A nighmare for the ncaa

[yh]

This is a really good debate and might I even say (and if I sound patronizing, I sincerely apologize) CIVILIZED.  Good for all involved.  This is true discourse.  

And it should come as little surprise that Mike Tranghese, the BCS Czar for lack of a better term, has spent a lot of time in front of various microphones and on the phone to a lot of reporters over the last few days.  His stock set of sound bites basically states that the BCS is in need of some substantial fine-tuning and also that the fate of a college football playoff lies squarely in the hands of the 117 college presidents at D1A schools and apparently an overwhelming majority of them won't even consider such a notion, no less approve of it.

[random]

as you can see from my previous posts its not hard to see that i am completly against a large scale playoff system. but lets for one second talk about not what we want to happen, but what probably will happen

in my opinion, these are reforms that have a good possibility of happening

-a 5th BCS game anchored by the highest ranked mid major, or some other sort of access for teams like TCU, Miami OH, Boise St, etc

-The MAC will get one, if not two more bowl bids based on this year alone

-the computer rankings componant of the BCS will be eliminated or changed drasticlly

-there is quite a good possibility of a post bowl championship in 2006. now interestingly enuff haden fry just proposed a playoff using the winners of the 4 BCS bowls. i wouldnt be against either one of these proposals as they would minimize the negative effects i described in my previous posts. but as respected as coach fry is, i dont see this happening, especially if a 5th game is added. the logic behind this is to make the top teams win a big contest agiainst a quality team right at the end of the season to prevent a team from backing in like nebraska in 01 or oklahoma this year. this would keep the playoff people quiet for awhile and i'm sure the college presidents would not be too opposed to this as it would keep the whole bowl structure intact and only add time to the seasons of 2 teams.

as much as people want a large scale march madness style playoff, its just not gonna happen. people have been clamoring for it for ages, this isnt a new argument. look for a post bowl championship in 2006 and the end of the computer rankings, thats my prediction.

[yh]

Random, I agree that the number of BCS bowls will expand, but probably by 3 and my guess is that they will be the Cotton Bowl and two others among a group including the Sun, Peach, Cap One or Gator Bowls. This would allow the MAC, MWC, CUSA and WAC to send a representative and bring a couple more at-large teams in the mix (you know, on the off chance a Sun Belt team winds up 11-0 ).

As I have stated here end elsewhere, a true playoff beyond a 4 team, post-bowl invitational is going to require a huge change in attitude from the 117 college presidents presently in charge of the system. And so long as only a few conferences hold "championship games," those contests shouldn't be treated as anything more than another regular season game. If every conference agrees to an "elimination game" then the argument to exclude a team that loses such a game from the big event becomes stronger. Until then, it's just another game regardless of what it's called.

[random]

since we're on the subject, does anyone know the exact methodology of the div I-AA playoffs? it seems to me to be a random draw with no seeding. and how are the teams picked? the whole thing seems really arbitrary to me. i was just wondering if anyone actually knows how it works. ???

[NJTank]

Why should we care about these bowls

Besides maybe 4 or 5 are there any other bowl games worth watching to the average fan.

I dont care how these mediocre teams like Northwestern feel if they want to get in a bowl play better, get better players.

Maybe you can keep some sorta of bowl matchup going spearte of teh Tournamnet as consellation games, after all there is still a NIT during March Madness.

However I'm sick of the Bowls I could care less who wins half of these bowls, and I refuse to even watch any bowl with a mediocre 7-5 or 6-6 team.

There are only a few Bowl games that are traditional now.

The Sugar, Rose, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, Gator, Peach, Sun, Indepence, Liberty and Holliday are the only Bowl games with a historic tradition to them, along with the former Citrus Bowl.

All these dumb sponsor bowls that are only a few years old like the GMAC Bowl and the Fort Worthless Bowl there just is no point to them.

[Ez Street]

and with a playoff bowl system i say they could still be sponsored.  For godsake they just had the Dr. Pepper Big XII Championship. If i have to see another Dr. Pepper commercial again i'm gonna scream.

[random]

on the subject of minor bowls, ur right there are too many. u should have to win 8 games to go a bowl. but that doesnt mean cut all the bowl games out, just the worthless ones. teams like west virginia, maryland, oklahoma st., texas, miami oh, bowling green, tcu, navy, etc. all deserve bowl bids. teams like kansas and northwestern dont

[-kj]

does anyone know the exact methodology of the div I-AA playoffs? it seems to me to be a random draw with no seeding. and how are the teams picked?

From NCAASports.com:

The 2003 championship field consists of eight automatic qualifiers and eight at-large qualifiers.

AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS (8)

North Carolina A&T - Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference

Colgate - Patriot League

Wofford - Southern Conference

McNeese State - Southland Conference

Montana St. - Big Sky Conference

Jacksonville State - Ohio Valley Conference

Delaware - Atlantic 10 Conference

Northern Iowa - Gateway Football Conference

AT-LARGE QUALIFERS (8)

Northern Arizona - Big Sky Conference

Western Illinois - Gateway Football Conference

Bethune-Cookman - Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference

Massachusetts - Atlantic 10 Conference

Montana - Big Sky Conference

Western Kentucky - Gateway Football Conference

Southern Illinois - Gateway Football Conference

Florida Atlantic - Independent

Four teams are seeded, and those four plus four more teams get to host first-round games.  They generally seem to be the conference champions, but not in all cases, I'm guessing possibly having to do with stadium availability.  The games seem to be regionalized, to a certain extent, except that as far as I can tell, they try to avoid intra-conference matchups.

I can't find where the specifics are spelled out, but it seems to be done similiarly to the NCAA basketball tournaments.

[yh]

If i have to see another Dr. Pepper commercial again i'm gonna scream.

Hey, that one with Anastasia and the push-up crop top works for me.

[Ez Street]

you know i actually thought about that when i wrote that. I'd put the T.V. on mute and edit out Cindi Lauper.

[yh]

Hell, edit out the crop top for that matter.

Uh oh, this is moving off top-ic.

Pun intended.  

[Roger Clemente]

Hell, edit out the crop top for that matter.

Uh oh, this is moving off top-ic.

Pun intended.

Aren't you a happily married man with a 2-year-old daughter?

For shame Yale, for shame.

--Roger "Time?" Clemente.

[yh]

Hell, edit out the crop top for that matter.

Uh oh, this is moving off top-ic.

Pun intended.

Aren't you a happily married man with a 2-year-old daughter?

For shame Yale, for shame.

--Roger "Time?" Clemente.

Yes I am, and that's the principal reason why I'm reduced to getting cheap thrills from watching a soda commercial.  You're day's coming ... sooner than you think.  And trust me, it's a good tradeoff despite the way it sounds.

[random]

wait, i dont understand something.

so the ivy league, the best teams from the SWAC, and southern and grambling are all basically unable to win a championship? i definatly dont understand that, it doesnt seem very fair to me. why not just move one of the conflicting games?

another thing i dont get about Div 1-AA is that it seems its always the same exact teams in the playoffs, maybe thats just a mistake of perception, but it sure seems that way to me.

i also wanna pass along a cool idea i heard floating around at some point about the "mid majors" engaging in a common post season with the top 1-AA teams because the mid majors were pissed about being unable to win a title. i dont know how this would work, but it kinda makes sense, "if the big bowl six wanna do their BCS crap and leave us out then we'll just have our own championship". this might be a good idea.

[yh]

so the ivy league, the best teams from the SWAC, and southern and grambling are all basically unable to win a championship? i definatly dont understand that, it doesnt seem very fair to me. why not just move one of the conflicting games?

another thing i dont get about Div 1-AA is that it seems its always the same exact teams in the playoffs, maybe thats just a mistake of perception, but it sure seems that way to me.

i also wanna pass along a cool idea i heard floating around at some point about the "mid majors" engaging in a common post season with the top 1-AA teams because the mid majors were pissed about being unable to win a title. i dont know how this would work, but it kinda makes sense, "if the big bowl six wanna do their BCS crap and leave us out then we'll just have our own championship". this might be a good idea.

It does seem very odd that there's no Ivy or SWAC representation here, especially since Gateway (a league I actually follow a wee bit) has four teams in the playoffs.

The bracket does seem like it contains most of the "usual suspects."  In that way it does seem a little bit like Division I - only a handful of teams really challenge for the championship consistently.  I did note that Youngstown State's not in this year and they're a perennial contender.

The notion of setting up some post season action against certain mid-major conferences and some of the stronger D1AA programs is intriguing, especially since many of the schools in these mid-majors are only a few years removed from being D1AA programs themselves - Marshall, USF, UCF, etc.  However, as intriguing as this would be, I would think the D1A schools wouldn't be crazy about it since a loss to a lower-tier team, especially in the post season, would be a terrible embarassment.  Maybe there's a compromise in there somewhere.  Although there's already a lot of complaining about the number of bowls let's add another two and group them with the Motor City, GMAC, Humanitarian, Las Vegas, Liberty and New Orleans Bowls.  These bowls will be reserved principally for the champs of the MAC, Sun Belt, WAC, MWC and CUSA.  The other bids will go to members of mid major conferences with no fewer than 6 wins in an 11 game season or 7 wins in a 12 game season.  The hitch is that, unlike the present D1A system where you can only count 1 win against a D1AA team for your bowl-eligible minimum every 4 (I think) years, to qualify for one of these reserved bowl games, you can count up to 3 D1AA wins every year.  This would encourage more interplay within some of the lower D1A teams and the higher ranked D1AA teams with neither team being punished.  Naturally, there would have to be some kind of similar concessions made to the D1AA teams in order to encourage their taking on additional D1A opponents.  Just a thought.

[ChicoStater]

so the ivy league, the best teams from the SWAC, and southern and grambling are all basically unable to win a championship? i definatly dont understand that, it doesnt seem very fair to me. why not just move one of the conflicting games?

Well, with the Ivy League, it was the decision of the schools (which, by the way, are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn) themselves not to take part in the post-season. Therefore, in a sense, the Ivy League is practically a league on its own (seems slightly snobbish to me, but that could just be personal bias because it is the Ivy League)

With the SWAC and the Bayou Classic, it would seem to be up to the schools themselves to swap the dates, or possibly have say, Texas Southern move into the Southland, making the SWAC a nine-team conference with no divisions.

The 1-AA system's not perfect, but I don't think there is any perfect way to determine this.

I can't find where the specifics are spelled out, but it seems to be done similiarly to the NCAA basketball tournaments.

Tony Moss of Sportsnetwork.com explains these five details for picking at large bids:

1)The committee shall select the best teams available on a national at-large basis to complete the bracket;

2)There is no limit to the number of teams the committee may select from one conference;

3)The won-lost record of a team will be scrutinized to determine a team?s strength of schedule; however, more than three losses will place a team in jeopardy of not being selected;

4)The committee may give more consideration to those teams that have played all Division I opponents; and

5)If the team of a committee member (the committee is made up of 1-AA athletic directors) is under consideration, the member may not vote for the team being considered and will not be in the room when a vote is taken. Once they?ve got their 16, the committee will determine the top four seeds, and will attempt to fill in the rest of the bracket with potential regional matchups in mind. Two teams from the same conference cannot meet in the first round.

[ChicoStater]

those are some good ideas.

honestly i think that I-A and I-AA should be completly restructured. the Big Bowl 6 and Notre Dame are the only teams that ever win championships so why keep those other conferences when they have no real chance. my solution? split division 1 again. take the MAC, WAC, CUSA, MWC, Sun Belt, Army and Navy and put them in a division with the top couple I-AA conferences [atlantic 10, gateway, southern, etc.]. also increase the TV visability of the "new I-AA". i'm not sure if the mid-majors would be into it or not, but as a student at a mid major school i'd rather see my team contend for a title than win 12 games and play in the GMAC bowl. just a thought

A hard sell, especially when you consider that football is the only sport where Division I is even split at all.

[Ez Street]

If i have to see another Dr. Pepper commercial again i'm gonna scream.

Hey, that one with Anastasia and the push-up crop top works for me.

Skewing off-topic once more. This one is for you Yale.

http://www.webdesk.com/dr-pepp....s-m.jpg