The 16-Team Playoff System

The one time I think I have an original idea and it takes me only two minutes to realize I'm late to the scene yet again. The college bowl season has ended and BCS talk is still a hot topic, with everyone from coaches, school presidents and athletic directors to the media throwing out their thoughts on what a perfect system would look like.

No matter what objections someone has to a playoff system. Be it the Big Ten & Pac Ten monopoly on the Rose Bowl, the guaranteed money at stake for schools big and small, curriculum schedules for D-1 student-athletes or the million other reasons; everyone seems to agree in it's purest form that a playoff system is what would work the best.

If not, get used to seeing the Buckeyes in the BCS Title Game year in and year out. Even if USC knocks off OSU in week 2 next year, the Buck'os could run the table and benefit from no late season loss. You hate them because they are there every year, but they may turn out to be the one final reason a playoff system is put in place.

We have heard of the Plus-1 plan, the 8-team playoff plan and a few other systems that are being tossed around, but the one that I thought I had my finger on the pulse with is a 16-game playoff system. Turns out Darin Darst on cbssportsline beat me to the punch by about three days a while back. Click the link and have a look at it.

We take the same existing bowls, even leaving the lovely names the same and take what is practically the top 16 teams in the country. But understanding the nature of today's college bowl system and tradition, Darst plugs in some guaranteed bids with big conference winners and leaves plenty of at-large bids for those teams that get bit by a late season loss.

Put a 16-team playoff system in place and the eligible teams will see even more money pour into their schools. Sponsorship opportunities will be endless, loyal fans will follow their team around the country spending even more on tickets than usual and TV ratings will be through the roof. I understand politics usually win out in deals like this, but before I hit the grave, I would love to see just one season where the NCAA gets this thing figured out.

BCS Blows Chance to Shine

For the first time since the creation of the BCS, the BCS Selection Show had it's time to shine and blew it in a quick, uneventful half-hour show full of commercials and zero commentary.

Unlike past years; fans, the media, football insiders and more, truly had no idea how the BCS game schedule was going to look heading into the BCS show Sunday. Sure we had an idea of what two teams would land in the big game based on rankings released earlier in the day, but the complete 5 game line-up was definitely up in the air.

Knowing they would have their biggest audience ever for the show, Fox completely dropped the ball. It was very frustrating to watch as a viewer, as they seemed to be confused about what to announce, how to announce it and when to announce it. Fox announced one team in one game, then went another 15 minutes with commercials before announcing another team in a different game. They seemed out of sync the entire 30 minutes.

What was enjoyable though, was the three hour BCS Bowl show from the College Game Day crew on ESPN Sunday evening. Another great reason to love sports on the West Coast. If I lived back on the East Coast, I would have definitely been in bed. Instead, I was entertained by Corso, Fowler, Holtz, Howard, Herbstreit and even the Buckeye hater May. This group never disappoints. They are insightful, speak their minds and are fun to watch. They have great chemistry, which is a far cry from what the Selection Show on Fox had to offer.

BCS - Not If You Lose, It's When You Lose

With the many, many flaws of the BCS scoring system, the one that really sticks out to me is how much the human element is taken into account with the polling formula. And, as we see year after year, when it comes to human rankings, it does not matter if you lose a game, it matters when you lose a game.

If Ohio State had lost to Washington early in the year and then ran the table and finished with the same 11-1 ranking, they would easily be ranked #3 in the nation in all polls. LSU would probably still get the nod at the #1 spot because of the timing of their loss and there is no denying that an undefeated Kansas deserves a #2 spot.

Ohio State deserves to be the #3 team in the nation just as much as West Virginia and Missouri, but because Ohio State lost late in the season, they immediately dropped the standard 5-7 spots in the polls. Once you fall, you can climb your way back up with losses ahead of you, because, they like you, will fall 5-7 spots. Lose early in the season though and you’re all set for a championship run. Lose late and you’re doomed.

This is reason for a playoff system alone. Regardless if it’s Ohio State that gets burned or Arizona State for losing late in the season or the many teams that have felt Ohio State’s pain in years past.

Additionally, Ohio State takes a pounding about their schedule, but is it really about their schedule or the simple fact that they happened to lose a game last year. I’m amazed at how many people are still in shock that Ohio State lost to Florida last year and because of this one loss, they are determined to point all fingers at the Big Ten schedule as the reason for the high rankings and continued winning ways.

Why doesn't West Virginia get this same treatment? Who have they beaten of any significance this year? Check out their mighty schedule and tell me it’s stronger than Ohio State’s. You can’t! As of today, West Virginia has beaten no currently ranked teams.

Kansas is undefeated and I can’t argue with that, regardless of how weak their Big 12 schedule has been. It has been a cake walk for Kansas though. Not one team of significance on the schedule. A couple Iowa / Purdue types, but a non-conference schedule that makes Akron and Kent State look like national powers on Ohio State's schedule.

Being from the same conference, Missouri’s schedule was also no stronger than Ohio State’s. They did play Oklahoma though and got beat.

I’m excited about this weekend and next weekend’s games, as it will be interesting. But I’ll continue to be unsatisfied with this system, like everyone it seems, until there is a playoff in place. And of all conferences to blame, the Big Ten is definitely most to blame for no playoff system. That’s the conference with The Big Ten Network, correct? Bad decision after bad decision and the fans (where the money comes from) are the ones that suffer.

AZ Republic Wipes Out This Morning

Congratulations to the Arizona Republic newspaper this morning. The two biggest sports events in the state, Arizona Wildcats hosting the #2 Oregon Ducks and Phoenix Suns hosting the Chicago Bulls, had zero coverage in the paper this morning because the games finished too late.

How does two games in your own market finish too late for news coverage? How does the Arizona Republic not save space for one of only 3 D-1 football programs in the state playing the #2 team in the country? I'm sure no one wanted to wake up and read about how the Cats put a whooping' on Oregon and crushed their National Title hopes. That's not big news, is it?

And newspapers wonder why they are losing readers!!!

These games didn't even go past midnight. We are not on the East Coast where it's understandable if a West Coast box score doesn't make the paper. This is the AZ Republic's market! There is no excuse for these games not having coverage.

Men and some women, in general, who actually still get print news wraps, wake up, hit the toilet and quick read as much as possible in the ultimate in multi-tasking. There isn't time to waste surfing the web for 15 minutes to catch the highlights of the previous night's games. We have to get to work. And once we are in the car and on our way to work, we have the radio to fill us in on the latest news from the current and previous night. Newspapers have, at most, about a 20 minute window to catch the attention of working readers. Once that opportunity is missed, their is no need for the fish wrap.

But hey, the AZ Republic had plenty of stories on Barry Bonds indictment to read. It's not like I hadn't heard all about that the entire day yesterday. Way to report on old news and miss the boat on the two biggest games taking place locally, with one being a huge, huge, huge win for a football program trying to become a power.

If I want this kind of coverage, I'll simply make the switch to the USA Today, which has better news all around. It does land on the doorstep at the same time as the Republic, since it is the AZ Republic that prints and delivers them.

Buckeyes Deserved the Booing Today

Congratulations to Ron Zook and Illinois. Out coached, outplayed and Ohio State goes and proves everyone outside of Ohio correct. Ohio State's defense got pushed around more than Bonnie Bernstein during the post game raucous.

Illinois was giving Ohio State the ball, giving it to them by punting on 4th and 1 with seven minutes left and what does Ohio State do? They call time-out because they don't have the right personnel on the field. Who in the world cares what personnel you have on the field during a punt? You need all the time-outs you can get and they are kicking the ball to you. The ball will be in your hands. You get the ball! Play with 5 guys on the field for Pete's sake. Just let the ball die and it's up to your offense to drive to victory. Horrible coaching.

The Buckeyes defense had all the chances in the world to make a stand in the second half. But not one 3rd down or 4th down stop at all. The number one defense in the country was just getting pushed around. Whatever happened to learning from the past? How many times does a team have to run a QB draw on 3rd down for a defense to figure out their is no chance the ball is going in the air? Evidently the Buckeyes defense and coaching staff is still trying to figure it out.

This is one of the most frustrating loses I have ever had to go through with Ohio State. Not because of the #1 ranking, being undefeated or because the other team was that great. It was just stupid decision after stupid decision all night long. Very poor management of time-outs on defense - one here, one there, another one here and now your all out.

Why throw the ball deep on the last interception? No need at all. Run, run, run, run, run, run! The running game was clicking full steam just as it has done all year in the second half of games. Get down and pound a defense to victory. But not today.

The season is far from over though. Ohio State should beat a weaker Michigan team on the road. They should roll them and with that, the Buckeyes will be in the Rose Bowl in a big time BCS game against a big-time opponent, possibly USC if Oregon goes on to the National Championship game. Would make for an interesting game and set-up for the home and home the Buckeyes have with the Trojans in 2008 & 2009.

I hate, hate, hate when my teams lose. No different than anyone else I guess. I'm going to bed. Yes, it's 4:40 in the afternoon.

How Good are these Akron Zips?

The Akron Zips football team is off to a good start this season with a 3-3 record. Like me, at first glance, most people would consider a 3-3 record as a big disappointment. Digging deeper into the Zips three losses tells a different story.

Their first loss came at the hands of the Nation's #3 team, Ohio State, in Columbus. Of note though, the Zips were in the game at half time and held Ohio State to a season low of 20 points. Akron turned right around and headed to the #29 team in the country, Indiana. Again, they played competitively, but were handed their second loss. Keep in mind that Indiana only has one loss this season and that loss came against Illinois, who are ranked 18th in the country and who have only one loss at the hands of Missouri, who are ranked 10th in the country and undefeated. The Zips 3rd loss came against Connecticut. Yes, Connecticut, the 34th best team in the country and one of only 10 undefeated teams left in D-1 football. And they are in the Big East.

The losses are justified, but where the question of just how good are these Zips is with the wins. They beat a bad Army team to start the year, won a hard fought game against local rival and pretty talented Kent State and won with a thrilling finish at Western Michigan. For those that haven't seen the finish, please play the video below. ESPN is saying the Zips may have an ESPY winner this year. Not big time wins by any means, but wins none the less.

It's always easy to keep up with the likes of Ohio State, but being on the West Coast, keeping up to speed on the Zips is a difficult one. I'm always sure to check up on two blogs that are all over the world of the Akron Zips - Rasor on the Zips and Morgan's MAC Attack. David Lee Morgan had a great quick hitter Monday on the Zips talented wide receiver Jabaru Arthur.

Through 6 games, Arthur has 49 catches for 642 yards and 7 touchdowns. His 107 yards per game is good for 8th best in the country. He is a Senior, so keep an eye on Arthur come the NFL draft next year.

As with everything, only time will tell how good this Zips team really is. They should roll over Temple to get to 4 wins, leaving them with 5 more games. If they can go 3-2 in those five games, finishing the season off with a 7-5 record, the bowls will have to look Akron's way.

**Get your votes in as well. Zippy has made it through 4 weeks and is in the final 12 of the Capital One Bowl Mascot Challenge. Zippy is up against Seymour from Southern Mississippi and with my vote is trailing by only 133 votes at 13882 to 13749. Get your vote in by clicking here!

Why Risk an Injury?

Why do teams insist on getting running backs 100 yards when a game is a blowout? Fantasy football fanatics love it in the pros, but in college football there are no fantasy fans to please and an injury to your best back could kill your season.

The Buckeyes have worked their way up to 8th in the rankings, are now considered the front runner in the Big Ten and today were dominating an overwhelmed Northwestern team going into the second half. But because Chris Wells only had 96 or so yards, the Buckeyes coaching staff decide they have to get him his 100 yard game. As fate would have it, Beanie gets his 100 yards, but he also limps off the field in extreme pain.

Things look like they will be alright, but what do the Buckeyes do if Wells wakes up in the morning with an ankle the size of his thighs? Brandon Saine is already on the shelf for a couple weeks after his surgery this week.

It's great that coaches try to pad a player's stats every now and again, but would Beanie rather have 96 yards and be in full health heading into next week or have his 101 yards and be hurting? Which would Ohio State and the fans rather have?

Stats are great, but the only one that counts in the end is wins and losses. If a game is in the bag, there really is no decision that should be made. You have to keep your starters on the bench. It only takes one play and hopefully that one play doesn't cost Beanie Wells and Ohio State heading into next week and the rest of the season.