The College Football Thread 2006

[-Jrabbit]

Brown better hope Charlie can recruit some kids with speed...

[DanS]

Charlie has been very successful in recruiting D-backs. D-line and linebackers are the only positions where ND is thin in recruiting. The people we all saw on the field were guys recruited by Ty Losingham.

[mrmitchell]

At least we'll kick your ass in Track...

Now, the sky is falling.

[DanS]

Looks like Malzahn took the graceful exit. He didn't complain publicly and did what he was directed to do by the head coach. That is, until the end of the season, when the situation could be corrected.

I think that Mustain and his buddies should follow.

[Drake Tungsten]

Talk about slam-dunk assignments. ESPN.com wants to know how I would change the BCS. I know, I know, it sounds like asking Al Gore how he would change environmental policy. The BCS is about as popular as Hummers these days. The BCS, like the behemoth gas guzzlers, is considered a survivor of an earlier error.

So listen up. Poise your pen over your pad. Take good notes. Here is the complete list of changes I would make to the college football postseason:

Shall I repeat them?

That is what is known as an inconvenient truth. The BCS is just fine the way it is.

Oh, fine, if you want to change something, stop the coaches' poll and the Harris poll from finding new ways to make a mockery of the process every year and appoint a credible cross section of athletic officials (commissioners, athletic directors, etc.) to pick the at-large teams, just as the NCAA does in every other sport.

But don't station me behind the elephants with a shovel and a wheelbarrow and tell me I'm part of the circus. The addition of a plus-one game, the latest trinket to be dangled in front of college football fans, is a distinction without a difference. To wit:

The BCS National Championship Game matches the two best teams after the regular season.

A plus-one game would match the two best teams in the nation after the bowls.

Welcome to the post-postseason. Maybe this idea will catch on in other sports. Let's have a plus-one after the Final Four.

That's silly, you say. The Final Four is a playoff. College football doesn't have a playoff. That's true. But no one in power wants a playoff. What BCS coordinator Mike Slive, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, said last week is that they are willing to discuss a plus-one.

A plus-one doesn't solve the current dilemma. It just creates a different one. A year ago, what team should Texas have played after it upset USC? Haven't we had enough of the BCS creating as many problems as it solves?

For a while this season, it looked as if the BCS would have a train wreck. But it didn't. If you have the patience to allow the entire season to play out, most of the perceived potholes repair themselves. Before Jan. 1, Michigan could have made a case for being treated as a third wheel. No one complained after the Wolverines flopped in the second half of the Rose Bowl.

There is an important lesson. Once the entire season played out, Michigan did not measure up.

It takes patience to let the season happen. That's a hard lesson to learn, especially for writers like yours truly who delight in training a spotlight on the imperfections of the system. But the high wattage blinds us to the charm and tension of the regular season. The drama that attended Michigan's visit to Ohio Stadium in mid-November would have evaporated if college football had a playoff. The game would have produced all the tension and significance of a Big Ten Basketball Tournament championship. That's the game played on Selection Sunday, and I defy anyone without a blood relative playing for the winner to name the team that won last year's tournament.

(Iowa, according to Wikipedia.)

With a playoff, UCLA's dramatic upset of USC would have cost the Trojans a few places in the seeding and nothing more. Ask the Bruins how meaningful that would have been, and whether they would trade it for the mean-spirited delight of denying their biggest rival a chance to play for the national championship.

The thought of a playoff is intoxicating. But the reality of what college football now enjoys is just as powerful. College football fans merely take it for granted.

There is some momentum gathering behind a plus-one, even as the Big Ten and Pacific-10 members line up against it. My guess is that some sort of accommodation will be worked out to play a post-bowl bowl, and that such a plus-one game will be the first toe in the door toward installing a playoff.

That's a shame, and it might even be progress. The BCS National Championship Game one day might be as relevant as telegrams and radio shows are today. But you can't tell me that a plus-one will cure the ills of the current system. It might take the edge off the game's tensions, a dose of gridiron Prozac for the college football nation.

More likely, it will swap out the game's old problems for new ones, with no guarantee that college football will remain at the current level of excitement. Now, if you will excuse me, the elephants are calling.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=2734911&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

Maisel speaks the truth...

[Donegeal]

BS.

In the playoff situation that someone suggested (I forget who), the OSU/Mich game would loose NONE of its signifacance. As stated, take the conference champs and 2 at large teams. Yes, the looser of the OSU/Mich game would still probably make it, but it would still be a situation where every game counted. Anything worse than 11-1 would not make it to the playoff.

[Drake Tungsten]

If 11-1 is good enough to make the playoff, then every game doesn't count...

[Donegeal]

Sure they all do. Just use this year as an example. Not every 11-1 team would have made the cut. 11-1 would be the cut off (assuming that all or most conference champs need to go 12-0/11-1 to win the conference).

[Drake Tungsten]

If #1 faces #2 in the last game of the season (like OSU/Michigan) and 11-1 is good enough to make the playoff given you're ranked high enough, then that game won't matter. The #2 teams isn't going to drop far at all losing to the #1 team. Maisel is right.

[Guynemer]

Or, only conference champs get in. Period. Problem ****ing solved already!

[Drake Tungsten]

What about Notre Dame?

[Guynemer]

Go back to my earlier proposal: independants with at least 11-1 records, with 10 wins against I-A opponents, get in.

Or, only conference champs get in, so Notre Dame can drop the ****ing holier-than-thou **** already and join a goddamn conference.

[Drake Tungsten]

Would the Big Ten keep its name even with 12 members?

[DanS]

Suggesting that ND be forced to join a conference just demonstrates how ridiculous some suggestions for playoffs are.

[DanS]

The fun never ends...

The email below was sent to Mitch Mustain by Arkansas
Assistant Coach Danny Nutt's physical therapist. I think
her name is Teresa Prewett. She's just a little bit of
an Arkansas fan I guess you could say. She's one of
those fans that has taken the internetto new heights.
The girl is making a name for herself.

Among the people "BCC'd" on the email was Wally Hall, sports
editor of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.


Hello Mr. Interception King:

Are you having a good morning? I’m sure you are since your precious name is in the paper again. Why in the Starkville did you come to Arkansas? I’ve been a Hog fan since birth, and a season ticket holder since 1985, and my parents were before that. Who in the Starkville do you think you are? Do you really think because you just walked onto campus that you need to be the starting QB? Competition scares the crap out of you doesn’t it little boy? This is the SEC for goodness sakes, and by watching you attempting to read defenses in the SEC, it is beyond evident that you were nowhere ready. Your completion to interception ratio was a joke, and you have zero leadership abilities. This isn’t Springdale High School anymore, and you need to take your letter jacket off and realize that. This is the real world. Yes, you did win 8 games as a starter, but you were only starting at that point because Casey Dick was hurt. In winning those 8 games, you need to go back to the film room and see that the main reason those games were won was because of McFadden, Jones, the offensive line, and the play of the defense. You did hand the ball off pretty well. You also need to buy Marcus Monk some lunch for saving you another interception against Auburn since the ball was so underthrown. Every once in a blue moon you would throw a touchdown pass, but usually after 3 interceptions. I’m sure you have the talent to become an outstanding QB on the collegiate level, but I hope that it’s not at Arkansas. You can win the Heisman for all I care, but please not as a Hog. Please transfer. All you’ve been since you walked onto campus is a cancer, and your mother is no exception.

You called Coach Nutt a “dork” in your article. Amazing. You know, I was sitting with a large group of people watching your interview that was aired on Game Day before the Tennessee game, you know, the interview where you had on those glasses that made you look like a ***? I’m sure you remember. Anyhow, everyone in that room started laughing, calling you the dork. Why is it that you came to Arkansas again? Was it so your mommie could be close by to change your diaper, or was it because you thought having your lover Gus on the sideline would make playing in the SEC easier? What a joke! Gus can’t even adjust to the speed of the game in the SEC. Do you think Charlie Weiss at Notre Dame would be putting up with your bull crap? God, do I ever wish you would have gone to Notre Dame. Too bad I’m not Coach Nutt today. If so, I’d be having Tim Cheney sew lace around your jock straps, but that would be after I let you hang out face to face in a private meeting with the offensive and defensive lineman – I think I’d even throw Butu in for the meeting. Did I mention that I want you to transfer? Helen Keller could read defenses in the SEC better than you.

Well, I’ve wasted enough time on you today. I’m sure it’s time for your breast feeding. Did I mention that I want you to transfer. The next time you think you and your girls are bigger than any one program – you better think again. I would love for you to be able to have a lengthy conversation with Chris Simms, former QB with the Texas Longhorns. He arrived on campus his freshman year in a limo thinking he was the next All Everything, was a smart ass to his coaches, was selfish, pouty, and the prime example of what a “team” player is not. His teammates couldn’t stand him, the fans grew to hate him, and he never won a championship. He was finally benched for a QB that had won the Big 12 player of the year award the year before. You see, he walked onto campus thinking the starting position should be handed to him without competition, and it was. He didn’t bring it to practice everyday, he was quoted in newspapers showing his lack of character, he blamed everyone else when HE had a bad game….Sound familiar? He never EARNED the respect of his teammates, coaches, fans, etc…He too was a spoiled brat. He was nicknamed by everyone “The Golden Child” because that’s what HE thought he was. Funny how the smaller, more competitive QB named Major Applewhite, with less credentials, came to lead them to a Big 12 Championship. Funny how that works isn’t it?

Grow up little boy. Oh, by the way, did I mention that I want you to transfer?

Teresa