Tag: college football playoff (Page 7 of 8)

Top 10 Least Thankful People in Sports

November 25, 2008 / Anthony Stalter

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, RealClearSports.com ranks the top 10 least thankful people in sports.

2. Roger Clemens
Want a sure-fire way to tarnish your Hall of Fame career in a few short months? Follow the blueprint Clemens laid out for you.
First, have your name referenced 82 times in a report about steroid use in baseball. Then sue your former trainer, appear before a Congressional committee, and go under investigation about whether or not you lied under oath about using performance-enhancing drugs. After all that, have the New York Daily News report you once had a long-term affair with both Mindy McCready, who was 15 at the beginning of the relationship, and Paulette Dean Daly, the ex-wife of John Daly. And don’t forget to come across as a smug, arrogant jerk throughout it all.
5. BCS Haters
This slide could have just as easily been more broadly titled “College Football Fans.” According to the New York Times, 84% of fans want a playoff system to determine the national champion. With this level of unanimity combined with some important institutional voices — Pete Carroll, Joe Paterno and the soon-to-be leader of the free world — you might be tempted to think the BCS was doomed.
And yet, as much as ever, fans seem destined for everlasting dismay. The BCS and ESPN signed a television contact through 2014 worth $500 million over four years, meaning the BCS is too profitable to die. Moreover, it means we’ll continue to read more about the “season-long playoff” and watch a national championship determined by computers rather than play-in games.

Eighty-four percent of fans want a playoff system? Eighty-four?! So essentially the BCS is only making 16% of college football fans happy. Awesome.

Oh yeah, and Roger Clemens is a turd.

College Football, General Sports, Golf, Humor, MLB, NBA, NFL

BCS BCS sucks college football playoff John Daly Mindy McCready Roger Clemens

What would a college football playoff look like this year? (Part 2)

November 24, 2008 / John Paulsen

I debuted this feature last week, but now that another week’s worth of games are behind us, it’s wise to take another look.

First, my assumptions:

1. There will be an eight-team playoff, with the six BCS-conference champs getting an automatic bid.

2. If a conference champ is ranked lower than #15 in the rankings, they give up their automatic bid and it becomes an at-large bid. (This rule is to ensure that the regular season keeps its meaning.)

3. Seeds and at-large bids are distributed based on the current BCS standings. Certainly, these rankings can be tweaked, but they are fine for now. If an at-large team has a better BCS ranking than a conference champion, they will get a higher seed.

4. There will be three rounds of playoffs. The first round will be held at the home stadium of the higher-seeded team. The semifinals and the final will rotate amongst the four BCS cities (Miami, Pasadena, Tempe and New Orleans).

Off we go…

#8 Penn State (11-1) @ #1 Alabama (11-0)

#5 USC (9-1) @ #4 Florida (10-1)

#7 Texas Tech (10-1) @ #2 Texas (10-1)

#6 Utah (12-0) @ #3 Oklahoma (10-1)

In this case, since likely conference champions #16 Cincinnati (Big East), #17 Oregon State (Pac-10) and #20 Florida State (ACC) are not in the top 15 of the BCS rankings (and are therefore not one of the “elite” teams in the country), they give up their automatic berths.

Compared to last week, with the institution of the “Top 15 Rule,” Cincinnati would no longer get a berth, but since the Bearcats are at #16 and still have two games to play, they could still finish in the top 15. Right now, Texas Tech would be the first at-large team to lose its spot, and given the drubbing they took this weekend, that makes sense.

With Cincy no longer qualifying, #6 Utah moved into the playoffs. Undefeated Boise State is currently ranked #9 in both human polls and the BCS rankings. Their computer ranking (.630) just doesn’t measure up to Tech’s (.890).

Other than Boise State, the teams that are on the outside looking in — #10 Ohio State, #11 Georgia, #12 Oklahoma State, #13 Missouri and #14 TCU — all have losses to teams that made the playoffs, so the regular season still matters, despite what the pro-BCS crowd says.

So, how does it look?

College Football, Television

BCS apologists BCS debate BCS system college football playoff

Pro-BCS’er Jason Whitlock knows best

November 24, 2008 / John Paulsen

We took a poll last year and 90% of our readers said that the BCS should be trashed in favor of a playoff system. It takes guts (or something) to stand up against that kind of popular opinion, and Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock is the latest to take up the mantle, using President-elect Barack Obama’s pro-playoff stance as a starting point.

Like I did with similar arguments from Tim Cowlishaw and John Walters, let me respond to Whitlock point-by-point…

I realize I’m one of just a handful of American men unpleased by Obama using the weight of the presidency to pressure college presidents to disband the BCS. He knows this, too. It’s probably pretty much all he really knows about big-time college football. Fans — Republican, Democrat and Libertarian — are dissatisfied with the current system. There’s virtually no risk in bashing the BCS.

Why is that? I’m not one to argue that the majority is always right, but when 90% of the populace agrees on something, we should probably go ahead and give it a try.

President-elect Obama doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, and he diminishes his high office and invites other politicians to join him by foolishly entering a debate that has life only because “Joe the Sports Writer/Broadcaster” can’t wrap his brain around sports issues of substance.

Now Whitlock claims that anyone that is pro-playoff “can’t wrap his brain around sports issues of substance.” Mind you, he hasn’t yet made an actual point, but he is already declaring that anyone who doesn’t agree with him just simply isn’t as smart as he is.

Yeah, by lending his name to this non-issue, Obama has pleased every Bubba in America and pretty much ensured that big-time college football will continue an escalation toward professionalism and exploitation of “amateur” athletes.

Okay, here’s the big windup…

Let me quickly repeat the argument I introduced in the mid-1990s:
Division I-A college football has the greatest regular season in all team sports, and a playoff system would ruin that distinction. For decades, coaches and players focused on winning conference championships and were quite satisfied with a “mythical” national championship decided by poll voters. The advent of ESPN and sports-talk radio created the fallacy that the lack of a playoff system scars athletes, fans, women and children, contributes to global terrorism and delays Santa Claus’ delivery run on Christmas Eve.
There’s nothing wrong with college football on the field. It is America’s healthiest sport in terms of consistent entertainment value. This is not even remotely debatable.

So Whitlock’s argument is that the college football regular season is perfect as is, and that it was sports-talk radio that created a “fallacy” that the sport needs a playoff. Assuming this is correct, sports-talk radio was successful in convincing 90% of college football fans that the current system – the very system they were supposedly “fans” of – was broken. Wow, sports-talk radio must be really powerful. How often do 90% of Americans agree on anything?

He also declares that it is “not remotely debatable” to say that any other sport is as consistently entertaining as college football. I know a few million NFL fans that would beg to differ.

There’s a lot wrong with college athletics. Many football and basketball players are funneled through the system without receiving much of an education. Coaches and administrators are paid salaries that invite questionable ethics. Too many athletes arrive on campus completely unprepared to be educated and solely interested in the development of their bodies. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is out of control within most athletic departments.
These and other issues are worthy of discussion at the presidential level.
Who’s No. 1? How to set up an eight-team playoff format?
Leave that to the idiots.

This is a classic debate tool. Distract from the real issue by making points that almost everyone can agree with and then act like you’ve won the argument. Just because there are other issues to deal with in collegiate athletics, it doesn’t mean that Obama shouldn’t help to facilitate something that 90% of college football fans want to see.

He didn’t say why a playoff would ruin the regular season, he just stated that it would, as if it were a fact.

I guess that’s just one of those “sports issues of substance” that we mere mortals just can’t wrap our brains around. Jason Whitlock says he knows best, and therefore he must.

College Football, NFL

BCS apologists BCS debate BCS system college football playoff Dallas Morning News Jason Whitlock John Walters pro-BCS Tim Cowlishaw

OU crushes Tech – BCS standings turned upside down

November 23, 2008 / Anthony Stalter

In one of the most lopsided games of the 2008 college football season, No. 5 Oklahoma waxed No. 2 Texas Tech 65-21 on Saturday night, essentially proving that the Red Raiders were a tad overrated.

I loved Tech going into this game and backed them as a team that still wasn’t getting enough credit. I even bought into the small hype that they should be the No. 1 team in the nation instead of Alabama. Apparently was wrong, like, way wrong.

This wasn’t just a bad night for the Raiders – the Sooners were just flat out better in every phase of the game. It was easy to see that OU was going to put up some points. Not only is the Sooner offense one of the best in the nation under Heisman hopeful Sam Bradford (14 of 19 for 304 yards, 4 TDs), but the Tech defense is also nonexistent.

But for the Sooner defense to hold Tech to only 21 points is simply amazing. No team in the nation (besides maybe OU) was running its offense better and more efficiently than the Raiders were. And OU made Tech look like they were in their first spring practice of the year.

This obviously throws a massive kink in the BCS rankings, which is fantastic for fans that want a playoff in college football. What team is the best in the nation? Can you honestly say it’s Alabama? Can you honestly say it’s not Oklahoma? What about Texas, who, oh-by-the-way beat Oklahoma earlier this year but lost to Tech on the final play of the game. What about Florida? The Gators lost Ole’ Miss, but are playing their best football of the season right now and have a date with ‘Bama in the SEC Championship Game coming up.

The BCS is getting what it deserves with OU’s win – complete anarchy. Everything is a mess right now and their little computers don’t have a clear-cut answer (not that they ever do). A playoff would be absolutely great for a season like this.

College Football

Alabama Crimson Tide BCS polls BCS Standings college football playoff Florida Gators Oklahoma Sooners Ole Miss Sam Bradford SEC Championship Game Texas Longhorns Texas Tech Red Raiders

What would a college football playoff look like this year?

November 18, 2008 / John Paulsen

First, my assumptions…

There will be an eight-team playoff, with the six BCS-conference champs getting an automatic bid. If a conference champ has three or more losses on the season, they give up their automatic bid and it becomes an at-large bid.

Seeds and at-large bids are distributed based on the current BCS standings. Certainly, these standings can be tweaked, but they are fine for now. If an at-large team has a better BCS ranking than a conference champion, they will get a higher seed.

There will be three rounds of playoffs. The first round will be held at the home stadium of the higher-seeded team. The semifinals and the finals will rotate amongst the four BCS cities (Miami, Pasadena, Tempe and New Orleans).

And off we go…

#8 Cincinnati @ #1 Alabama

#5 Oklahoma @ #4 Florida

#7 Penn State @ #2 Texas Tech

#6 USC @ #3 Texas

Unfortunately, #7-ranked Utah wouldn’t make the cut because #19 Cincinnati finished with just two losses (assuming they win out, of course) and #8 Penn State won the Big Ten with just one loss. The Utes would have a shot to move up with a win over BYU along with a loss by one or more of the teams ahead of them.

There were three at-large bids (since the ACC winner had at least three losses) and those bids went to Texas, Florida and Oklahoma.

Of course, as the season winds down, the BCS rankings will stay fluid, so we’ll re-visit this potential playoff schedule once the regular season is over.

So how does it look?