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 ...
The SEC and the ACC will be the center of the college football universe for the foreseeable future. That’s where the money goes.
When Cali can get coaches like Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney to run their football programs they might get some respect.......
The problem with PAC football is the lack of fans. A couple of years ago, UCLA hosted the University of Oklahoma for a game at the Rose Bowl. Even with UCLA giving away free tickets, the stands were half empty. When UCLA visited OU the next year, it was a sell out. Do you see a trend?
Maybe all of the teams can eventually be in one giant super-conference. That would make things totally different.
Macalester?
Alma
With a bit of Glenwhinney...
😊
The beginning of the end was Oklahoma suing the NCAA in the 80s to gain access to their own TV rights.
From that time on it slowly became all about the money.
Traditional rivalries have already gone away. Oklahoma/Nebraska, Pitt/Penn State etc. That ship sailed long ago.
Now ESPN, who own the rights to the SEC do 100% hype and happily celebrate and downgrade any successes outside of the Big 10 and SEC.
Today could likely be the end of the PAC
It’s network greed and the Haves putting it to the have-nots
I think just about everything is.
https://www.sbnation.com/a/college-football-preview-2016/ncaa-football-relegation
Of course some of the teams have moved around, but the principle still applies.
“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...”.
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On a surface level this seems perfectly logical and appropriate.
But FBS college football teams (previously known as Division I teams) exist and train to punish and wear/grind down the bodies, physicality, and athleticism of the players on the rosters of their fellow league teams. Do you not agree that the bug name teams that play 13, sometimes 14 games in the fall, have crossed a threshold, beyond which they are basically spending the very bodies of their own student-athletes?
You are right, but didn’t go far enough. All collegiate sports are going to be decimated.
Football pays the freight for most college Title IX programs. No profitable football programs no, crew, volleyball, women’s basketball, track and field ,etc.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some college, perhaps the University of California Berkeley, Western Washington University at Bellingham and others form a sports tranny league to make up the financial shortfall given the brilliant moves seen from the NCAA and other collegiate organizations in the past 50 years.
Stanford is surprising insofar as it generally fields a football team wherein at least half the players are actually students. California had for years, and may still have, a sort of three percent rule that allowed any football palooka to be put on scholarship. In either case, neither Cal nor Stanford can fill its stadiums with any regularity. Thus, no big loss.
Correct the U of C football team was part of the big ten and coached for many years by Amos Alonzo Stagg. The term “Monsters of the Midway,” referred to the U of C Marrons not the Chicago Bears.
I have a proposal that would basically take all 130 Division 1 teams and arrange them across divisions.
11 Divisions, each of which consist of two tiers, the first tier is the “power” tier, mostly consisting of the teams from the Power Conferences, and the “lower” tier of the teams currently in the non-power conferences, however, every year, one team from the lower-tier can move up to the power-tier, and be eligible for the playoffs.
With 11 Divisions, two teams from each Division qualify for the playoffs. The 11 Division winners get a First Round bye, the 11 second-place teams play in the first round, with the 2 lowest seeds playing in a “Play In” game. Then the 5 first round winners join the 11 Division winners in the Round of 16.
No. I don't agree. They play about that many games in high school. They play about 15-16 games in all other divisions of college football. They play 18 games or so in the NFL. Why is bigtime college football the ONLY level of football at which some people want to claim the players just can't take the wear and tear? Clearly, that's just an excuse
Next point. NFL teams have 49 man rosters. Each Division I (yes I use the old terms) program gets 85 scholarships. They have more than enough personnel to accommodate 16 games. If not, then give back the 10 extra scholarships the NCAA took away in the late 80s and let them have 95 scholarships again.
The thing is, without a real playoff, one loss can pretty much doom a team from consideration for a National Championship. Now it can be said at least CFB probably is the best for rewarding a team for their overall season, instead of the team that got hot at the right time winning the Championship.
Look at what happened with the recent College World Series with Ole Miss winning it, the perfect example of a team that had a mediocre season who got hot at the right time. Do we want that also in College Football?
With any playoff you’re going to have the issue of a team just getting hot at the right time that might not have had as good of a season as some others to that point. That’s unavoidable. At least with a playoff its decided on the field rather than by a bunch of biased, lazy sportswriters. No speculation is necessary. We know how teams would do because they have to actually do it. I remember the utter travesty that was BYU 1984. Never again.
True. Wish Florida could have played them. I think Florida would have killed them.
“They play about that many games in high school. They play about 15-16 games in all other divisions of college football.”
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Top shelf, highly sought-after, early round predicted draft pick “D-1” players at the end of their years if NCAA eligibility are now routinely declining to play in FCS playoff games or major bowl games.
To you, these players may seem like primadonnas. But if and when you look at their situation objectively, I’m sure you will agree that they see no point in descending back into the meatgrinder I have been discussing, because, in point of fact, there is nothing for them to gain, so almost all of them give their teammates and coaches and student body and alumni the kiss-off, as they privately low-key prepare for the NFL Pre-Draft Scouting Combine, or even their own private workouts to which NFL scouts are invited. Their “not quite as good” but still draft-quality teammates would doubtlessly do the exact same thing and protect their bodies from potential career-ending injuries if they could get away with doing so, but they can’t, because they continue to need those last one, two or three post-season games, and the national television broacast time associated with those games, to try to make last-minute upward moves in the pre-draft rankings, to maybe get signed in the second round instead of the third, or maybe move up from the fourth to the third, thereby to secure the higher signing bonuses associated with those earlier draft rounds. They roll the dice, hoping not to pay the price during their teams’ upcoming bowl games.
Texas and Texas A&M are consistent underperformers. Not worthy of inclusion in your list.
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