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Show OPINION S More benevida for DSU to become FCS sion II school and part of the Pacific West Conference, a conference named to remind you that the Pacific Ocean is located to the west. I suggest it becomes a Division I FCS school and part of the Big Sky Conference, a conference named to remind you that the sky is big, the reasons for which I will now BY LOGAN STOTT lay out for you: StottLogan Our current pool of Division II opponents are so Dixie State Universitys sports programs, in particular its football program, are hampered by uninteresting match-upa lack of revenue and dwindling interest. Its time DSU left Division II behind to become a Football Champion Subdivision school. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, is divided into three divisions, ranked in descending order of prestige and competitiveness: Division ID, the largest, least competitive division, Division II, reserved for the middle siblings of sports, and Division I, home to the biggest and baddest schools and athletics teams. Confusingly, Division I is separated into two subdivisions: Football Bowl Subdivision, home to the largest and richest schools; and FCS, home to smaller, less wealthy schools. DSU is currently a Divi s, . obscure and forgettable that their names and mascots come off as borderline comedic. We regularly face the Fort Lewis Skyhawks, seemingly named so as not to be confused with the notorious, terrifying Groundhawks of Norse legend; The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology Hardrockers and Colorado School of Mines Orediggers, their mascots likely symbolizing the only careers available to their graduates; and the Black Hills State Yellow Jackets, who share a likeness with the terrible villain from the first n movie. DSU can do better. rivalries against the dastardly Southern Utah Thunderbirds and wily Weber State Wildcats would present more attractive and memorable matchups, resulting in more interest and revenue. As an FCS school, we could even schedule bigger FBS schools like Utah State Ant-Ma- In-sta- te and BYU. Playing a powerful FBS opponent might sound like a defeat with little upside, but its actually a defeat with a lot of near-guarante- near-guarante- upside. FBS schools regularly pay money to schedule football games against FCS and nonconference teams, in what are called guarantee games. Guarantee money is no laughing matter; FCS football programs receive hundreds of thousands of dollars per game to provide FBS football g d with programs home games. Thats money we can use to fund our costly sports programs, and repair the shattered limbs of our poor, unfortunate athletes offered as sacrificial tribute to a statistically superior FBS high-rankin- much-neede- opponent. The FCS arguably has a better playoff system in place than even the FBS; the champion of the FCS subdivision is determined through a playoff, rather than a restrictive playoff like in the FBS. As far as conferences go, I would recommend we join the Big Sky Conference; it currently has 1 1 permanent members, and having 12 would sound and work better. We would be in the same conference as Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, Weber State, and Eastern Washington. You know, teams people i r 1 7 nr editorto DixieSund'xie. edu. Letters to the editor are accepted and may be published in the newspaper andor dixiesunnews. com. The guidelines for letters are as follows: Submissions should be no longerthan 250 words and must be Writers must include name, phone number and email address. Students should also include year in school, hometown and major. Letters are subject to editing for length, style and grammar. Letters consisting of inaccurate, libelous or highly offensive content will not be published. Letters should be submitted to dixiesundi-xie.edin the body of the email, not an attachment. Letters become property of Dixie Sun News and may be published in any format. Dixie Sun News en well-writte- n. u lively discussion on its website among its readers. Dixie Sun News does courages a not edit comments. However, an editor will not post any comments that are libelous or vulgar. BY STEPHEN B. ARMSTRONG Guest Columnist For much of her career, Emmylou Harris has been a Nashville fixture, crafting records filled with lyrics that read like poetry and musical arrangements that eschew the glossy g trappings and hooks of so much country music. Her songs tend to be as serious as they are emotive, many of them elegies about women and men whove gotten lost as they pursue the American dream of hapfinger-snap-pin- piness. Yet in contrast,' say, to like Tom Waits and the late Leonard Cohen, whove explored similar melancholy scenarios in their work, Harris possesses one of the most beautiful voices in popular music. And thus, while her songs often embrace somber themes, the expressive power of singer-songwrite- rs U n La-noi- s. Ach-tun- Baby. Hams has always made a point of collaborating with other musicians in the studio, and several luminaries from country and rock showed up to work with her on Wrecking Ball, among them U2s Larry Mullen, Jr., Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and Neil Young. Young actually wrote the albums title track, u 1 : J 1 y. l .j would play to the Although Dixie State University has made the leap to the RMAC, there are better conferences that universitys strengths. Playing as an FCS school instead of a FBS school would be more beneficial have actually heard of. Imagine the new nicknames the Big Sky Conference could have if we joined the dirty sky dozen, the flock of twelve, the sky guys the silly of dozenheim monikers practically write themselves. Additionally, DSU could . utilize its new and improved schedule of opponents to generate more interest with recruits looking to play in warmer climates than Cedar City or Northern Utah. Schools like Southern Utah and Boise State started at the bottom of the NCAA rung, only to move up through n her singing invariably makes us feel good. Of the 30 or so albums she has recorded since 1969, the one that may be most captivating is Wrecking Ball, which Elektra released back in 1995. Though it failed to yield any hits to speak of, Wrecking Ball did win a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Folk category. The music featured here only vaguely resembles what most of us expect from folk, however, as fuzzy electric guitars bleat through the songs like lambs on a hillside in a winter storm and drums echo over eddying swells of synthesizers arranged by producer Daniel Lanois was one of the masterminds, by the way, behind the moody atmospherics on U2s The Unforgettable Fire, The g Joshua Tree and . v, 24-tea- m YP (SACTY ST? Send letters to the ; h- a confessional about the loneliness experienced by musicians who spend so much of their lives on the road. Harris owns Youngs words, though, imbuing them with her own longings as she sings: My lifes an open book, you read it on the radio Weve got no where to hide, we got no where to go- - Most of Wrecking Ball, in fact, is comprised of songs written by other people, including Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch and Jimi Hendrix. Harris likewise transforms these songs into deeply personal works, nowhere more so, perhaps, than on Goodbye, which Steve Earle wrote. The track lilts and lopes along as Harris again laments over doomed love: I only miss you every now and then Like the soft breeze blowin up from the Caribbean Most Novembers I break down and cry. And yet, as sad as these lines are, with mournful guitars rolling like waves behind them, Harriss singing, so gentle and strong, restores in us our hopes as only great art can. Stephen B. Armstrong Maximum Rock n Roll with Katie n Steve Thursdays at noon on Radio Dixie 91.3. co-hos- ts i . the divisions to become recognized for their athletic accomplishments. If we stay a Division II school, we will be resigning to athletic mediocrity, wallowing in a pit of apathy and disinterest. But if we become an FCS school, everything could change for the better. . , |