College Sports

Joe Paterno is ticked off. The 81 year old Penn State coach calls the reasons given for not moving into a playoff system for Division I-A bogus (oops, excuse me, I mean the Football Bowl Subdivision).

JoePa has a point. Get the reasons given by the conferences that are against a playoff (including PSU’s Big 10):

• The “sanctity” of the regular season
• Players would be forced to miss too much class
• Season could extend into a second semester.

OK, “sanctity” is a pretty strong word. I love football as much as the next guy, but I’m not sure I would call the college football regular season “holy,” “saintly,” or “godly.” (definitions courtesy of dictionary.com)

As for the rest of the argument, Joey P. points out what all of us can see (all of us except the powers that be of the Big 10, Pac 10, Big 12, Big East, et. al. — the only conferences that support the move are the SEC and ACC).

Missing classes? Hey, check out hoops teams and how much school those guys miss… mid-week games starting in November, going through March. Hey, that takes out another argument, about extending into a second semester.

Face it, football players miss less class than most sports because they compete only on weekends (with the exception of ESPN big $$$ games on other nights… ah, the power of the dollar… wonder why the NCAA doesn’t jump on that one!).

The truth is, the powers that be in college football don’t want to tick off the powers that be in the bowls; in other words, the money guys. Tickets sold to bowl games don’t pay the rent, the sponsorships do, the television rights do. And if that were to be watered down, if the “WeHaveAlotOfMoneyToThrowAround.com Bowl” matchup between the Anteaters of Michigan Technological State University of Agriculture-Germfask Campus vs. the California State Liberal Arts College of Music and Dance Tip-Toers, well, sponsors would fall like rain in April.

Only that wouldn’t happen. You know it and I know it. So what are they afraid of. Frankly, who cares if the Rose Bowl features a Big 10 and Pac 10 matchup each year? If they are so blooming into tradition, they shouldn’t allow the newbies in each conference to compete; go with the leagues as they were in the good old days (you know, Pac 8 vs. Big 10… before it was really the Big 11).

Face it, tradition is only important to these guys if it helps them win their point. If they wanted a playoff system, we would be hearing about how we have to modernize, change with the times. New is good, Old is bad.

Oh, and get this little gem that I had never heard of, but Paterno has brought to light. The Coaches Poll isn’t so much a poll as a forced vote. Coaches are required to vote for the team that wins the BCS title game. Paterno has not voted since 2004, when he wanted to vote for undefeated Auburn, but was not allowed to. He was told to vote for USC, or he couldn’t participate… so he chose the latter.

What’s the point of taking a poll if you are telling the voters how to vote?

Duh.

So the old guy at Penn State has it right. Too bad money talks louder than common sense.

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