Check Your Mayan Calendars

Another sure sign of the apocalypse as Webster College steals a coach and transfers from Texas Tech this week.

That's right, the private school in St. Louis decided to buy themselves a Final Four caliber . . . . . chess team.

The Chronicle relays the word from The New York Times of this high-level coup.

Where to go with this one. Tech lost the Pirate, now the Queen. Tech gets Tuberville but can't afford to keep Polgar.

On a more serious note, this reflects a belief I have held about high-level anything. If a school chooses to put its assets disproportionately into any one area, who's business is it anyway? No one is going to "go after" Webster for this move, no NCAA of castling. If a college wants to pay ridiculously high scholarship amounts for the finest cellist, no one bats an eye.

If you want a 500-page media guide, oh no, heavens, end of the world, we must level the playing field, we must make things even.

Why that would let the Arkansas and Oklahomas of the world dominate. OK.

Harvard could care less.

If UConn wants to sink millions into catching Tennessee in women's basketball, that's their choice. If Arkansas spends more on track and field than whole smaller conferences, again, it is their desired specialty.

Who questions the amount of money Oklahoma spends on their weather programs at a time of an absolute glut of meteorology graduates (check it out, the top employer of them -- the National Weather Service -- is about to have a hiring freeze, cuts and eliminate internship programs).

For that matter, Texas Tech is huge in Vietnam history. Again, that is their choice to have that institute.

And if Webster wants to check and mate by checkbook, good luck.