Posted on 07/05/2022 5:39:40 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Following Edmund Burke’s adage (which was actually first said by Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, in a speech in the House of Commons on 1641, but it is thoroughly Burkean) that “If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change,” we can draw a straight line from this week’s ridiculous decision for USC and UCLA to join the Big Ten to the ruinous decision to institute the college football Bowl Championship Series back in 1998. College football has gone downhill ever since.
At a stroke the geniuses at the NCAA ruined the traditional New Year’s Day regional matchups, and reduced the charm of college football to a handful of elite college programs chiefly in the SEC. Who even cares about the Rose Bowl any more?
Now, I can understand that west coast football programs are frustrated that their stars often do not get sufficient attention for the big player awards like the Heisman or Outland trophies because their games do not receive much attention from eastern sportwriters and viewers because the games are on too late. But there’s something facially absurd about USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten (which is already more than 10 anyway).
Which is why I heartily endorse my pal John Tamny’s takedown of this wretched move....
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
1. Your college team doesn't simply up and move for more money and a better stadium deal.
2. Your college team didn't have to deal with contract hold-outs.
3. Your college team (maybe only nominally but still...) is made up of students. If you were a student too you saw these guys on campus (I did back in the day.) And sometimes you saw them back on campus even after they had gone pro, completing their degrees.
Ah well, times are changing. Not necessarily fo the better, but changing....
The ACC, the Big 12, and the Pac-12 (soon to be Pac-10), should join into one coast-to-coast, South Florida to Washington state, conference.
Oh Boo freakin’ hoo! The West Coast is crying that THEY don’t get enough attention?......................
You’re going to see a lot of schools starting to drop football or go to a lower division because they simply cannot keep up.
Just do like soccer, have a “Premier League” and institute Promotion/Relegation.
It is time for Stanford and Cal to follow the once famed U. of Chicago into football oblivion.
I'm a big fan of the relegation practice, certainly for the NFL and MLB. I don't see how it would work at the college level.
I disagree. Division I college football was not only the only sport that did not have a playoff, it was the only division of college football that did not have a playoff. That was an utter travesty. The media often got to pick who would be crowned national champs and they picked several teams that most fans thought were unworthy.
Also, worthy contenders would not be matched against each other - sometimes one or both would deliberately duck one another - depriving fans of great matchups that absolutely should have happened. We not only should have had a playoff, we should have had one much sooner. And 4 teams is not enough. We need to expand the playoff to 8. Bear in mind that the other divisions of college football have 16 team playoffs. 8 is hardly too much considering there are about 130 Division I teams....so its not like teams that barely have a winning record are going to be able to sneak in.
As for the conferences, we will see. The PAC could have positioned itself very nicely had they done what I was telling everybody they needed to do over a decade ago which was invite Texas and Oklahoma and allow them to bring Oklahoma State and Texas Tech along as travel partners. The PAC would have had several name brand programs, as well as the two anchors of the Texas and California markets for viewers and recruits. They could have then stood up to the Big 10 and SEC and been quite competitive. Instead they sat on their hands and did nothing. Now look at them. Its their own fault.
The SEC and Big 10 are a lot richer and stronger than anybody else. The ACC could still be viable if they could secure Notre Dame but the PAC and Big 12 are no longer major conferences. Even combined they would not be a major conference.
I wonder how much longer they will allow Vanderbilt in the SEC?
We stopped watching sports, pro and college, a few years ago.
This won’t get us back.
The first Heisman Trophy winner was from the U of Chicago, Jay Berwanger.
Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) also used to be a football powerhouse, as was Fordham too.
I would argue the Cal and Stanford have a much longer and deeper football tradition of any of the schools mentioned above.
Imagine having twelve of the best programs:
Alabama
Clemson
Georgia
Ohio State
Michigan
Notre Dame
Oklahoma
Texas
LSU
Texas A&M
USC
Oregon
And they all play each other, with the bottom three teams falling out, and then the three teams from the lower division moving up the next season. You could have maybe 6 or 7 such divisions. Actually the most interesting games would involve the teams trying to avoid the drop.
I’ve been told (can’t vouch for accuracy) that every conference has at least one private school so that the books for all the schools can’t be investigated too closely.
That’s exactly it.
The BEST college football is played in Division III.
Go Scots!
I like following Division I-A and teams like North Dakota State. It feels much more like old-time college football.
Yep. Vanderbilt would be out of the SEC after one year.
Yep.
They should call it The NCAA conference, control all marketing and run their own playoff system.
Oh...wait...
C’mon Red.
Cali is effing broke, including the Uni-system.
Follow the money...
The problem they run into is the so-called student athlete who gets a full “scholarship” to be an athlete in residence and not truly a student.
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