An announcement regarding the JCCW

So, as you are so very likely aware already, there is a college football game this evening that will bring the 2008 college football season to its close. This is the spot where I'm supposed to say "And speaking as an Auburn fan, it couldn't get here soon enough," but in addition to being a terribly lame joke* it's just not true. The college football offseason is long and tortuous, the actual season unbearably brief. I don't know of a single sport anywhere in which the overwhelming majority of the sport's teams, in the span of an entire calendar year, play only 12 games. I am an Auburn fan, but I am a fan of college football too, and it pains me to watch it sail off into the blue distance for eight months while we wave good-bye from the dock, surrounded by the sleaze of recruiting and the inevitable media blow-ups over stories that would barely register in-season. Good-bye, college football! I promise to write! Remember that the JCCW loves you.

But ... that doesn't mean the JCCW is going to wait. Because, as you know if you've read the little links at the top of the sidebar or been skulking around during a February or March, this site has a second love. It's called "mid-major college basketball," and even if it's usually more of a secret love in terms of content, it's there. I read my Mid-Majority. (For my money, the best sports blog in existence. Any sport, any writer.) I have my potential March darlings (hello Utah St. and your beautiful No. 46 Pomeroy rating and awesomely loyal head coach Stew Morrill). I know that all sorts of interesting things happened last night in mid-majordom: Todd Bozeman's Morgan St. team moved to the front of the pack of teams who one could semi-reasonably say could stay competitive in a 16-vs.1 matchup by beating Maryland last night in OT; Winthrop's iron-clad reign over the Big South more-or-less officially came to an end in a hideous 42-40 loss to High Point; the Ivies showed that Cornell may not have the casual stroll to the title many--for a given value of "many"--expect, getting not only Harvard's big upset of the Tar Heel-slayers at BC but Princeton's home takedown of a decent Patriot team in Lehigh. Yes, I find these events interesting. More than interesting, in fact--engrossing, I would say. And because I am the sort of person who feels driven to write about the things--like Auburn football--that engross them, I feel driven to write about these events, too.

But, see, here's the thing: I know where the JCCW's traffic bread is buttered. This is an Auburn blog. It's read by Auburn fans. More Auburn fans than ever before at the moment, in fact. Unfortunately, the comprehensive list of Auburn fans in the entire universe** remotely interested in the happenings of mid-major basketball reads as follows:

1) me
2) this one guy who went to Auburn for undergrad but did his doctoral work at Davidson
3) this one kid who grew up in an Auburn household but is attending Jax State and is really getting into the Gamecock hoops team.

So I've been unsure what to do. Do I just ignore my inclination to write about hoops, throw all my energies into Auburn stuff, and call it a day as a basketball blogger? Do I write about both at the JCCW in an awkward mish-mash of content that alienates all you wonderful, wonderful Auburn fans out there? Or do I try to find some other online outlet, perhaps existing, perhaps new, where I can write about mid-majors without cluttering up the current blog?

Long-term, I suspect the answer will prove to be "C", and in fact I had planned on taking part of December to perhaps find a new Internet home for the mid-major content. Then the maximum amount of hell in Auburn's football program that could break loose broke loose, and it didn't happen. So for the short-term, I need to tell you it's going to be "B"--starting tomorrow, with one season finished and the other entering the most critical part of the year, posts on mid-major basketball are going to start reappearing at the JCCW.

But I also want to reassure you, Auburn fans, as reassuringly as I can: there's going to be plenty of Auburn stuff, too. We've been rolling along at 2-3 posts a weekday for a while now, and that's not going to change. About 2/3rds of them, I would guess, will still deal with Auburn in some fashion. After all, we've still got a few more coaching hires and Signing Day to get through, and spring practice will be along not long after that. You know I'm not going to be able to keep my big mouth shut about all that, right? So yeah, there might be a slight downtick in the amount of Auburn-related ramblings here, but that was always going to be the case during the offseason anyway, right?

So please bear with me as this blog develops a split personality*** over the next couple of months. (I'll add an item to the top of the sidebar making it easier to navigate around the mid-major stuff if you're completely uninterested. Your loss, but I do aim to please.) It'll be worth it. Promise.

*Meaning, of course, that it would fit right in at the JCCW, but I'll pass for today.
**A slight exaggeration, no doubt, but you get the point.
***I'm naming the mid-major one "Mouse."