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| "Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey...Joke-Maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now. Save yourself the embarrassment of losing with these losers..." |
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| Get it?! HAHA Like the great Splinter of TMNT once said, "I made a funny!" |
Now would be a pretty good time to assess the BCS and just
the overall bowl system in Division I football.
All the non-BCS BCS Championship Games have been played even though one
would argue the Kansas State – Arkansas Cotton Bowl on Friday Night is better
than the Orange or the Sugar Bowl that we just witnessed the past couple of
nights. There are now 35 bowl games that
range between mid December only 2 weeks after most schools seasons end to
nearly mid January. 35 games equals 70
schools. Last time I checked there are
120 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) schools TOTAL. That means 58% of schools get a bowl
game. The requirement is simply get to 6
wins and you are eligible. Most teams
play 12 games (13 if qualified for conference championship).
I’m all for inclusion and rewarding student-athletes for
their hard work but doesn’t that seem kind of insane? Congrats for going 6-6, you get to play on
New Year’s Day on National Television!
Even worse are the names of these bowls.
Why some of these even exist is beyond me. I understand the sponsorship attachment but
why the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, Pinstripe, Famous Idaho Potato, Franklin American
Mortgage Music City, Meineke Car Care of Texas, BBVA Compass, or GoDaddy.com
bowl games? At a certain point, these
games become meaningless. I fear we have
reached that point.
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| Seriously, you're putting the whole news team in jeopardy...bears |
I love the bowl games, don’t get me wrong. I hope we never lose them. There’s something special about them. I just hope we don’t get to a point where we
just say, “screw it, let them all in, the TV ratings are just too good not to
have them all play!” That of course
leads into what I hear most people clamoring for: a playoff.
This can be tricky. The NCAA (a
story in of itself for another time, hypocrites…) doesn’t want their
student-athletes playing anymore games then they really need to or keep the season
going pass the already near mid-January games being played. However, it does surprise me they just gave
their best sport over to a system and do not even give out their own
championship trophy. It’s like the NCAA should be more involved in
this discussion but I kind of don’t want them to be because the NCAA is a
joke.
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| The NCAA and ESPN are definitely gay with each other |
So what can be done?
It is really difficult to determine the right answer. I will give you my thoughts about a proposed
playoff system fitting under the current BCS system. As more and more conferences expand, it seems
eventually certain conferences may even disappear. In keeping with the BCS, you finish the
season with the top 12 teams. If we ever
get a few of these super conferences, a conference tie in to qualifying for the
playoffs seems pointless. You join the
conference to play against better competition so you are better prepared for
your last games. 12 is a nice number
because it will include at least one non-BCS school in most years, sometimes
two or multiple. This past season it
will have only included Boise State but Houston and TCU both were only 1 win
away from being in the conversation.
Final 2011 BCS Standings (before Bowl games)
1 LSU 13-0 2 Alabama 11-1
3 Oklahoma State 11-1
4 Stanford 11-1
5 Oregon 11-2
6 Arkansas 10-2
7 Boise State 11-1
8 Kansas State 10-2
9 South Carolina 10-2
10 Wisconsin 11-2
11 Virginia Tech 11-2
12 Baylor 9-3
Here is my proposed bracket:
·
Top 4 teams receive Bye’s in first round (LSU,
Alabama, Oklahoma State, and Stanford)
o
No. 5 Oregon plays No. 12 Baylor – SHOOTOUT!
o
No. 6 Arkansas plays No. 11 Virginia Tech
o
No. 7 Boise State plays No. 10 Wisconsin
o
No. 8 Kansas State plays No. 9 South Carolina
·
In the second round in which each of the BCS
Bowl games would host (Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar)
o
No. 1 LSU vs. No. 8/9 winner
o
No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 7/10 winner
o
No. 3 Oklahoma State vs. No. 6/11 winner
o
No. 4 Stanford vs. No. 5/12 winner
·
In the semi-finals (for arguments sake, let’s do
the top seeds from here on out)
o
No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Stanford
o
No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Oklahoma State
·
Finals
o
No. 1 LSU vs. No. 2 Alabama
That looks pretty fun in my opinion. Of course, if you are lower ranked team and
run the table with a conference championship game under your belt, you would
finish the season having played 17 games.
However, most teams would only play just 1-2 extra games. I think this is a real possibility. The initial round would take place the second
weekend of December. Army/Navy game
should probably get a clue and be like the rest of the teams and finish on
time. The second round would take place
the following weekend where the top 4 teams are now included. In the calendar, there would be a week break
for Christmas then the games would be picked back up the following week for New
Year’s (semi-finals) then that Monday (Jan. 9, 2012 this year) would still be
the championship date. Ideally these
games would be played on Saturdays to keep it uniform but during the holidays, these
games will draw no matter what, so day may not matter much.
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| I nailed this...like a boss |
While I think this is a great idea, the biggest drawback, of
course, is the BCS itself. The rankings
determine this and schools will be left out.
This scenario shows Michigan and West Virginia not making it even though
they just won the Sugar and Orange Bowls, respectively. The Big East doesn’t even have a
representative at all and the Big 10 only has one. However, just like with the NCAA Basketball
tournament, teams won’t get in. To be
brutally honest, 12 teams are arguably too much. You can make a pretty good argument that you
should just match up LSU vs. Boise/Stanford and then Alabama with Oklahoma
State and just play a quick 2 round playoff.
But seriously, where is the fun in that?
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| Let's make college fun because it disappears after Draft Day for these kids |
To bring everything full circle, it would be easy to play these playoffs while playing the other bowl games. I highly encourage it. And now ladies and gents, I leave you with this...WWTD?
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| I just Tebowed in my pants! HEYYYOOOOOO |
