I love it when a plan falls apart
Oh the chaos that is college football.
Every year people complain that college football needs a playoff system, and every year the powers what be ignore the complaints, because they make way too much money on the system as it is. Every year they tell us to let the season play out and the cream will rise to the top. The maddening thing is, most of the time, they're right.
Then came this year...a year where everybody, and nobody, deserves to play in a natinal championship game. There's undefeated Hawaii, who arguably played a tougher schedule than Ohio State, yet Ohio State lost a game and is still going to play in the championship game. I'm not sure why. Hawaii is not, but not many people think they should because they come from a weaker conference. There's Oklahoma, who beat Missouri, who was ranked number one before the weekend, but nobody living outside the show me state actually believed they were the best team in the country. There's LSU, but they lost twice...and one of those losses was to Kentucky. There's Georgia, who wasn't good enough to play in their conference championship, let alone the national championship. There's USC, who lost to Stanford, and whose mascot is named after a condom. That should take them out of the mix all by itself. Ohio State is the Big Ten champion, but their schedule has been a cakewalk due to a weak Big 10 conference this year, and a non-conference schedule where I'm surprised they didn't play the youngster's high school. (I'll admit to a slight anti-Big 10 bias. I get the idea they think a whole lot more of themselves than is warranted. Before you think you're ready for a berth in a national championship game, learn to count....without your fingers.)
All the coaches from all these teams were pleading their case all weekend, and in the end, there are good reasons why each of them should play in a national championship game, and good reasons why each shouldn't. The whole thing is a mess, and I love the mess. Maybe...there ought to be some kind of playoff to sort it all out.
Then there's the other side of the argument. How important is it really, that we find out who the best college football team in the country is? After all, we're talking about a bunch of students who, for the enjoyment of the game, happen to play on Saturdays. The game is there to help enrich their academic experience. Right? How much energy do we really have to expend on figuring out who's better than who?
Every year people complain that college football needs a playoff system, and every year the powers what be ignore the complaints, because they make way too much money on the system as it is. Every year they tell us to let the season play out and the cream will rise to the top. The maddening thing is, most of the time, they're right.
Then came this year...a year where everybody, and nobody, deserves to play in a natinal championship game. There's undefeated Hawaii, who arguably played a tougher schedule than Ohio State, yet Ohio State lost a game and is still going to play in the championship game. I'm not sure why. Hawaii is not, but not many people think they should because they come from a weaker conference. There's Oklahoma, who beat Missouri, who was ranked number one before the weekend, but nobody living outside the show me state actually believed they were the best team in the country. There's LSU, but they lost twice...and one of those losses was to Kentucky. There's Georgia, who wasn't good enough to play in their conference championship, let alone the national championship. There's USC, who lost to Stanford, and whose mascot is named after a condom. That should take them out of the mix all by itself. Ohio State is the Big Ten champion, but their schedule has been a cakewalk due to a weak Big 10 conference this year, and a non-conference schedule where I'm surprised they didn't play the youngster's high school. (I'll admit to a slight anti-Big 10 bias. I get the idea they think a whole lot more of themselves than is warranted. Before you think you're ready for a berth in a national championship game, learn to count....without your fingers.)
All the coaches from all these teams were pleading their case all weekend, and in the end, there are good reasons why each of them should play in a national championship game, and good reasons why each shouldn't. The whole thing is a mess, and I love the mess. Maybe...there ought to be some kind of playoff to sort it all out.
Then there's the other side of the argument. How important is it really, that we find out who the best college football team in the country is? After all, we're talking about a bunch of students who, for the enjoyment of the game, happen to play on Saturdays. The game is there to help enrich their academic experience. Right? How much energy do we really have to expend on figuring out who's better than who?
Labels: Sports
John put this out here at 8:07 AM
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