Running Regular Season 2010 College Football Thread

Who's the national tennis champion?

The national golf champion?

NASCAR has a "champion", but it's about as anti-climactic as a championship can be. "If Jimmie Johnson finishes 23rd or better in the season finale, he's the champion." Greg Biffle wins the race. Johnson finishes 18th. And the morning's headlines are about how the 18th-place finisher in the season's last race is the champion.

It's perfectly fine to enjoy sports without having to begin worrying about playoff seedings and all this crap after only one lousy week. That's why I have no interest in a college FB playoff. Because that's ALL the discussion would be, even in the middle of September.

 

Hell, BTE, it's all the conversation is NOW in September. I take the other side. I am sick of the arguing about the Boises of the world and this conference vs. that conference. Put 'em on the damn field in December and January and settle the issue on the scoreboard.

 

The Winner of the U.S. Open in each sport.

But notice how individual sports do not have team championships. I need a clear cut football champion. It's that simple.

 

Except that the scoreboard won't determine which teams will make it to the field in December.

Last year on Dec. 6 you had 5 unbeatens and one one-loss team.

That's 6 in the playoff. I guess.

In an 8-team playoff, you would have Oregon (10-2), Ohio State (10-2), Georgia Tech (11-2), Iowa (10-2) and Penn State (10-2), among others, screaming about making one of those last two spots.

In a 16-team playoff, you would have those teams in, but the screaming would be between about eight 3-loss teams (and 2-loss BYU) for the final four spots.

Nobody plays the same schedule. You could have a 10-2 team with the 103rd-ranked SOS screaming to get in over a 9-3 team with the 1st-ranked SOS.

You'll never get one as long as 120 teams play 120 different schedules. All you'll get are mythical playoff seedings instead of a mythical national champion.

 

I have no problem leaving a team out that lost twice than a team that never lost.

 

Until "your" two-loss team gets left out despite playing a killer schedule, with both losses coming on horribly botched officials' calls.

 

We've seen the excuses as recently as last season, though.

Oregon basically runs through everyone else following its Boise State loss and makes the Rose Bowl, so what do we hear from some people? That Oregon is a much better now than was back on Labor Day and would win the rematch and deserves to be ranked higher, head-to-head results be damned.

 

BTE, there's no playoff that will eliminate bitching by people who don't make it. But it's obviously possible to create a playoff that would be accepted as legitimate by the overwhelming majority of football fans.

 

And let's make sure Texas and Oklahoma get full credit for defeating powerhouse Kansas, and Boise State is denigrated for defeating WAC-member Utah State, since KU must be better than USU because it plays in an AQ conference and the Aggies play in the WAC.

 

Sore subject ... but yes, the best teams Texas beat en route to last year's BCS game were No. 19 Oklahoma State and No. 22 Nebraska (rankings are end of regular season 2009).

Given how Boise State gets reamed for beating top 10 teams on the road, I'm sure the Broncos would get reamed if their best wins came against two teams at the bottom of the top 25.

 

Except that the non-BCS bowls are dying. Nothing to play for. Average fan doesn't watch, much less attend, because the games don't mean anything.

Even the fans of the competing teams are luke-warm at best in most cases. Any North Carolina fans want to travel halfway across the country to watch the 7-5 Tar Heels in the Diamond Walnut Emerald Bowl in San Francisco right after Christmas? Naw, the season is over, we've had our fun and we're just now getting over that last second loss to NC State a month ago. We'll save our money and go watch basketball instead.

 

Here's the thing....

Not saying it is right, but the system was designed by those in power to keep themselves in power. They agreed to let a couple of outsiders in because the outsiders wanted a cut of all that money. But no way in hades are they going to give up what they believe is their rightful place at the top of the food chain. Just because I shoot 59 on the golf course does not guarantee me membership in the country club.

If, say, Boise and/or TCU bumped an Ohio State, Texas or Alabama out of the title game, within a week you would have an announcement that such-and-such conferences were leaving the BCS. (BTW, anyone here old enough to remember the old CFA from the 1980s?)

They would form their own affiliation, confident that the TV networks and money would follow. After all, TV chases the "marquee" names, not necessarily whoever is the best team on the field. And we'd be back to what was initially intended... a private club for invited members only. Four, maybe six, big conferences.

So what I would say to the Boises and TCUs of the world is not to allow themselves to get caught up in this junk. Go out, play football, enjoy the games, win as many as you can and savor one of the greatest times of a young person's life. And don't let all the political crap mess with your head.