The Rest of College Football

[Jamie H]

That sounds like the same thinking that the investment houses used when they repackaged junk bond derivitaves as AAA bonds and almost destoryed the economy. "Hey, it isn't explicitly illegal, so even though we know it is a horribly scumbag thing to do, why not?

Shame on anyone for expecting an SEC athletic department to have any ethics or morals without someone having to force them to.

[The Oracle]

But Jamie, the SEC is "hyper" competetive. Didn't you know?

[WM Wolverine]

Schools should be on the line for a kids scholarship for 4 years unless they have a good reason (academics, transfer) to let them go. These kids 'earned' these scholarships and are having them taking away mostly because the coaches don't have a use for the kids on the football field.

[SeattleLionsFan]

For 100 years the NCAA operated on the principle that no one wanted to screw the kids over purposefully.

Apparently "dont fuck over kids" is too high an ideal in the dominant SEC.

[iam416]

For however long the NCAA has been in existence, you could argue their singular mission has been to screw over the kids.

[SeattleLionsFan]

You could, but then you'd look stupid.

[JRB]

Speaking of the NCAA...they seem to have come up with a new model for infractions cases.

http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/34441353

http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/images/collegefootball/Penalty_Guidelines_Matrix_Outline.pdf

[lineygoblue]

blah... blah...blah ...

Heap big thunder but no rain ...

[iam416]

In addition to thinking that allowing UFM to recruit would be unfair, Dave Brandon weighs in on a playoff:

"This whole notion of a playoff is ridiculous because I don't care what you come up with, it's not going to be a fair playoff. You've got a bunch of teams that don't play one another and play different competition and in different time zones in different conferences in different stadiums in front of different crowds and different weather and suddenly at some point in the year you are trying to arbitrarily decide which one is better and which one deserves to be in a four-team playoff or a six-team playoff.

No matter where you draw that line, you're going to have controversy and people who are honked off because their team got cut off."

[hodgkal]

I agree with Dave Brandon. Sports fans hunger for the certainty of a true champion but the reasons given above illustrate why this is problematic. Basketball is different because of logistics. It is easier to move a squad of 12 or 15 guys to a playoff site over a period of, say, 2 or 3 days and where the indoor conditions are pretty uniform than to move a squad of 36 or 48 football players by the week with weather that is always an issue, to say nothing of the costs involved. It is pretty hard to compare apples to oranges when it comes to comparative schedules of potential participants.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

[Jamie H]

I agree partially with him. I agree that anything less than 8 teams is bullshit, because it will just be a popularity contest to see who gets in.

If you have an 8 team tournament, you can take 6 BcS conference winners + 2 at-large teams and eliminate most of the crying and complaining.

A playoff this year of Wisconsin, Oregon, Clemson, West Virginia, Oklahoma St. LSU, Alabama and Stanford would have generated very few complaints.

[UMStan White]

If Brandon's complaints had any validity at all, then every other division of college football, including those that are not NCAA members wouldn't have a 16 team playoff which includes playing at home sites because the cost and logistics for programs that don't have the wealth of Division 1 would never be able to support a college football playoff system. Brandon is just being Delany's bitch. Another reason why I believe he's just a giant dufus and has no credibility at all.

[JRB]

A playoff this year of Wisconsin, Oregon, Clemson, West Virginia, Oklahoma St. LSU, Alabama and Stanford would have generated very few complaints.

I imagine Boise State would have bitched like hell, and I would have agreed with them. TCU, Houston, and Southern Miss might have had arguments, too. Any national playoff has to include the best of the current non-AQ schools, or at least give them a realistic opportunity to make it in, if it's going to have credibility across the sport.

[Jamie H]

But if Boise St. had gone undefeated they might have made it in. Sorry, but 1-loss Alabama and 1-loss Stanford are way ahead of 1-loss Boise. And anyway, starting next year Boise will be in a BcS conference, so they have a path in now.

If you want to include the crap conferences, you have to go to 16-teams, which I don't see ever happening in the current climate. You could do 8 teams in the existing format by adding 2 extra post BCS games. Nothing else would even have to change.

[iam416]

I still say you take the the 4 highest rated conference champions and do a modified +1.