Posts from the Bcs Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Laugh if you must, but when JoePa was growing up, "bogus" was positively PG-13 language.

Despite Brian Cook's comprehensive dismissal, there still exists a notion that the Big Ten is the sole factor behind the resistance to playoffs. If Friday's news doesn't completely dispel said notion (and it won't), it at least draws out a couple flaws.

Joe Paterno, PSU's venerable patriarch, took the bowl system's fallback reasonings to task, and as usual, the 81-year-old spared the diplomacy. A bit.

"To be frank with you, I don't know what the reasons are not to have a playoff," Paterno said during a speaking appearance in Pittsburgh. "You can talk about missing class and all that kind of stuff, (yet) you see basketball go on forever. You have a lot of bogus excuses, but obviously the majority of people who have the say don't want it."

Obviously, proponents of the current BCS system can rest easily, as Mr. Paterno won't be around much... much... oh no:

"I'm only going to be a head coach another 10 or 15 years, and I don't think it will happen by then."

That's just a joke, right?

Um, right?

Buried in one of ESPN's contrived point-counterpoints between Ivan Maisel, who drew the short straw and had to defend the BCS, and Pat Forde, who got to tear into it, is this nugget from Texas head coach Mack Brown:

"I would like to see coaches not have a vote," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "We would have a panel like the one that chooses the 65 teams in basketball."

Two thoughts spring immediately to mind:

• Amen.
• Holy crap, I do not want to be a guy on that panel.

Just imagine it now: through some hilariously improbable series of events you, reader, are plucked from the masses of college football fans to sit on this panel. You are given a choice between completely indistinguishable teams.

Since team A and team B played teams like Utah State and Northern Colorado in the nonconference (and so did everyone else in team A and team B's conferences), there is absolutely no basis for comparison between the two teams. Pick team A and fans from team B will put a contract on your head. Pick team B and fans from team A will put a contract on your head.

Fun!

(Via Get The Picture.)

The ongoing debate about playoffs in Division I-A the Football Bowl Subdivision is beginning to resemble an unending game of Monopoly, except that it's a little less fun. This classic case of a resistible force meeting a movable object took a sort of strange turn over the weekend when Florida State University president T.K. Wetherell presented a classic line of anti-anti-playoff argument. Wetherell is now officially one of my heroes, even though I'm not sure I really want a playoff.

"[W]e do play 63 baseball games and we play baseball through two final-exam periods, not one. Somehow, they all seem to graduate and do pretty good," said Wetherell. (It should be "and do pretty well," but let's not stop T.K. just yet.) This blows up one of the oldest arguments against a playoff; namely, that it would make football a two-semester sport. It's a weak argument to say the least, given that baseball and basketball are both two-semester sports.

Wetherell says that the playoff will eventually come about because of the "ungodly amount of money it will produce," noting that college athletic departments are addicted to money the way 10-year-olds are addicted to Webkinz.

As usual, it's hard to argue with somebody when they're right. But when has that ever stopped anybody?

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

Yes, here's another moment you just knew was coming.

Anything I can possibly say about how awful it is that Ohio State lost back-to-back BCS Title Games must, of course, be tempered by the mandatory statement about how unbelievably hard it is to make it to one such game, let alone making it to two in a row. Thus if we're going to hail on the Buckeyes for giving a new layer of meaning to the term "epic fail," we owe them ... well, we owe them 50% of the respect we give to the early-90s Buffalo Bills. Or the same amount of respect we give to Bob Stoops' Oklahoma Sooners, who have the same resume (one title, back-to-back title game losses).

So you can't say the Buckeyes are bad, not even if you're an SEC fan, and you can't say that Jim Tressel isn't a very good coach. You can, however, wonder what went wrong. The answer: Lots. In both 2007 and 2008, the Buckeyes were undone by a combination of bad execution (which was within their control) and an imploding hype machine (which wasn't).

Annoying 'Bama-bot Ray Melick:

The brick wall blocking a playoff will still be standing Wednesday afternoon.

But maybe - just maybe - the blockheads of the Big Ten and Pac-10 will begin to see the cracks.

SI's Austin Murphy:

Springing to the defense of his Pac-10 counterpart is Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, who together with Hansen forms a kind of Axis of Obstruction.

Matt Hayes:

Please, everyone. No more questions about who runs college sports. We give you Jim Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten.

Dick Harmon, man who does not watch college football:

A true college football championship is being held up by two conferences - the Pac-10 and Big Ten.

ESPN's Mark Schablach:


In the immortal words of Buzz Bissinger: sorry, various media members, but you're full of s---. Why after the jump.

Surprising to nobody, the BCS and big-time conferences have once again decided that they like their fat paydays better than they like the indentured servants on whose backs they're getting rich.

At a recent meeting, BCS officials shot down a "plus-one" proposal from SEC Commish Mike Slive. Apparently, the BCS folks "like where [they] are". They like it because the major conferences are making money hand-over-fist, and any move toward a play-off would mean a more even distribution of money.

The playoffs versus bowls argument has been done to death, and despite the overwhelming logic and reason behind moving to a playoff, religion is religion, and the fans of the bowl system continue to insist that the world is flat. When you dispense with all of the strawman arguments, though, what you're left with is a simple fact: the national champion is determined by journalists, coaches' assistants, and computers.

One would think Congress would get the lesson that spending valuable time investigating trivialities like sports is a waste of the public's time. It's not like the public has fully embraced the drawn-out inquest into Barry Bonds and Rogers Clemens, Senator Arlen Specter's crusade against the Patriots, and so on.

But no. Three misguided members of Congress now seek to interfere with college football, all in the name of pandering.

Three members of Congress want the Justice Department to investigate whether the Bowl Championship Series is an illegal enterprise.

Representatives Neil Abercrombie, Democrat of Hawaii; Lynn Westmoreland, Republican of Georgia; and Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, introduced a resolution saying the B.C.S. restricts trade because only the largest universities compete in its games. The resolution would require the Justice Department's antitrust division to investigate if the B.C.S. violates federal law.

The measure, if it passes, would put Congress on record as supporting a postseason playoff.

Hawaii? Check. Idaho? Check. Georgia? Check. No pandering going on here! Hilariously stupid quote of the month goes to Hawaii Democrat Neil Abercrombie:

"Who elected these N.C.A.A. people?" Abercrombie said at a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill while gripping a souvenir University of Hawaii football. "Who are they to decide who competes for the championship?"

Never let facts get in the way of a good time folks! Imagine, private - not public like Congress - interests such as the NCAA determining how their own organizations are run? This is apparently scary stuff for the closet fascist the great people of Hawaii have elected. Best of all Abercrombie doesn't appear to realize that "those NCAA people" aren't deciding who competes for college football's championship, nor should they. It's in the hands of the institutions and the conferences themselves.

Exit question: What, no co-signature from any of Alabama's representatives?

When Paul Johnson was hired at Georgia Tech, he assured fans, players, recruits and the media -- and anyone else who'd list -- that he'd adjust his triple option offense to the ACC and throw the ball. With the departure of yet another Yellow Jacket wide receiver Johnson may not have any choice. Even if he wanted to throw the ball, there's no one to catch it.

The latest pass catcher to leave, James Johnson, didn't blame the new offense as his reason for giving up his final year of eligibility. He simply said he was just tired of football. Tech's depth chart at wide receiver now includes one freshman, two sophomores and one walk-on.

Johnson's offense only averaged 5.6 completions a game last season. Yet, the Middies scored at will averaging 39.9 points per game and more than 440 yards of offense per game. If Johnson can get his new QB and running backs to pick up his system quickly, there is no reason why Georgia Tech can't compete in the ACC without throwing. However, the necessisity of running in Year 1, will probably undermine his ability to recruit WRs and passing QBs down the road. But no one will care if he wins...and beats Georgia.

"I know I be strapped with a double 4-4 and a slim jim to open your Cadillac door."- Redman, "One Shot Deal"

I don't think I need to go in any further about what they say about idle hands. I mean, the crap I get myself in when I'm bored is bad enough, and right now, I'm doing what I do most of the day in my various pursuits, namely, sit at a desk and look at a computer while dem dollas roll in. Suppose you're someone like Mike Brown, however. Though he's served as a cornerback and punt returner for Virginia over the past couple of seasons, his main gig was special teams gunner, meaning that his scholarship essentially is based on him trying to kill someone's head off for what amounts to about a few minutes per year.

I'm not sure how I'd handle my downtime if the aforementioned was my job description, but hopefully, I'd be able to handle it better than Brown has. In the latest addition to Virginia's Super Fun Happy Offseason, Brown was arrested by campus police and charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property, intent to sell, altering serial numbers, and as an added bonus, marijuana possession. According to the Daily Progress, you're doin' a hell of a job, Brownie:

The charges stem from a Feb. 6 incident in which a music mixer, mixer box, camcorder and microphone were stolen from a car owned by UVa student Brendan Downey in the Central Grounds Parking Garage, according to a search warrant filed on Feb. 19. The stolen items were worth more than $3,400. On Feb. 9, Downey saw three of the items stolen from his car listed on eBay, according to the search warrant. The seller's eBay identifier was tied to Brown's roommate, a former member of the UVa football team. Downey notified police and also arranged to purchase the mixer, using Paypal. The mixer was not delivered. Downey left negative feedback for the seller on eBay.

I'm not gonna diss you on the internet? Screw that- burn!!1! Though my familiarity with the recorded output of Reggie Noble would have me believe that Brown has done his hometown well, this is just another reason why you should stay having a morally unscrupulous friend who works at Best Buy.

I'm not proud of some of the crap I've complained about to my parents; if memory serves correctly, most of revolved around video games (and lack thereof) and attendance of Jewish high holidays. But my folks had pretty normal childhoods and such and such, so you know- they rolled with it I suppose. So yeah, I wouldn't have lasted a second in Randy Shannon's household, considering his revealing SI profile that exposed a man who's seen more tragedy than probably me and all of my friends combined. Imagine coming up to him with some weak ish about making your bed.

So, while his son Xavier may have not originally scared up much interest from the Florida powerhouses coming out of high school, I'd imagine he's a seriously tough dude. Or at least the offensive lineman's trying to prove it with his transfer to Miami from FIU (coached by former Miami assistant Larry Cristobal) to play for his pops. Well, that's not how Randy sees it:

'He's not on scholarship now. He's not. He's on tuition remission. They didn't convince me [to let him come here]. He wanted to go to school here. And the football part came secondary. It's like I told the coaching staff, if he wants to come here, I'm not talking to him. And I'm not talking to him. I don't say much to him but `Hi,' and that's about all I say to him.''

I'd imagine he's a livelier dude on the recruiting trail if this year's haul is any evidence.