I wonder what it’s like to be so joyless.
Author: John Paulsen (Page 362 of 937)
Bill Hancock officially began his tenure as BCS executive director this week and spoke with reporters on Thursday about the current state of college football.
Let’s go point by point…
“College football has never been better and I believe the BCS is part of that.”
This is actually a true statement, but it isn’t saying much. If something is better than asinine, does it make it good? No, it doesn’t. It makes it better than asinine. Yes, the BCS Championship Game is better than the pre-BCS system, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be drastically improved.
Hancock said the fact that other lower levels of college football use playoffs to decide their champions doesn’t mean it would work in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The second-tier of Division I football, the Championship Subdivision, has a 16-team playoff with all but the final played at home sites.
“It works at that level, I can’t deny it, but if you look attendance for those games, only Montana had decent attendance,” he said. “Many teams didn’t draw as well as they did in the regular season.”
All right, so because Hancock has some anecdotal data about lower level teams not drawing as well in the playoffs, we’re supposed to believe that home playoff games at the D1 level wouldn’t work either? Really? Like the Gators aren’t going to sell out the Swamp in the first round of an eight-team playoff? Give me a break.
This excerpt from ESPN (via the AP), Hancock throws out several debatable “facts” and says the case is closed.
Bill Hancock said a playoff at college football’s highest level would lead to more injuries, conflict with final exams, kill the bowl system and diminish the importance of the regular season.
More injuries? The current BCS system has five games. My proposed eight-team playoff would include seven games. Does Hancock really believe that the additional injury risk of two games is a valid argument against a playoff?
Kill the bowl system? The current system features a lot of lower-level bowls that feature teams that aren’t playing for a national championship. Players, coaches and fans attend these games as a celebration of a good season. How would holding a playoff affect this system in any way?
Diminish the importance of the regular season? If anything, it would increase the importance of the regular season. Under the current system, if a team loses a game it shouldn’t, it’s championship aspirations are effectively killed. With a playoff, that team would still have a fighting chance to make the postseason and compete for a title. And think about those fringe teams fighting for a playoff spot over the last couple of weeks. Every contest would become an elimination game. Under the current system, none of these teams would have an opportunity to play for a title.
Conflict with final exams? In an eight-team playoff, there are only four D1 teams in the entire country that would play more than one postseason game, and we’re worried about final exams?
Sigh.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Sources have told TMZ that the Gilbert Arenas/Javaris Crittenton incident may have been caught on tape.
We’re told the Washington Wizards have told D.C. cops they have locker room surveillance video but are having trouble downloading it. The Geek Squad — aka computer-savvy detectives — are going to the Wizards organization today to help.
And get this — a source connected with the investigation tells TMZ the Wizards have been “over cooperative” with cops — as the source says, “almost as if they want Arenas to go down.”
Why would the Wizards want to go down? Hmm. Maybe it’s the four years and $80 million remaining on his contract. If he gets into serious trouble with the law, the Wizards may be able to void his contract.
Arenas’ contract would be nullified if convicted of a felony. Instead of having a team salary of $79 million, the Wizards would sit at a far more manageable $62 million, with their largest, long-term obligation magically off the books.
Making matters worse (or maybe better, from the Wizards perspective), Arenas did not have a license for the guns (TMZ).
SI.com has more on the possibility of voiding his contract.
The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement clearly states that a contract can be voided if a player “at any time, fails, refuses, or neglects to conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship, good moral character (defined here to mean not engaging in acts of moral turpitude, whether or not such acts would constitute a crime), and good sportsmanship …” It could be argued that any criminal charges leveled against Arenas would constitute a failure in personal conduct.
I’m a little torn on this issue. Part of me would like to see the Wizards suffer for signing a player coming off of an injury to such a bloated contract. But given his lack of remorse, Arenas should pay for what he did, and if that means the franchise can erase his deal from the books, then so be it.
I like the guy’s quirkiness, but this is ridiculous.
First things first: Joe Johnson will become a free agent this summer and there’s a decent chance he’ll re-sign with the Hawks.
But he was asked (in an interview with FanHouse) about joining the Nets, and this is what he had to say:
The Atlanta star guard, bound to be a free agent next summer, was asked in an interview with FanHouse before Wednesday’s game against New Jersey if it would be more difficult to sign with a team like the 3-32 Nets due to their record. Johnson agreed it would.
“It matters, man,” Johnson said before facing a New Jersey outfit that will have more than $20 million of salary-cap room next summer. “It matters. A lot comes into play. Nobody wants to go to a tough team. But you’ve got to keep everybody in consideration.”
Johnson might be the forgotten man in a 2010 free agent class that features bigger names like LeBron, D-Wade, Bosh and Amare. While he hasn’t said that he’s leaving Atlanta, he’s talking openly about potentially signing elsewhere, so he may very well be on the move.
As for the Nets, he’d be a great fit with Devin Harris and Brook Lopez. But all stars of his caliber want to contend, and the Nets are struggling now more than they probably should. Ideally, he’d like to be the missing piece to a team that would contend for a championship, not just make the postseason.
Of course, a lot can change over the next few months. The Nets could start playing .500 ball or they could end up with the #1 pick in the draft and the rights to John Wall. That would change everything.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Charles Barkley is an Auburn alum, so he isn’t too keen on the Crimson Tide winning tonight…
“I always tell people the three saddest days of my life were the day Elvis died, the day JFK died and the day Alabama fired Mike Shula. This could be the longest year of our lives if they win. They are the worst winners in the history of civilization.”
— Charles Barkley, via al.com
Barkley goes on to predict a three-point victory for the Longhorns.
The photo is from a SI collection of iconic 76ers photos. Check out the entire collection here.
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