Lumberjack Job Security Coming to an End?

Thanks to Bruce Madej, my Uncle Tony can't afford pants.

As I was reading last week's Sports Illustrated, I came across an article about Roberto Nelson.

Yeah, I didn't know he was, either. It turns out he's a 4-star shooting guard from Santa Barbara who committed to Oregon State in the class of 2009.

Anyway, SI asked Nelson to collect all the recruiting mail he received so a reporter could analyze it afterward. Of the 2,161 pieces of mail he received, only 9.3% of it was personalized for Nelson specifically. Those pieces of mail weighed in at 135 lbs. and Nelson barely paid any attention to it.

The reporter then took that mail to a paper expert, who determined how much waste would be produced if every recruit received the same amount of mail as Nelson. The statistics were amazing:

- It would consume 220 tons of wood, a.k.a. 1,526 trees

- It would produce greenhouse emissions equal to what 39 cars pump out each year and use enough energy to power 32 houses for a year

- It would produce 167,034 lbs. of waste (or six garbage truckloads), and 1,423,939 gallons of wastewater (or two swimming pools)

Keep in mind that those statistics are only for the 347 Division I basketball programs; they don't include the 119 FBS football teams, who can offer up to 25 scholarships per year (as opposed to basketball, which offers only a few per class).

Michigan and assistant athletic director Bruce Madej receive mention in the story for being forerunners in the campaign to eliminate the printing of media guides, which can be 208 pages long.