Running bowl thread

In other words, the Gator Bowl sold 3 Jags home games worth of tickets.

 

Wonder if the Gator Bowl fog will honor Bobby, too.

 

Says who?

Who won the PGA single-elimination playoff? The NASCAR single-elimination playoff? The ATP single-elimination playoff? The horse racing single-elimination playoff? The boxing single-elimination playoff?

Someone pointed out earlier that the college football system most closely resembles figure skating and gymnastics.

Maybe . . . but what are the two highest-rated Olympic sports? Maybe people LIKE a system that has a little intrigue, a little uncertainty.

Everybody is so hung up on playoffs, like it was sports' holy grail. But what is so great about a playoff system that allows 10-loss basketball teams (N.C. State) and six-loss NFL teams (Steelers) a chance to erase 4 months of mediocrity, get hot for 3 weeks and win a championship?

 

Oh Christ - did you really pull ou the figure skating and gymnastics?

They are the highest rated sports because WOMEN watch them in droves and no other reason.

The system is a sham and any sport that is decided by judges -- or polls -- is not a real sport.

 

First of all, individual and team sports are apples and oranges, so it's silly to go that route. And I guess you root for the landlord to evict the tenant.

 

Round robins are the purest way to decide a champion. That is impossible in college football.

The problem is simple: One of the basic principles of sports is that everybody participating has a chance to win. Otherwise there'd be no point.

Every team or individual should have a chance to win the championship by winning games or matches or races or whatever the unit of competition is. College football does not allow for that, and that is a serious problem.

 

Sam, you usually make sense, but this has been explained over and over, and you still seem to be floating conspiracy theories. Once again, the Fiesta Bowl, when it came around to their pick the first time, picked the best team available, which was TCU. When it came back around the second time, they had the choice of Boise State or Cincinnati. That's it. They made the choice that best suited them, and that was Boise. Given that choice, that's who I'd have taken too. I don't dispute that the BCS isn't a perfect system or that it's in any way a fair system. But it's what we've got right now, and I don't see it changing any time soon.

 

I think it is very simple --- there are 120 teams.

Make ten 12-team conferences.

You have ten conference champions and six wildcards.

End of discussion.

 

Can you say with a straight face that every Division I team has a chance to win the NCAA basketball tournament?

Mathematically? Technically? Sure. But in reality? The SWAC champion's never winning the thing. Not ever. Not if we all live to be 250. One Shining Moment 2212 is still not gonna include Alcorn State cutting down the nets.

Among the many problems we have now is the fact that Division I-A (bite me, NCAA) is far too big. You have teams that are not on level playing fields, because you have universities that are not on level playing fields.

I don't know what the magic number is, because unless it's 13, you're not gonna get that round robin. But with apologies to any alums, Eastern and Western Michigan are not Division I-A (bite me, NCAA) football schools. Neither are Louisiana-Lafayette, or Florida Atlantic, or New Mexico, or North Texas. Neither, for that matter, are Vanderbilt or Duke, if we're being brutally honest here. I'd throw Army in that group, but Navy and Air Force hold their own relatively well (although they ain't winning any titles either).

 

Elaborate, if you would. How would you structure those 10 conferences? Similar to what we have now? Or with teams of varying talent levels interspersed?

And do we keep the existing framework, the SEC, for example, or do we blow the whole damn thing up?

 

Albert, I know the Fiesta Bowl Committee did what it thought was right. No doubt about that. And there's plenty of truth to what you are saying, which is that it is up to the individual bowl committees.

But if this crap is the best of a bad situation, then it's time to change. Fine for a former I-AA to have a shot at their title, but yet Boise State and Texas Christian have to settle for a "Best In Class" game because the Big Boys relegate them like this? Same goes for Cincinnati. Why should they even bother when, before a game is played, before a snap is taken, the fools running the supposed top level of college football have determined that they will not have any opportunity at a championship?

I understand that the bowl committees get the leftovers after the top two teams have been selected. But in every other division in college football and in every other sport, they actually determine this championship concept in competition, not with political polls and then a bunch of men in funny-colored blazers who make sure the big boys always contend for titles.

How much fun would we have missed out with had these same boobs run college basketball? We wouldn't have had George Mason recently, Penn in '79 or UNC-Charlotte in '77. The boobs would have seen to it that the little guy never got a chance. It's why Division I-A college football ranks right up with NASCAR - especially the top level - and figure skating in being about as legitimate as Vince McMahon's traveling circus.

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Deskslave, no questioning your line of thinking. But at least the little guy gets to compete in the NCAA Tournament. Sure, most of them get trashed by 40 when they're fed to Kansas, Chapel Hill, Duke or Kentucky - but at least they get the chance to play. That's a lot more than Cincinnati, Boise State or Texas Christian is getting in football this season.

At least let the BCS Busters have a swing at a bully. Look at what Utah did to Alabama last year and that wasn't some wing-and-a-prayer hanging-on-to-win victory. The Utes trashed the Tide. While that doesn't answer the question of how well the Utes would fare against the Southeastern Conference year in and year out, it doesn't take away from that beating they put on Alabama.

 

Mathematically and tecnically are reality.

If Eastern Illinois University goes out and wins some games in the OVC (to make sure they are in the top 8 in the OVC), then goes on a nine-game winning streak in the postseason, they are the champions of NCAA Division I basketball.

Every single team in NCAA Division I basketball competes for that championship, and every team can win it by winning games. That is why it is a real championship.