Can We Just Make the BCS Title Game a Court Observed Holiday? For the SEC at Least?

The BCS National Title game pits the LSU Tigers against the Alabama Crimson Tide. The game takes place on Monday, January 9th.

It is unlikely that any work will be done in the states of Louisiana or Alabama on January 9th. Here are the dates for the next few BCS title games. It is unlikely that any work will be done in at least one state who has a school in the Southeast Conference.

SEC schools play for national championships in part because SEC fans take football so damn seriously. It’s not just a sport down there — it’s more like SEC fans cling to their guns and religion because they never know when either will help their team win a football game.

Why expect them to come to work on National Championship day? Or court? It’s just cruel. It’s regionalist. It just means we’re going to have slews of motions to continue like this one from an LSU fan who happens to be a lawyer in his spare time….

SEC lawyers have a long and storied tradition of asking to be excused from court duties because of football related conflicts. There was the epic motion to continue filed by a Crimson Tide supporter back when ‘Bama was last in the championship game. And of course when the New Orleans Saints went to the Super Bowl.

Now we’ve got Louisiana and Alabama meeting in a national title game. If you don’t live in those states, you’ll be watching English Premiere League soccer or some other contest where people are likely to score, but if you do live in those states it’s a really big deal. Way bigger than your “job.” Hell, most people in those states only have a job so if the schools play for a national title they can afford to go to the game or watch it on an expensive television.

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All joking aside, there are serious personal reasons why you shouldn’t have a trial on January 9th in SEC country. Reasons that attorney Anthony Staines made clear before LSU was even officially in the game:

And there are honest to God professional reasons. There’s not a person in Louisiana that’s going to want to sit on a jury on the day of the game. And if you could find such a person, he or she would be some kind of strange swamp person who probably shouldn’t be a juror in the first place:

You can click here for the full motion.

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This keeps happening. Every year, an SEC school plays for the national championship; every year professionals from those schools have to bend over backwards to manage work conflicts with the football game.

So let’s just cancel work on game day? Look, most football games are played on the weekends precisely so they don’t bump up against people’s work schedules. I don’t know why they play the national championship on Mondays (they play the Super Bowl on Sunday), but they do, and it’s not like you can talk reason with the BCS people. So let’s give everybody in the SEC the championship game off.

Look, it’s not like Northwestern is going to play for the national title. It’s not like the 9th Circuit is going to shut down if a Pac-12 school makes the championship game. Fans of other conferences just don’t take the sport as seriously.

Californians don’t have to work on Oscar night. New Yorkers don’t have to work when they suspend trading. People in Alabama, and Louisiana, and Georgia, and Florida, and Arkansas, and Mississippi, and South Carolina, and Tennessee, and I guess technically Kentucky (screw you Missouri), shouldn’t have to work on national championship day.

It’s their thing. They support it. They pay for the best players in all the land. Let them enjoy it without all the hassle.

Earlier: Best. Motion to Continue. Ever.
Who Dat Needs A Continuance?