I did not watch either game. No interest. I loved this bowl season but by last night had had enough.
The better story is that the Big10 is back, 7-1 in its games. The two surprises in this narrative are Northwestern and Michigan State, the former perennially competitive notwithstanding its many competitive hurdles and the latter a perennial conference contender even though MSU has not historically been a football school. Its coach, Dantonio, is that good and looks to be around for awhile. This bowl season helps to cement these two teams.
Ohio State under Meyer is unbelievable, but as important are great programs at Wisconsin and Penn State. Penn State is back with great performances and top 10 recruiting classes. (By the way, will the NCAA ever give an accounting of the $60 M-I-L-L-I-O-N extorted from the taxpayers of that great state???) Michigan is back, as well, notwithstanding Harbaugh’s problems at the quarterback position. That program is a force going forward, too. Even the bottom teams are putting much more money into their programs and getting better, and the new economics are such that these universities will continue to invest. The Big10, in short, is competitive to an extent not seen in 25 years; and it’s bigger and spanning a much larger stretch of the US.
The four-team playoff looks rigged and works poorly, always putting the Big10 (usually OSU) at the center of a controversy that will play out the same every year without fail. In last night’s games the only metro areas with any stake in the outcome were the 9th-largest Atlanta and the 41st-largest OKC. We keep hearing and reading from the ESPN guys and gals that SEC fans, teams, poop, etc is so much better than the rest of the country. Whether that is true or not, the rest of the country is stepping up in ways that the SEC is not; and outside of AL and GA the SEC looked horrid in these bowls.
Last night’s games are simply one example — just mapping those four schools should have been enough for the selection committee to see the problem. Who outside of a small, mostly small-market area of the country would have any incentive to tune in for those games?
One poster’s remark about ESPN getting $2.3 billion from the SEC is spot on. The conflict of interest is stunning.
Meanwhile, the Big10 has put together a very, very powerful conference covering a huge portion of the country’s population centers. The Big10 should join with the Pac12 to focus on conference championships and standings. Tell the NCAA that conference comes first, and that the navel-gazing selection committee can make their jobs and the process straightforward by taking the conference champions or not; but if not, there will be repercussions short and long term.
Whether there are four teams or eight teams or 250 teams in a football playoff, the root cause of rot in college football is the hyper corrupt and dysfunctional NCAA and its butt boys at ESPN. The Big10/Pac12 university presidents and athletic directors need to get off of their keesters and wield some of the great power that they have been amassing through their recent restructurings.
You nailed it, the problem is the NCAA.
I've never heard "Northwestern" and "perennially competitive" in the same sentence before. Thanks! It's fun being a former doormat. :-)
“E$PN is paying the $EC $2.25 Billion over 10-years for their broadcasting rights.” was the previous quote, which you read as:
“One poster’s remark about ESPN getting $2.3 billion from the SEC is spot on. The conflict of interest is stunning.”
Your reading is 180 degrees out.
The reason OSU will remain at the "center" in the B1G is that they have built up a program that will continuously out recruit (and out coach) the rest of the B1G. They will drop a game every year in the conference, but the other teams will ALL drop two or three games, normally (Penn St, MSU, Mich, Wisc).
The bigger problem for the BCS is now that they have shoved two different SEC National Championships down our throats, they will be stuck with a OSU, Penn St, Mich, Wisc final four bracket one day when those teams all have one loss to one another and are all top 6 schools.
Every year Bama drops a game and drops 4-5 places... any other school drops a game from #1 or #2 and they drop to 7-8-9... The SEC schools value the SEC whereas the other conferences still have "School over Conference" fans; the SEC has been beaten down to the point they all know Bama will reign every year... so they SEC over School given their usual rankings.
‘Meanwhile, the Big10 has put together a very, very powerful conference covering a huge portion of the country’s population centers.’
please inform us of the BIG’s bowl records the past two years prior to this...
‘The Big10/Pac12 university presidents and athletic directors need to get off of their keesters and wield some of the great power that they have been amassing through their recent restructurings.’
whatd they need to do is see to it that their champs don’t lose two games during the season, by large margins of defeat...OSU-Iowa, 31 point differential, USC-ND, 35 point differential...