And the circus clown that is football coach Bobby Petrino is at it again. I have say, that if you are in the sports media business you have to LOVE this guy! Bobby Petrino gives you more fodder for copy than just about any high-profile coach today. And that is saying something, compared to the "colorful" characters and ethical fiber of guys like Nick Saban and Kelvin Sampson. When your actions make THOSE guys look good by comparison, you have begun setting a new high-water mark. This guy is more of a "drama queen" for the sports news than Britney Spears is for the paparazzi!
Petrino's abrubt and surprising resignation from the Atlanta Falcons just days after being given a large vote of confidence and show of support from Falcon's owner Arthur Blank, shows just how egocentric and fragile this guy's self-esteem really is.
No doubt that Petrino was given a very tough hand a few months after becoming the Falcon's HC. First the whole Vick fiasco which took away the best offensive weapon the Falcon's had; short-handed on NFL talent, then injuries then dissension and finally just outright mutiny by the players, left Petrino with absolutely nothing to work with.
But to leave the team under cover of deception with still 3 games remaining is FAR worse for Petrino, than it would have been had he tried to stick it out and finish the season. The reason is that without question, Petrino will now be labeled as a "quitter". And rightfully so. He quit the franchise, the fans, the players and most importantly, his boss who had faith in him. That is inexcusable, and Petrino's days as an NFL HC are completely ended, IMHO. What owner would take a chance on him now?
I have very little doubt, based on Petrino's past dalliances that he always wanted to be an SEC HC. To be literally worshiped by a rabid fan base that regardless of your ethics will not care what you as HC, or your players do, as long as you win. And win BIG!
If you do not think that being an HC in the SEC was Petrino's REALL "dream", then here are some very real past clues.
1) The first year as HC for UL, Petrino had a "secret" meeting with Auburn university to replace CURRENT HC, and his former boss Tommy Tuberville as Auburn's HC.
2) When the Auburn deal fell through, Petrino tried turning Louisville into "Auburn north", but instituting several pre-game ceremonies that Auburn had as their traditions. Hence the implementation of the now known, "Card March", which was based on Auburn pre-game walk by the players into the stadium.
3) The well publicized dance with LSU when Nick Saban scoffed and ran to the NFL Miami Dolphins.
There were indications from day one about his desire to be an SEC HC. But to walk away from the NFL, not only when he did, but HOW he did, just screams of a guy that has absolutely no clue about life, and has not only an over-inflated opinion of himself, but is a coward to boot.
Make no mistake, Bobby Petrino is a very, very good football offensive mind. And he WILL succeed at Arkansas, and his teams will be very strong and efficient. However, he has now proven to be something that no other HC has thought about being. A "quitter".
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
A different alternative to the BCS debacle....
A couple of days ago I wrote that I believe there is a REAL solution to the entire BCS/post-season bowl/regular season integrity debate. But before laying that out, I wanted to lay out the two sides of the debate about the whole issue of the BCS vs Playoff.
We all know the arguments for and against a playoff format. BCS proponents talk about retaining the integrity of the bowl system, about how the regular season IS the playoffs, and post season debate about who should be playing in the championship game keeps the sport front page sporting news. The university presidents talk about how the preparation and games in a playoff would hurt the students academics and artificially lengthen their seasons. Playoff proponents talk about how the current system is unjust, and does not reflect any type of true winner, and how the system is designed to be all about conferences gobbling up as much as they can in dollars from the bowl system to create incredible financial gaps between the "haves" and "have nots".
We know all of those, we have heard all SORTS of comprising solutions. But one. And that one is not even MY idea. It comes from, of all sources, the ORIGINATOR of the whole BCS system, and the orchestrator of the SEC's dominance of post-season bowl berths. None other than Roy Kramer.
His idea was that the whole concept of Division I-A football, (NOW stupidly called the Football Bowl Subdivision, (FBS)), had two major flaws.
At first thought you might think, HELL NO! No WAY that would work. So did I....at first. But the more I thought about it, the more I not only liked the idea, (no, I LOVED the idea), and I began to figure out how such a machine might work, keeping in mind such things as traditional rivalries, traditional affiliations, post-season bowl games, regular season integrity and importance, length of regular season, other sports (like basketball and other olympic sports, although by no means does this mean that the schools MUST participate in equally distributed sports offerings, nor even necessarily mean that schools that do not participate in certain sports be forced out or in), and even how the makeup of this conference might change if a school is failing in such areas as minimum attendance figures, academic progress, even probation or NCAA sanctions for impropriety acts by a member institution.
To keep things as brief as possible for this blog entry, I will only deal today with the top-level issue. What that conference makeup might look like, how it might work, and how it is setup and managed. The other issues I will deal with either if there is enough interest, or maybe bring this whole issue back up during the "dog days" of summer.
For now, here is a first pass at how this "Super-80" conference would be structured.
The conference could be setup with 8 regions with 2 divisions per region and 5 schools/teams in each division. This sets up the members for not only a very balanced scheduling pattern, but also a very flexible one, even more so than they have today. And in every way, puts MORE emphasis on the importance of the regular season, than it does on the post season actually. Which you will see in a moment. (Although, I have thought about 10 regions of 8 teams with 2 divisions, that has interesting dynamics also.)
First, how does the scheduling work? With each region being split into 8 regions with 10 teams each, in sports such as football, every school in that region would play each other for a total of 9 "regional" football games, and then 3 "out of region" football dates to schedule. In each region, and at the end of the regular season, the two top teams in each "division" of each "region" would play in "regional" championship game, (not a bowl game, but like the conference championship games today that the ACC, SEC and B-12 have), to determine the 8 "regional" champions. Those 8 "regional" champions then would play in 4 major bowl games, (in this case, the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange) bowls; keeping in mind the "integrity" of the bowl games and their traditions. (For example, in the new makeup, two of the new "regions" could be made up almost entirely of the existing members from both the PAC-10 and the Big-10 and those two regional winners would ALWAYS play in the Rose bowl.)
Now, here is the interesting part. We literally COULD end things right there and actually go BACK to the old pre-BCS way of determining the national champions. That being by using the AP and/or Coach's poll for the champion. What is interesting about that, is that the ONLY controversy then would be who of the top 4 is the #1 team in the nation. And if at some point down the road, this "Super 80 conference" decided it WANTED to play two more games to determine the national champion in football, it could do so. A two game playoff, is FAR more easy to put in place and attain "buy in" than any other type of compromise situation.
But what about the money distribution and the other post-season bowl games? What about all of those other bowl games out there, who plays in those? You could STILL have those! BUT, ALL of the money from every bowl game that the Super-80 conference plays in, all gets pooled into a pot and distributed to all members in the conference, with bonus to those teams that are top 16, top 8 and top 4 at the end of the bowl post-season. (again, this is too long to discuss in this one blog, so we can do that some other time.)
But what about the other "money" sports like basketball? Ah, even MORE cool, IMHO than football. With 10 teams in each region, basketball would play a true "round-robin" 18 game regional schedule, and then follow a post-season playoff format to determine the Super-80 conference champion. (Guess what? This just might end up being bigger than the NCAA tournament, even though you could STILL play that. And the money would stay in the conference.) But again, another discussion too long for this single blog entry.
So, what would this Super-80 conference look like? What schools would make up that conference? As I noted, some of the schools might be in flux, but here is my take on one possible makeup of schools, while trying to retain as MANY of the "traditional" rivalries and geographical interest as possible. (you may have to scroll down quite a bit to see the table, because this blog forum does not handle html table tags very well. My apologies.)
Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the discussion. And I only wanted to put this out there for posterity and comment. There are MANY questions and considerations about such a proposal, and believe me, since I first heard about this over 10 years ago, I have thought of a lot of them, and thought through them. As this blog goes forward, I will try to come back to this topic, if there is interest, and address those. For now, that's the idea.
We all know the arguments for and against a playoff format. BCS proponents talk about retaining the integrity of the bowl system, about how the regular season IS the playoffs, and post season debate about who should be playing in the championship game keeps the sport front page sporting news. The university presidents talk about how the preparation and games in a playoff would hurt the students academics and artificially lengthen their seasons. Playoff proponents talk about how the current system is unjust, and does not reflect any type of true winner, and how the system is designed to be all about conferences gobbling up as much as they can in dollars from the bowl system to create incredible financial gaps between the "haves" and "have nots".
We know all of those, we have heard all SORTS of comprising solutions. But one. And that one is not even MY idea. It comes from, of all sources, the ORIGINATOR of the whole BCS system, and the orchestrator of the SEC's dominance of post-season bowl berths. None other than Roy Kramer.
His idea was that the whole concept of Division I-A football, (NOW stupidly called the Football Bowl Subdivision, (FBS)), had two major flaws.
- It was divisive among the 'top' power conferences causing them to not work together
- It was incredibly TOO large
At first thought you might think, HELL NO! No WAY that would work. So did I....at first. But the more I thought about it, the more I not only liked the idea, (no, I LOVED the idea), and I began to figure out how such a machine might work, keeping in mind such things as traditional rivalries, traditional affiliations, post-season bowl games, regular season integrity and importance, length of regular season, other sports (like basketball and other olympic sports, although by no means does this mean that the schools MUST participate in equally distributed sports offerings, nor even necessarily mean that schools that do not participate in certain sports be forced out or in), and even how the makeup of this conference might change if a school is failing in such areas as minimum attendance figures, academic progress, even probation or NCAA sanctions for impropriety acts by a member institution.
To keep things as brief as possible for this blog entry, I will only deal today with the top-level issue. What that conference makeup might look like, how it might work, and how it is setup and managed. The other issues I will deal with either if there is enough interest, or maybe bring this whole issue back up during the "dog days" of summer.
For now, here is a first pass at how this "Super-80" conference would be structured.
The conference could be setup with 8 regions with 2 divisions per region and 5 schools/teams in each division. This sets up the members for not only a very balanced scheduling pattern, but also a very flexible one, even more so than they have today. And in every way, puts MORE emphasis on the importance of the regular season, than it does on the post season actually. Which you will see in a moment. (Although, I have thought about 10 regions of 8 teams with 2 divisions, that has interesting dynamics also.)
First, how does the scheduling work? With each region being split into 8 regions with 10 teams each, in sports such as football, every school in that region would play each other for a total of 9 "regional" football games, and then 3 "out of region" football dates to schedule. In each region, and at the end of the regular season, the two top teams in each "division" of each "region" would play in "regional" championship game, (not a bowl game, but like the conference championship games today that the ACC, SEC and B-12 have), to determine the 8 "regional" champions. Those 8 "regional" champions then would play in 4 major bowl games, (in this case, the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange) bowls; keeping in mind the "integrity" of the bowl games and their traditions. (For example, in the new makeup, two of the new "regions" could be made up almost entirely of the existing members from both the PAC-10 and the Big-10 and those two regional winners would ALWAYS play in the Rose bowl.)
Now, here is the interesting part. We literally COULD end things right there and actually go BACK to the old pre-BCS way of determining the national champions. That being by using the AP and/or Coach's poll for the champion. What is interesting about that, is that the ONLY controversy then would be who of the top 4 is the #1 team in the nation. And if at some point down the road, this "Super 80 conference" decided it WANTED to play two more games to determine the national champion in football, it could do so. A two game playoff, is FAR more easy to put in place and attain "buy in" than any other type of compromise situation.
But what about the money distribution and the other post-season bowl games? What about all of those other bowl games out there, who plays in those? You could STILL have those! BUT, ALL of the money from every bowl game that the Super-80 conference plays in, all gets pooled into a pot and distributed to all members in the conference, with bonus to those teams that are top 16, top 8 and top 4 at the end of the bowl post-season. (again, this is too long to discuss in this one blog, so we can do that some other time.)
But what about the other "money" sports like basketball? Ah, even MORE cool, IMHO than football. With 10 teams in each region, basketball would play a true "round-robin" 18 game regional schedule, and then follow a post-season playoff format to determine the Super-80 conference champion. (Guess what? This just might end up being bigger than the NCAA tournament, even though you could STILL play that. And the money would stay in the conference.) But again, another discussion too long for this single blog entry.
So, what would this Super-80 conference look like? What schools would make up that conference? As I noted, some of the schools might be in flux, but here is my take on one possible makeup of schools, while trying to retain as MANY of the "traditional" rivalries and geographical interest as possible. (you may have to scroll down quite a bit to see the table, because this blog forum does not handle html table tags very well. My apologies.)
| Region One | Region Two | Region Three | Region Four |
| A Division | A Division | A Division | A Division |
| Syracuse | Memphis | UNC | Miami |
| Boston College | Louisville | Duke | South Florida |
| Notre Dame | Tennessee | Wake Forest | Central Florida |
| Navy | Kentucky | East Carolina | FSU |
| Rutgers | Vanderbilt | NC State | Florida |
| B Division | B Division | B Division | B Division |
| Virgina Tech | West Virginia | Clemson | Auburn |
| Maryland | Marshall | S. Carolina | Alabama |
| Army | Cincinnati | Georgia Tech | Ole Miss |
| Virginia | Penn State | Georgia | Miss State |
| UConn | Pittsburgh | MTSU/WKU | Southern Miss |
| Next four regions | |||
| Region Five | Region Six | Region Seven | Region Eight |
| A Division | A Division | A Division | A Division |
| Indiana | Iowa | Texas | Washington |
| Purdue | Iowa St. | Texas Tech | Washington St. |
| Ohio State | Kansas | Texas A&M | Oregon |
| Michigan | Kansas St. | TCU | Oregon St. |
| Michigan St. | Nebraska | Houston | Stanford |
| B Division | B Division | B Division | B Division |
| Illinois | Oklahoma | Colorado | Southern Cal |
| Northwestern | Oklahoma St. | Colorado St. | UCLA |
| Wisconsin | Arkansas | BYU | Arizona |
| Minnesota | LSU | Utah | Arizona St. |
| Missouri | Tulane | Air Force | California |
Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the discussion. And I only wanted to put this out there for posterity and comment. There are MANY questions and considerations about such a proposal, and believe me, since I first heard about this over 10 years ago, I have thought of a lot of them, and thought through them. As this blog goes forward, I will try to come back to this topic, if there is interest, and address those. For now, that's the idea.
Detroit Tigers team to beat in AL Central in 08?
As if the AL Central was not ALREADY tough enough, the Detroit Tigers just upped the ante on both the Twins and the Indians.
1 season removed from their World Series appearance, the Tigers completed a HUGE deal with the Marlins in an 8 player trade that will not only put them solidly as the #1 favorite to win the AL Central next season, but also will give Tigers fans a major reason to expect to contend for both the AL pennant and the possibly a World Series championship.
The Tigers trade deal included sending very talented Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller, along with 4 other prospects to Florida in exchange for BOTH left-handed hard throwing Donte' Willis and power hitter Miquel Cabrera who led the Marlins last year in HR's, (34), and was 2nd on the team in batting percentage, (.320).
The Red Sox are taking their time though in looking to acquire Santana from the Twins. If the Twins lose Santana, the Twins, IMHO, will have no shot at even getting 2nd place in the AL Central, much less winning it. But if the BoSox get Santana, and after re-signing Mike Lowell, you have to think that the Sox are the odds-on favorite to win the AL, even if the Tigers make a serious run at them.
The Dodgers just scored big in their quest for the NL West title by picking up Andru Jones from the Atlanta Braves. This will be a huge shot in the arm for a club that hand good pitching but suffered down the stretch to get runs across the plate with runners in scoring position.
1 season removed from their World Series appearance, the Tigers completed a HUGE deal with the Marlins in an 8 player trade that will not only put them solidly as the #1 favorite to win the AL Central next season, but also will give Tigers fans a major reason to expect to contend for both the AL pennant and the possibly a World Series championship.
The Tigers trade deal included sending very talented Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller, along with 4 other prospects to Florida in exchange for BOTH left-handed hard throwing Donte' Willis and power hitter Miquel Cabrera who led the Marlins last year in HR's, (34), and was 2nd on the team in batting percentage, (.320).
The Red Sox are taking their time though in looking to acquire Santana from the Twins. If the Twins lose Santana, the Twins, IMHO, will have no shot at even getting 2nd place in the AL Central, much less winning it. But if the BoSox get Santana, and after re-signing Mike Lowell, you have to think that the Sox are the odds-on favorite to win the AL, even if the Tigers make a serious run at them.
The Dodgers just scored big in their quest for the NL West title by picking up Andru Jones from the Atlanta Braves. This will be a huge shot in the arm for a club that hand good pitching but suffered down the stretch to get runs across the plate with runners in scoring position.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
BCS bowls...what to watch, and not watch.....
I admit it...I am a college football junkie. I am sure there are many of you out there. With the regular season behind us, and no games this weekend, I am sure many of us want to rend clothing, cry, and anything we can do as an excuse from going to the mall. Yes, is that time of year that is the most stress-filled part of our collective American culture and existence. I am talking about the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years holidays.
Yes, that time of year when all thoughts turn to....alcohol, sugar and caffeine. When you put large groups of people you hardly know into small spaces, get them all honked up on a buzzed laced, sugar rush, drunk high and expect them to get along. Like THAT is gonna happen......NOT! That type of comaraderie ONLY happens in the confines of your home team's stadium.
BUT, we have a solution fellow junkies! We do NOT need a self-help group. Why? Because we have 32 post-season bowl games to get us through. We can take refuge in our "man cave's" and bask in the warm glow of TV radiation, while we blissfully listen to the sound of bone crushing hits and QB's that bark out signals the way that a mall shopper does when grabbing that last Elmo. BTW, it is perfectly legitimate to be a woman and have a "man cave" for sports. I know several that do. Man cave's are gender neutral, but they all must have the same ambiance to them. You know what I mean. That dank, dark, musty smell that can only come from socks and spilled beer. It just gives you that "warm, fuzzy" feeling. Of course that could be just mold....but I digress.
Having said all of that though, I have to say, in all my 30 years of watching post season bowl games, NONE of them leave me as flat and disinterested as the BCS championship game this year. LSU vs Ohio State. Color me UN-impressed and completely bored.
There is no interest there are at all for me. And even though that game will be the only spoting event played on a Monday night in January, I will probably not watch it. Oh, I'll look up the stats and the score the next day, feign surprise about the winner and shock about the poor officiating. But the bottom line is, I just simply could NOT care less about that game. It is not even in my top 5 bowl games to watch this season. Maybe not in the top 10!
But there are a few that are absolutely "must watch" games, IMHO. As we get closer to the start of the games, I will add some detail, but for now, here are a few that I will NOT be missing regardless.
1) Hawai'i vs Georgia. This is going to be a VERY fun game. As good as UGa is, the speed of the Rainbow Warriors and that oddball passing attack will not be stopped. This game could be the highest scoring game of the post-season bowls. I expect this will be a video game score. And a LOT of fun to watch.
2) UCF vs Miss State. If you have not seen the RB for UCF this season, then you have missed something special. Kevin Smith is not only the leading rusher AND the leading scorer in the nation, but also now holds the all-time rushing yards in a season. The kid is just a phenom, and the best player you have never heard of. Too bad the Heisman voters have never heard of him either.
3) Southern Miss vs Cincinnati. This is a personal favorite of mine this season. It might not be a great game, but a great story. Two old conference foes going back at it in a bowl game.
4) Indiana vs Oklahoma State. How can this NOT be a 'must watch' game. With all that this IU team has struggled with to get to 7 wins and reach a bowl game, which was the goal of their coach who passed away over the summer, and their adopted 'MOM', who is their coach's widow. This may be the best "story" bowl game to watch.
5) Utah vs Navy. The big interest here is that with UL looking for a DC, one of the possible candidates for that position could be the Utes DC, Gary Anderson. And wouldn't that be interesting seeing as he is basically 2-0 vs Kragthorpe, as well as having beaten UL at PJCS this season.
I have other matchups and games to go over, but I am running out of time right now. I'll review some games in depth as they get closer. Like that Dec 20th matchup between Utah and Navy.
Yes, that time of year when all thoughts turn to....alcohol, sugar and caffeine. When you put large groups of people you hardly know into small spaces, get them all honked up on a buzzed laced, sugar rush, drunk high and expect them to get along. Like THAT is gonna happen......NOT! That type of comaraderie ONLY happens in the confines of your home team's stadium.
BUT, we have a solution fellow junkies! We do NOT need a self-help group. Why? Because we have 32 post-season bowl games to get us through. We can take refuge in our "man cave's" and bask in the warm glow of TV radiation, while we blissfully listen to the sound of bone crushing hits and QB's that bark out signals the way that a mall shopper does when grabbing that last Elmo. BTW, it is perfectly legitimate to be a woman and have a "man cave" for sports. I know several that do. Man cave's are gender neutral, but they all must have the same ambiance to them. You know what I mean. That dank, dark, musty smell that can only come from socks and spilled beer. It just gives you that "warm, fuzzy" feeling. Of course that could be just mold....but I digress.
Having said all of that though, I have to say, in all my 30 years of watching post season bowl games, NONE of them leave me as flat and disinterested as the BCS championship game this year. LSU vs Ohio State. Color me UN-impressed and completely bored.
There is no interest there are at all for me. And even though that game will be the only spoting event played on a Monday night in January, I will probably not watch it. Oh, I'll look up the stats and the score the next day, feign surprise about the winner and shock about the poor officiating. But the bottom line is, I just simply could NOT care less about that game. It is not even in my top 5 bowl games to watch this season. Maybe not in the top 10!
But there are a few that are absolutely "must watch" games, IMHO. As we get closer to the start of the games, I will add some detail, but for now, here are a few that I will NOT be missing regardless.
1) Hawai'i vs Georgia. This is going to be a VERY fun game. As good as UGa is, the speed of the Rainbow Warriors and that oddball passing attack will not be stopped. This game could be the highest scoring game of the post-season bowls. I expect this will be a video game score. And a LOT of fun to watch.
2) UCF vs Miss State. If you have not seen the RB for UCF this season, then you have missed something special. Kevin Smith is not only the leading rusher AND the leading scorer in the nation, but also now holds the all-time rushing yards in a season. The kid is just a phenom, and the best player you have never heard of. Too bad the Heisman voters have never heard of him either.
3) Southern Miss vs Cincinnati. This is a personal favorite of mine this season. It might not be a great game, but a great story. Two old conference foes going back at it in a bowl game.
4) Indiana vs Oklahoma State. How can this NOT be a 'must watch' game. With all that this IU team has struggled with to get to 7 wins and reach a bowl game, which was the goal of their coach who passed away over the summer, and their adopted 'MOM', who is their coach's widow. This may be the best "story" bowl game to watch.
5) Utah vs Navy. The big interest here is that with UL looking for a DC, one of the possible candidates for that position could be the Utes DC, Gary Anderson. And wouldn't that be interesting seeing as he is basically 2-0 vs Kragthorpe, as well as having beaten UL at PJCS this season.
I have other matchups and games to go over, but I am running out of time right now. I'll review some games in depth as they get closer. Like that Dec 20th matchup between Utah and Navy.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
the Big East busts, and the BCS should be next
We now have the THE perfect storm and the perfect nightmare for the BCS folks. We went into this week with no teams from the top 6 conferences being undefeated, however, no one was questioning the legitimacy of the teams sitting in the top two spots. Missouri and WVU. But with both of those teams losing, one getting throttled by a very good Oklahoma team for the second time in the season and the other pulling one of the greatest choke jobs you will ever see; the BCS standings and who plays for the BCS championship is completely turned upside down.
First, let's talk about WVU and their loss. WVU losing to Pitt did more to hurt the Big East than they did to themselves. WVU will still go to a BCS bowl game, and will likely be able to put themselves back on track and win that game. But the damage they did the Big East by losing to Pitt, IN MORGANTOWN, after being a 4 TD favorite and on national TV, will once again bring back all of the talk about the Big East not being "deserving" of an automatic bid to BCS games. All of those detractors will start coming out of the woodwork again. It was not even important that WVU WIN the BCS champ game, but to GET to it would have completely solidified and legitimzed the BE as both deserving and as a conference that truly is one of the elite. If you want proof of that, look to the ACC where since the expansion there, all but ONE season two former Big East teams have played for the ACC title. And this year was no exception. Former Big East teams have completely DOMINATED the ACC since that expansion, proving just how tough the Big East truly was....and still is. But that will not get noticed.
As for the BCS nightmare, well, the biggest single problem(s), they have are the two teams sitting the #4 and #5 spots in the Nov 25th BCS poll. Those two teams are Georgia and Kansas. With both Mizzou and WVU losing, ONE of those teams will almost positively move into that BCS #2 spot. Not by virtue of what they did on the field, but by what someone else did not do. But that alone is not the issue. The issue is, how can a team play for the BCS championship game, when NEITHER of those two teams were "good enough" to even attempt to play for their CONFERENCE championship, much less win their conference.
But here is the REAL problem that the "playoff proponents" have and that the BCS apologist always point to. In a playoff system it is ALSO possible that a non-conference champion could be playing for a national title. Unless, of course, you only include the conference champs. But then you have as big a mess as before, with bickering as to one conference being "deserving" while another one is not. I do think there is a solution to this, but it would not make ANYONE happy. And believe it or not the orchestator of the BCS, Kramer, is the one that had the answer, IMHO. A SINGLE 80 team conference. I will put a blog entry up about that some day. But for now, just know that a playoff would not solve this dilemma entirely. To prove that, look at the FCS, (formerly Div I-AA), championships where 3 of the top #1 seeds are out of the playoffs, and are NOT competing for the FCS title.
That is the BCS nightmare they have to face. The problem is, can Va Tech, who is the ACC champ, and sitting in the #6 spot of the BCS, over take both Georgia and Kansas to play for the BCS champ title? At least that way with Ohio State and Va-Tech, you would have two teams that WON their conferences!
If the BCS puts either Georgia or Kansas in the BCS title game, we will hear the biggest uproar for some type of playoff system than we have ever heard before. Not to mention it will be a DOG of a TV game to watch. Who would watch it, other than the fans of those teams?
Add to that, that the AP poll will almost 100% assuredly pick a different team as the #1 team in the nation and we will once again, have a split national championship. Something that the BCS was created to alleviate.
This season is the biggest nightmare for the BCS since it was created. And now the BCS apologists are going to have to come up with yet ANOTHER "tweak" to the system to try and make it work.
First, let's talk about WVU and their loss. WVU losing to Pitt did more to hurt the Big East than they did to themselves. WVU will still go to a BCS bowl game, and will likely be able to put themselves back on track and win that game. But the damage they did the Big East by losing to Pitt, IN MORGANTOWN, after being a 4 TD favorite and on national TV, will once again bring back all of the talk about the Big East not being "deserving" of an automatic bid to BCS games. All of those detractors will start coming out of the woodwork again. It was not even important that WVU WIN the BCS champ game, but to GET to it would have completely solidified and legitimzed the BE as both deserving and as a conference that truly is one of the elite. If you want proof of that, look to the ACC where since the expansion there, all but ONE season two former Big East teams have played for the ACC title. And this year was no exception. Former Big East teams have completely DOMINATED the ACC since that expansion, proving just how tough the Big East truly was....and still is. But that will not get noticed.
As for the BCS nightmare, well, the biggest single problem(s), they have are the two teams sitting the #4 and #5 spots in the Nov 25th BCS poll. Those two teams are Georgia and Kansas. With both Mizzou and WVU losing, ONE of those teams will almost positively move into that BCS #2 spot. Not by virtue of what they did on the field, but by what someone else did not do. But that alone is not the issue. The issue is, how can a team play for the BCS championship game, when NEITHER of those two teams were "good enough" to even attempt to play for their CONFERENCE championship, much less win their conference.
But here is the REAL problem that the "playoff proponents" have and that the BCS apologist always point to. In a playoff system it is ALSO possible that a non-conference champion could be playing for a national title. Unless, of course, you only include the conference champs. But then you have as big a mess as before, with bickering as to one conference being "deserving" while another one is not. I do think there is a solution to this, but it would not make ANYONE happy. And believe it or not the orchestator of the BCS, Kramer, is the one that had the answer, IMHO. A SINGLE 80 team conference. I will put a blog entry up about that some day. But for now, just know that a playoff would not solve this dilemma entirely. To prove that, look at the FCS, (formerly Div I-AA), championships where 3 of the top #1 seeds are out of the playoffs, and are NOT competing for the FCS title.
That is the BCS nightmare they have to face. The problem is, can Va Tech, who is the ACC champ, and sitting in the #6 spot of the BCS, over take both Georgia and Kansas to play for the BCS champ title? At least that way with Ohio State and Va-Tech, you would have two teams that WON their conferences!
If the BCS puts either Georgia or Kansas in the BCS title game, we will hear the biggest uproar for some type of playoff system than we have ever heard before. Not to mention it will be a DOG of a TV game to watch. Who would watch it, other than the fans of those teams?
Add to that, that the AP poll will almost 100% assuredly pick a different team as the #1 team in the nation and we will once again, have a split national championship. Something that the BCS was created to alleviate.
This season is the biggest nightmare for the BCS since it was created. And now the BCS apologists are going to have to come up with yet ANOTHER "tweak" to the system to try and make it work.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
the real tragedy of Sean Taylor....
This article does not have much to do with anything related to local sports in and around the Louisville area. However, there is a very sad lesson to be learned from the Sean Taylor tragedy that needs to be discussed.
If you had followed the career of Sean Taylor you know about the trouble he has had not just in the years growing up in some very rough areas of Miami, FL; but also even the problems the surrounded him when he had reached the pinnacle of his success to play a sport at the highest level in the NFL. To sum up in a very quick form, Taylor had problems in the NFL almost from day 1. Some of those issues were minor - such as skipping out on the NFL's rookie symposium, for which he was fined $25,000. There was also a $17,000 fine for spitting at Tampa Bay's Michael Pittman during a playoff game two years ago.
The most serious incident occurred in June 2005, when he was arrested and charged with felony assault after authorities said he pointed a gun at three men outside a house in West Perrine, a rough neighborhood south of Miami, and accused them of stealing two all-terrain vehicles from him.
After a plea bargain, which put him on probation and included community service and charitable gift donations, he still was not the model citizen.
The real change in Taylor's behavior came after the birth of his daughter. That single event changed him in ways that only that event could have. After the birth of his child, he did become the model citizen, both on and off the field. He became humble in his off-field dealings with the media and his coaches. Joe Gibbs, (Head Coach for the Washington Redskins), once said to media, that Taylor would cradle the baby in his arms as he carried her into Redskin Park and "you just knew how much that baby meant to him. I could see (that) maturing process (that happens) when you get a first child."
In the 2006 season, (the same year his daughter was born in May of that year), not only did Taylor's demeanor and attitude change, but also his level of play jumped up. That season he not only was named the Redskin's Defensive player of the year, but also made and played in the NFL Pro Bowl. He also started distancing himself from some very bad, and criminal "friends" that he had known growing up. This was a clear indication that he was changing, and for the better. During some Pro-Bowl game interview, Taylor was quoted as saying:
"I just take this job very seriously. It's almost like you play a kid's game for a king's ransom. And if you don't take it serious enough, eventually one day you're going to say, 'Oh, I could have done this; I could have done that.'
"So I just say, 'I'm healthy right now, I'm going into my fourth year and why not do the best that I can?' And that's whatever it is, whether it's eating right or training myself right, whether it's studying harder - whatever I can do to better myself."
At the time, media people claimed he was "downplaying" the importance of the Pro Bowl. Personally, I think he was putting football and his career in the right perspective.
The real tragedy of Sean Taylor's death is that he will never get to see the one factor in his life that was his turning point to his own maturation ever again. His daughter.
If you had followed the career of Sean Taylor you know about the trouble he has had not just in the years growing up in some very rough areas of Miami, FL; but also even the problems the surrounded him when he had reached the pinnacle of his success to play a sport at the highest level in the NFL. To sum up in a very quick form, Taylor had problems in the NFL almost from day 1. Some of those issues were minor - such as skipping out on the NFL's rookie symposium, for which he was fined $25,000. There was also a $17,000 fine for spitting at Tampa Bay's Michael Pittman during a playoff game two years ago.
The most serious incident occurred in June 2005, when he was arrested and charged with felony assault after authorities said he pointed a gun at three men outside a house in West Perrine, a rough neighborhood south of Miami, and accused them of stealing two all-terrain vehicles from him.
After a plea bargain, which put him on probation and included community service and charitable gift donations, he still was not the model citizen.
The real change in Taylor's behavior came after the birth of his daughter. That single event changed him in ways that only that event could have. After the birth of his child, he did become the model citizen, both on and off the field. He became humble in his off-field dealings with the media and his coaches. Joe Gibbs, (Head Coach for the Washington Redskins), once said to media, that Taylor would cradle the baby in his arms as he carried her into Redskin Park and "you just knew how much that baby meant to him. I could see (that) maturing process (that happens) when you get a first child."
In the 2006 season, (the same year his daughter was born in May of that year), not only did Taylor's demeanor and attitude change, but also his level of play jumped up. That season he not only was named the Redskin's Defensive player of the year, but also made and played in the NFL Pro Bowl. He also started distancing himself from some very bad, and criminal "friends" that he had known growing up. This was a clear indication that he was changing, and for the better. During some Pro-Bowl game interview, Taylor was quoted as saying:
"I just take this job very seriously. It's almost like you play a kid's game for a king's ransom. And if you don't take it serious enough, eventually one day you're going to say, 'Oh, I could have done this; I could have done that.'
"So I just say, 'I'm healthy right now, I'm going into my fourth year and why not do the best that I can?' And that's whatever it is, whether it's eating right or training myself right, whether it's studying harder - whatever I can do to better myself."
At the time, media people claimed he was "downplaying" the importance of the Pro Bowl. Personally, I think he was putting football and his career in the right perspective.
The real tragedy of Sean Taylor's death is that he will never get to see the one factor in his life that was his turning point to his own maturation ever again. His daughter.
Monday, November 19, 2007
TV sports giving the "shaft" to fans
This past weekend, for the third time this season, UL broadcast its weekly football game on ESPNU. That in and of itself is not worth noting. But what is worth noting is that in the Louisville area, only 10% of all households actually get ESPNU as an option on their cable TV service offered by Insight Communications. That does not include the satellite TV people, however, because I could not find out those numbers.
I happen to be one of the 90% that does not get this channel. Why? Because, quite frankly, it is stupid for me to pay a monthly charge for digital TV service and then an additional monthly charge on top of that, all in addition to my current monthly cable bill, expressly JUST to get a single channel. No matter HOW bad I want to watch the game. Or in this specific instance, the 3 games a year I want to watch.
This all started me thinking about how in recent years, sports TV broadcasting has really started screwing the "Top Row Joe" sports fan. And it is NOT just restricted to ESPN only.
As a result I started doing some research to see just how bad this problem really was and to see if it was just me that was being unfair. When I came across this article written by a CNNMoney columnist.
Cable's Fight with NFL, Big 10 leave fans in the dark
If you read the linked article the author does a wonderful job of outlining just how insidious the two sides are about your viewing dollar. And this will only get worse. More and more we will see big business entities like the NFL and NCAA conferences venture into the area of media broadcasting. And that will put more and more fans into the streets, (literally), trying to find a venue to watch their teams or favorite sports.
But as the article points out, there actually IS a solution, IF the cable companies and the sports businesses want to work it out. That being what MLB did with the cable companies and worked out a joint venture partnership, where the cable companies literally have ownership in the channel broadcast. And, as noted in the article, the cable companies now have a vested interest in providing that channel as part and parcel to the BASIC cable packages offered. If you do not believe that to be true, then read the article where it points out that Comcast was VERY quick to provide "free" to basic cable subscribers the "Golf Channel". (And personally I can think of NOTHING more boring that 24/7 of golf. But hey, that's just me.)
So, there is a solution. The problem is, it will likely never be decided by the cable and sports entities. It will likely be decided by Washington and the FCC. If that happens, I guarantee you that the sports fan like you and me will end up getting even more screwed in the process than we are now. And those powerful cable TV and sports lobbyists will see to that.
I happen to be one of the 90% that does not get this channel. Why? Because, quite frankly, it is stupid for me to pay a monthly charge for digital TV service and then an additional monthly charge on top of that, all in addition to my current monthly cable bill, expressly JUST to get a single channel. No matter HOW bad I want to watch the game. Or in this specific instance, the 3 games a year I want to watch.
This all started me thinking about how in recent years, sports TV broadcasting has really started screwing the "Top Row Joe" sports fan. And it is NOT just restricted to ESPN only.
As a result I started doing some research to see just how bad this problem really was and to see if it was just me that was being unfair. When I came across this article written by a CNNMoney columnist.
Cable's Fight with NFL, Big 10 leave fans in the dark
If you read the linked article the author does a wonderful job of outlining just how insidious the two sides are about your viewing dollar. And this will only get worse. More and more we will see big business entities like the NFL and NCAA conferences venture into the area of media broadcasting. And that will put more and more fans into the streets, (literally), trying to find a venue to watch their teams or favorite sports.
But as the article points out, there actually IS a solution, IF the cable companies and the sports businesses want to work it out. That being what MLB did with the cable companies and worked out a joint venture partnership, where the cable companies literally have ownership in the channel broadcast. And, as noted in the article, the cable companies now have a vested interest in providing that channel as part and parcel to the BASIC cable packages offered. If you do not believe that to be true, then read the article where it points out that Comcast was VERY quick to provide "free" to basic cable subscribers the "Golf Channel". (And personally I can think of NOTHING more boring that 24/7 of golf. But hey, that's just me.)
So, there is a solution. The problem is, it will likely never be decided by the cable and sports entities. It will likely be decided by Washington and the FCC. If that happens, I guarantee you that the sports fan like you and me will end up getting even more screwed in the process than we are now. And those powerful cable TV and sports lobbyists will see to that.
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