<
EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Joshua Gillin
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
I
Our
VIEW
Do unto
others .
• Northeast next in line
for storm relief
At the end of October, an unwelcome blan
ket of white suffocated Lincoln- and Omaha
area residents.
The snow’s weight felled tree limbs that
ripped power lines from their poles and hov
ered menacingly over our pathways.
For days, no electricity flowed to our
schools and businesses. No heat warmed our
homes.
Then, when we felt most hopeless, help
arrived. It poured from countless emergency
workers and volunteers who refused sleep to
finish disaster cleanup.
Many of these volunteers traveled hun
dreds of miles from their homes and families to
give us the help we so desperately needed.
Others donated blood or financial assistance to
help disaster victims they would never meet.
Today a similar disaster in the northeast
United States and eastern Canada calls upon us
to return the shower of good will poured upon
us last fall.
According to CNN Interactive and ABC
NEWS.com, deadly ice storms wrecked much
of the Northeast last week, ripping down trees
and power lines.
Late Sunday, 11 deaths in Canada had been
blamed on the storm.
More than 3.6 million homes remained
without electricity, including 3 million in
Canada and 500,000 in Maine. Many New
Hampshire, New York and Vermont residents
also suffered without electricity or clean run
ning water. ' l
At the same time, rising temperatures
caused huge chunks of ice to fall from trees,
homes and other buildings.
Officials called the scene a “war zone.”
Nebraskans, too, know how it feels to wake
up one morning in a “war zone.”
We remember our first, precarious steps
from our homes Oct. 26 that allowed our eyes
to scan our broken neighborhoods.
Here, in the tough-skinned Midwest, we
can sympathize.
And, though we are far away, we can help.
* The American Red Cross is accepting
donations to help fund disaster relief for ice
storm victims.
Those wishing to donate can contact the
Lancaster County Chapter of the American
Red Cross at (402) 441-7997, then request
their donation be earmarked to help ice storm
victims. The organization promises 92 cents of
every donated dollar goes directly to victims.
Information on donating and volunteer
opportunities also can be found via the
American Red Cross’s national phone line: 1
800-HELP-NOW.
During a phone call to a New Hampshire
American Red Cross chapter Sunday, the
Daily Nebraskan told one staff member
Nebraskans might identify with storm victims
and offer support
“Oh, wonderful. That would be wonder
ful,” came the response. “Thank you.”
• :---:-1
Cartoonist’s
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VIEW
Winter of discontent
Wolverines feel cheated by championship outcome
The Michigan Daily
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Mich. (U-Wire) - It
seems people can find flaw even in
perfection.
< But one team wasn’t going to
get its way. One team was going to
feel slighted and be disappointed.
One team was going to get screwed.
So maybe this is the best way to
do it, the most fair of two unfair
options, where neither team gets the
whole cake to itself, but still has a
.nice hunk of it sitting in front of
them.
Michigan won its first national
championship in 49 years when
sports writers from the Associated^
Press voted the Wolverines No. 1
after an intense, if not convincing,
win over a No. 8 Washington State
team in the Rose Bowl. But only 20
minutes after the party began, it
came to a screeching halt - or at
least suffered a temporary stoppage
- when the USA Today/ESP*
coaches poll was released mm .
Wolverines were surprisingly listed
at No. 2, four tiny points behind
Nebraska, which smacked
Tennessee, 42-17, in the Orange
Bowl.
Michigan must now both cele
brate and endure college football’s
third split national championship
since 1990.
And while Nebraska is certainly
a great team, and losing out in the
coaches’ poll does not diminish
what has been a spectacular season
for these Wolverines, Michigan got
the raw end of the deal in one of the
most absurd turnarounds in polling
smakers have made them e seven
heavy- i
e
No No. 1 team has ever won a
bowl game and slipped in the rank
ings, and Michigan shouldn’t have
either. Teams should not lose votes
because they don’t cover the spread,
or because of low margins of victo
ry. _> ;
“Stop right there!” someone
cries; That’s exactly how the
Wolverines overtook Nebraska in
the first place. Wrong again. There
is a huge difference between the two
situations.
Teams should lose votes for
playing poor and undisciplined
football, whether they win or lose.
Nebraska played poorly and strug
gled against a mediocre football
team, needing overtime and a
miraculous catch, which was in fact
illegal, to beat Missouri - a game it
should have lost. Michigan stomped
all over then-No. 1 Penn State, 34-8,
to rightfully stake its claim as the
besjt team in the country.
50, wmie Micnigan only beat
Washington State by five points, it
played very well, limiting the
Cougars’ high-octane offense to just
16 points, 24 under their average,
arid this was a game Michigan
deserved to win. Meanwhile,
Nebraska whipped a solid but over
rated Tennessee ballclub 42-17 by
keeping its starters in well into the
fourth quarter, when the Volunteers
were playing backups, and shame
lessly campaigning for retiree
Coach Tom Osborne
one more piece of history
Nebraska is a terrific team, i
needed a couple of sentimental vot
ers to help its cause. (Voting
es have known Osborne Tor 25
years. They’ve only known Lloyd
certainly didn’t end his career
gain votes, to think the announce
ment didn’t sway some members of
die coaching fraternity would be
naive
Ana wnue the Wolverines lost
out by two first-place to the
Comhuskers in the coacnes’ oolL
This is an obvious attempt to
sabotage Michigan’s chances at a
national championship. And while
the polls’ outcome did not depend
on these two points, it very well
could have, discrediting what has
long been considered the less presti
gious of the two polls.
Some coaches said it didn’t mat
ter that Nebraska ran up the score,
but that the Big Ten’s poor showing
in bowl games made Michigan’s
uudefeated record seem a little less
impressive. While the Big Ten did
n’t fare very well in bowl games,
Michigan’s schedule was still one of
the toughest in the country. The
Wolverines had just one easy game
- a 38-3 win over Baylor, who was
also on Nebraska’s schedule. There
are no days off in the Big Ten like
there are in the Big 12, and
Comhusker victories over Division
II schools Akron and Central
Florida should be taken with a grain
of salt.
While there aren t any excuses
for the Big Ten’s poor bowl show
ing, each Big Ten team that lost
played a higher-ranked team, while
both that didn’t - Michigan and
Purdue - won. It would be a shame
to think that had Curtis Enis and Joe
Jurevicius played and Penn State
beat Florida, die Wolverines would
be undisputed national champions.
As for who would win a siugfest
between Michigan and Nebraska,
who knows? The answer is nobody.
And while some of us think the
Huskers would walk all oyer
Michigan and others think the
Wolverines would shut Nebraska
up, it is idiotic to guess and then
b no bawoJ gntod
r Maybe thesed\fo teams deserve
to split the title, since they can’t
slug it out oa the field. But if the
tables were turned, and the
Cornhuskers led in both polls
before Jan. 1, do you really think
Michigan would now have a share
of the national chamoionshic?
