betED.com - The View from the Couch - by Gavin McDougald!
December 28th, 2005 - Bowled Over
Have you seen the list? Reading your TV guide this week will prove a little more challenging, planning wise, because there are quite a few college football games available for your personal viewing.
Here?s a wee sampling: The Alamo Bowl, The Capitol One Bowl, The Champs Sports Bowl, The Meineke Car Care Bowl, The Cotton Bowl, The Emerald Bowl, The Fort Worth Bowl, The Gator Bowl, The GMAC Bowl, The Hawaii Bowl, The Holiday Bowl, The Houston Bowl, The Independence Bowl, The Insight Bowl, The Las Vegas Bowl, The Liberty Bowl, The Motor City Bowl, The MPC Computers Bowl, The Music City Bowl, The Outback Bowl, The Peach Bowl, The Poinsettia Bowl, The Sun Bowl, The Fiesta Bowl, The Orange Bowl, The Sugar Bowl and The Rose Bowl.
Interestingly enough, or rather, tragically enough, the only one of these Titanic titles that really counts for something is the very last one.
All the others? Not so much. Unless you consider the making of mounds of money as a valid reason to stage a game.
Welcome to the Bowl Championship Series ? the only system in sports that rarely determines anything, yet still holds reign over Division I football.
This year, the BCS managed to get it right when Southern California and Texas vie in what will actually be a title game. All other games on that lengthy list are essentially meaningless. Except to their respective athletic programs, whose pockets they line. It?s clear the fans don?t like it. Sports writers are apoplectic over the B-skip the C-S. The players themselves all want to a chance to play for the whole enchilada. As for the students, how many of them are going to use their school winning the MPC Computers Bowl as a bragging right?
Well, maybe a few of the nerdier ones would.
NCAA president Myles Brand is a great defender of the BCS. He has to be because that?s the system all his constituents like. His constituents by the way ain?t you and I. Nor are they the students for that matter. Instead, he bows to the almighty college presidents, whose athletic budgets are built around bowl games. Perish the thought of teams participating in a limited post-season that matters. Nope ? in college it?s all for one and one for all, as fifty-six - yes that?s fifty plus a six - schools qualify for the Bowl of Cash season. Interestingly enough, the NCAA does know how to hold a playoff in football. The do it every year. Twice in fact.
Division III held its national championship game between UW-Whitewater and Mount Union last Saturday. The night before Appalachian State played Northern Iowa to settle the Division I-AA title.
However, in Division I ? what should be the tops in competition as it is in talent ? they leave it up to a system that is only good at one thing ? sucking the legitimacy out of college football.
A true playoff system in Division I to determine an actual national champion every year is what every fan wants. Colleges don?t because such a limited playdown would come at a price. Lots of teams wouldn?t make it to a post season. .500 teams would stay home, (rightfully so), and therefore some of those obscure bowls in obscure cities would go bye-bye.
The bottom line is, that would affect the bottom line. Sponsor and ticket dollars those schools depend on, in fact budget on, would be gone as well.
The one thing college presidents hate more than having their credibility questioned on why they make so much money for their schools on the backs of unpaid laborers is having their year-end come in in the red.
For colleges the BCS isn?t about competition. It?s not about determining who the best is even. All football is to the colleges is a method to guarantee the maximum return on a massive investment.
There is no defense for this. And thankfully, few college presidents and coaches insult our intelligence by even trying. They just shrug their shoulders and tell us it?s the best system for them.
But what about us? Well, we do get a ton of football over the next few weeks, and that is never a bad thing.
Yet, just imagine how great it would be if most of it actually mattered.
Enough with the whining. Hey, don?t ya know it?s time to start gearing up for that MPC Computers Bowl!
I?m sure you?ve been waiting for this one all year?
Cheers! Gavin McDougald ? AKA Couch
Remember to drop us a line at rants@betED.com to voice your opinion on one of McDougald's articles or on anything else you read at betED.com!
December 28th, 2005 - Bowled Over
Have you seen the list? Reading your TV guide this week will prove a little more challenging, planning wise, because there are quite a few college football games available for your personal viewing.
Here?s a wee sampling: The Alamo Bowl, The Capitol One Bowl, The Champs Sports Bowl, The Meineke Car Care Bowl, The Cotton Bowl, The Emerald Bowl, The Fort Worth Bowl, The Gator Bowl, The GMAC Bowl, The Hawaii Bowl, The Holiday Bowl, The Houston Bowl, The Independence Bowl, The Insight Bowl, The Las Vegas Bowl, The Liberty Bowl, The Motor City Bowl, The MPC Computers Bowl, The Music City Bowl, The Outback Bowl, The Peach Bowl, The Poinsettia Bowl, The Sun Bowl, The Fiesta Bowl, The Orange Bowl, The Sugar Bowl and The Rose Bowl.
Interestingly enough, or rather, tragically enough, the only one of these Titanic titles that really counts for something is the very last one.
All the others? Not so much. Unless you consider the making of mounds of money as a valid reason to stage a game.
Welcome to the Bowl Championship Series ? the only system in sports that rarely determines anything, yet still holds reign over Division I football.
This year, the BCS managed to get it right when Southern California and Texas vie in what will actually be a title game. All other games on that lengthy list are essentially meaningless. Except to their respective athletic programs, whose pockets they line. It?s clear the fans don?t like it. Sports writers are apoplectic over the B-skip the C-S. The players themselves all want to a chance to play for the whole enchilada. As for the students, how many of them are going to use their school winning the MPC Computers Bowl as a bragging right?
Well, maybe a few of the nerdier ones would.
NCAA president Myles Brand is a great defender of the BCS. He has to be because that?s the system all his constituents like. His constituents by the way ain?t you and I. Nor are they the students for that matter. Instead, he bows to the almighty college presidents, whose athletic budgets are built around bowl games. Perish the thought of teams participating in a limited post-season that matters. Nope ? in college it?s all for one and one for all, as fifty-six - yes that?s fifty plus a six - schools qualify for the Bowl of Cash season. Interestingly enough, the NCAA does know how to hold a playoff in football. The do it every year. Twice in fact.
Division III held its national championship game between UW-Whitewater and Mount Union last Saturday. The night before Appalachian State played Northern Iowa to settle the Division I-AA title.
However, in Division I ? what should be the tops in competition as it is in talent ? they leave it up to a system that is only good at one thing ? sucking the legitimacy out of college football.
A true playoff system in Division I to determine an actual national champion every year is what every fan wants. Colleges don?t because such a limited playdown would come at a price. Lots of teams wouldn?t make it to a post season. .500 teams would stay home, (rightfully so), and therefore some of those obscure bowls in obscure cities would go bye-bye.
The bottom line is, that would affect the bottom line. Sponsor and ticket dollars those schools depend on, in fact budget on, would be gone as well.
The one thing college presidents hate more than having their credibility questioned on why they make so much money for their schools on the backs of unpaid laborers is having their year-end come in in the red.
For colleges the BCS isn?t about competition. It?s not about determining who the best is even. All football is to the colleges is a method to guarantee the maximum return on a massive investment.
There is no defense for this. And thankfully, few college presidents and coaches insult our intelligence by even trying. They just shrug their shoulders and tell us it?s the best system for them.
But what about us? Well, we do get a ton of football over the next few weeks, and that is never a bad thing.
Yet, just imagine how great it would be if most of it actually mattered.
Enough with the whining. Hey, don?t ya know it?s time to start gearing up for that MPC Computers Bowl!
I?m sure you?ve been waiting for this one all year?
Cheers! Gavin McDougald ? AKA Couch
Remember to drop us a line at rants@betED.com to voice your opinion on one of McDougald's articles or on anything else you read at betED.com!
