[NU Sports] Tide rolls, yawn!

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

I don't think we'll get a playoff that soon (I WISH, but the cartel is corrupt) ... but I do think we'll see a plus-one soon -- hopefully the B(C)S "braintrust" also learn from their mistakes and say that only league champions are eligible.
 
That's the real kicker about Bama's so-called title. They failed to win their own division yet alone even play for their league's championship. They lost. At home. To LSU in one of their 2-3 games this year against top 25 foes. If "every game counts," then "games of the century" certainly should!
 
This year it was actually quite easy for the B(C)S - all the other one-loss teams (Stanford, Boise, etc.) failed to win their league. So you match the Big XII champ and the SEC champ. Who cares how Okie State would do against Bama? The question should be why Bama was there in the first place.
 
If the regular season counts, you don't get do-overs. The result last night proves nothing about Bama "deserving" the title - all it shows is that with a month off to prepare, it's tough to beat Nick Saban twice. Unfortunately, we never got the chance to see what Okie State and LSU would have looked like, and they are two teams with better records than Bama, more wins over top 25 teams and, oh yeah, THEY WON THEIR CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!
 
There simply is no longer any reason to support the Cartel's exhibiton of welfare bowl gluttony. Attendance and ratings are at an all-time low. "Bowl week" now stretches out longer than a playoff system would for those who say you wouldn't have time. Academics? In the SEC? HAH! Good one. We play Tuesday and Wednesday night games and added conference title games, so stop feigning concern for the student athletes. The bowl tradition is dead (except for every couple years in Pasadena when you actually get a Big Ten champ vs. Pac 10 champ game and it's usually AWESOME!). And now the sacred, meaningful regular season argument is exposed as hogwash as well. DEATH TO THE B(C)S!!!
 
As for whether a playoff will stop controversy - you'll still have the chatter about what teams were snubbed to keep message boards warm ... but I don't think it will have as much controversy over who's declared "champ" and here's why - because it will be decided ON THE FIELD. That's what angers people so much about the B(C)S and the thud at the end of every college football season -- it's that the other guys never got a chance to prove it on the field. Okie State never got a shot.

Does it mean the best team wins? Nope. No one would argue that the Green Bay Packers were the best team in pro football last year ... or that the Giants were the year they beat the Pats ... but I never heard many objections to their Lombardi trophies or Super Bowl rings because they had a chance ON THE FIELD. The Pats could have beaten the Giants again in the Super Bowl. The top-seeded F***ons could have beaten the Pack. Okie State never had that chance to see what their O would have looked like against the LSU D. Maybe they would have lost 42-0, maybe they would have won 9-6. We'll never know. So this system also leads to more dissatisfaction over the ending, especially when it's in such an awful game like last night.
 
The SEC rarely plays outside its league anyway - certainly not on the road for tough games - so if we don't even get to see their champ match up with another league in the title game now, then SEC supremacy will become even more self-perpetuating. No one doubts that they're the premiere league right now, but that doesn't mean they get both spots in the title game.
 
GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions! 


________________________________
From: "hakirsch at aol.com" <hakirsch at aol.com>
To: Mike Nolan <nolan at tssi.com> 
Cc: SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com>; Michael Vance <michael.vance at att.net>; "nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com" <nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com>; "nwu-sports at tssi.com" <nwu-sports at tssi.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Tide rolls, yawn!

I have always enjoyed these discussions on who is # 1 which occur without a playoff system. Not that the NCAA tournament guarantees us the best with its system, but it does generate the best team under the given rules (ie who prepares their squad the best for an end of the season 3 week run). The only difference in football is there are few rules to go by. Only that the regular season counts a lot, with later being generally more valued than earlier and that the BCS championship game winner will be declared #1 by at least one poll.

Thus the lack of a playoff system not only keeps the chat boards probably busier than with one, but can result in more than one team legitimately claiming a first spot (although in my mind--not this year).  My only disappointment this year (besides NU's bowl loss!) is that we didn't have 3 undefeated teams going into the bowls again and arguing about who got robbed 

Harry 


------Original Message------
From: Mike Nolan
To: Harry
Cc: SjT \(Stephen J. Truog\)
Cc: Michael Vance
Cc: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Tide rolls, yawn!
Sent: Jan 10, 2012 8:05 AM

> SJT is more knowledgeable and certainly much more passionate about college =
> football than I will ever be .  But anyone waking up this morning and think=
> ing that the BCS system is flawed based on the evidence of the 2011 season =
> will never be happy with the outcome.  Does anyone not think that the S.E.C=
> . was not the best conference ?  Does anyone not believe that based on the =
> regular and post season (Bowls plus Championship game)  that the 2 top team=
> s weren't Bama and LSU ,whichever order you desire ?  =

All we really know is that in 8 quarters plus overtime, LSU was able to
put up only 3 field goals against Alabama.  How another top 10 team
like Okie State, Stanford, Oregon or even bowl-flop Wisconsin would 
have done is an unanswered question.  How high powered offenses like 
Boise State and West Virginia would have done is also an unanswered 
question.  West Virgina scored almost as many points against LSU as 
'Bama did, in half the time.  

Yeah, they're probably the two best defenses in the country
(ie, the best that money can buy), I'm not nearly as convinced 
they were (or are) the best two overall teams.

Those thrilling games by 'Bama against Kent State, North Texas,
Georgia Southern (that's not a proper name for a school, that's 
a railroad!) should earn a derisive comment from Gordon Gee, but 
I guess he's off getting another tattoo.  

Do I think a playoff is a better answer?  Not really, but I think
we'll get one within the next 6-8 years, and it won't quell
the complaints, just change who's complaining and what about.
--
Mike Nolan


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry



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