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College football is still all screwed up

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  • College football is still all screwed up

    They think they have it all figured out with a 4 team playoff for the National championship. What a joke. Wisconsin and Penn State are playing for the Big 10 title today but Ohio State is going to go to the finals because they are a higher "ranked" team than either one of those two. What a crock of shit. I thought championships were won on the field. The so-called playoff was supposed to eliminate this crap. Despite the playoffs the NCAA will still find a way to screw things up.
    "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

  • #2
    This pretty well sums it up

    Wisconsin, Penn State have hopes beyond Big 10 title
    STATS LLC Associated Press
    Nov 29, 2016




    INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- It's right there, in bold type, on the College Football Playoff website.

    "Every Game Counts." Well, and sorry if this seems a little weird, truth is that maybe not quite every game. Maybe the game that does not count is a conference championship game, like Saturday night's Big Ten matchup of Penn State and Wisconsin, and try to explain that one.

    Because, in the very next paragraph, the playoff website's criteria go on to proclaim, "The selection committee ranks the teams based on conference championships won . . ."

    In other words, a conference championship is the key factor.

    Except when it isn't.

    Critics used to mock the people who run the college football bowl games because they paraded around looking like peacocks in all those brightly colored blazers with their oversize logos, spending fall weekends wining and dining athletic directors.

    Well, those guys look like Einstein compared to the clowns now in charge of the college playoff.

    They played the Big Ten championship game Saturday night at the dome in Indianapolis, and as game time approached, tickets could be had for less than $10, which should give you some idea of what the public thought of it.

    And about a dozen hours after the end of the game, Ohio State, which failed even to qualify for the conference title game, is expected to be chosen one of the four teams for the college playoff.

    The Big Ten champion will finish the season with a high place in the national rankings and a boost in its recruiting. It just will not be given a chance to play for the national championship, not be allowed a Cinderella champion like Texas Western in 1966 or a Villanova in 1985 in the NCAA basketball tournament.

    The consolation prize will be a trip to the Rose Bowl.

    That's not bad.

    And, an argument can be made that Ohio State was the best team in the Big Ten this year, anyway, and maybe it was, although it lost to Penn State and beat Michigan only because of a few dunderhead plays by the Wolverines in critical spots. But the point is the Buckeyes did not even win their conference championship and they are going to get a chance to play for the national championship and the team(s) that finished ahead of them in the conference are not.

    You have to wonder what the geniuses who dreamed up the college playoff were thinking when, by design, they guaranteed a degree of controversy by setting up a four-team playoff among five power conferences. In other words, you know you are starting out by leaving out one of the conference champions. Period.

    It's a small step from there to leaving out another.

    The playoff, of course, was supposedly designed to eliminate the controversy that occurred in the past when the national champion was decided by a vote instead of, oh, say, an actual game. Which is how an undefeated Nebraska was selected over an undefeated Penn State in 1994 or several years when two groups of voters selected different teams as national champions, giving a little for everybody.

    A word, "supposedly," appears in the previous paragraph because it would never pass a lie detector test. Let's face it, the playoff was set up to give a small group power and a bigger group money, because nothing much happens in college sports that does not really involve power and money.

    The five major conferences brought six bowls into their playoff orbit and only under pressure allowed one of the dozen spots to go to a school not a member of their cartel. But they certainly did not want one of the outliers getting super rich on the playoff, which is why they limited the playoff field to four teams and put the rest into a so-called "Group of 6" bowl lineup which they controlled - and, of course, sold for a huge sum to television.

    One interesting sidelight is that the people who run this sham championship arrangement, try as they might, could not fool everybody. You'd think, ordinarily, the championship game of the richest conference would be a huge magnet for fans, but since the fans realized it had so little to do with the national championship they smelled it for what it is.

    On Stubhub earlier in the week, there were more than 15,000 tickets available for the Penn State-Wisconsin matchup. As late as Saturday morning, more than 5,000 were still available, with sideline seats going for as little as, get this, $9.71.

    You can be sure that would not have been the case were the winner assured of going on to play for a bigger prize, but as it was, even Penn State and Wisconsin fans kept their wallets in their pockets because, since the meaning of the game was diminished, they'd prefer to save for, say, a trip to Pasadena instead of Indianapolis.

    Going into the game, the coaches, of course, tried to downplay the bigger picture by simply talking about the import of a conference championship -- "huge," said Penn State's James Franklin -- and deferring any questions about the playoff possibilities.

    But it didn't take a deep reading of Franklin's comments to know how he felt.

    "You could make a really good argument that the Big Ten, specifically the Big Ten East, may be the best conference in all of college football right now," Franklin said.

    He is probably right. The Big Ten is probably the best conference in college football right now, just a couple years after people were writing obituaries about the league's weakness. It's just not a good enough conference, apparently, to allow its champion to play for the national title.

    --Ira Miller is an award-winning sportswriter who has covered the National Football League for more than five decades and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. He is a national columnist for The Sports Xchange.
    "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

    Comment


    • #3
      While I agree the 3 best teams are clearly Bama, Ohio State and Clemson

      The 4th place team gets the honor of losing by 30 to Bama.

      If that team is Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State, Or Oklahoma doesn't matter.
      You know Darren if you'd have told me 10 years ago that someday I was going to solve the world's energy problems I'd have said your crazy.... now lets drop this big ball of oil out the window.

      Comment


      • #4
        No such thing as a perfect system that is why there will always, always, always be discussion about who is best.
        Wait until next year is a terrible philosophy
        Hope is not a strategy
        RIP

        Comment


        • #5
          Since Penn State beat OU and won the Big 10 Championship how can OU go? They had several close games this year and I'm not at all sure they are the best team in the Big 10. If they go it's BS IMO.
          "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Eagle60 View Post
            Since Penn State beat OU and won the Big 10 Championship how can OU go? They had several close games this year and I'm not at all sure they are the best team in the Big 10. If they go it's BS IMO.
            It's BS

            Comment


            • #7
              Until the voting is taken out of college football, it it always be a mythical championship.

              Full 16 team playoff, with automatic bids for conference championship winners. It's the only way.

              Comment


              • #8
                Pliny is right. They could start it week after finals and it could be played the Saturday before classes resume.
                You know Darren if you'd have told me 10 years ago that someday I was going to solve the world's energy problems I'd have said your crazy.... now lets drop this big ball of oil out the window.

                Comment


                • #9
                  FCS does a championship playoff. No reason, other than money and people who think they have power, that they can't do it
                  Wait until next year is a terrible philosophy
                  Hope is not a strategy
                  RIP

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    They should cut back the games played by these college kids anyway. I think that they should shorten the regular season and then have the champions of each conference play off. There would be so much interest in the tournament that they would make their fortune anyway.

                    How does OU have so much power to pull this off anyway? I don't think that there was any difference between OU, Michigan, Wisky or Penn State this year. Penn State (and believe me I'm no fan) wins the championship fair and square but OU goes. It makes no sense whatsoever. I hope they get beat every year anyway but this year I hope they get slaughtered. Somehow I wish that the NCAA could get punished or sued by the other schools. This really stinks.
                    "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      60,

                      OSU's success is mentally ingrained in the minds of the voters. They are a good team and a school that has a ton of money and prestige. They are going to win the voting "coin flips" every time right now.

                      I do think that OSU is a better team than PSU. But, PSU won the conference championship and beat OSU. Sorry OSU. But, you lost your "playoff" game against PSU.

                      College football could be more exciting to me than the NFL. But, I hate it because the money schools and conferences control everything. The P5 conferences will do anything they can to not have to share the wealth. It takes money to build consistently successful programs and the P5 conferences know it.

                      I have so many issues with college football right now:

                      1) Income disparity between schools/conferences.
                      2) Ridiculous amount of bowls.
                      3) Mythical championship (although it is slightly better)
                      4) Win at all costs mentality.

                      Look at Texas with Charlies Strong. The guy cleaned up that program, installed accountability, discipline and build better men and students. But, his methods did not win football games. So, its going to go back at winning at all costs at Texas. And because of that, the student athletes will suffer in the long term, except those very few select men who will make it big in the NFL. And, even those guys may eventually end up bankrupt because they were coddled their entire college careers and will have no accountability.

                      Sorry for the rant. But, college football right now pisses me off.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Pliny View Post
                        60,

                        OSU's success is mentally ingrained in the minds of the voters. They are a good team and a school that has a ton of money and prestige. They are going to win the voting "coin flips" every time right now.

                        I do think that OSU is a better team than PSU. But, PSU won the conference championship and beat OSU. Sorry OSU. But, you lost your "playoff" game against PSU.

                        College football could be more exciting to me than the NFL. But, I hate it because the money schools and conferences control everything. The P5 conferences will do anything they can to not have to share the wealth. It takes money to build consistently successful programs and the P5 conferences know it.

                        I have so many issues with college football right now:

                        1) Income disparity between schools/conferences.
                        2) Ridiculous amount of bowls.
                        3) Mythical championship (although it is slightly better)
                        4) Win at all costs mentality.

                        Look at Texas with Charlies Strong. The guy cleaned up that program, installed accountability, discipline and build better men and students. But, his methods did not win football games. So, its going to go back at winning at all costs at Texas. And because of that, the student athletes will suffer in the long term, except those very few select men who will make it big in the NFL. And, even those guys may eventually end up bankrupt because they were coddled their entire college careers and will have no accountability.

                        Sorry for the rant. But, college football right now pisses me off.
                        Nice post!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Guaranteed that they'll get Washington first too so that they make the finals. Friekin joke.
                          "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Pliny View Post
                            60,

                            OSU's success is mentally ingrained in the minds of the voters. They are a good team and a school that has a ton of money and prestige. They are going to win the voting "coin flips" every time right now.

                            I do think that OSU is a better team than PSU. But, PSU won the conference championship and beat OSU. Sorry OSU. But, you lost your "playoff" game against PSU.

                            College football could be more exciting to me than the NFL. But, I hate it because the money schools and conferences control everything. The P5 conferences will do anything they can to not have to share the wealth. It takes money to build consistently successful programs and the P5 conferences know it.

                            I have so many issues with college football right now:

                            1) Income disparity between schools/conferences.
                            2) Ridiculous amount of bowls.
                            3) Mythical championship (although it is slightly better)
                            4) Win at all costs mentality.

                            Look at Texas with Charlies Strong. The guy cleaned up that program, installed accountability, discipline and build better men and students. But, his methods did not win football games. So, its going to go back at winning at all costs at Texas. And because of that, the student athletes will suffer in the long term, except those very few select men who will make it big in the NFL. And, even those guys may eventually end up bankrupt because they were coddled their entire college careers and will have no accountability.

                            Sorry for the rant. But, college football right now pisses me off.
                            Absolutely.
                            Wait until next year is a terrible philosophy
                            Hope is not a strategy
                            RIP

                            Comment

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