Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. I am a fan of almost every sport available. Whether it is baseball or basketball, football or soccer, hockey or MMA, I cannot get enough of sports. As many of you will find out, I am not an English or journalism major nor do I own a dictionary or thesaurus, I am just a regular guy that happens to be a big fan of all athletic competition. I will use this forum to spell out what I like and don't like, what works and what needs to be fixed, as well as predictions and my analysis on what has already happened. I welcome your comments and emails. I will try to comment back and respond to as many emails as I can based on the volume and what free time I have. My goal is to post 2-3 blogs per week, time permitting. There is my pitiful attempt at an introduction, so lets get started.
For my first rant, lets talk about the debate over college football having a playoff system or staying with the current bowl system.
I don't think the debate should be there is only one or the other, I think there should be both. I think the first think that needs to be done is reduce the number of bowl games by making it a requirement that at team must have a winning record. There is no reason to subject the TV audience to a bad game by two 6-6 teams from conferences that no one has heard of. If you are not 7-5 or better, enjoy your holidays with your family and watch some teams the deserve to play an extra game.
Second, use the bowl games as your playoff opening round games. I think 8 teams in the playoff is more than enough. No matter how may teams you take, someone is always going to be left out. This way, you can use your four major bowl games that are now called the BCS games (Orange, Rose, Fiesta, and Sugar Bowls) as your national quarterfinal games. These should be played January 1st or 2nd, two each day would allow for maximum viewership. All other bowls must be played on or before December 31 so as not to take away from the "importance" of the playoffs. Play the semifinals the following week at neutral NFL stadiums of teams that have been elimination from there playoffs to make sure it is an equal playing field for both teams in each game to have a shot to make it to the finals. I say this specifically due to the lack of a neutral field that seems to happen in the Rose, Sugar, and Orange Bowls. USC plays selected home games at the Rose Bowl, so how is it a neutral field from them to play Penn State. Same goes for LSU and the Sugar Bowl and either Miami, FL or Florida State at the Orange Bowl. Playing this game a week later should not be any problem since all Division I-AA (I refuse to call it FCS), II, and III all have one week to make new travel arrangements for the next game when their team wins so the Division I-A teams should be able to do the same.
And last, work with the NFL to make a Championship Weekend. Have the NCAA National Championship game the Friday night before the Super Bowl. The game should be held in the major bowl game stadium closest to where the Super Bowl is being help. So as an example, the NFL is playing at Arizona this year, so the National Champs will be crowned at the Fiesta Bowl. This gives the kids a few weeks to heal and prepare for the title game, not a month and a half. Also, they will be close to home for the beginning of the spring semester. Also, this gives the media plenty of time to hype the game. The real winners are the fans. A true champion is crowned on the field, plus there is enough time and a small enough travel distance for the diehards to still try to find a ticket to the Super Bowl too.
So all and all, the bowls stay relevant, the student-athletes don't suffer on the student part, the schools presidents still get the extra money they are afraid to lose by going to just a playoff system, the media can still hype the championships until they are blue in the face, and most importantly the fans get what they want, a true National Champion decided on the field and not by a computer.
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Good post. Well, its good enough to make me take time out of my BUSY BUSY schedule to post a comment :)
ReplyDeleteJust 2 differences in opinion.....
I hate the idea of a 6-6 team making a bowl (sorry UK), but I also think that a 7-5 team doesn't make a bowl game much more exciting. For example, if you use this years numbers, getting rid of the 6-6 teams reduces the number of bowl eligible teams from 68 to 62. Now I know this would never happen (due to marketing and PR for the insignificant bowl sponsors), but why not make it a requirement to win 8 games (in that case, only 44 teams become eligible). Thus, only the BEST teams make a bowl, making all of the bowls exciting to watch. Plus, you get rid of the "Bubba Gump Shrimp Redneck Bowl" that no one watches anyways. Unfortunately though, I think that money and marketing will make it impossible to even eliminate 6-6 teams from bowls, so I'll continue to ignore them.
A playoff is a great idea. But why limit it to 8 teams....
1. 16 teams would make the bowl playoff process more enjoyable.
2. You're always gonna have those undefeated non BCS teams that are ranked in the 7-11 range purely because their SOS wont allow them to be ranked higher. I know you cant please everyone, but it becomes a lose-lose situation if you either leave out any 12-0 non-BCS teams, or you leave out an 11-1 or 10-2 team from a major conference. A 16 team playoff would certainly eliminate this.
Heres how I would do it if I were king....
1. Make it a requirement to win at least 10 games (there were 15 teams who won double digit games this year).
2. If you dont have enough teams based on that, then go to your rankings/BCS rating system to complete the playoffs. If you have too many, then use those figures to pick the 16 best teams.
3. Based on geography, and/or a selection committee of sorts, you get the teams who will play for the right to play in the Fiesta/Rose/Orange/Sugar bowls... then the process goes on just like you explained in your blog.
4. I HATE the college football philosophy that teams should be rewarded more for play later in the season. As in basketball, the WHOLE body of work should matter more. Consistency in NCAA football should matter all the more since the season and number of games is so short. If you have to eliminate teams from the playoffs, base it on the whole body of work, and not just the final few games. If its only the final few games that matter, then why even play games in September or October (thats my biggest beef with the BCS championship game this year as it stands.... but thats a discussion for another day). In this case, a 12-0 Utah team could be eliminated in place of an 11-1 BCS team. But I suspect that a 16 team playoff would include all deserving teams.
One last point (I promise). College football is just as important to most as basketball. So we should make it so that football postseason is as exciting as the big dance. Teams play games during mid-week all the time, and winter break is a long period. I dont buy this crap that a football playoff would interfere with school. Do it all during the break, and if teams are willing to play during the holidays, then let them. Hell, the basketball big dance goes on for several weeks while students are STILL in school. Let football players and fans get as much out of the post-season as they allow basketball players/fans to do so.
Hey cool, a blog! Well, I don't that much about sports, but keep up the rantin'-it's fun.
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