Friends, Netizens, countrymen, lend me your ears. For I come to bury college football, not to praise it. I don’t like college football. There, I said it. I’ve never really liked it. Oh I’ve tried watching it, but there are so many flaws in the college system that it makes my brain hurt. Every couple of years I forget what I have learned and catch a game on TV. And then I remember: “I hate this game”.
Let me be perfectly clear, I don’t hold the kids playing accountable for my hatred. I fully blame the money-grubbing whores who are in charge of the system. I blame the “football factory” type schools who don’t care about giving someone an honest education and instead care only about beating their conference rivals. I blame the NCAA, a bunch of hypocritical bastards who are getting rich off of kids by promising them pipe dreams. I blame the athletic directors who schedule their Division I powerhouse team to take on some cupcake school where the kids are playing because they really do love the game.
The straw that broke the camel’s back this time was seeing the final score of Oklahoma State shellacking Savannah State 84-0. I don’t know about you, but where I come from when you pay someone to come to your house and lose, it’s called a “fix”. The game was never in doubt, OSU pulled their starters before the end of the 1st quarter! To add to this indignity, the OSU defensive coach was riding his team to put a big fat zero up on the defensive side, even in the 4th quarter when OSU was using 4th and 5th string players. Yes, they said they weren’t trying to run the score up, but they were still passing in the 4th quarter. For being the brave little tackling dummies they were, Savannah State was paid a cool $385,000. Savannah State then marched down to Florida and got crushed by No. 7 Florida State (who paid them $475,000). This particular game included 11 minutes of time where the clock didn’t stop for any reason and was eventually called in the third quarter for “weather reasons”. This is football? No. This is a complete joke.
Now I understand that for small school like Savannah State they were paid more money for those two games than they probably make for an entire year, and it only cost them their dignity. I know dropping 400,000 to basically play a practice game is nothing but a drop in the bucket to some of the larger schools, but it makes a mockery of the spirit of competition and fair play and taints the entire sport. I have some pretty easy fixes for college football, they will never implement anything like them of course but if they cared about the sport at all they would.
First, schools should not be allowed to cherry pick their non conference opponents. A non partisan athletic board without a dog in the fight should be assigning these games. A very good example of this is BSU. I live in what is basically a one-sport town, that sport is college football. I could rant for hours about why I hate it but I’m aiming for a larger point. When BSU had Kellen Moore at QB and they were basically tearing through any competition thrown in their way they desperately wanted to play other top 25 teams. They were offering all sorts of concessions, like in a 3 game series over 3 years BSU would play 2 of those games on the road. Strangely, nobody wanted to take them up on this offer, big time “football factory” schools were simply afraid of being embarrassed and beaten by BSU. These are the same types of teams that always seem to be in the discussion for a national title, but they didn’t want to face BSU because that would have meant actual competition.
College football is rife with corruption, particularly when it comes to recruiting. USC, which just came off a two year bowl ban, is already being investigated for potential recruiting violations. Clearly they got the message the first time around. The nice thing about the NFL is the relative parity. This year’s 2-14 team can be a playoff contender the next year with some sound management decisions and talent development. In college football, if you are a member of the lower class of schools it could take 10+ years or more to build a program that could even think about going to a bowl game — and even then you probably won’t be going to one because the BCS system determined that the quality of your opponents wasn’t high enough, and you aren’t in a conference that gets an automatic bowl bid.
Recruiting needs to be cleaned up, and the entire system should be overhauled. Also these kids should be getting an education that actually matters. Most of the major football schools care more about wins and losses than giving a kid a good education. Most of those kids aren’t going to make it in (or even to) the NFL, and when they don’t the only thing they have to fall back on is a diploma that is barely worth the paper it is printed on.
College football needs to implement a real playoff system. Don’t tell me there isn’t enough time in the schedule because weeks pass between the end of the regular season and the start of bowl season. A six or eight team playoff format would be best with all of the conference champions participating and maybe a couple of wild cards. Coach’s polls, sport writer polls and computer calculations should be thrown right into the trash. You win your division’s conference and you are in the playoffs. It’s not rocket science.
Maybe one day I’ll be able to sit back and enjoy a nice competitive game of college football, but as long as the current system is in place I’ll stick with the pro game, thanks.
Weekly Picks (Home team in caps)
Mr Ross
PACKERS over Bears, Chiefs over BILLS, BENGALS over Browns, Vikings over COLTS, Raiders over DOLPHINS, PATRIOTS over Cardinals, GIANTS over Buccaneers, EAGLES over Ravens, Saints over PANTHERS, Texans over JAGUARS, SEAHAWKS over Cowboys, Redskins over RAMS, STEELERS over Jets, CHARGERS over Titans, 49ERS over Lions, FALCONS over Broncos.
Last week 9-7
Mrs Ross
Packers, Chiefs, Browns, Vikings, Dolphins (she can dream), Patriots, Giants, Ravens, Saints, Texans, Cowboys, Redskins, Steelers, Chargers, 49ers, Broncos
Last week 11-5 Uh-oh
