But, you say, this year’s National Championship game will pit two undefeated teams (Auburn and Oregon) like it is supposed to do. Unless, of course, you have three undefeated teams. Then we have a problem.

I would suggest you might want to ask TCU – the third undefeated team at 13 - 0 – what they think of the affair. Or ask the players what they would prefer to do – to win it on the field, winner take all, or to do it in the polls. I think we all know the answer. In that regard, college football players are not much different than those college baseball or basketball players.

Sadly, what this comes down to isn’t what is right for the student-athlete. It is a simple issue of the haves and the have-nots of college football. Or, as Ohio State University president E. Gordon Gee stated, “very fine schools” (presumably Ohio State is in that category) versus “the little sisters of the poor” (TCU and Boise State as but two examples).

Yes, those are Gee’s words. They epitomize a mentality that is at the very heart of the idiotic Bowl Championship Series. And that is only scratching the surface. Look no further than Gee and his employer – the Ohio State University – to find an example of the hypocrisy behind the BCS.

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Does McKenzie’s derangement syndrome fit into a traditional patho-anatomical model? And if not, does it matter anyways?

With the derangement syndrome, we witness lasting changes in movement characteristics, strength, reflexes, and dural signs after the performance of directional preference movements. Mechanical and symptomatic responses to mechanical loading strategies, consistent with the operational definitions of McKenzie’s derangement syndrome, exist throughout the musculoskeletal system. The problem lies in providing a clear and consistent systemic or anatomical foundation to explain the phenomenon.

It is my proposal that the central nervous system may in fact provide the basis for McKenzie’s derangement syndrome, and may also provide yet another reason for MDT as a systems-based approach to musculoskeletal care.

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There was one particular road trip that stands out in my mind. It is a vivid recollection – not of the destination itself, but of the impact a few precious moments in time had on me during that trip. Funny thing is, those precious moments were in our driveway.

I think I was probably about 14 years old, maybe a little older. The dates escape me. We were just arriving in Brockville after returning from a road trip to points lost in memory. I was sitting in the back of our silver Toyota Celica. My parents always occupied the front seats – I had the back all to myself.

We had just pulled into our driveway when a song came on the radio. I distinctly remember that the first few chords stunned me. My father was just about to take the key out of the ignition and I remember asking him to keep the radio on until the end of the song.

The song? It was “Crossroads” – a live version recorded by Cream on March 10, 1968 at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. At this moment in time, I was exposed to Eric Clapton’s stunning solo in this Robert Johnson classic. I’d never heard anything like it. Crossroads. Wow. There was something absolutely magical about it.

I was floored. I realized that I had to find out just who this Robert Johnson was. What I was to discover was that nobody really knew.

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There is an intriguing perception of money and its relationship to health in our community. For many, spending more money on some item or service equates to the perception of a higher quality of service. There are some very interesting cost dynamics and perceptions that take place in health care as well.

There is a commonly-held perception that if a personal trainer or coach is more expensive, then they MUST be good. We see the same in the world of health care – the greater the cost (or the longer the waiting list), the better the provider must be. But where are the outcomes? Accountability? Results?

In most businesses, good quality work and/or service is rewarded with economic prosperity. You provide a good outcome, and you do well economically. You provide a lousy outcome (on a regular enough basis), and you are looking for a new career. But for some reason, these basic rules of capitalism (and quality) seem to change when there is any mention of “health”.

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