Nice Words From Former Washington Coach

Former Washington football coach Dick Baird holds no punches back in an all-out assault on Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen. Here's an excerpt from Baird's opinion piece on why Hansen should retire: "Does the conference commissioner really care about the kids? Let’s not even begin to discuss the ridiculous bowl arrangement that Hansen and his staff have put together for the football teams. Sure the conference is lined up to play in six bowl games, which sounds very good, but the reality is that only ONE of those games is played on January 1st. None of the others are even considered a “major” bowl that anyone really gives a rip about. The perception is out there that this conference has been sliding for at least the past ten years. It is the wrong perception but the conference does nothing to try and change it. Remember when Nebraska lost in their conference championship game but still got to play in the national championship game? If that wasn’t bad enough, the very next year Oklahoma lost in the exact same game then went on to play in the national championship. Meanwhile we can’t even get the best California Golden Bear team in probably the history of their school into the Rose Bowl. That seems to fall on deaf ears at the Pac-10 conference headquarters. Hansen’s comments were lame and after the fact. Can you believe that an 8-3 Pittsburgh team gets into the Fiesta Bowl but California at 10-1 can’t even get into the bowl that technically belongs to it’s own conference? That is a bunch of crap."