My favorite time of the year has officially arrived. College football season is by far and away the greatest sporting time of any year, with only one possible competitor in the college basketball tournament.
Unfortunately, with college football season comes a couple of my biggest annoyances as well. I have decided to write in hopes of putting an end to these, or at least vent my frustrations with them.
First of all, can we please stop the hype...or overhype rather? I understand that college football is perhaps the most exciting sporting season there is, but the hype for some of these games is pure insanity. Yes, the Ohio State vs. Southern Cal game deserved plenty of hype. Seeing as Ohio State is one of the few major teams to schedule at least one big challenge each season in non-conference play (look it up: Texas in '05 and '06, USC in '08 and '09, and upcoming home and home series with Miami of Florida, Virginia Tech, and Oklahoma), we are bound to see a couple of very high ranked opponents face eachother each season.
But come game time, all I wanted was for the game to be over because I had heard it analyzed and reanalyzed from every possible angle by the crack writers on Fox Sports and the even worse analysts on ESPN. ESPN even had a countdown the whole week before on their bottom line. Sure, feel free to look at the game, and get excited about it. But we absolutely do not need to know a player by player breakdown of every possible scenario in the game. It's just extreme overkill.
Another problem I have with college football season is the SEC's fans. We get it, the conference is clearly the top conference in college football. No one is arguing that. But SEC fans seem to think that the whole world is disputing it and actually putting the SEC down.
No one is putting the SEC down. We all agree that it is the best conference. But we are trying to put you in your place. Fans of the SEC seem to think that even their bottom-feeder teams of Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt should be included in the national title picture along with the other nine teams in the conference. And they all love to say that Ohio State and USC would suffer at least two losses if they played the tough SEC slate that LSU, Florida, and Georgia have to play.
*Newsflash* Two losses would put Ohio State and USC at the same record as those top SEC schools. Get a grip and humble yourselves.
On a sidenote: Try leaving the south a little more often. I loved the statistic that Brent Musberger (sp?) threw out there during the UGA/Arizona State game, that that night was only the second time since the 60's that UGA had played a game on the western side of the Mississippi River. Beating up on Florida Atlantic, Florida International, and South East Arkansas State School for the Blind, Dumb, and #### (yes, being #### is perceived as a disability in the south) before playing eachother in conference is hardly a tough schedule.
Next on my list: Could the Associated Press please stop putting out a poll? The AP poll has absolutely nothing to do with anything. It's just a bunch of writers who obviously have too much time on their hands and feel the need to stir up some controversy. So they put together a poll (that su####iously seems to mirror the coaches poll by the way) to make fans cry about their team being disrespected or about another team being overrated. Plain and simple, unless you want to do the right thing and rejoin the BCS system, then stop publishing your poll. Not to belittle anyone here, but it means nothing.
And lastly, drop it on constantly saying Ohio State and USC are overrated. Yes, I am an Ohio State fan and will be my whole life. And yes, in 2006 they were obviously overrated. But apparently the coaches, media, and anyone else who publishes a poll sees something, because even after two straight national title game (yeah, when did it become an embarassment to make it to the big game two years in a row?) losses, they continuously are ranked at least in the top 15 (top five this season) year after year.
Additionally, lets cut USC some slack as well. Yes, they were beaten last night by a very lackluster Oregon State team. But everyone loses a game they are supposed to win every once in awhile. My, how we have forgotten how Florida lost to a mediocre Michigan team (from the Little Ten as they like to call it) they should have blown out last season, or how Georgia lost to a pathetic Tennessee team last season, or how the national champions LSU lost not only to a vastly overrated Kentucky team last season, but also to a mediocre Arkansas team in the season finale. Everyone loses. This means that eventually, everyone is overrated at some point...except the SEC. When they lose, it's because they play such a tough conference schedule. Whatever.
There's a trend that has been picking up steam ever since the release of Jose Canseco's book Juiced. The trend that I am referring to is the trend of Congress sticking it's nose in both professional and collegiate sports...both places it doesn't belong.
Since Congress has developed this interest in sports, it has wasted millions of dollars and weeks of time looking into sports and trying to find ways to "fix" them. The problem with this is that Congress has achieved nothing in its failed attempts at cleaning up the various sports.
For example, Major League Baseball has a steroids problem. That has been quite obvious from the massive increase in batting statistics over the past five to ten years. While MLB did nothing to correct this issue (and rightfully so..."Chicks dig the long ball"), Congress made a futile attempt at cleaning up the game (at Bud Selig's request). All that came of that attempt was a mile long list of names that may or may not have used steroids. Those names were mostly provided by a man who was facing thirty years of prison if he didn't cooperate with the investigators. Not exactly the most reliable of sources.
And what has happened to baseball as a result of Congress' time and money? Absolutely nothing. Attendance numbers are right on par with (if not exceeding) previous attendance numbers.
Way to go Congress.
How about college football? Three representatives from the House want Congress to take a look at the bowl system and are pushing for a playoff. Nevermind the fact that these three representatives are from the states of Hawaii, Georgia, and Idaho...the home states of the three schools that feel they were jilted by the BCS. This is a big deal for these guys. They think that a college football playoff is the biggest issue in our country right now.
But even if Congress is swayed enough to waste time on such a moronic topic (compared to the other issues our country is facing), nothing will come of it. Nothing.
Congress needs to take a hint, or several, and start focusing on the real issues. How about we focus on getting our soldiers out of Iraq and Afghanistan. How about we focus on our fledgeling healthcare system, or the incredibly high gas prices. These are the issues that Congress needs to take a look at. Not sports.
College football fans all over the country (if the country were only the state of Georgia) are crying for a Division 1 college football playoff. Of course Georgia is pleading for a playoff because they weren't included in this season's national championship game. If they were included, it is extremely doubtful that anyone would hear a word out of UGA president, Michael Adams. But he has now taken it upon himself to push for this playoff, saying that the BCS has become a beauty contest and that it is in the best interest of college football's integrity to implement a playoff system.
But here's your problem with a playoff system: a playoff does not crown the best team in the country. It crowns the hottest team in the country.
Think about it. Midway through UGA's schedule this year, did anyone view UGA as one of the top teams in the country? The correct answer is no. They were 4-2 at this point with a loss to South Carolina and a drubbing at the hands of Tennessee. But then the Dawgs got hot...really hot. And they ran off six straight wins against the likes of national powerhouses Vanderbilt, Troy (as in Alabama, not Troy as in Southern Cal), and Kentucky. They were then pitted against a wildly overmatched Hawaii team that stood very little chance at even putting up a fight against a mainland team from a BCS conference.
Or how about we look at the other white hot team in college football: USC. Six games into their schedule, not a single person with any knowledge of college football thought of the Trojans when thinking about the national title picture, and rightfully so. They had lost to a 41 point underdog in Stanford...AT the Coliseum. And to add insult to injury, they lost again three weeks later to Oregon in Eugene. But the Men of Troy turned it around, running off four straight against less than spectacular opponents and got a Rose Bowl bid to play Illinois, another team that had no business being in a BCS game.
There is no doubt that if there was a playoff, UGA and USC would be the odds on favorites to win it all. But neither of these teams was the best team in the nation. They were just the hottest teams in the nation.
Despite the national hatred for the BCS, it does its job. Since its inception, there has been only two instances where the team emerging as the winner could legitimately be disputed. In 1998, Tennessee was the best team out there. The same can be said for Florida State (1999), Oklahoma (2000), Miami (2001), Ohio State (2002), USC (2005), Florida (2006), and LSU (2007). Things got a little messy in 2003 and 2004, but for the most part, the BCS has gotten it right.
And while some teams obviously did not belong in the extraneous bowl games (i.e. Hawaii, Illinois, and Kansas), the BCS got the championship game right. It may not have been the most exciting game of the season, but Ohio State and LSU were the best teams when looking at the entire body of work, not just the second half of the year (or in USC's situation, the last four weeks of the year).
The only allure to a playoff is some of the matchups that can be worked out. Take this year: if you took the BCS conference champions, and two remaining highest ranked teams from the BCS rankings, the first round would look like this:
1. Ohio State vs. 8. West Virginia 4. Oklahoma vs. 5. UGA 3. Virginia Tech vs. 6. Missouri 2. LSU vs. 7. USC
There are some monster matchups there with the potential for even bigger second round matchups. But you also run the risk of a team running the table that is not the best team in the country. That is what the purpose of the postseason is: to determine the undisputed best team in the country.
When it comes down to it, a playoff just doesn't do that.
