Let's do the math.
A 16-team BCS playoff would require 15 games to crown a champion, assuming there are no play-in games.
All 15 playoff games could be designated bowl games and be played within the existing traditional bowl structure. The championship game could be rotated from site to site every year, as is done now.
All of the above sounds better and better when you realize we have just been subjected to 37 bowls, culminating with Sunday night's GoDaddy.com Bowl, the father of which should be sued for non-support. No matter how much you love college football, it's impossible to defend the existence of the majority of those bowls.
It's also impossible to defend the NCAA's decision to allow teams with .500 records to go to a bowl.
While in the past this column has been supportive of the current BCS system, my big concern now isn't that the existing structure may not produce a clear-cut champion. My concern is that, by sanctioning matchups such as Illinois-UCLA the NCAA has cheapened postseason appearances to the point where there is no logical reason to waste three hours of a busy life to view them on TV.
And it's pure foolishness to actually buy a ticket to something called the Belk Bowl.
A playoff system would accomplish three things: Make every postseason game meaningful; greatly increase viewership and ticket sales and produce a fully credible national champion.
This year, I have no problem proclaiming
Monday's LSU-Alabama winner as the best in the country. I don't think Oklahoma State, which struggled to beat Stanford in overtime in the Fiesta Bowl and whose one loss was to an underwhelming Iowa State team, has a claim to the title. Nor does Oregon, which also got a bit of luck to beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and lost twice during the regular season.
But the current system is a crapshoot. Assuming the NCAA maintains the status quo, 2013 could see three or four teams championship-worthy. Only two, at most, will meet in the BCS finale.
The solution to all this seems to be simple: go to a playoff system, produce a real champion and get rid of about 20 of the existing "bowls" that are an embarrassment to the NCAA and an insult to the fans.
Speaking of football, I never will understand all this sturm und drang over Tim Tebow's religious beliefs. I haven't seen any video on YouTube of him throwing Bibles into the crowd or forcibly dunking a fan in a fountain while spouting Scripture.
He says he's a Christian. That's his choice. A lot of people are, a lot of people aren't. Personally, I don't care. I learned a long time ago not to argue religion. Politics, well, that's a different matter.
A number of star athletes of the past had strong religious views. Two ex-NFL quarterbacks, Bart Starr and Roger Staubach, immediately come to mind. Both could be quite judgmental with the media if they felt their religion, which happened to be Christianity, was being disparaged.
I haven't heard of any incidents of Tebow severely lecturing a sportswriter - as I once saw Starr do - about taking the Lord's name in vain.
So let the guy play and quit obsessing over things that, frankly, are none of your business.
For me, I prefer to believe in a God who has more important things on his (or her) mind than who wins a football game.
Spring, and spring training, will be here in short order. Which means the Monrovia-based Baseball Reliquary is warming up its artistic arm for another season.
The Reliquary 2012 "opener" will be on Feb. 4 at the West Covina Public Library, where it will debut an exhibit entitled "Occupy Chavez Ravine: The `Blue Bum' Paintings of Stephen Seemayer."
The exhibit will be on display from Feb. 4 through March 29. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, Feb. 18, at the library starting at 3 p.m.
Seemayer works from the "Bum" templates of the legendary Willard Mullin, but the political slant is all his own as his artwork traces the Dodgers' history in Los Angeles.
The Reliquary also has announced the 2012 candidates for election to its Shrine of the Eternals. New to the ballot this year are a couple of familiar faces for Southland baseball fans: Steve Bilko, star first baseman of the PCL Los Angeles Angels in the 1950s, and Hideo Nomo, the 1995 National League Rookie of the Year while pitching for the Dodgers.
Read more: http://www.sbsun.com/sports/ci_19709883#ixzz1j2waCjRQ
College football needs a playoff
Let's do the math.
A 16-team BCS playoff would require 15 games to crown a champion, assuming there are no play-in games.
All 15 playoff games could be designated bowl games and be played within the existing traditional bowl structure. The championship game could be rotated from site to site every year, as is done now.
All of the above sounds better and better when you realize we have just been subjected to 37 bowls, culminating with Sunday night's GoDaddy.com Bowl, the father of which should be sued for non-support. No matter how much you love college football, it's impossible to defend the existence of the majority of those bowls.
It's also impossible to defend the NCAA's decision to allow teams with .500 records to go to a bowl.
While in the past this column has been supportive of the current BCS system, my big concern now isn't that the existing structure may not produce a clear-cut champion. My concern is that, by sanctioning matchups such as Illinois-UCLA the NCAA has cheapened postseason appearances to the point where there is no logical reason to waste three hours of a busy life to view them on TV.
And it's pure foolishness to actually buy a ticket to something called the Belk Bowl.
A playoff system would accomplish three things: Make every postseason game meaningful; greatly increase viewership and ticket sales and produce a fully credible national champion.
This year, I have no problem proclaiming
Monday's LSU-Alabama winner as the best in the country. I don't think Oklahoma State, which struggled to beat Stanford in overtime in the Fiesta Bowl and whose one loss was to an underwhelming Iowa State team, has a claim to the title. Nor does Oregon, which also got a bit of luck to beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and lost twice during the regular season.
But the current system is a crapshoot. Assuming the NCAA maintains the status quo, 2013 could see three or four teams championship-worthy. Only two, at most, will meet in the BCS finale.
The solution to all this seems to be simple: go to a playoff system, produce a real champion and get rid of about 20 of the existing "bowls" that are an embarrassment to the NCAA and an insult to the fans.
Speaking of football, I never will understand all this sturm und drang over Tim Tebow's religious beliefs. I haven't seen any video on YouTube of him throwing Bibles into the crowd or forcibly dunking a fan in a fountain while spouting Scripture.
He says he's a Christian. That's his choice. A lot of people are, a lot of people aren't. Personally, I don't care. I learned a long time ago not to argue religion. Politics, well, that's a different matter.
A number of star athletes of the past had strong religious views. Two ex-NFL quarterbacks, Bart Starr and Roger Staubach, immediately come to mind. Both could be quite judgmental with the media if they felt their religion, which happened to be Christianity, was being disparaged.
I haven't heard of any incidents of Tebow severely lecturing a sportswriter - as I once saw Starr do - about taking the Lord's name in vain.
So let the guy play and quit obsessing over things that, frankly, are none of your business.
For me, I prefer to believe in a God who has more important things on his (or her) mind than who wins a football game.
Spring, and spring training, will be here in short order. Which means the Monrovia-based Baseball Reliquary is warming up its artistic arm for another season.
The Reliquary 2012 "opener" will be on Feb. 4 at the West Covina Public Library, where it will debut an exhibit entitled "Occupy Chavez Ravine: The `Blue Bum' Paintings of Stephen Seemayer."
The exhibit will be on display from Feb. 4 through March 29. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, Feb. 18, at the library starting at 3 p.m.
Seemayer works from the "Bum" templates of the legendary Willard Mullin, but the political slant is all his own as his artwork traces the Dodgers' history in Los Angeles.
The Reliquary also has announced the 2012 candidates for election to its Shrine of the Eternals. New to the ballot this year are a couple of familiar faces for Southland baseball fans: Steve Bilko, star first baseman of the PCL Los Angeles Angels in the 1950s, and Hideo Nomo, the 1995 National League Rookie of the Year while pitching for the Dodgers.
Read more: http://www.sbsun.com/sports/ci_19709883#ixzz1j2waCjRQ
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