FB: Liberty League

[Tags]

Question:

How does one fix the excel toolbar? Somehow I've managed to drag a strip about 74 feet below where it normally is, and now every time I open an excel file it comes up that way.

Drag it back up to its original position - it should snap back into place below the menus.

I did that, but when I close out of excel, and re-open a few minutes later it's not staying that way.

Thoughts?

['gro]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

[Frank Rossi]

Question:

How does one fix the excel toolbar? Somehow I've managed to drag a strip about 74 feet below where it normally is, and now every time I open an excel file it comes up that way.

Drag it back up to its original position - it should snap back into place below the menus.

I did that, but when I close out of excel, and re-open a few minutes later it's not staying that way.

Thoughts?

Never close Excel again -- impress your bosses that way...

...or, take a look at this to make sure we're not missing something:  http://archive.baarns.com/excel/faq/xtb.asp#4

[Tags]

Thanks for your help Frank

[Pat Coleman]

Yeah, that's the one thing TGP dislikes about this site and D3 football in general.  A team like MUC is impressive no doubt, but it almost defeats having a tournament if the Champion is crowned even before the games are played. 

So we should lie to you? I didn't think coddling readers was our job.

[Pat Coleman]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

Being the person who has to edit and post has its privileges.

[JT]

Yeah, that's the one thing TGP dislikes about this site and D3 football in general.  A team like MUC is impressive no doubt, but it almost defeats having a tournament if the Champion is crowned even before the games are played. 

So we should lie to you? I didn't think coddling readers was our job.

I'd like to Mount have to work for it or possibly get upset.  If they skate through, it won't be very interesting or exciting.

[Pat Coleman]

I'd like to Mount have to work for it or possibly get upset.  If they skate through, it won't be very interesting or exciting.

Sure, me too. I've said over and over, starting with last year's Stagg Bowl postgame show, that I dislike when the season seems like a foregone conclusion.

[Frank Rossi]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

I take issue with this idea that everyone is in love with this new bracketology:

1) For those of you that are environmentally sound, these brackets stretch the outer limits of driving.  For instance, RPI would have to travel about 970 miles (round-trip) should they make it to Alliance next weekend (or, about 60 gallons of gasoline).  Every combination we looked at without Mt. Union on top of the East and keeping #1 seeds in their rightful regions avoided huge drives until perhaps the third round, with maybe a couple exceptions. 

2) This is Division III college football.  We are, by nature, a REGIONAL system that uses the playoffs to close out the regions before sending the best of each region onto the more national stage.  All season long, we are ranked on our regional opponents in strength of schedule and in the NCAA's own polls.  Why, suddenly, do we decide to become a national system in which a committee can decide that four teams are the best of Division III nationally when out-of-region games probably account for about 15% of the total D3 schedule nationally?  Stated another way, it's a lot easier to tell who the best team of a region is than it is to tell who the best teams nationally are, maybe with one exception (see MUC) -- and I feel a lot more comfortable seeing a small group of people making regional decisions -- and then with the undercard teams, shuffle where they need to because of overage/underage of teams in a given region.

3) Everyone wants to ape NCAA Division I Men's College Basketball in their "bracketology" -- where #1 seeds are usually awarded to the best four teams nationally.  However, a much higher percentage of games are played between teams within flying distance (not driving distance) of each other.  The conferences also span time zones, not just a couple state borders.  Finally, neutral sites are used in Men's Basketball (eventually, this will carry over to Women's you would have to think).  It works for those reasons in D-I basketball...those premises are missing in D-3 football.

4) If this is truly the future of D3 Football seeding and placement, then the SoS (OWP/OOWP) needs to be scrapped immediately in its current form.  Not only does it disallow comparisons of teams from separate conferences, let alone separate regions, but if it's being used to determine the best teams nationally, it's faulty in its current form.  Again, the NCAA needs to make up its mind -- is this a regional system with a couple exceptions, or is this a national system that will attempt to cater to regions only as a secondary matter.

5) I think the Editors on this site confuse excitement over this new bracketology with complacency since its over and done with for this year.  It reminds me of the old argument 'gro and I used to have about RPI's schedule and what he can do to effect change.  He admits, much like other RPI fans, that the schedule is at least a bit disappointing from certain perspectives, but he feels he's one man and has to accept it since it's already in place for years to come.  Everyone I spoke with from this region Sunday, whether or not they were fans of teams in the playoffs, either reacted with outrage or laughed hysterically at the thought of Mount Union at the top of this region.  I'm sure fans of teams like Widener scratched their heads for hours trying to figure out how they ended up in the region they're in right now.  The outrage and laughter has worn off not because of excitement about what the NCAA has done, but more because the games have been scheduled and there's nothing we can do -- kickoff is Noon local time on Saturday and that's from where the excitement level is coming.  Or perhaps, the Editors have a lot more contact with fans from the North Region -- who don't have to contend with MUC until the "regional" play is over.

People here, including Pat, want to call me a nay-sayer and rabble-rouser about a lot of things -- but in reality, if you really pay attention to what I write on here, say on the radio and discuss with my football friends, my banter focuses on one issue:  justice.  I'm not talking about legalese justice, but rather justice for 200+ teams in D3 instead of just the 10 or so "perennial performers" that seem to get about 85% of the focus every year.  That's why I'm hyper-critical of backward tiebreaker systems, flawed SoS calculations and systems, weird bracketing and poor officiating.  Right there are the four categories my banter encompassed this year.  Will things ever be perfect?  No.  However, that has never stopped me from trying to figure out better ways to do things.  I applaud the broadened playoff system adopted in the late 1990s -- I applaud the auto-qualifiers system -- But there is a lot more that needs improvement in what I consider a division of a sport that is growing well over the past 20 years. 

Maybe I take this stuff too seriously, like RT always tells me.  However, I started broadcasting for Union when Union was fighting for the final playoff slot and little things like schedule strength, officiating and bracketing mattered to Union.  There are still schools that are affected by these things more than Union -- and I'm a fan of D3 football as much as I am a Union fan.  After the last five days, though, I'm very blah about the state of this year's playoffs -- and I'm not from Washington State.  That's just one man's opinion, though.

[Pat Coleman]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

I take issue with this idea that everyone is in love with this new bracketology:

We didn't say everyone was in love with the new bracketology. Do I have to read the other 500 words of your post?

We don't expect the East Region fans to like the bracket, for some reason.

[Frank Rossi]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

I take issue with this idea that everyone is in love with this new bracketology:

We didn't say everyone was in love with the new bracketology. Do I have to read the other 500 words of your post?

We don't expect the East Region fans to like the bracket, for some reason.

Well, seeing that I read to words 142-162 to find this in K-Mac's article, maybe you could read the first half of it at least.  But, hey, it's a free country:

"This committee took full advantage, and outside of Spokane, Wash., it's a bracket that's been met with mostly positive reaction."

[Pat Coleman]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

I take issue with this idea that everyone is in love with this new bracketology:

We didn't say everyone was in love with the new bracketology. Do I have to read the other 500 words of your post?

We don't expect the East Region fans to like the bracket, for some reason.

Well, seeing that I read to words 142-162 to find this in K-Mac's article, maybe you could read the first half of it at least.  But, hey, it's a free country:

"This committee took full advantage, and outside of Spokane, Wash., it's a bracket that's been met with mostly positive reaction."

everyone is in love with this

outside of Spokane, ... mostly positive reaction

I hope you can see the difference.

[Knightstalker]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

I take issue with this idea that everyone is in love with this new bracketology:

We didn't say everyone was in love with the new bracketology. Do I have to read the other 500 words of your post?

We don't expect the East Region fans to like the bracket, for some reason.

Well, seeing that I read to words 142-162 to find this in K-Mac's article, maybe you could read the first half of it at least.  But, hey, it's a free country:

"This committee took full advantage, and outside of Spokane, Wash., it's a bracket that's been met with mostly positive reaction."

Frank, to be honest as KS was reading through posts the last few days, most do seem to be pretty happy with the brackets overall.  There are some seedings and matchups that could have been better but overall no complaints.  Whoever had Mount in their brackt was going to be unhappy but that is usual.

[Frank Rossi]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

I take issue with this idea that everyone is in love with this new bracketology:

We didn't say everyone was in love with the new bracketology. Do I have to read the other 500 words of your post?

We don't expect the East Region fans to like the bracket, for some reason.

Well, seeing that I read to words 142-162 to find this in K-Mac's article, maybe you could read the first half of it at least.  But, hey, it's a free country:

"This committee took full advantage, and outside of Spokane, Wash., it's a bracket that's been met with mostly positive reaction."

everyone is in love with this

utside of Spokane, ... mostly positive reaction

I hope you can see the difference.

It's called making a point with hyperbole...underneath the soundbyte you pulled, I explained that one out of four regions appeared to have a positive reaction -- 25% does not equal most was the point.  But at least you got to the 300th word -- I appreciate it.

[Frank Rossi]

No love for the East in the ATN.

PC even gets the last word in in his own articles... look at the surprises/dissapointments section.

I take issue with this idea that everyone is in love with this new bracketology:

We didn't say everyone was in love with the new bracketology. Do I have to read the other 500 words of your post?

We don't expect the East Region fans to like the bracket, for some reason.

Well, seeing that I read to words 142-162 to find this in K-Mac's article, maybe you could read the first half of it at least.  But, hey, it's a free country:

"This committee took full advantage, and outside of Spokane, Wash., it's a bracket that's been met with mostly positive reaction."

Frank, to be honest as KS was reading through posts the last few days, most do seem to be pretty happy with the brackets overall.  There are some seedings and matchups that could have been better but overall no complaints.  Whoever had Mount in their brackt was going to be unhappy but that is usual.

I appreciate that, KS -- although a lot of people with whom I've discussed this are fearful of its implications in future years, and not just with the Mt. Union issue.  For instance, when the four seeds are not geographically sound, will this push even weirder travel issues?  That's where my focus is right now -- not so much on Mt. Union (although it does make for the best example this year).