What happens when you give 14 self-confessed nerds three months of intensive and professional football training and then have them play a leading national league team?

Australian television network SBS is running an eight-week series focussing on a group of “self-confessed nerds” and complete football novices who will be turned “from mice into men” with the goal of playing one of the country’s strongest clubs, the Melbourne Victory. I’m not quite sure what to make of this. Knowing the Australian reputation for machismo, I wonder if this is just an excuse for sadists to watch these poor kids get knocked around. Even the nod to “winning isn’t everything” seems like a subtle dig, since the site reads “winning isn’t everything to Nerds FC” (emphasis mine).

Let’s hope this is a positive experience for them and not something akin to schoolyard bullying. Maybe the “nerds” can teach the professional players something about robotics or circuit boards or naval history. You know, for the period AFTER age and/or injuries take their toll and the pros have to find something else to do.

UPDATE: The Global Game reports on a similar project happening in Malaysia, with a show called MyTeam. And I guess we could also mention Football Icon, which aired in Britain a while back. How do we feel about all these “regular guy” football shows?

James Blake (image copyright ATPTennis.com)

Although I’d like to think that I can write well about my chosen subject here, Scott Adams (the Dilbert cartoonist) writes beautifully about a comeback that falls just short. How I wish I’d written this! (And special thanks to Neil for pointing me to this story.)

More on the 2006 Pacific Life Open Men’s Final

At this time of year, basketball fans are in a frenzy about the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, which brings together the best 64 collegiate teams in the country to play in an elimination tournament to determine the national champion. I just watched some first-round games last night.

But at hundreds of smaller schools, the frenzy is about to peak this very weekend. The Divison III Final Four is coming to its conclusion, with the semi-finals being played tonight, and the final tomorrow. This year’s final four are Illinois Wesleyan, Virginia Wesleyan, Amherst, and Wittenberg. There must be something about those Wesleyans!

My own brush with basketball greatness is that I attended Western Michigan Division III powerhouse Calvin College for a year back in the early 90s. They actually won the national championship in 1992 and 2000, but this year, were knocked out in the second round by local archrival Hope College.

List of Division III National Champions from 1975-2002