Oklahoma President David Boren: Confirmed Nancy-Boy

The fallout continues from footballpocalypse 2006. I like many of you watched Oklahoma get absolutely jobbed at Outzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon by a PAC-10 officiating crew that has been suspended for one game for not only blowing the call on the field, but then also failing to overturn it in the booth despite indisputable video evidence.

After learning that the Pac-10 had suspended the zebras in question, University of Oklahoma President David Boren sent a letter to Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg asking that the game against Oregon be wiped from the record books because, in Boren's words, "to describe the lapses in accurate officiating at the Oklahoma-Oregon football game last Saturday as constituting an outrageous injustice is an understatement."

Ok, hold up there, Tiger. The genocide going on in Dharfur, Sudan is an outrageous injustice. Religious persecution of Chinese Christians is an outrageous injustice. Mr. Boren, what happened to your football team was crappy luck. There is a significant difference.

A friend of mine from high school who emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland once told me that "the problem with most Americans is that they expect life to be fair." I suspect David Boren would say, in a nutshell that the reason this game should be overturned is because "it wasn't fair."

OU President and former U.S. Senator David Boren: "Help, help, I'm being oppressed!!!"

The problem with that logic is that it loses sight of one of the prime lessons that athletics are supposed to teach America's youth: sometimes the ball bounces your way, sometimes it doesn't, but no matter what happens you persevere. I know, some will say that I have no idea how much this hurts. I beg to differ because, as a Georgia fan, I have some frame of reference when it comes to being screwed out of one by the officials. It hurts. But then again a lot of things that happen to you in life hurt, and by golly, you deal with them. David Boren is an educator. Some would argue that as President of his state's flagship university, Boren is in a unique position to lead by example. Boren's example appears to be that when something bad happens to you, you should get a mulligan. That's not how it works outside of academia, nor often inside of it, in my experience. Boren should probably spend his limited time and ample salary educating OU students to the cold, hard fact that perseverence will always get you further in life than petty whining about all the bad things people have done to you.

I'm inclined to agree instead with the reaction of Sooner blogger Crimson and Cream Machine, who pointed out that Oklahoma did plenty of things to keep the Ducks in the game. One of the things that happens when you allow an opponent to hang around too long is that you give bad things a chance to happen. In Oklahoma's case, bad things did happen. Several of them actually. That's life, and it stinks. However, as Commissioner Weiberg succintly pointed out to President Boren, there's simply no conference or NCAA provision to negate an entire game because of officiating errors, nor should there be. President Boren: your squad will go down in the record books as losing. That's unfair. However you're just going to have to deal with it, and your hyperbole regarding the "outrageous injustice" you've endured is just not endearing. Put a lid on it, already.