State of the Game 2011 - Biggest Complaints

Fixing the scandals, Cam Newton, the Longhorn Network, and more. Along with the CFNers, check out the opinions on key topics going into the season from Matt Hayes from the Sporting News and the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein.

State of the Game 

What's Your Beef?

2011 CFN State of the Game Topics  
- Should The Death Penalty Be On The Table? 
- What One Thing Can Stop The Cheating? | Bloggers Analysis
- How To Fix The NCAA | Bloggers Analysis
- Is There Institutional Control? | Bloggers Analysis
- The Cam Newton Situation | Bloggers Analysis
- Was Stanley McClover Telling The Truth? | Bloggers Analysis
- Should Players Get a Bigger Stipend? | Bloggers Analysis
- Should a one-loss SEC team play for it all? | Bloggers Analysis
- Why isn't there a playoff? | Bloggers Analysis
- The Programs About To Blow Up | Bloggers Analysis
- Does The Longhorn Network Matter? | Bloggers Analysis
- What'll Happen In Ten Years? | Bloggers Analysis
- When Should Players Turn Pro? | Bloggers Analysis
- What's Your Beef? The Biggest Complaints | Bloggers Analysis

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Question No. 13. What’s your biggest college football beef?  

E-mail Pete Fiutak 

BCS head honcho Bill Hancock and his bullspit rhetoric.

If you like the bowl system, fine. If you don't want a playoff, okay. Just don't spit on the heads of college football fans and tell them it's raining. It insults them, cheapens the debate, and makes the world a little bit dumber.

If the BCS powers-that-be simply came out and said that they want to keep the status quo because it's easier, safer for job security, and because too many people are making too much money off of things the way they are, then at least everyone it would be out there and there could be a reasonable discussion about the topic. But every time Hancock spews out some excuse about why there can't be a college football playoff, everyone knows he's full of beans and no one buys the arguments, making the legitimacy of the BCS that much weaker.

Of course academics aren't really an issue; there's no class at most schools from mid-December through the first week of January. The other divisions of football have playoffs through finals time, and some bowl games kick off just as the semesters are ending.

Of course player safety isn't really an issue. The NCAA doesn't have a problem with other divisions of college football playing a long playoff.

Of course a playoff wouldn't kill the bowl system. Everyone who watches the minor bowls now will still watch UTEP vs. Northern Illinois in whatever goofy-named bowl they play in.

There's NOTHING sane, rational, or practical about the BCS in its current form, and if you don't think so, try to explain to a non-college football fan exactly what the BCS is. Then, try to explain that more than half the teams in college football have no shot whatsoever to play for the national championship no matter what they do.

And while we're at it, the college football season must end on January 3rd. I'll allow the BCS Championship to have its own day, but New Year's Day should be nothing but wall-to-wall college football with the mid-level bowls played in the morning, the Rose Bowl in the afternoon, and the Sugar at night. Fine, play the Orange on the 2nd, and then end the season the next day. The further you get from New Year's Day, the less the sports world cares about the national championship and the more it turns its attention to the NFL playoffs.

And while we're at it, the national championship belongs on free TV. If a sporting event isn't on a major network, it doesn't really matter.

And while we're at it, as I wrote that last sentence, there was an ad on TV for the EA Sports NCAA game. In it, No. 21 of South Carolina was running for a score - but, of course, that's not Marcus Lattimore. No. 81 of Oklahoma State was being tackled - but, of course, that's not Justin Blackmon. Come on, NCAA; cut the crap. Give the players their cut.

By Matt Hayes
Sporting News

See question No.1 about the need for zero tolerance from the NCAA on offenders. What One Thing Can Stop The Cheating?. And it’s not even close.

By Teddy Greenstein
Chicago Tribune

Not a fan of weeknight games (other than Thursday) but I’m sometimes guilty of watching them. And I hate that the BCS title game is played so deep into January. This year it should be played (in New Orleans) on Thurs, Jan. 5, rather than Jan. 9. Move up the Sugar Bowl to pre-New Year’s to make it happen. Having the title game one day after NFL playoff games is not s-m-r-t. It’s a momentum-killer.

By Richard Cirminiello

I’ve got two, and both pertain to the civil liberties of young athletes. First, amateurs should be permitted to change programs within AQ conferences, sans the penalty of going in dry dock for a season. You know, the same mobility as coaches, trainers and administrators. Second, enough with the vilifying of agents. Kids need them to help direct the next stage of their careers. And the NCAA has absolutely no right to say when athletes or their families to speak to them.

By Matt Zemek

The lack of a true national champion is one beef I have; the lack of meaningful Title IX reform is another; the lack of a playoff system yet another. However, all of those gripes have already been aired above; so has the complaint that players (like Cam Newton) can’t make money from jersey or merchandise sales. A previously unaired gripe, then, is that replay isn’t used more expansively. As much as ACC or Pac-12 replay booth reviewers might screw up during a season, let’s still realize that replay corrects plenty of calls during games. Why, then, shouldn’t replay be allowed for pass interference calls, intentional grounding calls, and other plays currently not subject to review? The familiar counter-argument to this line of reasoning is that games will last four hours. Hey, I’d rather have a four-hour game with a clean result than 3.5-hour game with a tainted result. Moreover, broadcast networks should allow four-hour windows between games, anyway, so that overlaps don’t occur (unless teams decide to reprise Arkansas games from the early part of the past decade).

By Barrett Sallee
Follow me on Twitter: @BarrettSallee

The general notion that “a playoff” is needed for college football. It’s not. College football is not like the NFL or any sport on America, and I’m grateful for that. Every week in college football matters, and if we instituted a playoff in the environment as it stands, the six BCS conferences would undoubtedly mandate that conference champions earn an automatic bid. You mean to tell me that UConn could have gotten on a post-season run and won a “legitimate” national title last year over Auburn, Oregon or TCU? No freaking way. They didn’t deserve it, plain and simple. A poorly executed playoff would be far, far worse for college football than the current BCS system. In the current environment, a poorly executed playoff is the only one that conceivably could exist.

2011 CFN State of the Game Topics  
- Should The Death Penalty Be On The Table? 
- What One Thing Can Stop The Cheating? | Bloggers Analysis
- How To Fix The NCAA | Bloggers Analysis
- Is There Institutional Control? | Bloggers Analysis
- The Cam Newton Situation | Bloggers Analysis
- Was Stanley McClover Telling The Truth? | Bloggers Analysis
- Should Players Get a Bigger Stipend? | Bloggers Analysis
- Should a one-loss SEC team play for it all? | Bloggers Analysis
- Why isn't there a playoff? | Bloggers Analysis
- The Programs About To Blow Up | Bloggers Analysis
- Does The Longhorn Network Matter? | Bloggers Analysis
- What'll Happen In Ten Years? | Bloggers Analysis
- When Should Players Turn Pro? | Bloggers Analysis
- What's Your Beef? The Biggest Complaints | Bloggers Analysis

LIMITED TIME ONLY: CLICK HERE for a Free Week of Top-Rated Selections

- Suggestions or something we missed? Let us know
- Follow us ... http://twitter.com/ColFootballNews