TCU's Bowl Blowout Shows Failure Of New "Playoff" System

(The image above is from the Facebook page of Theresa Otto.)

TCU HORNED FROGS...............42
MISSISSIPPI REBELS...............3

The TCU Horned Frogs beat the Ole Miss Rebels by a score of 42-3. And the Rebels weren't a bad team. They were ranked 9th in the nation, and led the nation in defense. Is there any doubt now that TCU deserved to be in the playoffs? This just shows the new "playoff" system is no better than the beauty contest it replaced. There were at least 6 teams that had a legitimate chance to win the national championship in a real playoff system. When Is the NCAA going to institute a REAL playoff system for Division I football?

New NCAA "Play-Off" System Fails In Its First Year

For years now, college football fans have been complaining that the "championship" is nothing more than a popularity contest, with the two teams deemed by the powers that be playing for the title -- and everyone else being left out in the cold (regardless of how good they were, or whether they had a good chance of beating the two popular teams chosen).

Anyone with half a brain knew this wasn't a real championship -- but a farce. And that farce had become so ridiculous that a "play-off" system was created (sort of). They decided that they would put the top four teams in the popularity contest into a play-off instead of just the top two teams.

The thinking was that the top four teams would be significantly better than the teams rated fifth and below -- and that would justify calling the winner of that four team play-off a "champion". But that didn't happen. There were at least six teams that would have a good chance to survive a play-off and become champion -- with TCU and Baylor being as good, in my opinion, as Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, and Ohio State. I think any unbiased observer would have to admit that.

That means the new "play-off" system for college football is a FAILURE in its inaugural year. A real play-off is one that settles the arguments over who is best by pitting those teams against each other -- and forcing the real champion to earn that championship on the field, and not in some kind of rigged popularity contest. This did not happen. They will always be those who will argue that TCU or Baylor could have won the championship if given the chance (since their record was just as good as three of the top four teams and they played in a strong conference).

Why doesn't the NCAA Division I football schools have a real play-off system? I know all the arguments against a real play-off, but they are all false arguments. Both the NAIA and the NCAA Division II teams have a real play-off, and it works well for both -- giving them a real champion who won their title on the field. And if it works for them, it could work for the Division I schools also.

But there is too much bowl money for the biggest schools, and those bowls are all afraid they would be relegated to first or second round games (or eliminated), so they spend a bundle opposing a real play-off -- and the big schools, who make a ton of money playing in those bowl games, are afraid they wouldn't make as much money in a real play-off system (and couldn't survive such a system).

So we are left with just another popularity contest, with four teams instead of two. And that won't change because the NCAA has made the three most politically powerful conferences (SEC, Big 10, PAC 10) happy by picking one of their teams (and they'll probably continue to do that). Meanwhile, the conferences without political power (even strong ones like the Big 12) are left out in the cold. It's a shameful system, and every champion crowned under this system should have an asterisk placed beside their name (because they didn't really earn the title against all the best teams).

Congratulations WTAMU Football !

I hope you readers will understand, but I feel compelled to stray from discussing politics to congratulate a school that many of us here in the Panhandle consider our "hometown" favorite. West Texas A&M is in Canyon, only about 15 miles from my home in Amarillo, and the only four year university in the Amarillo area (and is the school where my youngest daughter is currently attending as a junior, carrying a 4.0 average).

On Saturday, the West Texas A&M Buffaloes played the number one team in the country (Colorado State at Pueblo) in the quarter-finals of the NCAA Division II national football play-offs. WTAMU won 34 to 13, and will play in the semi-finals next week. If they win that game, they will then play for the Division II national championship. This is the first time in WTAMU's history that it has advanced this far in the NCAA play-offs.

Whatever happens next week, the WTAMU football team has had a remarkable season, and they have made us in this part of Texas very proud of them. I congratulate the players and coaches for their wonderful accomplishment, and wish them luck in next week's game.

NOTE -- WTAMU is the team with the white jerseys and maroon pants in the picture above.

Football Playoff Voted Out Of Subcommittee

Rep. "Smokey" Joe Barton (R-Texas) said he would be trying to get a college Division I football playoff legislated by Congress, since the colleges themselves and the major bowl refuse to do it. (They are, of course, trying to protect their own lucrative paydays.) Now it looks like Barton wasn't joking.

The bill, authored by Barton, would prevent any game being billed as a "national championship" game, unless that game was the result of an actual college playoff (like football playoffs done by smaller colleges in other divisions).

Barton's bill was voted out of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on a voice vote. There was only one audible "no" vote. The "no" vote was from Rep. John Barrow (D-Georgia), who is probably shilling for the Southeastern conference which has a lucrative tie with the current BCS system.

Personally I like Barton's bill, but I doubt it has much of a chance to pass. There are too many in Congress like Barrow, who are either alumni of or have other ties to the large BCS conferences. Like the colleges, Congress has far less interest in fairness than in power and money.

The large colleges had once argued that a playoff system would keep students out of class too much, but the small college playoffs shows that to not be true. They don't refuse to do it out of a regard for the players (or the fans), but purely because of greed. The bowls and large college conferences make a ton of money out of the bowl games (even many six or seven win teams who really don't deserve to be in a bowl game).

Certain conferences have an automatic entrance to the biggest bowls (the BCS bowls) and therefore access to a possible national championship bid, while other conferences never get their chance. Everybody knows the current BCS system is unfair, but the powers-that-be are making too much money to care.

Take this year for example. While two undefeated colleges are playing for the national championship (Alabama and Texas), three other undefeated teams were not given the chance to play for a championship (TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State). Who's to say that one of those teams couldn't beat the winner of Alabama-Texas? And we'll never know, because they weren't given the chance.

Hard To Be A Cowboys Fan These Days

Last week, I said it was not yet time to hit the panic button if you're a Dallas Cowboys fan. But that was before they lost a home game to a 2-13 Detroit Lions team. This week, I'm pounding the hell out of that panic button.

I know some of you are going to say that they've made the playoffs, and that anything can happen in the playoffs. Granted. I, also, hope something magical will happen when the playoffs start, but I'm certainly not going to bet any of my hard-earned money on it.

Frankly, this team doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs. How can anyone believe in a team that loses a last game of the season at home to a 2-13 team? The only team the Cowboys have beaten in the last four weeks is a poor Atlanta Falcons team, and they were lucky to win that one.

Before the season started, it looked like they would have a great defense this year. But the last four weeks, they have given up an average of 33 points per game. Nobody will win very many games giving up that many points.

This is the first year for the Cowboys to play a 3-4 defense. I have to wonder if Zimmer, who has always coached the 4-3 defense before, really understands the 3-4 well enough to coach it. It seems like the Cowboys always seem to leave a receiver open. And the pass rush is non-existent.

But as bad as the defense is, the offense is equally bad. The turnovers, dropped passes and penalties have killed any chance they had for consistency. On paper, they Cowboys seem to have a lot of top talent, but it is not translating to the playing field.

I don't know what is wrong with this team. I just know they are entering the playoffs playing as poorly as any team in the league. Don't bet the rent money on any Cowboy playoff wins.

Cowboys Seem To Be Headed Downhill

A couple of weeks ago, I had such high hopes for the Dallas Cowboys. After installing Tony Romo at quarterback, they began to play better and were climbing that mountain to playoff success. But in the last three weeks, they've been sliding back downhill.

Three games ago, the Cowboys had their heads handed to them by the New Orleans Saints. Last week, they were barely able to beat the Atlanta Falcons [a team that is going nowhere this year]. Then, on Christmas day, the Philadelphia Eagles gave them a sound thrashing. The score in the Eagles game was only 23-7, but the game was not as close as the score might indicate. The Eagles controlled the game from start to finish.

I had hoped that the beating the Cowboys took from the Saints was an anomaly, but after the last couple of weeks I can no longer think that. This is simply not as good a team as I had thought it was -- how very depressing.

The Cowboys will still be in the playoffs -- mostly due to the poor play of some other teams. But I seriously doubt they will go very far in the playoffs [although I hope I'm wrong]. The offense is hit-and-miss at best, and the defense just doesn't seem to know what to do with a playoff-caliber team.

I'm not yet ready to hit the panic button, but my hand is hovering over it! If they don't improve their play quickly, we're just a couple of weeks away from talking about next year's draft.