ESPN commentator Mike Tirico called the game the most poorly officiated he had seen in some time, and he was right.

The game started poorly with the officials missing an obvious fumble that would have given Michigan the ball in Nebraska territory. Instead, Nebraska scored on that drive. Meanwhile, the replay official whose job it is to stop play and review close calls did nothing. And thus began a night of passive, timid and indecisive officiating that cost Michigan the game.

Later that half Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was forced to use a timeout to prompt the officials to review a Nebraska touchdown that was ultimately ruled an incompletion. In the second half, the tables were turned and Nebraska had to call a timeout to prompt the officials to review an interception in the endzone in which the official was standing just feet away from the Nebraska defender and somehow couldn't see that his foot was 18 inches in bounds. It was only after Nebraska called a timeout and the crowd howled at the video replay that the replay official decided to put down his hot dog and review a play.

But the most egregious officiating came at the end of the game. With Michigan up and with the ball, Michigan's quarterback threw what looked to be an incompletion. The play was ruled a fumble. This was the very type of critical, very close play that video replay was designed for. Again, the replay official stood there, passive and unwilling to make a call until Lloyd Carr again had to blow a Michigan timeout. Only after throwing a tirade did the official review the play.

Now I'm no Norman Einstein as some would say, but the replay clearly showed the Nebraska defender pulling back on the quarterback's arm, the arm moving forward and the ball moving forward about seven yards. The replay official took all of 20 seconds to confirm the ruling on the field, fumble. Now how in the name of physics does a ball travel forward seven yards on its own?

That play gave Nebraska the ball deep in Michigan territory and they got the go ahead touchdown a couple of plays later.

All of this ineptness could only be outdone by one of the most bizarre plays I've ever seen in college football...

With no timeouts (see above), Michigan had only seconds to go about 80 yards. They dumped the ball to a receiver and began lateralling a la Cal-Stanford. On one critical play, the ball was tossed across the field and dropped. Confused, the Nebraska sideline acted as if this was an incompletion and stormed the field. The play, however, was still live. Where were the refs? Who knows, we didn't hear from them again the rest of this game. What ensued was a surreal scene as a Michigan player ran through dozens of bystanders who had come on to the field, making his way down to the Nebraska 15 yard line. A couple of alert Nebraska players knocked him out of bounds on what otherwise would have been the winning touchdown.

There should have been a sideline infraction called on both teams. Nebraska stormed the field, but Michigan players also wandered out thinking the game was over. So there should have been offsetting penalties called, replay the down. However, despite there being some 200 people on the field during the play rather than 22, not one official threw a flag.

It's a shame games like this have to happen where an officiating crew is so inept, so completely unqualified it was virtually pointless for the teams to show up.

Back in the 2001-2002 season, I first expressed my dissatisfaction with Quin Snyder. I wrote about the Stand and Dribble offense, the lack of fundamentals, the lack of an organized offense, the lack of blocking out, the lack of physical defense among other things. Substitute the names and four years later you have the same team, only not nearly as talented.

Snyder took that team, arguably loaded with talent, from a #2 ranking to a 12 seed in the NCAA tournament, barely squeaking in. Fortunately we had a weak draw, matching up against Miami, Ohio State and Steve Lavin's UCLA. For the next three years, Quin rode this Elite 8 appearance like a diplomat's limo through New York. It was the elixer that erased glaring inadequacies in his program, not to mention his penchant for taking shortcuts and playing fast and loose with NCAA rules.

My deepest, darkest fear is that some how, some way Quin does just enough to buy himself another year at Mizzou. After the Elite 8 run, most were wondering which was the real Quin product, the underachieving regular season team that lost to the likes of Baylor or the Elite 8 team that took OU to the wire in a Final Four bid.

Clearly as history has played out, it was the former. Unlike a 9th or worse place finish this year in the Big XII, Quin's departure is not a foregone conclusion. Despite getting Mizzou on probation and taking this program to unimaginable depths, Alden has continued to stand by Quin. He stood by him through one 6th place finish after the other, through one KU sweep after another, through one Illinois loss after another, through one loss to a cupcake team after another, through one loss to a top 25 team after another and remains unfazed. I mean come on, are there pictures involved?

So no, I don't want Mizzou to win another game this year. I don't want there to be any debate, not one shred of controversy that Quin Snyder has ruined this once great Missouri basketball program and has to be fired. I don't delight in seeing the black and gold go down, but this is the grim, unpleasant but necessary task of putting a lame horse down. I am first and foremost a Mizzou fan. Quin Snyder is not Mizzou.

Check this out...

What a classic moment. I remember Mizzou jumping out to a big lead and if memory serves, Anthony Peeler had a monster tomahawk slam in this game. I also believe this is the game Norm missed due to collapsing on the plane, which is when he discovered he had cancer. At any rate, I might be jumbling up my memories, but here's the clip Quicktime required.

It's unlikely that there will be any sappy speeches or rocking chair gifts as Quin makes his final appearance as Missouri's head basketball coach in the annual Mizzou-Illinois border war (that's right, I said border war, call the ACLU).

Nobody will reminisce about the last 7 years of hell, about probation, ATVs, crackuhs, hundreds of three point attempts per game, dozens of busted recruits, unrealized potential, the Stand and Dribble offense, etc. Instead, we'll all feel a mix of sadness and anticipation as Snyder flames out in front of a sellout crowd at Savvis. A Missouri loss is a forgone conclusion, but at least it will help move Snyder out of Columbia. How times have changed.

In 1993 I took my then fiance and a couple of nephews to the Arena and witnessed one of the most classic battles in Norm Stewart's career. I watched as Fraizier, Grimm and Sutherland led a gritty, impossible charge at the end and through overtime that left 20,000 fans breathless and exhausted. That night is a distant memory. A once proud Christmas tradition has become a sad display.

Tonight I'll be Christmas shopping with my kids. I won't bother adding wear and tear on my Tivo, it won't matter. I'll check Tigerboard later on and watch the carnage. I resent what Quin has done to this program. He has robbed us of many things. He has done something remarkable...made rabid Missouri fans apathetic and ambivilent about Missouri basketball. My only soloace is his likely departure and the return of our program.

That's right, I said 'Christmas'. Call the ACLU.

I have a niece who from a very young age would stay up at night tucked in bed with a transistor radio under her pillow. She listened to Cardinal baseball and the post game show where for hours, callers would break down the game, the team and baseball in general. Here was a family-friendly, kid-safe place for a young girl to spend time; a rarity in a time where irreverance and vulgarity are worshipped and pushed by peddlers of smut eager to make a buck off of the lowest variable.

It's been this St. Louis treasure that has bonded young, old, rural, city, black, white for decades. In an evening of listening to the post-game call in show, you would hear 12 year olds as well as 80 year olds...all passionate about Cardinal baseball and all eager for intelligent talk about their team.

Usher in the boneheads at KTRS. The team of Bobby Lawrence, Al Brady Law and Craig Unger have managed to alienate the most firecely loyal, passionate and tight-knit group in sports. On Friday, nearly the entire group of on air personalities were fired in favor of out of town big mouths. "Lively," said station manager Craig Unger. "Condescending," I thought. If I could pick one personality that I most dislike in sports commentary, it's Jim Rome. His entire slant is to be an ass. This preconceived, contrived m.o. is what makes him so obnoxious. His commentary isn't interesting because he's simply looking for an effect.

The management at KTRS clearly doesn't understand their market. They want to turn St. Louis into L.A. or New York where mostly young men spend hours listening to smarmy, wise cracking Jim Rome-ites, except that this market is made up of a tremendous cross section of people who all have a common trait: they want intelligent, knowlegable commentary about their team and they want to hear it from familiar voices.

The market isn't going to change. The only issue is: will they cater to it? Their defiant answer today is no, but having already failed, it's just a matter of time before they admit their mistake. Add to this the fact that Cardinal ownership is behind these changes as well as what is shaping up to be a disasterous off season and you have to wonder how they could be so completely inept on purpose.

I can't believe the bellyaching going on right now about this bowl game. I find it hard to believe that these people experienced Mizzou football during Woody's Wagon and Stull's catastrophe. Larry Smith got us to two bowls and at that time, because it had been so long, he could have been elected governor of Missouri. All of that love faded quickly and we hired Gary Pinkel. Pink did what no coach could do for over 20 years, beat Nebraska. He beat them twice, embarrassed them. He's gotten us to two bowl games and for his efforts, people are crying about it.

I understand the criticisms, that he has the game day coaching skills of a box of crackers. I tend to agree. His inability to make adjustments to what is happening on the field has been frustrating, to say the least. Getting torched by the same receiver versus New Mexico and never trying anything different for four quarters to stop him was nuts.

That being said, we've got a bowl game against Spurrier and South Carolina in a couple of weeks. To date, 1,200 tickets have been sold. That's pathetic. GO BUY SOME TICKETS NOW

For the first time in sports history, a 'humiliating win' was predicted and realized when Mizzou needed a stick back by Jimmy McKinney to beat mighty Texas A&M Corpus Christi in front of 43 people at shiny new [This space for rent] Arena. It used to be that Mizzou would spank the regular A&M with little effort, but things have gotten so bad that they just sent their little brother from Corpus Christi. Quin declared his ownership over TA&MCC. "I own them," he announced.

I'm looking forward to future cold winter days when this new rivalry will fill [This space for rent] Arena into the third row.

Play the South Carolina fight song

As you know, I was suspended by a certain moderator on a certain message board under specious circumstances. To make matters worse, they have scheduled a war crimes trial after hours on a Friday. My suspension is until 4:30 pm...on a Friday, at which time my peers will be passed out under an overpass from their usual Friday afternoon activities. I quote from the Declaration of Independence:

"[King George]He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."

Nations have declared war for such acts of fundamental unfairness and inhumanity. Moreover, I have received no list of charges, no access to counsel nor have I received any discovery from the prosecution.

Developing...

So I'm watching the KU game and see something and say to my wife "did you see that?" I backed up the Tivo and put it in slow mo and clear as day, he sure as heck did. So I thought "I should record this and throw it up on the website" and then I thought "I'd sure like a bowl of Honey Comb". The cereal was fantastic.

I'm told these are the stages of suspension:

Shock
Denial
Anger
Guilt
Depression
Revenge

I was suspended from Tigerboard by MarcTiger (seen at right) for being too creative and funny, thereby threatening the management. This is war.