Five Thoughts:
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Week 13
Vote early, vote
often, or just don't ruffle feathers.
By
Pete
Fiutak
1.
Ohio
State head coach Jim Tressel decided not to cast a vote in the final
Coaches' Poll to avoid a conflict of interests. He didn't want to give
the appearance of being a Big Ten homer if he voted for Michigan, and he
didn't want the backlash from the conference if he had voted for
Florida. While many are going to scream about this in some way, Tressel
is right, but it's not just because he didn't cast a vote for the bowl
season.
The Coaches Poll is not only a sham and a farce, with most of the
"voters" turning out to be sports information directors and assistants
to the coaches who aren't able to know enough about the world of college
football, but it's also a huge conflict of interests from day one of the
voting process.
Florida head coach Urban Meyer admitted that he had seen Michigan and
Ohio State play once all year; when they played each other. Obviously no
voting coach on East Coast time has seen most of the Pac 10 teams,
Hawaii or Boise State play all season long, but they're supposed to have
an informed opinion on them. It's not fair to the coaches, the players,
or to college football, and Tressel's non-vote also proves that it's
just not right.
How can coaches not have their own self-interest at heart? Of course
they're going to vote for the teams in their own leagues because the not
only know them the best, but also because it makes wins over them look
better.
The entire voting process has to be done away with. Use a committee,
NCAA basketball tournament selection style, to go over the teams and be
held accountable week after week, use the computers more, and make this
right once and for all.
What's good for the
Urban is good for the Lloyd
By
Pete
Fiutak
2.
Everything
is always bad when it happens to you.
All the campaigning and politicking by urban Meyer to get his team into
the national title game didn't really matter, it's not like the coaches
and Harris Poll voters have any beef with Lloyd Carr and Michigan, but
he was right in saying the system needs a playoff overhaul. Now that
Carr and Michigan got the short end of the stick, he's predictably
calling for a change to how things work.
What if the situations were reversed?
What if Florida was number two all year and got lapped by Michigan?
Would the arguments be the same from both sides? If you believe
something's wrong, then fight for it no matter what side it favors. If
you think there should be a playoff, then fight for it no matter what.
To Meyer's credit, he has always been a proponent of change, and now
it's time all the coaches come aboard. If one team gets the shaft, then
you have to acknowledge that it could eventually happen to you.
Alright coaches, here's the deal. Either you put it in writing that your
are officially casting your vote and your idea for a playoff of some
sort, or you lose your whining privileges if and when you get screwed.
P ... L ... U ... S
... O ... N ... E
By
Richard Cirminiello
3. Two words. One rather simple solution. Plus one.
Say it with me, p-l-u-s o-n-e. I have long been a proponent of pitting
the four best teams in the country together (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3) in BCS
bowl games with the two winners squaring off a week later for the
national championship, but never more so than right now. Sure, I believe
Florida belongs in Glendale, but am I 100% certain that the Gators, and
not Michigan, are the second best team in the country? Heck no. No one
is after both programs from power conferences finished with one loss
against a ranked opponent. The real shame about this year's edition of
the BCS quandary is that we'll never know which team is truly better
because they'll never face each other on the field. They'll never play
on the field, despite the fact that the BCS added a fifth game this year
that seemingly set the stage for a plus one format, a mini-playoff that
wouldn't alter the integrity of the current bowl structure, but would
have brought us light years closer to common sense. But no, common sense
has rarely been the hallmark of this system. Instead, we're left with
endless debates, mythical comparisons and a stadium's worth of
questions. Is Florida better than Michigan? Maybe. Maybe not. Had they
been able to settle that debate in the 2 vs. 3 game of a plus one
format, we'd actually be able to resolve this argument where it
belongs--on the field.
Time to ditch the
limtations
By
Matthew
Zemek
4.
While conference
champions should have to play in national title games, it's also true
that conferences should not have a two-team limit for BCS at-large
selections in non-title games.
Arkansas, Wisconsin and Auburn all did more than
Notre Dame did this season, but because of conference limitations, they
can't play in BCS bowl games.
(West Virginia also has a legit case, but the 'Eers
got screwed just because of Notre Dame's dollars, not because of a Big
East limit on BCS bowl slots.) Notre Dame's 10-2 is less impressive than
other 10-win seasons across the country. Wisconsin actually has a very
poor strength of schedule--worse than the Irish, in fact--but the
Badgers won 11 games.
The BCS--while adding a plus-one at the very
least--needs to finally do away with the Notre Dame-friendly provisions
and the two-team limits from conferences. The Irish derive more than
enough benefit from their independent status as it is; the pot need not
be sweetened any more.
Houston's return to glory
By
John
Harris
5. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the Southwest Conference was one
of the strongest conferences in the nation, and the Houston Cougars were
one of the major reasons why. The legacy of the program was much
stronger than most people understood. Heisman Trophy winner Andre
Ware. Wilson Whitley. Jason Phillips. The 1984 surprising conference
champs. The Run and Shoot offenses of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
But, when the SWC died a painful death and the major players in the SWC
merged with the Big 8, U of H was left holding the bag…and searching for
a life after, so to speak. The Cougs moved out of the Astrodome, moved
into Robertson Stadium, saw a few coaches come and go and toiled in
relative anonymity. Even after two bowls in three years under head
coach Art Briles, there were still those in the city who didn’t believe
in this program.
Maybe that’s what made
Friday night so special. Walking through the parking lot before the
game, the atmosphere was unbelievable, hours before the game.
Fortunately for the home folks, the Cougars overcame a first half time
out gaffe to roll over Southern Miss to win the program’s first CUSA
championship since 1996. But, perhaps more importantly, U of H got the
nation’s fourth largest city’s attention, again. As the Cougars
floundered in recent years and the Texans arrived in the NFL, the city’s
college football programs didn’t register on the radar of many living
there. But, folks rallied around Briles and his charges on Friday in a
way that’s difficult to describe. The Cougars repaid the favor by
outlasting a Golden Eagle squad that had beaten them earlier this year,
setting off an on-field celebration that symbolized how much this title
meant to everyone involved.
It was a special night
and one in which anyone in that stadium wearing red and white will
remember forever - a night that stirred up memories of Klingler, C Spoon
and the veer. It was a program that a city once forgot, but not any
more.
