Missing Post

Well, my last post was pretty clever, at least I thought so. Unfortunately, just as I finished it and clicked "publish", it disappeared into Blogger's cyber black hole. That was frustrating, and I don't have the time or inclination to repeat it, at least for now.

One of the things I saw at my recent visit to the NCAA really threw me for a loop. There was a blurb about establishing the national championship in football. In NCAA division 2 and 3 there is a playoff system that crowns the true national champion every year. But for some reason I fail to grasp, even the NCAA admits they have no control over the division 1 football championship, which is determined by a separate entity called the BCS.

Needless to say, I am not a fan of the BCS, and am disgusted that in many years the actual national championship can be disputed by 2 or sometimes 3 undefeated division 1 football teams. Polls decide the actual champion instead of games. Am I crazy, or doesn't anybody else think this system is absolutely asinine and inexcusable?

It seems to me that all those bowl traditions can continue just fine with a new playoff system. Let the minor bowls start around Thanksgiving, matching up the top teams from each major conference and the big independents for the right to advance to the next level.

Then the mid-level bowls host round two, three, and even four through December, until the final two emerge for a New Year's day national championship. I don't care which major bowl hosts it, maybe they could trade off. But there is no reason, other than the money and power being thrown around to keep the BCS in power, that a playoff system could not be a hugely successful way of determining the national champion in NCAA division 1 football.

My vision is that a playoff would bring more revenue to the bowls and member schools, because everyone playing in the minor and mid-level bowls would suddenly be playing for more than just pride and bragging rights. They would be playing for their own shot at a national title.

Imagine that a team like Notre Dame or Michigan or Ohio State has completed their season with one single loss. Today their dreams of a national championship are already smashed because of that one loss. At the end of the season, even if they are playing better than any other team in the NCAA, there is no hope for them because of that early-season loss.

With a playoff system such as the one I envision, they have another shot at that national title. Game 1 is around Thanksgiving against another school from another conference with a good season record. If they win, they progress to the next playoff game in a mid-level bowl against the winner of another first round game. And so on, until they meet a team like an undefeated USC in the final, say, Rose Bowl game on January 1st.

When will somebody start to pay attention and have the courage to buck the BCS powers to institute a new, fair, and exciting playoff format for finding the real national champion? Instead the NCAA focuses on stupid stuff like banning team mascots with Indian-based themes.

How about a campaign to fire Myles Brand and get a real effective leader into the NCAA president's role.