Anyone who is interested in the college sports scene, especially during the college football season, has season what a junk festival this bowl season has been. Not counting the statistics, preseason rankings, or the final ranking and/pairings for the bowl games themselves, the scores of the bowls (Starting from December 21 thru January 2) are proof enough. Thirteen of the twenty-seven bowl games, were blowouts, or decided by more than ten points (six of thirteen of these games coming in the real "Bowl Season"), and seven of the thirteen traditional bowl games were decided by more than 12 points (six games by more than 17 points, and were done by midway thru the third quarter, with only half the stadium not heading for thier cars).
Is there any interest, other than the students and alumni of the schools, in a bowl season that has teams who are paraded into the national spotlight, by the "powers that be," only to be in a situation which is the equivalent to "Daniel in the Lions Den"? The bowl games that are now doubled from the original 1980s lineup of the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl games are now filled with: Oregon 56-21 over South Florida in the (Sun Bowl), Fresno State 40-28 over a 7 win Georgia Tech team (Humanitarian Bowl), Oklahoma State 49-33 over Indiana who were both 7-6 on the season (Insight Bowl), Missouri 38-7 over Arkansas (Cotton Bowl), USC 49-17 over Illinois (Rose Bowl), Georgia 41-10 over a completely outmatched and timid Hawaii team (Sugar Bowl), and the final blowout a West Virginia 48-28 over Oklahoma. However in all of these games, other than the scores, lack of a true look into the college football scene, is the fact that Missouri had to play an Arkansas team, that Kansas should have played. Missouri beat KU in the Big 12 North decider game and only had two loses on the season, both to Oklahoma (once in the regular season and once in the Big 12 Championship game).
However, KU is playing in the orange bowl against a motivated (by both the football god's, a bowl game, but also for the tragedy on their campus earlier this year, with the grave shootings on there campus, by a disillusioned and psychotic student). How KU snuck into this game alone, is beyond any explanation, but it is another example how college football's, end of the season gala, is a sham.
If the scores can be put aside, as well as the ludicrous picks of who plays who, it all boils down to money in the end. That should be where everyone looks to for the injustices and outright manipulation of a system that is as outdated as Major League Baseball's Drug Policies. Hawaii, before this year, had a regular budget for recruiting of (roughly) $50,000 a year, which has not allowed their coaches to go into the contiguous 48 states to recruit a hard and sometimes impossible shot at the top 200 high school prospects, and other hopeful student athletes. However, after there ascendance into the "bowl elite," with their "Hiesman Trophy Candidate" Cole Brennin at the healm, they play in the 'WAC' which is not comparable to an SEC schedule, which is why they got WAC'ed, they now have between $500,000 and $1.5 million for recruiting purposes, depending on how the money from the bowl game roles down the line, to "THE PROGRAM." When the money is into the millions of dollars, for just a bowl appearance, there is not any wonder why the predominant emphasis is on men's sports, where the money is coming into the school, rather than from gaining funds from women's sports, the non-traditional/popular sporting events, and/or students using their work study time calling alumni for donations, back to their glory days at their 'Good Ol' School.'
Is there a remedy for the blowouts, the bad pairings on a whim and thru pressure from "the powers that be," and finally just the bad football? Is there going to be a time when the Herschel Walker's Georgia Bulldogs versus the Steve Young BYU teams, in just the 5-6 Bowl Games total? The answer is simple, there is not just a Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, or Fiesta Bowl. They are now the "TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL," the "ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL," and the "AT&T COTTON BOWL," the sponsors of these games have injected so many millions of dollars into the advertising and overall dominance of these games that there is not any chance of real parody anymore. The picks for the games are based on speculation not record. All that has to be seen for pure proof of this is the following: look to the Missouri 12-2 vs. Arkansas 8-5 Cotton Bowl (final score 38-7 MU), Hawaii 12-2 vs. Georgia (who should have been playing for the national championship) was destroyed 41-10 by Georgia, and finally (but probably not over, because there are three to five bowls games left) West Virginia 11-2 vs. Oklahoma 11-3 killed the "Boomer Sooner" 48-28. These bowl games are not about teams anymore, but are about the millions and millions that is brought into the schools that are playing in them. PERIOD!
There will never be a playoff in college football (which their should be a two to three tiered playoff to determine an actual national champion), because of three major factors. The first one is the fact that bowl games, as a whole, are in the nation's fabric as a tradition that would be not possible to eliminate altogether. The second reason is that there are to many hands in the preverbal pot, in who attends and plays in what bowl game, how the pairings are made, and then the overall power of the alumni and sportswriters/elites to place their stamp of approval on the overall process. A complete and no questions asked playoff system, would take to much power away from the "bowl machine." It would also prove that the RPI, computer generated ratings (or the third, third, third way to pick bowl games), and the actual things done to "remake" the bowl game system, that was put in place about 5 years ago, would have been a complete failure. Most people do not like to admit that the ideas and systems that were put in place, are/were actually wrong. However, the last and most important reason why there will not be a major overhaul into the bowl system and look deep into making a tiered playoff system in its place (or together), is MONEY! Money is the thing driving the whole bowl machine. All a person has to do is look at the "Chic-fil-A Bowl, the Petro Independence Bowl, and every other Bowl Game [except for the Rose Bowl, the grandfather of all bowl games), and see that sponsors and money are the main reason the elites and "deciders" will not push for any playoff system anytime soon.
I personally do not have any idea how the last two bowl games will turn out, but after last years blow out of Ohio State, in the "National Championship Game" (not to take anything away from LSU). Low and behold, it was not Georgia, Oklahoma, West Virginia, MU, KU, USC, (who had injuries, team gel problems, and two tough losses at the beginning of the season), to play LSU for the title game, but once again it is Ohio State. Ohio State is 11-1 and the only team in the country with just one loss. However, looking at their game tapes, the way they won against hobbled teams, and then squeaking out at least two games on "off calls and weird situations," the millions of fans that will, or won't sit and watch the "National Chumpionship Game" once again will be left with doubts. The doubts that every fan will have, every year, until there is two major schools who go undefeated, but even then in the crazy world of the NCAA Division 1 Football season, there will ALWAYS be questions. Until, the fans and the players get what they deserve, a National tiered playoff system, period!
No comments:
Post a Comment