BCS problems, and what a playoff could fix

December 19, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized

Okay, so just about everyone with a) a decent sense of fairness and b) don’t have a need to go against the grain knows that a playoff would be exponentially better than the BCS system right now. This year is the perfect example: not one, not two, but THREE undefeated teams are not even allowed to compete for a national championship this year. Isn’t this the most ridiculous concept you’ve heard of in a while? If you do not even lose a single game all year, then that would warrant consideration for a national championship. At the end of the bowl games, anywhere from 2-3 teams will be 13-0 or 14-0, yet only one will be the champ. The athletes on the field cannot control who they play, but they can control how they play against their schedule; to be undefeated is the ultimate expression of victory, yet Boise State, Texas Christian, and Cincinnati all have the opportunity to have an amazing year, yet not even have a CHANCE to get a national championship. I think this is pretty clear that something has to change.

If your internal compass of justice isn’t infuriated enough by this, maybe your sense of competition will be. If there was a playoff system, I am convinced that teams will play harder non-conference schools. Many top 6 schools compete against FCS and trash FBS teams, to pad records. However, most of these wins only help them get into better bowl games (or a bowl game, period). If a team felt they have a legitimate chance year-in and year-out to enter an 8-, 12-, or 16- team tournament to determine, many teams would scrap an attempt to pad resumes with weak wins with strong wins against other teams attempting to do the same. The cost-benefit of these games is much better for these competing teams in playing tougher games than easier games; you’re expected to win against Southwest Texas State, but if you lose, you’re pretty much fried. With a game against Arkansas, if you win it’s a nice padding, but if you lose you just lost to a team that has a good chance to make that final tournament.  Not a bad deal.  Plus, you’ll get bigger tv ratings, which will lead to more money for all these top programs, which we all know gets their collective dicks up like free porn.

One of the arguments against a playoff system is the concept that these students need more for studies.  Well, the bowls, in all their wisdom, go until about more than a month after the regular season ends, which would be a perfect amount of time for a tournament.  I’m sorry this argument is bought by anyone.  Their really is no argument,  except for the unspoken one: money.  The bowls make teams a ridiculous amount of money, so where would we replace this?  Easy; let the other teams that don’t make it that would be in a bowl, play a bowl game.  It’s the same thing that happens now; only one game matters now, instead of 7, 11, or 15 games.  I don’t think Middle Tennessee is pissed they’re in a bowl now, why would they be pissed in this new system?

The regular season would have to be shortened by one non-conference game, shrinking it to a 10/11 game year.  Greedy assholes shouldn’t complain.

How would this schedule sound to you?

Texas Schedule

Pittsburgh

Utah

Indiana

Typical Big 12 schedule

Brigham Young

Oregon

TCU

Alabama

That looks like an IMMENSELY more entertaining schedule than the one they cruised through this year.  I really don’t know how this doesn’t make sense.

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I hate my cell phone.

November 20, 2009 · Filed under Decathlon, Footy, Musings · Tagged , , , , , ,

At what point in time did my cell phone become so important to me, that when I leave it at home for an entire day, my friends are worried about me?  That might say a lot more about my friends (don’t know how genuinely concerned they were, but they were at least concerned enough to come to my house) than my dependence on my cell phone, but my lack of merely responding to texts and phone calls was enough to arouse concern.

And I hate it.  My cell phone has me tethered to a world I sometimes do not want to be a part of.  It seems immensely more difficult to live in my own world when I’m 19 and have a much more developed brain than when I was, say, seven; yet when I was seven, I could do whatever the fuck I wanted to in my spare time.  Nowadays, it seems like I have to grant permission to my society to do what I want.  Maybe that has more to do with responsibility than technology, but that cell phone binds me to tell people what I’m doing if they’ve already shown interest in what I’m doing.

Ramblings, that is.

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Okay, if you haven’t heard about the “main du Thierry” yet, you’re probably not going to want to read this.  If you have, then I have a few personal problems with how Thierry should’ve reacted versus how reality truly is.  As a football player my whole life, I’ve developed a sense of “football ethics”.  Now, some of these are quite obvious: if you manhandle one of my teammates, be prepared to feel the reciprocation; you don’t yell at the ref, the other team, the fans , etc.; you don’t be a dick and sit in front of a dead ball.  Stuff like that.  Hand balls in the box, however, have been an iffy point since I started.  If I sit back and view this from a general moral perspective, Thierry should’ve stopped playing the ball and let it go out.  But, if I introduce “football ethics”, it becomes much less clear.  In football ethics, you play the ball until the point of a ref whistle; since there was none, Thierry played it cooly to Gallas, and introduced France ‘10 to the World Cup.  AND YET, I still get a linger of doubt; he COULD have stopped.  He SHOULD have stopped.  But what would France have done if they went on to lose that game?  Does Thierry get praised for being a righteous player, or does he get berated for the sake of his country’s pride.  It’s a hairy question, and only Thierry knows what the feeling is right now when “football ethics” becomes intertwined with a nation’s pride.

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Decathlon season started.  I’m very excited; excited to see students back competing, to see surprise teams and disappointing years for top programs, and to see what my alma mater Pearland HS can do.  I still have a large amount of team pride two years later; I truly want them to win their third state championship in a row, because they have the capabilities.  However, it will be hard pressed for them this year; Houston-area rival Seven Lakes HS and region V rival Dobie HS are packin’ heat this year.  SLHS comes into Round 1 season as my favorite to lift what is probably the lamest trophy I have ever seen.  They barely lost to a solid Canyon Del Oro squad, and have continued to show improvement.  Dobie, meanwhile, is bringing back a lot of firepower from last year’s second consecutive fourth place finish, and have the history and cojones behind them to just as easily claim their fourth state championship.  Plano HS out of Dallas is the only truly unknown factor as far as powerhouses go, but I’m not feeling winds of change coming from the plains.

Preliminary guess for regionals:

1. Seven Lakes 46.8k

2. Pearland 46.4k

3. Dobie 46.3k

4. James E. Taylor 44.7k

5. Nimitz 44.4k

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