AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > January > 11 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USNo defense for the BCS system
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The worst argument against a Division I-A playoff — and all the arguments are bad — is that it would cause student-athletes to miss class. The BCS title game was played on Jan. 8. Classes began at Ohio State on Jan. 3, at Florida on Jan. 7. Feel free to laugh out loud.
The BCS has always been, and will forever continue to be, a transparent way to mollify those who demand a playoff while still (and above all) protecting the bowls. And the more insiders are exposed to the money inherent in the bowls — the payout to each BCS title game participant was $17 million — the less inclined they are to protest.
Remember Urban Meyer’s claim that the system needed to scrapped? Well, on the morning after Florida banked its championship and its money, the Gator coach sounded as if he might be re-thinking things. That’s the way of the world: When you become an insider, you want to stay inside.
And the trouble with the BCS is that it makes it tough on the outsiders. Boise State landed a berth in the Fiesta Bowl, yes, but that was only the slot created by the BCS as a sop to the smaller conferences, a slot made possible by the creation of the championship game itself. Boise State, lest we forget, was the only Division I-A school to finish undefeated. For this distinction it wound up No. 6 in the coaches’ poll, behind Southern Cal and LSU, each of which lost twice.
Do I think Boise State would have beaten USC or LSU in a playoff game? No, but I didn’t think Boise would beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta, either. (Neither did I think Florida would beat Ohio State.) The beauty of March Madness is that anything can happen. The failure of the BCS is that only a few things are allowed to happen. Two teams completed their regular seasons unbeaten, and only one was given the chance to play for the title. That’s just wrong.
Until there’s a playoff system, the wrongs will mount on annual basis, but I’m convinced there will never be a Division I-A playoff. Now Mike Slive, the SEC commissioner, is saying the BCS might take a look at having a “plus-one” playoff after all the bowls when the current agreement expires after the 2009, but isn’t the BCS title game essentially a plus-one unto itself?
For the strongest argument against the BCS, we need only to turn to Bernie Machen, who’s Florida’s president. His team just finished No. 1, and he thinks a playoff is needed. Guess ol’ Bernie hasn’t heard how much missed class time — heh, heh — such a thing would entail.
Permalink | Comments (58) | Post your comment | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Comments
By JG
January 11, 2007 11:33 AM | Link to this
College Football… the best regular season in all of sports, the worst post season in all of sports! It’s been bad for years, but this year’s bowl season sunk to new lows: an obnoxious amount of bowls, bowl sponsors absolutely craming their products down our throat, and a solid week of bowl games AFTER New Year’s Day! It is out of control and drenched in BCS hypocrocy. Here’s to a playoff system before i die!!
By Josh
January 11, 2007 11:50 AM | Link to this
The reason the regular season is so good is that EVERY game matters. Anything more than a plus-1 championship game would ruin regular season football games, especially rivalry games played at the end of the season.
By James
January 11, 2007 11:54 AM | Link to this
Well, another college football season in in the rear view mirror and another truck load of money was made in the process. The BCS adminstrators and college presidents still loyally cling to their insulting excuses for not having a play-off system while everyone on the planet knows that the actual reason for the present system is the MONEY! I’d have a lot more respect for them if they would come out and say “we’re not in favor of a play-off system because we don’t feel it would generate the revenue that the present bowl system does”. At least then we would be able to say that they are honest about it.
By scribe
January 11, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this
Most schools finish their first semester final exams around Dec. 10. A three week- 8 team playoff with the Orange, Fiesta, Rose and Sugar guranteed a quarterfinal, 2 semifinal and a championship matchup every 4 years, The other 3 quarterfinals could be a rotational basis for the other bowls still out there.
All the other bowls could continue to be sprinkled throughout the week, before the BCS games on Sat.
Email the BCS, the NCAA and college presidents if you want to change this-that is the only way they know what we expect.
By J-skool dropout
January 11, 2007 11:58 AM | Link to this
Well, on the morning after Florida banked its championship and its money, the Gator coach sounded as if he might be re-thinking things. That’s the way of the world: When you become an insider, you want to stay inside.
Where’s the quote?
By Greg from Marietta
January 11, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
The BCS is a money maker for the supporting cities and has nothing to do with the true Championship. It will never be replaced by a playoff format because to much money has been invested and to much money stands to be lost if it is changed to a playoff format. The current BCS format is as flawed as the rating system (i.e. Ohio State was over rated all year), but that is what we are stuck with until something better comes along. A “March Madness” format would have to start after Thanksgiving and would prolong the college football season into late January. I think that we forget that these are kids and “supposedly” students in college and not pro athletes who have nothing else to do but play football.
By SEC_IN_ITS_OWN_CLASS
January 11, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
college football is just like heavyweight boxing. promote the matchup that will sell the most tickets and also promote a rematch or hell why not a third rematch. the ncaa will always look like the idiot. imagine how much better college football would be with this:
50 D1 teams, a north south east and west conferences with conference winners playing off for the title. wow what a concept…but the bottom feeders would cry and cry about not getting their fair share, so we’ll have to endure the fking weedwacker bowl and the meineke carcare bowl for years to come
By Mark Bradley
January 11, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
Meyer: “As the future unfolds, there may be a way to select 1 versus 2 because I know there is great controversy involved. I want to make sure I am perfectly clear that I think the bowl system is what it’s all about. What gets lost in the shuffle is the bowl experience for the players.”
By Greg from Marietta
January 11, 2007 12:08 PM | Link to this
The BCS is a moneymaker for the supporting cities and has nothing to do with the true Championship. It will never be replaced by a playoff format because too much money has been invested and too much money stands to be lost if it is changed to a playoff format. The current BCS format is as flawed as the rating system (i.e. Ohio State was over rated all year), but that is what we are stuck with until something better comes along. A “March Madness” format would have to start after Thanksgiving and would prolong the college football season into late January. I think that we forget that these are kids and “supposedly” students in college and not pro athletes who have nothing else to do but play football.
By Tim
January 11, 2007 12:09 PM | Link to this
The college football national championship is nothing more than a popularity contest. There is no true national championship, it is time to scrap the BCS. There are two options to this, 1)Playoff with only the top two teams from all D1 Conf. only, this means Notre Dame would have to join a confrence along with anyother independent D1 playing football schools. (This will never happen) 2)Go back to the old days, and let every confrence have a tie in with a bowl. Who ever gets voted on by what ever poll number one then that team could clam a Nationa Championship. AP poll champion, Harris poll champion, UPI could come back, this would as good as what we have now, each poll could have a trophy and give it away. This is the same as what we have now a popularity contest. SEC Champion to Sugar, PAC 10 to Rose Big 10 to Rose, Big 12 to Fiesta, ACC to Orange, Big East to Chic-Fil-A, WAC to Fiesta, MWC to Holiday, etc. Let’s go back to the old days.
By Joshua Barlowe
January 11, 2007 12:39 PM | Link to this
Do the NFL playoffs ruin the NFL regular season? Make the games unimportant? Didn’t think so.
It’s all about the money, and it’s a disgrace.
By SuwaneeDawg
January 11, 2007 12:45 PM | Link to this
“…but isn’t the BCS title game essentially a plus-one unto itself?”
I believe the concept is there, just not the practice. The playoff nay-sayers talk about preserving the bowls - nothing has to change with the bowls! Keep all 238 of them, fine. Place the top 4 teams in a rotating set of current BCS bowls and the winners play each other the following Saturday. Very similar to this year, only the champ has to win 2 games.
I know this has turned into a short novel but I have NEVER understood the argument against a plus-one set-up. Nothing has to change. The bowls stay where they are, the kids don’t miss anymore class than they do now, everyone involved makes a $#@&-load of money, and the fans get what they want. I just don’t get it.
I love college football. Even though the process of finding a NC stinks, I even love the bowls - the smaller ones as well as the big ones. Believe it or not, I don’t even have a problem with the fact that there isn’t a playoff of some sort. My problem is with the reasons that we are given that it can’t happen.
Good column, Mark. As much as I congratulate the gators, thank you for callng out Meyer’s hyprocisy as well as the hypocrisy of most everyone involved in the bowl system.
By Joey
January 11, 2007 01:15 PM | Link to this
Here is what I dont understand, when they talk about not having playoffs, how come in D2 and D1-AA there is a playoff for football and a playoff for every other sport?
By woodstockgt
January 11, 2007 01:20 PM | Link to this
My only comment is that the arguement against missing classes is the reason for not having a playoff system is a load of crap. If that were the case, then why do they have regular season games on Thur. nites??? Last I checked, most of these Universities have class on Friday. Its all about the money, always has been. I still don’t understand how a playoff system would cost schools money. If your bowl was not part of the playoff system, you still can have it. Last I checked, most of these bowls outside the BCS were not sold out anyway.
By regulator
January 11, 2007 01:32 PM | Link to this
Mark, I have to give you credit, if I were a sportswriter for a major newspaper, I would never admit thatI was stupid and say something like, I didn’t think there was any way Florida could beat OSU. Thanks, for your honesty. Have you ever been to a football game?
By Football Fan
January 11, 2007 01:33 PM | Link to this
It is time for a true National Champ. Why not take the Champ from the 6 major conferences & use the BCS to ID the next two - this year it would have been Mich & LSU. I agree with the post by “scribe” above - most schools have finished their finals by the second week of December.
Let the #1 team plus the winner of the 3 conferences that have a playoff host 4 games on campus in the week after finals. That rewards the teams that have to play this extra game & by playing it on campus, you get a full house. To those conferences without a playoff…….get 12 members & start one! Then the rankings could decide who hosts the games. The 4 winners meet in two of the BCS Bowls on a rotating basis - those winners play in the Plus One. Rest of the bowls stay the same. One extra game then we have now for 8 teams. Who will argue that the NC will not come out of the top 8 every year? The B.States of the world can win one “on any given day”, but let’s see them do it twice in a row like they have to do in the Big 12, ACC or SEC. The two stumbling blocks are Norte Dame (those Sugar Bowl TV ratings weren’t because of LSU) & the Big 10 Commissioner……….to hell with them! Let’s let the Big 10 Champ & the Golden Domers meet in some Ice Bowl up north & we all agree that the winner is co-National Champs…..they couldn’t beat any of the Big Boys anyway - & thats the real reason the commissioner doesn’t want them in a playoff anyway!
By Jack
January 11, 2007 01:36 PM | Link to this
I’m sick and tired of hearing how a playoff system in Div. 1 college football would ruin the intensity of the regular season.
BS!
How could a playoff system ruin the regular season. Your telling me a playoff system would change the importance and intensity of the UGA-FLA game or the ALA vs. AUB rivalry. No way, I’m not buying it. The history is there! The rivalrys are already there!
The number or teams and the number of games in a playoff system would be so limited that every game would still maintain the utmost importance. Every team would still need to win every game possible to make the playoff.
The other point, which confuses me, is how BCS proponents claim the players/students would miss too much class with a playoff system. But every other college division has a playoff system and there student athletes seem to make it work just fine.
I love college football and would hate for a new implemented playoff system to damage the magic of college football. But the system is so flawed!
I just hope they give it a try and see what happens with a playoff. I think everyone would be surprised how a playoff would enhance the entire sport!
Greed Sucks!
By ChicagoDawg
January 11, 2007 01:59 PM | Link to this
Do the NFL playoffs ruin the NFL regular season? Make the games unimportant? Didn’t think so.
Joshua,
The playoffs don’t ruin the regular season, but they certainly detract from it, especially when a team has their playoff position locked up. Did you not see the Bears - Packers game in the final week? The Bears didn’t even show up, and then they sat their starters for the second half. What is supposed to be the most passionate rivalry in the NFL became a meaningless game. I still think any college playoff system would have to remain very limited (no more than 8 teams) to protect the best regular season in all of sports.
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 03:13 PM | Link to this
Mark——I don’t disagree with your premise, that the BCS needs to be replaced by either a 4 or 8-team Division I football playoff, but I deeply resent your anti-Meyer hook and the AJC’s “hypocrisy” headline link to your column. President Machen and Coach Meyer are both on record, after UF was invited to the BCS championship game, as unambiguously supporting a playoff of undetermined format. President Machen went so far as to throw the university’s weight behind the issue, saying that the issue would be raised at the next SEC presidents meeting in the spring.
And, yes, I read the ambiguous gobbledy-gook quote form Meyer which you have cited above as your source. I read it yesterday as part of the on-line posting of press conference transcript. I read it in context, with all of the other rambling answers from an obviously tired man who is paid to coach football. Clearly, as a reporter, you have never been on the receiving end of the microphone and the rat-a-tat questioning of the media. I worked as a political press secretary for five years, and I can tell you that even the best public speakers and the most experienced flacks sometimes forget what they are saying in front of the kleig lights, and by the time they get to the end of their sentence they can’t complete their original thought. The excitement of the moment, the repeated interruptions of reporters, and the often ridiculously misinformed, biased and off-base questions asked, can turn the cleanest, most concise thought processes into inarticulate bilge. The rambling quote that you cite as the basis for Meyer’s “hypocrisy” can more easily be interpreted as a discussion of the positive bowl experience of the Buckeye and Gator football players in Glendale, a gracious thing to say in front of the coach’s BCS host committee who were sponsoring the morning-after press conference. By no means was the quote any sort of a denunciation of a playoff or a ringing endorsement of the present bowl system.
I have read your several BCS-related print articles and blog threads the last several days, and I perceive more than a little catering to and reinforcing of the biases of the most rabid of fire-eating anti-Gators. According to recent AJC articles and blog teasers, as written by actual AJC sports-writers, Gators are obnoxious, trashy, bent on world sports domination, and now the university president and team coach are hypocrites. Please——there are enough angles to cover on the BCS without making up storylines or clever hooks that demean one school, its coaches, players, administrators, graduates and fans.
Such brazen exaggerations would make William Randolph Hearst blush. The UF-UGA fire burns brightly without your amateurish stoking. Gator alumni are well-represented in the metropolitan Atlanta area and among the AJC’s declining readership. And many of us Atlanta Gators are active participants in and readers of the AJC sports blogs. I would suggest to you that it never makes good business sense to intentionally and repeatedly insult one segment of your readership as a cheap appeal to the well-known biases of another segment. It’s also a damn poor excuse for “journalism.”
Want a real story——one that your editors might actually print? Submit your questions for President Machen and Coach Meyer to the [UF] University Athletic Association media relations department, and I am quite certain that the coach and president will make time to respond to the serious questions on this topic from a newspaper representing one of the 2 or 3 largest metropolitan areas in the southeastern United States. You might also get some quotes and thoughts worthy of being quoted on your chosen subject.
Print that on your editorial page, mister, and you may regain some modicum of my respect as a “professional.” Until then, try to curb your cheap shots.
By Mike
January 11, 2007 03:26 PM | Link to this
Mark,
The Gators clearly schooled OSU on the 8th.
Mike
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 03:28 PM | Link to this
P.S., Mark——If you’re looking for a real villain to blame for the current BCS state of affairs, you may want to do a google news search regarding the horribly disproportionate influence and self-interested actions of the Big Ten conference commissioner, the Rose Bowl organization, and the Pac-10 and Big 10 university presidents. The overwhelming majority of Division I coaches want a playoff (including a majority from the Big 10 and Pac-10), and only the commissioners of two mediocre football conferences and the money interests behind the “Granddaddy of them all” stand in the way.
You may want to do some actual homework before you select an honorable man as your scapegoat next time.
By J.B.
January 11, 2007 03:54 PM | Link to this
Gator Guy, you smoked Bradley’s behind on that one. I thought that was a curiously out-of-context quote from Urban Meyer and you proved it. What’s more, Bradley surely knew that, too.
By Chris
January 11, 2007 03:56 PM | Link to this
Think about how popular and how much money March Madness makes. Why wouldn’t a playoff system actually make college football even more money if used with a bowl system as well. It’s so stupid to think it would lose them money.
By SuwaneeDawg
January 11, 2007 03:58 PM | Link to this
Gator Guy - Check out Mark’s columns from Tuesday and Wednesday for more cheap shots.
I haven’t been one of his biggest fans, historically, but it seems to me he has been singing UF’s and Meyer’s praises this week.
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 04:27 PM | Link to this
Here’s the full opening statement by Urban Meyer at the morning-after press conference, including the brief quote cited above (in context):
THE MODERATOR: “Good morning everyone, welcome. At this time, I would like to congratulate and welcome Coach Urban Meyer.”
COACH MEYER: “Thank you for being here today. Obviously a great day for Florida football and our players. There are some people I have to thank. I don’t know if this is the appropriate time to do it, but I would like to thank Tostitos for hosting such a terrific Bowl and Bowl experience for our players; John Junker and Fiesta Bowl volunteers and their staff; the City of Glendale providing such a beautiful stadium; the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. And the reason I bring them up, along with Scottsdale Community College, because one of our issues and — and everybody I talked to that coached in a game of this magnitude, to a person, to a man, they made a comment that the whole key is going to be keeping your team focused and keeping them with that edge.
“We left Gainesville with that edge and we certainly didn’t lose it in our five to six days we spent here in Arizona. On behalf of that, I think a lot of times that’s overlooked. The security at our hotel, it was hard to get in there and that’s the way we like it. I am grateful for that.
“I’d also like to make a couple comments on the Bowl experience for our players. We have been very fortunate to be around, starting in 1990, I think, was the first time — excuse me, Cotton Bowl, I want to say, was in ‘88 when I was at Ohio State, ‘87. We played in the Cotton Bowl and we took teams, for example, at 1990 to a Freedom Bowl when I saw a school that hasn’t really been to a Bowl game in many, many years all the way through.
“I also had to stand up in front of a team that deserved to go to a Bowl at Bowling Green at 9 and 3 and 8 and 3 and tell them they weren’t going and they were completely devastated.
“I would like to make the comments that — although I think it is an imperfect system, I think as the future unfolds, there may be a way to select one versus two because I know there is great controversy involved. I want to make sure I am perfectly clear that I think the Bowl system is what it is all about. What gets lost in the shuffle is the Bowl experience for the players.
And I watch every Bowl I can, and to see those young people enjoy themselves and to get to experience a different part of the country and say they went to a Bowl game, that can never be changed.
“I do believe that the future discussions about fixing an imperfect system will continue to grow, but certainly the University of Florida, our football team, my coaching staff, I am very pleased with the way our guys played.
“And the separation of the Bowl game from the other Bowls, I think, was college — that’s good for college football.
“With that, I will answer any questions. Thank you.”
http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=184&p=2&c=608069
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the present BCS system, is it? Nor does it smack of hypocrisy, does it? From where I sit, it reads more like several measured references to the “problem,” without insulting his BCS hosts. Such behavior used to be recognized by most Southerners as “good manners.”
Everyone, please pardon my extended posts, but I resent journalists who fail to do their own homework, engage in cheap shots, and mischaracterize (whether negligently or intentionally) the statements, beliefs and thoughts of honorable and decent people. Hopefully, this will not earn me a nomination as the new Mr. 39
By Michael
January 11, 2007 04:30 PM | Link to this
The quote you came up with doesn’t even come close to indicating that Meyer is opposed to a playoff. And I’m truly sick of hearing about Boise State. Their win over OU was great fun to watch, and I was pulling for BSU all the way. And although I favor a playoff as much as anyone, BSU isn’t even a good argument for one. If they played OU ten times they’d lose nine times. If they’d played Florida’s schedule they’d have been lucky to win five games, six maximum. Sure a 12-0 record is something to brag about, even if it’s compiled against the Sisters of the Poor. And every now and then a Sisters of the Poor is going to beat an Oklahoma. But I’m not absolutely certain that if I’d had to pick 8 pre-bowl teams for a playoff this year that BSU would have been one of them.
By Chris
January 11, 2007 04:37 PM | Link to this
Four words: Appalachian State - National Champions. No one can argue it. No one can pontificate on it. I guess that’s why no one seems to pay attention to it. Back to back at that.
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 04:39 PM | Link to this
SuwaneeDawg——You sound like a reasonable guy. Do you find any BCS-playoff “hypocrisy” in the above-quoted opening statement by Meyer?
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 04:57 PM | Link to this
Guys——You want a better explanation of who is thwarting a Division I playoff?
Here’s a couple of examples of articles about the Big 10 commissioner and Rose Bowl management’s roles in stymieing a Division I playoff. There were more articles on this topic posted 3 to 5 days ago, but these will give you a flavor:
http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/rmelick.ssf?/base/sports/1168337702231690.xml&coll=2
http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/story.asp?id=266906
It’s all about more money for the Pac-10, Big 10 and the Rose Bowl, and damn the other 100-odd Division I schools. It’s enough that I may not watch the Rose Bowl or any other Big 10 or Pac-10 televised game until Big 10 Commissioner Delaney is force-fed deep-fried crow. Good trivia: where did Delaney play and/or coach football? He didn’t. Delaney was a bench-warmer for UNC’s basketball team, for Pete’s sake.
BTW, the Rose Bowl’s sweetheart broadcast deal with ABC runs through 2010. There will be NO Division I playoff even considered before then, and probably none thereafter as long as the Big 10 and Pac-10 support the Rose Bowl’s privileged position in the bowl hierarchy.
By SuwaneeDawg
January 11, 2007 05:06 PM | Link to this
GG - As read in its entirety, no, I stand corrected. My issue in my post directed towards you was that I don’t really see the “…catering to and reinforcing of the biases of the most rabid of fire-eating anti-Gators” over the past week. In fact, I think it has been quite the opposite.
All I’m implying is that, while you were accusing him of not looking at Meyer’s quote as a whole, let’s be fair and not do the same towards him.
Good grief, I’m defending Mark Bradley. Miracles never cease.
By SuwaneeDawg
January 11, 2007 05:10 PM | Link to this
GG - Also, you’re absolutely right about Jim Delaney. His crock of crap about the Rose Bowl is just that. There are a thousand ways to implement a playoff of some type and not hurt the Rose. His problem is he knows his inferior conference will only be able to be a part of the big money, not the big, BIG money that a playoff or a plus-one would bring.
By Eagledog
January 11, 2007 05:27 PM | Link to this
The madness in the BCS is usually who plays for the title. Can anyone say for sure that Louisville with just one loss couldn’t have done in the Buckeyes just as easily? And the way USC rolled over the Wolverines. Didn’t they also look worthy of consideration again despite losing so badly to UCLA. They were still reeling from the Ducks debacle. Yup. A playoff would make more bucks than congress can spend in a month. Okay, an hour but, you get my point. Money sure talks so why the hell isn’t the BCS listening? It is a mystery surrounded by paradox wrapped in an enigma. Somebody’s getting paid somewhere to maintain the status quo but who???
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 05:27 PM | Link to this
SuwaneeDawg——In fairness to Mark Bradley (who has been on the sharp end of my stick this afternoon), the back-handed AJC swipes at the Gators have not all or even mostly been penned by Bradley. Such trash may be cute and even funny coming from some overwrought fan-blogger, but they smack of cheap appeals to bias when included in a published article by an AJC writer.
I can laugh at the trashy, obnoxious jeans-shorts-wearing rednecks references, even when appearing in the AJC’s print-edition sports section, but not at putting words in someone’s mouth to imply something he did not say or intend. Heck, it’s the central hook in Bradley’s article (and on-line frontpage link). I suspect if Bradley had read the full press conference transcript, he would likely agree. Most journalists will say that they try to be fair and accurate. The problem is some chump fan-blogger like me should not have to do the due diligence and background research for a professional journalist; journalists are supposed to provide insight to the masses, not simply wait to be corrected by the masses … and, especially so when impugning the reputation and behavior of a good man.
There, I’m done. I’ll climb off my soapbox now.
By LL Cool Scott
January 11, 2007 05:30 PM | Link to this
Wow. Gaytors can be awfully insecure and touchy, can’t they…
You just won a legit national championship in b-ball and a mythical national championship in f-ball. Times are good - relax buddy.
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 05:39 PM | Link to this
Eagledog——I am no conspiracy theorist, but as an informed fan of college football, you really need to read the Big Ten/Rose Bowl/Pac-10/BCS articles that I linked to above. The current Big 10 Commissioner is a one-man wrecking crew for any future playoff, simply because the Rose Bowl and Big 10 get a disproportionate share of the revenue from the current arrangements. Commissioner Delaney makes no bones about it: it’s all about the extra money for the Big 10. Concerns about grades and academics were a rhetorical ruse. Given the Big 10’s 2-5 bowl record this year, it’s rather ironic, isn’t it? In fact, I’d be laughing if I weren’t already crying for my sport.
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 05:47 PM | Link to this
LL Cool Scott——Read the article, read the actual quote, and then substitute Mark Richt’s name for the “hypocrite” inaccurately named. See how if that doesn’t rub your Dawg fur the wrong way. Bad journalism is bad journalism, and that includes out-of-context quotes.
BTW, I don’t think that I’ve encountered you on the AJC blogs before, but if you’ve read any of my posts, you might think that I am the reasonable Gator, and not so “insecure” or “touchy” as you imply.
And, uh, thanks, I’m trying to do my best to suffer through the recent performances by the Gators.
By crackbaby
January 11, 2007 05:47 PM | Link to this
Bradley,
Chill out. College football does not need a playoff. In a playoff system, only one team wins its last game. The others end their season dissapointed.
The BCS worked out fine this year. Big ten teams should NOT be rewarded for their conference’s lack of a Championship game. If they had such a game, maybe OSU would have played Wisconsin (or Michigan again).
If Boise State wants to play in BCS title game, they need to shcedule tougher non-conference foes. Ditto for SEC teams. Sure, the SEC is the toughest conference, but that if you play softies a la Georgia every year to warm up, it should count against you when USC played Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame, etc. outside their conference.
Maybe do the BCS plus one, but don’t devalue the other bowls by pluggin in a playoff.
By Ur wrong
January 11, 2007 05:49 PM | Link to this
If Florida’s classes began on January 7th, that would be a Sunday. I don’t remember my school having classes on Sundays.
By LL Cool Scott
January 11, 2007 06:11 PM | Link to this
Gator Guy,
The real point is….”WHO CARES ABOUT SOME SMALL DIS LIKE THIS?!”
You just won TWO championships in one year. It’s whining like this that has the Gators in second place and closing fast on Duke as America’s Most Hated College Athletics Program.
By the way, I’m not a big Dawg fan, more of a Falcons and Hawks (ugh) fan. You’re more likely to catch me on these blogs ripping Billy Knight or the rednecks/racists who think Michael Vick should be replaced by Matt Schaub.
By Gator Guy
January 11, 2007 06:50 PM | Link to this
LL Cool Scott——Calling someone a “hypocrite” in some neighborhoods and social circles is a bigger “dis” than calling them a M-F, especially in print. One is an inane insult, the other is an imputation of a man’s honor, personal honesty and integrity. I suspect there are more than a few native Georgians who would feel similarly dissed when called a “hypocrite.” In that context, calling an AJC sports-writer out on the carpet for bad reporting and misquoting someone if more than fair, and certainly doesn’t constitute “whining.” Bad information should be corrected, right?
I hope the Falcons’ new coaching situation works out for you next year (God knows Atlanta deserves a decent football team, after these years of suffering), but in these blogs college football is the Real Deal. Something some folks even think it is worth arguing over from time to time.
By Mark Bradley
January 11, 2007 09:13 PM | Link to this
Urban Meyer to reporters when it seemed Ohio State and Michigan might stage a rematch in the BCS title game: “If that does happen, all the presidents need to get together immediately and put together a playoff system.” Urban Meyer on the day after his team won the BCS title: “I want to make sure I am perfectly clear that I think the bowl system is what it’s all about.” That’s not misquoting. That’s not bad information. And I didn’t just read the press conference transcript; I was in the room at the Camelback Inn in Paradise Valley, Ariz., when he uttered the latter quotation. And it wasn’t shouted over the “repeated interruptions of reporters.” It was offered in an opening statement, during which he referred to a piece of paper he’d pulled from his jacket pocket. And I, in case you missed it, never used the word “hypocrisy.” (It was in a headline, which I didn’t write.) Here’s what I did write: “Well, on the morning after Florida banked its championship and its money, the Gator coach sounded as if he might be re-thinking things.” Perhaps that isn’t your interpretation, but it certainly was mine.
By MBATL
January 11, 2007 09:26 PM | Link to this
scribe (and others who favor a playoff - didn’t read all the posts), I agree with an 8-team playoff.
The big problem I see is that, for instance, Gator fans and Buckeye fans will travel to Arizona - ONCE. But in a playoff scenario, you’re not gonna get large numbers of alumns traveling for up to 3 weeks - and there’s no time to make cost-efficient travel plans even if you wanted to.
So the bowls would have to rely on locals for attendance, and would lose all the hotel/restaurant revenue.
I’m ALL FOR a playoff, but think this may be the big deterrent to it. There must be a way, though…
By SuwaneeDawg
January 11, 2007 09:52 PM | Link to this
Maybe I started this whole thing for bringing the first non-headline writer to bring “hypocrisy” into it but, GG, you’re taking this a little too personally. Seems the man was in the room after all, I believe I’ll take his word for it.
By the way, Mark - There was a headline issue a couple of weeks ago on the UGA blog that almost caused a small riot. What’s the chances the powers-that-be would let you guys write your own headlines?
By Navigator
January 11, 2007 11:28 PM | Link to this
If you really want it to be like the professional playoffs, forget the BCS bowls and let the 1 play 4 play, on the 1 home field, and 3 play 4 on the 3 home field. The winners can play in the college superbowl. I can’t even imagine the media blitz, and the money that would bring. It might also put and end to the stupd BCS bowls. They never invite the best teams, only those that bring the biggest crowds or garner the most popularity. In other words, the BCS money whores would get their just reward. Then the BCS could fight over the 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 ranked for their freakin bowl teams. The end result would be a mini championship series, and those rediculus lower tier bowls would die. Who watches them anyway.
By bcs hater
January 12, 2007 12:45 AM | Link to this
Hate to break it to you Gator fans, but your team is not the national champion. There is no such thing as a national champion in D1 college football. Appalachian State is a national champion. The Gators were voted No. 1. There is a big difference. There has never been a true national champion in D1 and there may never be one.
Until a playoff system in installed, and it would need to have at least 16 teams to be legit, the Gators are paper champions, just like every team that has voted No. 1 in the past. If the field was limited to 8 teams (6 conference champs + Boise State + 1 other team) who would be left out? Wisconsin? Michigan? LSU? Anybody want to make the case that Wake Forest would have been a more worthy playoff team than Auburn, Arkansas, Cal, Rutgers, West Virginia, etc. ?
Start the playoffs in mid-December so teams don’t go 6 or 7 weeks between games. Play the quarterfinals New Years eve/New Years day, leaving 4 teams to play the next week and extending only 2 teams past that. The major bowl games could be used as sites once you reach the quarterfinals, and the first round games could be split among a few other bowl sites and maybe some northern domes to spread the games around the country and give a higher seeded team a regional edge.
If some of the piddly bowls want to keep going, let them play between Christmas and New Years. Some of them would probably get better quality opponents this way. And the greedy college presidents might discover that a playoff might make even more money than the bowl system.
By Gator Guy
January 12, 2007 03:12 AM | Link to this
Mark——I’ve dealt with the news rooms and hard news reporters of more than one major newspaper, and I understand perfectly well the division of labor among copywriters, headline writers and copy editors. While it is certainly technically accurate to say that you did not write the “hypocrisy” headline, relying upon that fact as a defense for an inaccurate and insulting headline is an organizational cop-out and a formula for zero accountability within the AJC editorial organization.
In my humble opinion, the “hypocrisy” headline link (now gone with the passing news cycle) was more than fairly representative of the tone and substance of your story. If you thought otherwise, it was your responsibility as the article author to request that the headline be edited to more fairly reflect your story. Apparently, you did not think it was an inaccurate representation of your story, and you chose not to request a re-edit.
Finally, if you were present at the morning-after press conference in Glendale, you and the other reporters present had the opportunity to ask follow-up questions and to ask for a clarification of an obviously ambiguous statement. The fact that no one interrupted the coach during his opening statement is irrelavant sophistry on your part. If that was your interpretation of the coach’s comments, where is your follow-up? If your interpretation is an accurate one, this is potentially a major national sports story that the coach and university president would so conveniently change their publicly stated opinions in support of a playoff. Have you submitted follow-up questions to the UAA media relations department? Have you e-mailed a request for clarification to the coach and president to their public e-mail addresses?
Finally, if your interpretation of the coach’s statement is so gosh-darn journalistically sound, how come not a single reporter in the room chose to question the statement? How come a Google news search reveals not a single on-line newspaper in America that shares your confidently stated interpretation? Your “interpretation” of an ambiguous statement is awfully thin evidence upon which to rest your case, my young scribe. The fact that you are apparently the only reporter in America who chose to interpret the coach’s statement as you did speaks volumes as to the reasonableness of your “interpretation.”
Finally, to those bloggers who think that I am taking Mr. Bradley and the headline writer’s interpretations “too personally,” I ask: whose responsibility is it to get the headline and story right when either implying or simply declaring that an honorable man is a hypocrite?
I’ve now vented more than my share … I’m done.
By CAROLINA DOG
January 12, 2007 08:56 AM | Link to this
LISTEN UP, A PLAYOFF SYSTEM WILL NOT WORK. NOT UNLESS YOU WANT TO BREAK UP THE CONFERENCES AND LET THE NCAA DEVELOP A NEW REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE EVERY YEAR FOR EACH TEAM.LIKE THEY DO IN THE NFL.THAT WOULD INSURE EVERYONE’S WIN/LOSE RECORD WOULD BE EVEN. ONLY THEN CAN YOU PROCEED WITH A PLAYOFF SYSTEM THAT WOULD MAKE ANY SENSE. OH YEAH, IT’S FOOTBALL NOT BASKETBALL. HAVING PLAYED BOTH IN HIGH SCHOOL I SEEM TO REMEMBER FOOTBALL BEING A LITTLE MORE PHYISICAL.
By Jack
January 12, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this
Mark, A large majority snickered & uttered “Sour Grapes” when Tubberville suggested this after the 2004 season, when AU went 13-0. Thanks for a fresh perspective on an old problem.
By Unfrozen Caveman Dawg
January 12, 2007 10:50 AM | Link to this
Not having a playoff is why the regular season in college football is so great. It makes everygame count. A huge playoff would absolutely ruin college football for the true fans of the game. If we have a big playoff it will diminish the value of college football’s regular season and make it just like all of the other sports. I would hate to see the day where teams rest players for the last week or two of the regular season to heal for a playoff run. You may think that won’t happen but it will, it does in every other sport. It also would take the sting and the drama out of upsets. UCLA’s upset of USC would have basically meant nothing if their was a playoff, one of the great things about college football now is that no matter how crappy your team’s season is going you can ruin your rival’s year. Saying “we knocked USC out of the national championship” surely gives Bruin fans more solace than saying “we kept USC from getting a first round bye, yippee!”. I am not totally against maybe like a four team playoff, but I highly suspect that all that will do is shift the whining and moaning from who got left out of the national championship to who was left out of the four team playoff. This whining and moaning will make them eventually keep expanding it until they have a huge playoff which has the impact on the sport that I described above. Besides you can never have a playoff big enough to stop all of the complaining from the pundits (case in point: the annual cry fest about which teams got left out of the 65 team NCAA Basketball playoff that should have been in there). The way I see it no matter who you are if you lose a game you have no right to complain about being left out of the national championship game, you controlled your own destiny and you lost so you are now at the mercy of chance. What happened to Auburn a few years ago was unfortunate but that is the only time I ever remember (I am 29) there being3 unbeaten BCS conference teams at the end of the regular season and 2 after the bowls. In 1994 Penn St. went unbeaten but they were not able to play for the National Championship, but that was because of the old rule that the Big 10 champ had to go to the Rose Bowl no matter what, not because of the BCS or the Bowl Alliance. If that situation happened today they would have played Nebraska for the title. In the Auburn situation thereshould be a special rule that mandates a split of the national championship if two BCS conference teams are unbeaten after the bowls (or for you playoff hungry guys, one more game that is only triggered and only occurs in that situation). I am really sorry for Boise State but the fact is they play inferior competition week after week, if they really want to make themselves a legitimate program they should do what Florida State did and what that guy out at Fresno State is trying to do now. Start playing people (the big programs) anytime, anywhere. I love college football and I think we have a great thing going and I don’t want to see it ruined. Sure the casual fan of college football wants to fill out a bracket at the end of the year but for the die hard fans who watch the games week in and week out, and agree that February (after signing day) is the toughest month of the year a big playoff will not be so great so don’t fall for it.
By Jeffrey
January 12, 2007 10:50 AM | Link to this
I will never understand how the television stations think it is more convenient for me to watch a big game on an evening when I have to work that day and the next day instead of on an afternoon or evening when I am off for the holidays. The whole thing makes no sense.
By Gator Guy
January 12, 2007 10:52 AM | Link to this
Original frontpage headline link to Bradley’s column:
“BRADLEY: NO DEFENSE FOR BCS
“Sports columnist Mark Bradley remarks on how Florida football coach Urban Meyer is singing a new tune about the need for a Division I-A playoff now that his Gators have won the BCS championship. Unfortunately, says Bradley, such hypocrisy will endure.”
By J.B.
January 12, 2007 11:41 AM | Link to this
Maybe we are being too defensive but I don’t think so. My last contribution on this thread: I have to admit that I am very surprised that Mark Bradley followed up his sloppy opinion with an equally lame response. That’s remarkable, Mark. You might want to leave this faux pas alone.
By Jim
January 12, 2007 12:48 PM | Link to this
Quit trying to make Division I football the NFL. It is great the way it is. All the bowl games make this season the best in sports. Without the controversy about the BCS sports columnists would actually have to work for a story instead of rehashing sports talk show diatribes. Regarding the Division II playoff: Who can name the last 8 teams in the playoff? The last 2? The winner?
By Erric J
January 12, 2007 01:51 PM | Link to this
I’m confused. Each year I read how bad the current BCS System is, how a playoff would be so much better, how we get stuck watching all these meaningless bowl games between mediocre teams w/ 6, 7, or 8 win seasons going in. First off, who said you had to watch any game on the tube that you’re not interested in. The remote still belongs to you so just use it. As for the mediocre teams, do you have any idea how much they get paid to show up for the Emerald Nuts or the Poulan Weedwhacker bowl. It’s alot more than what they would receive for staying home, which is what most would do if you scrap the present system. You would also devalue the regular season games, especially the traditional rivalries. What would be the sense in scheduling strong non-conference opponents? The NCAA is unique in that every regular season starts out as a must win, and increases in importance with each victory, giving you gripers a defacto playoff system. Most of you who are unhappy with the present system probably thought Ohio State and Michigan should have squared off. They both lost to their respective opponents and Florida, the team with the most difficult schedule in D-1, won the ring. What’s the problem?
By dannotdan
January 12, 2007 03:37 PM | Link to this
Can anyone tell me why Notre Dame is part of the BCS system? When you go to the BCS website www.bcsfootball.org Notre Dame is given conference status, the same status as the 12 team SEC, or the 11 team Big Ten. No other Independents are listed and once again Notre Dame commands status and attention that it may have earned in the 50’s or 60’s but they have not been worthy of in a very long time.
The 11 conferences that are part of the BCS all share Bowl revenue with their respective leagues but Notre Dame gets invitations to get beat in games they don’t deserve to be in year after year. They have their own TV contract, again keeping all of that TV revenue and do nothing to support the Major conferences, or the Fox Broadcasting Network who generate all of the hype and contribute all of the money.
When they revamp the BCS to a plus one or some other modified playoff system they should tell Notre Dame that they are finished until they join and win a conference.
By Doc Dawg
January 12, 2007 04:41 PM | Link to this
We need to cut down on the number of 1-A teams and have a realignment and a playoff. Conf USA, Sun Belt, Mid American… go play basketball. Perpetual doormats like Duke and Vandy and half of the Mountain West and WAC, also go to the 2nd division. Each year, have the bottom eight from the big boys play the top eight from the second division to play-in. This will allow up and coming programs like Rutgers to move up and ensure that everybody is committed to football (Vandy I’m talking to you). Realign into 4 conferences with 8 divisions, keeping close to historical conferences. Round robin in your division, play a rival outside i.e. Georgia vs. Tech. At the end, the top 16 or even 32 play it off, either within the bowl system or under a new system.
This will never happen because 1) its more risk for top programs, 2) the absolute horror of having a bad season and then losing the play-in game.
By JLS
January 13, 2007 03:17 AM | Link to this
Missing Classes? What the heck are they talking about? A true playoff format would take place through the month of December, when most schools are on Christmas break. 16 team playoff - programs limited to 11 reg. season games - no conference championship games. You start the first round the first weekend of December, and by New Years weekend you are down to your final. You can incorporate the larger bowl sites with hosting the NCAA super bowl, as they do with the final 4 in Basketball. You then have a set amount, and I mean set, of bowl games for those that do not make the playoff brackets, just like the NIT in college basketball. All of the bowl games do not mean anything in the grand scheme anyway, so you have some reward for a winning record with a post season game. So in essence this whole thing would take place during the winter break…as it was called when I was in college…..so no class time is missed. Not too hard…is it?
By JLS
January 13, 2007 03:29 AM | Link to this
Gator Guy……….He already said that was not his comment, that was the headline. Meyer is a two talking politician, for he filibustered big time when the thought was Michigan and Ohio state may play again. And part of that was the comment Mr. Bradley noted in his reply. Just remember this…….the national championship Florida just one is one conjured by man and machines. It has not ounce of the same meaning as the one Appalachian State won at the Championship subdivision, or that Mt. Union won, or Grand Valley State. Those teams all negotiated a playoff bracket, and won it on the field. Florida humiliated Ohio State Monday night, but by no means does that make them a “true” national champion. Same goes for any teams that have won this mythical BCS championship.