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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Hancock is such a universally liked guy that when his new job as head of the BCS was announced on Nov. 17, there was a collective cringe in the college sports world. Bill, say it ain't so! We're coming up on that time of the year when the entire country complains about the stupidity of the BCS, which relies on votes from coaches, sportswriters, and indecipherable computer formulas to decide which two teams get to play each other in the national title game. This year, the picture is particularly muddled, as five schools have the potential to finish...
...this point, nearly everyone is fed up with the BCS, and is clamoring for a college football playoff tournament, along the lines of the insanely popular March Madness event for college hoops. Coaches, players, fans, the media and politicians - including President Obama - have barked for change. And in his new position, Hancock becomes the public face of the current despised setup, perhaps the last man standing against the playoff. Si.com's Andy Staples wrote that Hancock's job "is only slightly easier" than being a "Ringling Brothers elephant cage cleaner" or "Jon Gosselin's publicist." On his Twitter page, Yahoo...
Besides the obvious fact that he's drawing what is presumably a handsome salary, why would such a nice guy want one of the worst jobs in sports? Hancock realizes he's about to take his hits, but laughs off the idea that his new position is a burden. He's a believer. "I love college football," says Hancock, who returned my phone call after attending a Thanksgiving potluck at his grandson's grade school. "I believe in the BCS because a playoff would be equally contentious. For example, if you had a four-team playoff today, which two undefeated...
Taliban reconciliation is not a new idea. The notion of reconciling so called "little-t Taliban" as opposed to "big-T Taliban" is a common talking point among even enlisted Marines in Helmand province. In August of this year, General Stanley McChrystal recruited the U.K.'s former Director of Special Forces, Sir Graeme Lamb, to work on what General David Petraeus called "local level reconciliation and reintegration." But documents cited by the BBC this week recommended that attempts to reconcile be made at the "operational" and "strategic" levels - not just with foot soldiers, but with leadership as well...
...wonders what such a process would look like, given how the Marines' reintegration procedure works at the foot soldier level. Many, if not most, of the Afghans involved were illiterate, and accustomed to making agreements not rapidly, on chairs, with a relatively new governor, but over time, on cushions, along older networks...