College Football: Why the Regular Season Doesn't Matter

So far in 2010, we’ve witnessed several blockbuster playoff matchups dissipate before our eyes; and it isn’t even June yet.

NCAA Basketball

Kentucky ended the regular season ranked No. 1, and had a freshman phenom in John Wall who fascinated even President Barack Obama. The Wildcats were on a collision course with the Kansas Jayhawks, a solid, veteran team that seemed able to beat their opponents by sheer will. We all wanted to see Kentucky duke it out against Kansas. But en route, West Virginia beat Kentucky, and Northern Iowa handled Kansas.

Instead, in the championship game we got Duke and Butler–certainly not the marquee matchup desired on paper. Still, what the Blue Devils and Bulldogs gave us in the title game was an absolute instant classic!

NHL

This was the year that the Washington Capitals were to make a legitimate run for the Stanley Cup. Moreover, everyone was eagerly awaiting their potential second round matchup with Pittsburgh.

It would’ve been the Penguins vs. Capitals; Crosby vs. Ovechkin.

Worldwide, prognosticators anticipated this duel in the gold medal game in the Vancouver Winter Olympics, but it didn’t materialize. Certainly the two All-Stars would finally face off against each other in the NHL playoffs.

Nope!

Ovechkin’s Caps first disappointed the experts by falling to the Montreal Canadiens.  Crosby’s Penguins followed suit. Jaroslav Halak has been red-hot on the ice; you couldn’t have scripted better goaltending .

www.wewantplayoffs.wordpress.com.

NBA

LeBron James and the Cavs dominated the regular season. For the second year in a row, we expected to see LeBron vs. Kobe in the NBA Finals. At last, the two best basketball players on the planet would go head-to-head for the championship. And ideally, for most NBA fans, we could finally crown the self-anointed James as “King.”

However, for the second year in a row, James will watch the Finals from his home...Cleveland, New York, Miami (who knows where he’ll be).

His current Cavalier team—built to beat Dwight Howard and the Magic—was ousted this week by the Boston Celtics.

What a bummer, and now we have to settle for really good basketball teams playing really good basketball (and listen to all the free agency talk).

For the record, I’m pulling for the Magic.

Only in major college football are regular season champions so “catered to.” All you need is strong tradition, a conference title, a Heisman hopeful and “you too can play for the Glass Football.”

How lame is that?

Alabama and Texas—especially Texas—were gifted entrants into last year’s BCS championship game, rather than surviving the gauntlet of a playoff. I’m not saying that they wouldn’t have reached the game in a playoff format; but rather that they didn’t have to, which diminishes their accomplishment considerably.

True champions survive the gauntlet, they welcome the crucible!

Major college football instead should cater to us, the fans...and give us playoffs!

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