Hinckley Keeps Distracting Me With Math Problems and College Football's Still Broken!

OK, I actually like these distractions, but still! I just spent the last 20 minutes working out and then typing up my solution to his latest math problem. This one seemed way too straight-forward for Prof Hinckley, but I can't see a flaw in my answer, so I stand behind it. Not like the last one I did, which I totally screwed up, after starting down the right path and then doubting myself and trying something different!

Tammy claimed my blogging was down recently, which I guess is true from a purely statistical POV (averaging 4 or 5 entries a day, instead of 6 to 7!) But I can't feel too bad when I'm still providing multiple things to read each day, day in and day out!

Tonight the big # 1 (Ohio State Buckeyes) vs # 2 (Florida Gators) matchup will decide the national champion for college football for 2006. The fact that this game is happening on the 8th of January, where traditionally it would've been on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd, might make a casual fan think they've finally introduced a playoff format into the works; but alas, no. It's just a matter of putting it later to keep Fox, who hold the TV rights, happy. There still isn't anything even as simple as having one weekend in which # 4 plays # 1, and # 3 plays # 2, such that the following weekend you'd have the two winners face off to settle things once and for all. I've been a big fan of such a format for years, since it really means that, as long as you finish the college season somewhere in the Top 4, you'll have a chance, in a single knockout format, to win it all. This year Michigan finished in the # 3 spot but felt cheated because they'd only lost one game all year, to the # 1 team, whereas the # 2 team (Florida) hadn't played anyone as highly ranked as that until tonight. And every year there's controversy over things like this. The playoff setup described above would almost certainly eliminate any of that in the future, and if we're going to play into the 2nd week of January anyway, why not use it?