After a few days away from the net, I have a few observations, ramblings and other stuff that I thought I'd share. Don't you feel lucky? ;-> NESN and Hockey East caught a break when BU beat UMaine this weekend, not just because of court cases, but because of advertising. Did anyone else notice that NESN started running promotional spots for the HE Final Four saying fans should "come watch Hockey East crown a new champion" ? I guess the guys in Advertising hadn't been notified Maine was still in the running... "sending a message" Isn't it a little odd that of the three conferences in which Maine had ineligible athletes competeing only one decided to "send a message" to Maine? The North Atlantic and Yankee Conferences have taken no action against UM's teams which had ineligible athletes. Either the Hockey East ADs just know better than everyone else, or everyone south of Kittery (thats 7 of the 8 HE teams) got sick of seeing the Bears in the Final every year? Did anyone who attended the BU-Maine game notice that there was about triple the normal security for a BU home game? In fact,attendance was so low, I think the security outnumbered the fans. Was the number I read in the paper really correct? 2200? The last time attendance was that low in Orono were the days when the team was playing on the river and Alfond Arena was only a dream in an architect's mind... I read about the Maine fan who had the flag over in the BU student section and must say thats one gutsy guy. I found it a little odd that while security gave the Maine fan the option of being escorted back to his seat or being escorted out of the building, BU fans were allowed to stand close to the players' entrance/exit to the ice surface and unfurl a banner procliaming that BU was "ashamed" of Maine. Ashamed, perhaps, because BU completely outclassed Maine by amassing 36 penalty minutes? Sorry if the above remarks offend anyone, most of them are meant to be sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek comments, although there is an ounce of seriousness in there somewhere. In the past two months I have tried to be unbiased and objective, and judging from my mail, I think I have done a pretty good job. But I had to get some of this off my chest. And now that I have, I fell oh so much better. :-> One additional comment. All of those people who have posted remarks against UMaine in this mess, save your posts and remember what you wrote. It may be just a matter of time before its YOUR program under fire, and we'll see how you feel then.I for one, want to see college athletics cleaned up, and if that means embarrassing a few people in the process, so be it. UMaine is not the first school to come under scrutiny, and it won't be the last. I'm glad that the posts made will be in the archives, so that in two, three, four years when X Univ. comes under fire, we can all go back and see what the folks at UX had to say about UM. John Forsyth to paraphrase Mark Twain: Anyone attempting to find seriousness in this post will be shot. Anyone who sends flames will be hanged. Since Maine is out: Go UML