[NU Sports] B-C-MESS!!! B-C-MESS!!!

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Exactly. The fact that the regular season didn't leave
> us with an obvious Big 12 south champion doesn't change
> the fact that regular season games hold more importance in
> college football than in just about any other sport. 

There's a difference between regular season games being exciting and meaning something to the fans and regular season games being a sort-of playoff and meaningful in the championship race.

I will never dispute the former - college football has always  been and will always be an exciting game with rivalries, atmosphere and excitement that just can't be beat.

But this season really showed that the latter is pure fallacy. Utah went unbeaten. Texas finished with the same record as #1/2 and beat #1 on a neutral site. USC had the toughest out-of-league game (i.e. schedule they could control) and got a huge win and finished with the same record as #1/2. Yet none of those three had a shot at the championship. Their regular seasons meant nothing in terms of the title race.

And I really don't see how a playoff would diminish the regular season at all. It just seems to be something people cling to now that the academic and bowl tradition arguments are gone. College basketball is different because there are so many games. Football still has 11 or 12 games. It still has league rivalries and championships. If anything, a playoff makes the season MORE meaningful because those non-league games would also take on a huge significance as it gives you a chance to impress the selection committee and there would be incentive to schedule challenging foes instead of creampuffs.

Football's regular season games will always be meaningful. Even in the NFL, the Bears-Packers or Browns-Steelers rivalry games are huge. And regular season games between two good teams (Cowboys-Steelers, Panthers-Giants, etc. this year) are huge.

The Steelers had a run like the Big XII south this year of a gauntlet of games with the Colts, Giants, Cowboys, Chargers, Ravens etc. in consecutive weeks. These games were huge, meaningful and as entertaining as NFL games can be (not as entertaining as college, but that's not because of a playoff or bowls, that's just college football). The only difference was that the Steelers could still have a shot at the title even if they slipped up in one of those games. In college, some apparently can and some can't and it's maddening to fans to see how inconsistently it's decided -- not on a field but in the minds of a few coaches' assistants who are wowed by a box score or ESPN highlights (and not what happened on the field in the regular season).

> Part of that is, I think, because it's not all about
> getting into the playoffs. Alabama-Auburn,
> Oklahoma-Nebraska, OU-Texas, Michigan-OSU---those games are
> all huge to the fans of those teams regardless of what else
> happens. I'd hate to lose that.

How would that be lost? These games (aside from OU-UNL, but that's a Big XII issue) would still be played every year and would still be as meaningful as ever. Even more with playoff spots on the line, as they clearly would be some years. Michigan-Ohio State means something every year ... whether one's up for the BCS title game or one's not even going bowling. But the year it was #1 vs. #2 and essentially a playoff game, it meant even more.

Oh well, it's a fun discussion.:) Maybe enough talk will push for at least the Plus-One model ... anything to get out of this B-C-MESS. I certain that nothing will spoil the regular season of college football - bowls, B(C)S or playoffs ... that's always going to be there and it will be meaningful and exciting. The question is how do you end it all, and the way we have these past few seasons is just a bummer.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT