The Wekk Winneth,

and the Lord Taketh Away

Sorry for the lapse in my postings here. I've had my head up my ass with all the chaos around these parts. But I would like to take a minute to respond to Evan's rather brilliant dig: "I couldn't help but think it to myself as I watched the Gators win last night: 'So that's where the funding for Wekk's department is.'"

Now, funny as that statment is, I need to explain the workings of Florida's UAA (University Athletics Association). Recently, I found that the UAA is designed to function much like an autonomous corporation--which is to say that it is independent from the University's goings-on and it's beyond the purview of the state. So, want to pay that new coach a salary equivalent to the GDP of a small, underdeveloped nation? Hells, yeah; it's not like we have to share that money with them parasitic learnin' types! Want to throw some freebies to our athletes? Sure, it's not like the state or its citizens can open our books to see where the money goes!

I mean, the University gets a certain percentage of all sales of its licensed products (and that's probably been a shitload since the BCS champs), but all the earnings directly associated with the team itself--that hefty bonus for winning the BCS, for example--stays with UAA. I don't know what they'll do with that $17M payout over there, but it certainly isn't money that'll ever affect me, my studies, my department, or the College of Liberal Sciences (CLAS)

So, oddly enough, all that money going into UAA--money that the UF administration could use to bail itself out of its ill-conceived underfunding of CLAS--is stuck there. So just as the wekk winneth, the wekk loseth. This should come as no surprise, dear readers, but I thought you'd like the more complicated version of sports & academe down here on the dong of the US.

Now, all that said, I can't help but say, goddamn what a game. I mean, I don't remember much of anything after the first quarter. But my wife and my friends assure me I had a good time, and since I've been able to watch the game replayed on TV around here, I can say that I'm almost embarrassed for Ohio State after that game.

And now a parting question: what is it about "Guellah Papyrus" that makes me so happy?