By
Pete Fiutak
Fire over your questions to me at
pete@collegefootballnews.com. I might not be able to answer them
all, but I promise they're all read. Any e-mails sent to this
address may be published or edited unless requested otherwise.
(Please put ASK CFN in the subject line, and PLEASE keep the
questions short ... it makes my life easier.)
How is it that
everyone's solution to the current BCS turmoil is simply, "we need a
playoff". Other than the "Plus One" system many have suggested, I have
not seen a single expert elaborate on any of the following details: How
many teams?
How are they seeded?
Where do they play? Are there byes? Are there automatic bids for
conference winners? Will there still be bowl games? Is anyone else ready
to ban BCS-bashing unless playoff proponents can answer at least one of
the following?
- Pat
A: First of all, no one of decision-making, system changing importance
is talking about this at all. People are talking about tweaks, changes,
and ways to improve the current system, but as far as a playoff or an
extra game, or a plus one, don’t hold your breath.
The rest of the CFNers have their own opinions on this, but in my
perfect world: How many teams? Four. Any more and it becomes a gimmick
and diminishes the importance of the regular season. How are they
seeded? By a BCS system like we have in place. Remember, if you’re not
going to have a playoff, the BCS is actually a decent idea if used
properly. No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3. Where do they play?
Rotate it. One game is in one current BCS game, one is in another, and
then the two winners play in one extra game. Are there automatic bids
for conference winners? No, but the field of my final four is only open
to conference champions and Notre Dame, if it finishes in the BCS top
four. Will there still be bowl games? Of course. They’re exhibitions,
not playoffs.
Under my system, this year you’d have Ohio State playing Louisville in
one bowl, USC play Florida in another, and the two winners play off in
the title. Where’s Michigan? Where’s LSU? Conference champions only,
please.
Forgetting a playoff, outside of conference champions only in title
game, what’s the one main change that should be made to the BCS to make
more people happy? –KJ
A: Top ten are in. That’s it. The extra exception for Notre Dame and the
strange rules for the little guy aren’t fair, and winning your
conference championship shouldn’t mean you get an automatic invite. Wake
Forest is 14th and in a big money game and Notre Dame is 11th,
while Wisconsin is out despite being ranked 7th along with
Auburn at 9th. No. 1 vs. No. 2, Ohio State vs. Florida, in
the title game, No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 5 USC in the Rose, No. 4 LSU vs.
No. 7 Wisconsin in the Sugar, No. 6 Louisville vs. No. 9 Auburn in the
Orange, and No. 8 Boise State vs. No. 10 Oklahoma in the Fiesta. The
matchups would be far better and much fairer.
I got torched in picking last year's bowl games, so I need to
ask--what are the best rules of thumb or guidelines for picking a bowl
winner? – MM
A: Let me know if you can figure this one out. Without inside info, bowl
games are next to impossible to consistently get right because there’s
so much lag time between the end of the regular season and the late
December/early January games. Some teams get healthier, some get rusty,
some just lose interest and the fire it had when it was so hot in
mid-November. With that said, here are three basic rules to go by: 1)
Take the veteran quarterback over the inexperienced one. He’ll likely
have spent the time off preparing more effectively. 2) Go with the
better offensive line. Coaches with idle time cook up all sorts of goofy
tricks and wrinkles for the bowl game, but when push comes to shove,
most go Pat Buchanan conservative and rely on their ground attacks.
Combine a great line with a veteran quarterback and you have a likely
winner. 3) Analyze the schedules, hard. Wisconsin might have the first
two rules, but it didn’t beat anyone outside of Penn State. That doesn’t
mean it can’t beat Arkansas, but if you’re in a confidence pool, put
this game low on your list because there are too many unknowns.
For the sake of argument, let's say that Michigan comes out and
trounces USC in the Rose Bowl, and Florida
barely/controversially/soundly/however beats OSU. Do you see a scenario
in which the AP voters, who don't have to answer to the BCS honks, vote
Michigan as the #1 team? I know it's WAY out there, but I was wondering
if you guys had thought about it. Thanks. -PJ Kendall
A: I got a bunch of e-mails from desperate Michigan fans asking the same
thing, and I’ll ask you the same thing I told Auburn fans in 2004; would
it make you feel better? Would that fill the void in your life left
empty after Shawn Crable cranked Troy Smith on the helmet-to-helmet hit?
The AP poll is meaningless now that it’s out of the BCS, but if it would
help you sleep better at night being the AP champion, or anyone else’s
champion, then good luck, and hope you get it. Of course the denial can
only last for so long, and eventually you’ll realize that unless you’re
the BCS champion, it just doesn’t mean much.
Fine, let’s say Florida beats Ohio State in a sloppy, ugly 9-7 game with
a ton of turnovers and the Buckeyes playing disinterested and dead.
Michigan beats USC 45-3 in the Rose Bowl. There might be some picking
the Wolverines first, but so what?
I'm sick of the money-grubbing bowl selection process. I know your
position on paying players, an issue which I'm 50/50 on. But if we're
not going to pay them, how the heck are we justified to decide where
they play their bowls based on how much dough they pull in? Every time
I hear of school X being passed over because of low projected hotel room
purchases, I feel like punching a kitten. Having a million living
alumni with 500 bucks and a weekend to get rid of should not come before
on-the-field performance. For all the talk about the players being only
students, we really should treat them like students and not like
commodities. Do you feel the same? How hard would it be for the NCAA to
take over, do a huge internal audit like in Office Space, and set the
bowls up so the kids play where they deserve to play? –Casey
A: Let’s clear up the money thing first. I’m not for paying players, I’m
for letting them have agents, do endorsement deals and letting boosters
give them anything they want. There’s a difference. Second, remember
that bowl games are businesses. They’re not about the purity and
competition of college football; they’re for making money for their
corporations, sponsors and cities. If 35,000 Iowa or West Virginia fans
will show up for a bowl against Middle Tennessee played in Baghdad, and
142 Miami or Florida State fans would show up for a meaningless bowl
played in their home stadiums, who do you think the bowls want more?
These bowls are fun for the players no matter where they go. They get
gift bags full of goodies that somehow are considered fine by the NCAA,
they get lots of dinners, they get their butts kissed up and down. Don’t
weep too much for them.
i hate to rehash this tired subject but as in every year delusional
fans suggest how their team might, probably or definitely could beat an
nfl bottom feeder. in this case, it's bucks vs. browns. being a diehard
buckeye fan myself i can't, despite using the best of my imagination,
even conceive of the game being closer than 40 points. i doubt cleveland
would punt or even attempt a fg, and i don't see how the bucks could put
together anything resembling a scoring drive. well, maybe a fluke TD to
ginn. 56-7 browns. – Ben
A: I’m happy to rehash this because I get a few e-mails every week
wondering how Ohio State would do against the Oakland Raiders, or
something to that effect. Last year, I had eight doorknobs (don’t rip on
the readers, don’t rip on the readers) who I just couldn’t reach and
kept screaming at me that USC would’ve beaten the Houston Texans. How
well has LenDale White done so far? Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush are
going to be great, but they didn’t come out of the box rocking. How
about the rest of that Trojan team? How many are lighting up the big
league now?
Ohio State gave up 38 points to Michigan; if properly motivated, the
Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders, or any other NFL team you can think
of would hang 70. That’s not a rip on Ohio State, that’s just trying to
get it into everyone’s head the ten-mile wide difference between the
college and pro games. Think of it this way; how many Buckeyes are going
to end up playing in the NFL, much less starting? NFL players are
bigger, stronger, more mature, more polished, and far, far better.
That’s why it’s the NFL.
I was just wondering if you think last Saturday was the most
entertaining day of football overall this year? As I write this, OSU
and Hawaii have not yet played, but it seems like all the games so far
(with the exception of the Louisville-UConn game) have been close, hard
fought battles. I'm curious as to how you think today's games compare
with the rest of the season. - Alex B
A: It was certainly fun. Every week I get into an argument on some radio
show about why college football is the best sport going; you don’t get
days like last Saturday in any other league. When was the last time you
actually cared what happened all across the landscape on an NFL Sunday,
outside of your ‘investments” or fantasy team? Quick, name the five best
NFL regular season games of the last ten years. You can’t do it, because
the regular seasons are meaningless in every other sport. To answer your
question, in a roundabout way, it was so much fun because the games
mattered. There was so much on the line, so while the games weren’t as
good as there were in other weekends, there was more at stake.
Troy Smith has all the prerequisites for winning the Heisman.
1) Solid
performances in glamour Offensive position (QB /RB) on a top 5 team, 2)
Good performance in quality non-conference win (Texas), 3) Good
performance in against biggest rival (Michigan), 4) Undefeated at time
of ballot
My question is
this, will Troy Smith win this award simply because no one else has
actually challenged him or because he deserves it. To illustrate my
point lets look at last year Reggie Bush and Vince Young both met the
criteria but to me there play was good to begin with and when they were
in the zone they were simply breathtaking while Smith has not had me
getting goosebumps watching him play, or am I just being hyper-critical? - Navir Thakur
A: You didn’t get goosebumps in that first half against Michigan? Smith
is a deserving Heisman winner because he was a flawless leader of the
nation’s number one team all year long, but it also helped that no one
else was even close. What would’ve happened if Reggie Bush or Vince
Young had returned for a senior year? It would’ve come down to the early
season Ohio State – Texas game for the Heisman race, and Bush certainly
would’ve been in the mix to win number two.
Troy and Middle Tennessee both finished the season with identical
conference records (6-1) and identical overall records (7-5). Troy beat
MTSU and got the league's one bowl bid to New Orleans, but Middle (and
the Sunbelt Commish) say that the Blue Raiders are "co-champions" of the
Belt. Your opinion? – Bbrookin
A: A Sun Belt question? It’s always good to know the fans are out there.
Yeah, technically the two teams tied for the Sun Belt title since
everyone played everyone else in league play, but Troy wins the
tie-breaker, and in my world, is the real Sun Belt champion if you had
to split between the two. Troy lost to Arkansas State 33-26 at home
while the Blue Raiders beat the Indians 38-10 on the road.