Florida International, led by new head coach Isiah Thomas, is slated to participate in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic as one of the mid-/low-majors who is supposed to take a beating at the hands of a BCS school in their home arena before heading off to play other non-BCS schools.  The problem is, Zeke doesn't particularly like the choice of BCS opponent the Gazelle Group has scheduled for the Golden Panthers.

According to this ESPN.com item, FIU went to the trouble of announcing that they were going to open the season at Ohio State, one of the four regional hosts for the event.  The contract the school signed with the Gazelle Group provided an either/or option, however.  When Gazelle released the field, they went with the "or," in this case, defending national champion North Carolina.   

Thomas and his athletic director, Peter Garcia (As an aside, I love wire copy that websites blindly put up without identifying the key figures.  Garcia's first name and title aren't included in the ESPN story.) are now threatening to pull FIU out of the event if they can't open in Columbus.

Some of the quotes in this story are absolutely laughable.

Gazelle Group President Rick Giles: "I would be stunned if Isiah Thomas' first act as a head coach was to break a contract." 

Chortle.  Do I really need to say anything about this?

Isiah Thomas on playing Ohio State: "Big Ten country...If at some point and time you're going to be able to compete with the big boys, you might as well jump right into the fire and get started." 

Good job, you just made the players and fans of the DEFENDING NATIONAL CHAMPIONS feel like chopped liver.  It's good to see even though the level has changed, Isiah Thomas hasn't really at all.

Here are the opponents for the four host schools.

Visiting Cal: Detroit and Murray State

Visiting UNC: FIU (maybe) and North Carolina Central

Visiting Ohio State: Alcorn State and James Madison

Visiting Syracuse: Albany and Robert Morris

I'm back, if only briefly.  Proposals are still the order of the day at the office (damn that pesky government fiscal year), and this will remain the case until I leave for a trip Chicago to see the Cubs two weeks from tonight.  Upon my return, it will be nearly football season.  That means it's time for me to start with my season preview content.  (Also known as, I do all the writing I wanted to do before real work intervened.) I also plan on doing bowl projections during the football season.

On the topic of college football, I received an e-mail in my inbox this morning that was the second time in about five minutes where I had to pick my eyes up from the floor.  That's how great and surprising the news was.  (OK, the first time wasn't so great.  The cost of a one-way car rental for my California trip made me re-think my itinerary.)  Many of you are fans of football as well, and you will be pleased to know that the GREATEST college football site on the planet will be joining the ranks of SBN soon.  Everyday Should Be Saturday, run by fellow UF alum Spencer Hall aka Orson Swindle and Holly--even if she went to Tennessee, will be on the network in the next couple of weeks.  You can read Orson's announcement here.  This news made my day, as I spent many a great Saturday hanging out in live blogs and game threads over there, and since EDSBS has been a major inspiration to me as a blogger, even if I'm not really anywhere near as funny.

Welcome aboard Spencer and Holly!  You will love it here.

In hoops news. join me after the jump for a bit on the NIT Season Tip-Off.

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I found quite a few items of note while doing my nightly search for early season event and schedule information.

• As I posted in this Fanshot a few weeks ago, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan State, and Rutgers will be the regional hosts for the Legends Classic this season.  However, the final rounds will be held in Atlantic City over Thanksgiving Weekend, NOT Newark, as was the case for the first two editions of the event.  Good to know that if I decide not to go to the 76 Classic in Anaheim this year, I have a good option not far up the road.
• Georgetown will play Washington in the Wooden Classic at the arena formerly known as the Pond in Anaheim on December 12.  It was previously announced that UCLA will play Mississippi State in the second game of the doubleheader.  According to the ESPN.com story, this is the Hoyas first game on the West Coast in eight years.
• Finally, in conference tournament news, the West Coast Conference re-upped with the Orleans Arena in Vegas through 2012, meaning the chances of me hanging with the boys from The Slipper Still Fits just jumped exponentially.

I'm typing today on my new computer.  Sure, I had only had my old computer for about two years, but it simply didn't have the speed and memory necessary to live up to Blogging the Bracket standards.  Championship Week, in particular, was a difficult time to deal with its issues while attempting to run multiple programs.  So, I released it from it's scholarship and got something with a hard drive that's three times bigger and has about three times the RAM.  This should help things out considerably.

What does this have to do with Tom Izzo and Roy Williams?  Nothing.  However, these two will be seeing each other again in the 2009 edition of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. This will be the third meeting between Michigan State and North Carolina in the space of a calendar year.

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