Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sunday, December 2, 2007
ESPN.com Sports National polls get it?
I doubt anybody has taken the wrong angle on the whole BCS/tournament argument more than ESPN over the years, but a Sports Nation poll posted today shows that even the WWL is starting to ask some of the right questions.
http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3273
http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3273
Good questions will be asked today
Today, the teams that are being picked to play in BCS games, including the championship game, will be revealed. In the 10th year of the BCS, I believe we finally have the perfect-storm field of hopeful teams to cause some tangible backlash. People are finally asking the right questions and making the right criticisms. How could you possibly select the top 2 teams in the country right now (or any year) without playing it out? You couldn't, and you can't. College football is the only sport I can think of where the decision makers try to use data that is completely unrelated to decide who is eligible for a championship.
For instance, compare the schedules of USC and LSU. There are zero common opponents. Now throw a one-loss Ohio State team into this discussion. They will surely be selected for whatever reason, but is their 1-loss Big 10 championship more deserving than a 2-loss Pac 10 championship or a 2-loss SEC championship? I think the only common opponent is that both USC and OSU handled Washington...meaningless. As major conference champions, all three teams are equally deserving of advancing to compete for the national championship.
The BCS is going to rely on data points like LSU-played Tennessee-played Cal-played USC, and even worse, the human naked eye, to decide who belongs in the game. The human judgment idea is ridiculous; they're about to tell us that a 0-loss Hawaii team in the WAC is UNdeserving while a 1-loss Ohio State team in the Big 10 is easily deserving, and then a 1-loss Kansas team is UNdeserving. There's no logic to it -- it's guesses supported by biases.
The salient point is that college football is the sport LEAST qualified to select the best two teams based on regular-season play. With only four out of conference games the whole season, we never know how the competition compares. The only way to decide who is the best major conference champion is to play it on the field. It would be like selecting the finals of the World Cup based on qualifying results (the US would be West Virginia in this analogy and CONCACAF the Big East), or picking the state championship game in high school football based on their regular season results. If you happen to follow either of these two sports, you see my point.
Even if the BCS conferences had 2 undefeated champions and 4 3-loss champions, it would still be best to have them all play it out on the field, in a tournament, because each champion earns their regular-season record in a completely different realm of college football.
An important thing for all BCS haters to think about as the season approaches is which playoff format is best, while realizing that there will probably be a few things everyone doesn't like about each playoff format. I'm sorry that's the case, but there's no way to organize a perfect college football tournament. That's something to look at more later, but the sooner that everyone accepts that there will be a few imperfections with any tournament style, and that it will be far a better format than the BCS, the better.
For instance, compare the schedules of USC and LSU. There are zero common opponents. Now throw a one-loss Ohio State team into this discussion. They will surely be selected for whatever reason, but is their 1-loss Big 10 championship more deserving than a 2-loss Pac 10 championship or a 2-loss SEC championship? I think the only common opponent is that both USC and OSU handled Washington...meaningless. As major conference champions, all three teams are equally deserving of advancing to compete for the national championship.
The BCS is going to rely on data points like LSU-played Tennessee-played Cal-played USC, and even worse, the human naked eye, to decide who belongs in the game. The human judgment idea is ridiculous; they're about to tell us that a 0-loss Hawaii team in the WAC is UNdeserving while a 1-loss Ohio State team in the Big 10 is easily deserving, and then a 1-loss Kansas team is UNdeserving. There's no logic to it -- it's guesses supported by biases.
The salient point is that college football is the sport LEAST qualified to select the best two teams based on regular-season play. With only four out of conference games the whole season, we never know how the competition compares. The only way to decide who is the best major conference champion is to play it on the field. It would be like selecting the finals of the World Cup based on qualifying results (the US would be West Virginia in this analogy and CONCACAF the Big East), or picking the state championship game in high school football based on their regular season results. If you happen to follow either of these two sports, you see my point.
Even if the BCS conferences had 2 undefeated champions and 4 3-loss champions, it would still be best to have them all play it out on the field, in a tournament, because each champion earns their regular-season record in a completely different realm of college football.
An important thing for all BCS haters to think about as the season approaches is which playoff format is best, while realizing that there will probably be a few things everyone doesn't like about each playoff format. I'm sorry that's the case, but there's no way to organize a perfect college football tournament. That's something to look at more later, but the sooner that everyone accepts that there will be a few imperfections with any tournament style, and that it will be far a better format than the BCS, the better.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
This winter, it's time to take down the BCS
How much influence does the rabid sports fan have on the games that he/she supports so thoroughly with time and money? I would argue that, in most cases, we have very little influence. For at least the decades I've been alive, there has been a lot going on in the sports world that contradicts the collective whim of the fan. Work stoppage disasters, rising ticket prices, the degeneration of broadcasting; the sports fan has been helpless to do anything about these issues despite sharing more or less a united stance against them. There are two reasons for this, I think-- it's tough to measure when sports fans are largely in agreement, and even when it's obvious, it's difficult to figure out how to do anything about it.
But a great opportunity has arrived to make our voice heard. From Dec. 1 to Jan. 7, the date of the BCS game that claims it will decide a national championship in college football, hard core fans have an excellent chance to do something about an injustice. While I'm not claiming to have metrics in support of it, it seems pretty clear that most sports fans want a tournament to decide the national champion in college football. We're told this will never happen though, and I think college football's ruling class assumes we will always support the system they have in place, begrudgingly or not. But this year is the perfect year to NOT support the system. There will be 5 BCS games played from Jan. 1 to Jan. 7. I call for all true sports fans, those who know that college football needs a tournament to pick a valid national champion, to BOYCOTT the BCS games this season. If you happen to be a fan of one of the 10 teams playing in the games, I understand the need to watch your team, but you should BOYCOTT the other four.
We can get into all the flaws with the BCS system, and any system that doesn't involve a tournament, in later entries on this blog, but this one is just about rallying the masses. Use your remote to show college football decision makers of the present and the future that you will not blindly buy into whatever haphazard product they sell.
But a great opportunity has arrived to make our voice heard. From Dec. 1 to Jan. 7, the date of the BCS game that claims it will decide a national championship in college football, hard core fans have an excellent chance to do something about an injustice. While I'm not claiming to have metrics in support of it, it seems pretty clear that most sports fans want a tournament to decide the national champion in college football. We're told this will never happen though, and I think college football's ruling class assumes we will always support the system they have in place, begrudgingly or not. But this year is the perfect year to NOT support the system. There will be 5 BCS games played from Jan. 1 to Jan. 7. I call for all true sports fans, those who know that college football needs a tournament to pick a valid national champion, to BOYCOTT the BCS games this season. If you happen to be a fan of one of the 10 teams playing in the games, I understand the need to watch your team, but you should BOYCOTT the other four.
We can get into all the flaws with the BCS system, and any system that doesn't involve a tournament, in later entries on this blog, but this one is just about rallying the masses. Use your remote to show college football decision makers of the present and the future that you will not blindly buy into whatever haphazard product they sell.
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