Every Saturday Is a Play Off!

I like to go bowling! So please don’t throw my ball in the play-off gutter!

 

            The 1^st argument people always seem to make for a play-off, when I get in this argument, and trust me I get in this argument all the time:

“D 1 Football is the ONLY sport left that doesn’t have a play-off”

 SO! Is always my answer

We wouldn’t travel across country to stand at the edges of a canyon in Arizona,

if every region of the country had one, no we go to the Grand Canyon because of its uniqueness.  

 There is only one Grand Canyon.

And in the current sporting world of overpriced tickets, compelled donations for the good seats, to much control by the TV gods, which creates to much commercial overtones, and for that matter to many damn commercials; games starting to early, games starting to late,

playing college football games on high school night.

there is only one constant:

        The bowls

There is nothing like it anywhere

It is unique   

It’s uniqueness is why, right after:

“the most exciting and unpredictable (basketball tournament) ever”

we’re talking about college football!

No disrespect to the Dukes’ of the college realm, but Football is King.

 And in this writer’s opinion the bowls are one of the reasons why football wears the crown on campus.

It’s funny to talk about uniqueness then use the T word

That’s right

Tradition! 

We love the game as much for what our teams did 100 years ago as we do

 for what they did 100 days ago.

I’m not going to bore the readers with what you already know about the tradition of college football. I’m a Bama fan and I was raised on Roses of Crimson, War babies, Goal Line stands, hounds tooth hats,  and leaning against the goal post – Iright!

 Another reason for bowling

Debate. That’s right debate.

American’s love to argue and American sports fans can go nuts when it comes to proving ones’ team is better than someone else’s team.

When was the last time you got an argument about the NCAA’s basketball championship? Can you remember who finished in the number 3 or 4 spot in the final basketball poll?  But I still debate the 1966 football season.

We were robbed!!!

Uncertainly makes for great drama.

A play-off system takes away the debate unless you want to hear the debate before the play-off starts!

If you believe the play-off system in 1AA or D-2 is hunky-dory, then I suggest

you talk to one of the many teams over the years that have been left out, sent on the road, or had to play the championship game on the opponents home field!

But why doesn’t this stuff make it to talk radio, or The Sporting News,-

Nobody cares!

 Unless you’ve been around some of those schools,

Nobody cares!

Who cares if Pittsburgh State has to travel to Brookings South Dakota

But you better believe folks in Iowa are gonna care when you pick Georgia over the Hawkeyes for that # 8 spot, or Virginia Tech fans might be a little upset with being left out...

And the ESPN folks would have a blast with the un- defeated Boise State team staying home. 

Of course if you had a play-off system instead of every now & then having 2 or 3 undefeated teams you would have twice as many undefeated teams, or more than likely, a ton of teams with only 1 loss-

                                    why

Cause if you have a play-off system NO ONE will play anyone that they don’t have too- Which leads to another reason why I like bowls

  The season is the play-offs!!!

If college football had a play-off now, within 5 years, the top 20 teams will barely want to play tough conference games, much less tough non-conference games, and into the not so distant future, after the field has been expanded,( it will happen!- no sport that has ever started a play-off has not expanded the field)

 Schools will start to pull out of major conference, cause if you have an 8, 12, or 16 team play-off, are you chances better if you play in a conference were at least 4 or 5 of your opponents have just as good of a shot at making the play-offs as you or playing in a conference of several Vanderbilt’s and just a couple of  Alabama’s?    

And if you really don’t believe my expanding theory, then, I suggest you listen as NCAA talks about enlarging March madness into the middle of April-

so now it will be Spring madness!

And while we’re on the subject lets talk about the NCAA

I know in Alabama that’s a 4 letter word, but if you want a play-off

Then you have to be ready for more NCAA control,

 As of right now

The bowls are not controlled by the NCAA-

The major programs of College football; it’s ADs, Presidents, and the Big-Wigs at the major conferences control the bowls and the money they produce.

If the NCAA were put in charge, instead of the Sec getting its generous cut of the 187 million(2002 $) a year paid out  by the bowls,  the piece of that pie  would be much smaller, even if the pot was bigger, our piece would be smaller, cause more schools would get a piece, and again as time passes more teams will start up D1 programs and the pie would continue to get sliced into smaller and smaller pieces.

 March Madness generates a lot of money, but that money is cut in so many ways that unless you make it to the elite 8,

You ain’t making any money.

Speaking of money, play-offs hurt revenues during the regular season

  No one from the pro- play off side talks about that, but it is the case,

  TV money, tickets...., from college basketball during regular season is down, and has been in a downward trend for 5 years.  

Revenue from regular season football is up,  

                        Why?

 “I don’t watch much basketball till the play-offs”

            2001 NCAA poll interviewee about Basketball and TV

In college football the season is the play-offs!!!

Here is a piece of irony about the bowls,

 48% of D-1 football programs will have a chance to play in bowls, while only  13% of D1 basketball programs get a chance to make the big dance.

This brings up a key point that folks like to make about the big dance

65 teams have a chance to win the championship, yea, I have a  about as much chance winning the Florida lottery as a # 9-16 seed has of winning the national championship.

In the end there is only ONE winner and 64 losers.

In college football, at the season’s end there are 28 winnings; if you don’t

think it  matters who won the New Orleans Bowl just ask any one of the 125 players, 100 or so band members, coaches, cheerleaders, alumni and fans of that team.

That single win gives them a positive end to their season and a positive start for the next.

  And if every now and then you have two teams selected as a # 1

what’s wrong with that;

Do you think Lsu fans are any less happy with their championship, than USC folks- heck no 

The LSU Tigers of 2003 are champions, and college football fans can debate that for  years to come!

Who won the basketball tournament?