We’re on the precipice of the College Football National Championship. Alabama and Georgia meet once more, with Alabama the top seed by virtue of its win over the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship eons ago (okay, it was early December). Both got here by virtue of wins over overmatched Cincinnati for the Crimson Tide, while Michigan was no match for UGA.
These are clearly the two top teams in the nation. No one comes close. Look, I watched Alabama stumble at Texas A&M, a very mortal team. Hiccups happen.
Who knows which ‘Bama team appeared in Atlanta to claim the SEC title? For that matter, did Georgia have its own stumble that day and the real Georgia team was the one which thrashed Michigan on New Year’s Eve in the Orange Bowl?
Whatever happens, we will have a national title secured by one of these two teams after a two game playoff. Which is good, for the outcry to expand the playoffs beyond the two games determined by a committee would not enhance big time college football.
Beyond Cincinnati and Michigan, the pickings were even slimmer. While Ohio State and Utah played a thrilling Rose Bowl contest, neither team could have held a candle to the two SEC powers. Going down the line, Baylor, Notre Dame and Oklahoma State would have been mere pretenders. And even the mighty SEC had a sub-.500 record this bowl season.
Expansion of this product would not have made a difference. Except to the coffers of those teams and conferences which participated in the larger playoff.
Unfortunately, what fuels the college football engine is the almighty dollar. Finding a way to make even more dollars through TV and sponsorships will ultimately drive the powers to dilute the product with more teams in the hunt.
Now before I become too righteous about this topic, let me say this. I am a new convert to this position. I looked at the way the other divisions conducted their playoffs and thought this could work for the big boys. Playing down and including the conference champs and a few deserving wild-card entries wouldn’t be so bad. I admit I was wrong.
What the other divisions do not have are bowl games. Too many, critics might say. But this network of post-season matchups is part tradition and part greed. Because, in this Omicron/Delta variant world, attendance was way down this bowl season. And teams were infected with the virus, leading to teams like Rutgers playing in the Gator Bowl on short notice or Central Michigan leaving Arizona when its game collapsed, to head to the Sun Bowl, where they actually were triumphant.
None of the teams which had an extra game on their schedule would have been any more than a gnat to the likes of Georgia and Alabama. Sure, to the kids who played in the games, it meant a lot. So, too, to the conferences and teams which shared in the revenue stream.
Am I an advocate for the plethora of post-season games in big time college football? No, I am not. But that is not likely to change. In fact, we might see more teams with a 5-7 record like Rutgers actually playing in December. Although it might be less likely that they end up in a prestigious game like the Gator Bowl. It was very fortuitous for RU that circumstances in a pandemic allowed for this to happen.
So when you see the voting change to allow more teams to be in the playoffs—like the Big 12 and Pac 12 champions—you were forewarned. While there might be an upset every once in a while, expect the same teams to be present in the years to come (we miss you Clemson). With recruiting classes which yearly are in the top five, how can it not happen repeatedly? Until Nick Sabin retires from Alabama or Kirby Smart goes from Athens, Georgia to the pros, the more things stay the same. Which isn’t all that bad.
The NFL winds down its already way too long season on Sunday night, when the Chargers travel to Las Vegas to determine which team makes the playoffs. Then the fun begins, culminating in the Super Bowl, set for February 13 in Los Angeles—if not derailed by COVID.
Would I dearly love for the Jets to become good and be playing for the right to go to the Super Bowl? Of course.
I had occasion to travel twice to Philadelphia this week. Both times I was next to Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Eagles. The home team has a game against Dallas this weekend. That game has been moved to Saturday night in the new flex schedule the NFL has with the extra week of play. Nothing like a January night game in the City of Brotherly Love after a storm has come up the coast, with cold air riding in its place.
I pity those fans who are being abused by the NFL. Just like those in Green Bay who will likely have to endure a sub-zero temperature when the Packers host games this season. The St. Louis-Minnesota NHL Winter Classic, played at Target Field in Minneapolis on New Year’s Day, was played in sub-zero temperatures at night.
There is a reason why the NHL took its product indoors. There is reason why there are domes in Minnesota, Detroit, Indianapolis, as well as in Dallas, Houston and Atlanta. The games shouldn’t be held outdoors in cold weather.
I cannot fathom what it will be like to be at a Jets home game in January, should they ever reach that level. Even more so as I move into my seventies. Not a place I want to be, no matter how hard I am rooting for my team.
Think the NFL cares about that? Not a chance. They know the fans are crazy enough to show, and the tickets will be sold at a very substantial markup. And the product will be lesser in some instances, affected by those frigid temperatures.
Finally, I was struck by the college football transfer portal. There was one QB who, in the space of 18 days, was enrolled at three colleges. None of them had started classes for the next semester.
This looking for a greener pasture after one year, for whatever reason, is not right for one reason. Academics.
The sages at Pardon The Interruption were appalled about this particular instance. Except they felt badly for the coaches involved.
Really? The coaches? The ones who are paid hefty sums to find the talent to represent the school they presently are at until they are either fired or leave for something better? Do we believe they care one iota about academic integrity? These are rhetorical questions.
Somebody needs to run this ship and make staying at a school meaningful. For the academics.
However, how can I expect that to happen when these same academic leaders are hungry for the bowl money to keep their bloated athletic budget afloat? Can anyone here spell hypocrisy?
Nice shout out by Antonio Brown to my favorite ankle surgeon, Dr. Martin O’Malley of the Hospital for Special Surgery after the brouhaha at Met Life Stadium when the Bucs stormed back to beat the Jets after Brown left the field throwing his black undershirt into the crowd.
That epitomizes how we enter 2022. With COVID rampant and a whole lot of messes surrounding the sports world. Starting with the whole Novak Djokovic/Australian Open vaccination mess and including Steph Curry’s uncharacteristic shooting woes. Ugh.
That’s my New Year’s rant. Happy New Year everyone.
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