought to apologize publicly and the university community deserves to know their identities, regardless of any other penalties.
Patrick Carver comments. So does Radley Balko.
Not all the news on race in Mississippi this week was bad. It turns out that an apparent racist incident at the University of Mississippi this fall was actually an ill-considered prank played on some friends by three African-American freshmen. While the incident didn't get much play outside the state, it did embarrass the university during the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of James Meredith's admission to Ole Miss.
It's official: Ole Miss faces Nebraska in its umpteenth trip to the Independence Bowl. Rebels win by 10 (Nebraska has no pass defense, and Ole Miss can put 8 or 9 in the box against Nebraska's rushing attack since they have no pass offense either).
Well, it's over for Coach Fran in Tuscaloosa. Apparently the motivation is the Crimson Tide's NCAA problem going from bad to worse; it's hard to imagine any penalty forthcoming from Indianapolis short of the so-called Death Penalty, especially after the infractions committee specifically pointed out that the only reason the Tide avoided it before was for being fully cooperative.
Shutting down the Tide isn't good for either them or the SEC in general. It might be a good thing for college football in the long term, though, as an instructive example. On the other hand, it might push a lot of I-A schools to abandon amateurism completely and withdraw from the NCAA. One thing's for sure: it's going to be a long nine months in Tuscaloosa.
Ole Miss is 5-6, yet can still pull out a bowl invitation in today's Egg Bowl game against Mississippi State due to (a) the collective futility of the remainder of the league and (b) Albert Means, the kid at the center of the Crimson Tide's recruiting scandal that earned them a 2-year post-season ban, with the death penalty still an option due to additional infractions the Tide forgot to report (including the involvement of a coach in addition to the boosters).
Of course, the Ole Miss late-season collapse is becoming a recurring theme, ever since Tommy "Judas Iscariat" Tuberville was too busy negotiating with Auburn at the end of the 1998 season to get his current team to do anything on the field. David "Coach to the Manning Family" Cutcliffe hasn't done much better, with the annual November skid becoming a recurring bad joke; though this year he started early.
In fairness, Ole Miss isn't the only team that's had a skid that looked worse in the box score than on the field; Kentucky's season has been about as heart-rending, complete with a final-play loss to LSU. (Ole Miss, by contrast, folded like a cheap kite on drives against Auburn and LSU, forgot to actually go to Tuscaloosa, fumbled the game away against Arkansas, and got pulverized by a ten-minute game-ending drive by Georgia.)
I guess the big question in Oxford is whether Eli Manning sticks around for his senior season. His receiving corps is only getting better and the running game seems to have finally gotten on track. His draft chances are probably better in 2004, with Byron Leftwich and probably Rex Grossman in the 2003 NFL draft. With backup QB David Morris graduating this year, the starter next year on an Eli-less squad would be Michael Spurlock, who apparently is pretty talented but whose total college quarterbacking experience is a few downs against Arkansas State. My gut feeling is that Eli will stay, if only because (a) Peyton did and (b) I think Eli wants to win the SEC title.
Mel Kiper thinks Eli needs another season to maximize his draft value. That's another reason for him to stay...
The following message just arrived in my email:
At approximately 1:35 pm today, a contractor, working at a campus construction site, pulled down a utility pole and surrounding power lines. This caused a fire and a transformer to fail. Subsequently, many buildings on campus were without power. Power should be restored to most buildings on campus by close of business today. Please forward any ongoing problems related to this outage to the Physical Plant so that we may assist you. Thanks for your patience. We apologize for any inconvenience.
I think it pretty much speaks for itself.