A lifelong diehard college football fan, I rarely complain about the sport. I’ve put up with cheating scandals, bad referees and a pitiful system without so much as a peep for quite a while. I’ve even defended the bowl system before. But I’ve had enough. I just endured 32 mostly thoroughly crappy bowl games. And you read that last sentence correctly. I said endured…not enjoyed. The most entertaining bowl game I watched, and God knows I watched a lot of them, took place on New Years day between Florida and Michigan with Michigan knocking off the Gators in a high scoring affair. The thing is, even during that game, I found myself changing the channel early and often to the NHL’s winter classic, which, if you missed it, was unbelievable. This isn’t a criticism of the teams per say and it really isn’t even a criticism of the bowls themselves. If you want to have the bowl games, if schools make money of them, if you think it’s good for smaller teams to get to play…whatever the reason, I really don’t care. It’s fine.
Here is what I do care about though. I care that college football deprives the sport of any sort of true closure at the end of most years by simply refusing to allow championship caliber contenders to play it out on the field. It infuriates me that I have to sit here and make a cast that LSU may or may not have been the best team in the country this past season, it is absolutely insane. The beauty of sport lies in the absolutes. In a world of gray outcomes, sport provides people with black and white results. Teams go out and they play games and when the game ends, one team wins and one team loses.. Sport represents the purest meritocracy we have in America because in sports you are not supposed to be able to hide. The best teams show they are the best teams by winning. Will someone please make an absolutely convincing argument that LSU could beat USC right now on a neutral field? The fact of the matter is, I can make legitimate argument that LSU, USC, and Georgia respectively is the best team in the country. I have one question. The season ended yesterday, so how the hell can that be?
I recognize that I’m preaching to the choir here, but I’m literally getting to the point where college football is so backward, so absolutely wrong that I’m considering just blowing it off. Now there is no chance that this is going to happen, because I love the game, but if I was smart I, I would because at the end of the day what do I get out in return for all of the hours I spend watching all the pre-game shows and all the games and spending all the money on all the gear. I don’t even get a national champion. I get nothing. I get speculation, I get confusion. I get BS. The Pac 10 and the Big 10 need to get their you know what together and recognize for the good of the bloody sport and for the sake of my sanity that a playoff needs to happen. The Pac 10 screwed one of its own teams out of a possible national title this year by opposing any sort of a playoff vehemently. And the Big 10 might not have looked so crappy (3-5 in their bowl games) had they lobbied for an expansive playoff because Michigan might have made some noise with the kind of ball they were playing at the end of the year. There is no reasonable argument for not having a playoff. I challenge the NCAA to tell the athletic directors to shove it and give the fans (who are the lifeblood of the sport) what they want, what they demand, and what they deserve….a clear national champion.
Here is what I do care about though. I care that college football deprives the sport of any sort of true closure at the end of most years by simply refusing to allow championship caliber contenders to play it out on the field. It infuriates me that I have to sit here and make a cast that LSU may or may not have been the best team in the country this past season, it is absolutely insane. The beauty of sport lies in the absolutes. In a world of gray outcomes, sport provides people with black and white results. Teams go out and they play games and when the game ends, one team wins and one team loses.. Sport represents the purest meritocracy we have in America because in sports you are not supposed to be able to hide. The best teams show they are the best teams by winning. Will someone please make an absolutely convincing argument that LSU could beat USC right now on a neutral field? The fact of the matter is, I can make legitimate argument that LSU, USC, and Georgia respectively is the best team in the country. I have one question. The season ended yesterday, so how the hell can that be?
I recognize that I’m preaching to the choir here, but I’m literally getting to the point where college football is so backward, so absolutely wrong that I’m considering just blowing it off. Now there is no chance that this is going to happen, because I love the game, but if I was smart I, I would because at the end of the day what do I get out in return for all of the hours I spend watching all the pre-game shows and all the games and spending all the money on all the gear. I don’t even get a national champion. I get nothing. I get speculation, I get confusion. I get BS. The Pac 10 and the Big 10 need to get their you know what together and recognize for the good of the bloody sport and for the sake of my sanity that a playoff needs to happen. The Pac 10 screwed one of its own teams out of a possible national title this year by opposing any sort of a playoff vehemently. And the Big 10 might not have looked so crappy (3-5 in their bowl games) had they lobbied for an expansive playoff because Michigan might have made some noise with the kind of ball they were playing at the end of the year. There is no reasonable argument for not having a playoff. I challenge the NCAA to tell the athletic directors to shove it and give the fans (who are the lifeblood of the sport) what they want, what they demand, and what they deserve….a clear national champion.
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