223 DAYS TO LONG!!!
I remember as a kid growing up, I would watch professional wrestling and was always fascinated by the characters. I always enjoyed watching "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. His entrance was the coolest thing I had ever seen. Lots of people had music and the bad guys came out and argued with the fans, the good guys slapped hands with all of the kids and had this fast paced music that the kids loved, but not me. I remember sitting there as the fog would begin to come out of seemingly nowhere, the soft music would begin to play and slowly get louder but never too loud, and after what seemed like an eternity, out stepped The Nature Boy. Well boys and girls, after 223 long days, I have returned to the blogospheric world that is known as "Just A Thought."
I know, you are sitting there now thinking what could have bought this on? It all started on August 14, 2011. ESPNU aired a special called "Blueprint for Change" which was a great hour of television. It involved a round table discussion by some of the most influential people in college sports. It had everything Current Coaches (Nick Saban & Bob Stoops), former coaches (Urban Meyer & Mike Belotti, analysts (Kirk Hirbstreit, Mark May, Robert Smith, & Jay Bilas), and a former Commissioner (Mike Tranghese). It was a very well done piece that brought out some great points from the participants involved (ESPNU will be showing this again on the 27th @ 11 am). However, there were a couple of things I am going to address from this special (not all today). As many of you could have guessed, the topic of how college football determines its champion was discussed and several things were said and I am going to offer my thoughts. Let me say, I know these people know more than I am and they are all smarter than I am, but some of the things that were said were just ridiculous.
Let me start with one of my favorite people in college football, Kirk Hirbstreit.
"Herbie" proposes a plus one. The plus one sounds great, however, A PLUS 1 FORMAT IS MORE UNFAIR THAN THE CURRENT SYSTEM. I will explain this in detail when I address Nick Saban's comments. Herbstreit did make a good point, the coaches have no business voting and being involved at all in the selection process. They are not watching the games and they have a natural bias for their conference and how it will effet their team.
Next is Mark May.
May made what may be the 2nd dumbest statement I have ever heard on the subject of a plus 1...only use it on the years that you need it. This is crazy. Should we have had to have used a plus 1 last year and not the year before? Of course not, it is all or nothing.
Now onto Nick Saban.
Let me just say, I have never been a Nick Saban fan, but I walked away from this special not only thinking he was smart, but he won me over and I would actually root for him to win. However, his thoughts on a plus 1 was not one of his finer moments. Saban commented and said "every year that there has been a controversy, a plus 1 would have solved each and every problem we have ever had. sometimes there are just 3 good teams or 4 good teams." Let me address the 3 or 4 good teams comment first. What about the years where there are just 5 good teams? Maybe we can expand it to an 8 team tournament, but that is not really fair to the 9th ranked team, so here is what I suggest, let's call everyone a National Champion. Now as for this solving the controversy every year, what controversy? Let's look at the years... 1998 - no controversy, 1999 - no controversy, 2000 - FSU v Oklahoma (this was controversy, Miami had 1 loss and beat FSU head to head, but how could they go in over 1 loss Washington who beat them? In fact, there were 4 one loss teams this year to go with undefeated Oklahoma. Call me old school but with all of the chaos and all on same level, FSU goes because they were the defending champs), 2001 - Miami v Nebraska (I know Nebraska did not win division, but they were the best team all year long and much like the year before, there were 4 one loss teams and 1 undefeated, and the BCS rewards and entire body of work when things are complete chaos). 2002 - no controversy, 2003 - Oklahoma v LSU (Yes, USC was ranked #1 in polls because Oklahoma lost its last game, but it was the 13th game of the season - a conference championship game that USC did not have to play. After 12 games, USC was 11 - 1 and Oklahoma was 12 - 0, so the way I see it, they both had the same # of losses, so you look at the big picture). 2004 - Auburn was undefeated and unfortunately got the shaft. It happens, sports are not always fair. There, I said it. Nobody is crying how unfair it was for undefeated Oklahoma and Miami to have to play teams who have already lost once. That is 2 times where teams with no losses risked getting the shaft to this once for Auburn, so shut up and get over it. 20005 - no controversy, 2006 - Boise State got left out for 1 loss Florida...NO CONTROVERSY!!! 2007 - LSU v Ohio State. (LSU got in with 2 losses, everyone had 2 losses, so the champion of the best conference got in, again no problem with this, there were 6 teams with 2 losses and 1 one loss team). 2008 - Oklahoma v Florida (Oklahoma got in over Texas who beat them. There were 6 teams with one loss, so you tell me which teams are not getting in. Before you make your case for Texas, remember 1 loss Texas tech beat Texas). 2009 - no controversy 2010 - no controversy. So I am sorry to say Mr. saban, but no a Plus 1 does nothing to help solve controversy, it will devalue the regular season, and create more controversy.
Like all good old school rivalries, this can not be solved in just 1 night. This is a battle that will have to be issued under best 2 out of 3 falls. Stay tuned for part 2 and comments by another guy I did not like going into this thing, Urban Meyer and Jay Bilas. Which one of these 2 made the DUMBEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD CONCERNING COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND THE BCS. Part 3 will Include a real solution to ways to improve the BCS.
Until Next Time...
