Making college football worse, not better
The Bowl Championship Series system is goofy at best. And there are way too many college football bowl games cluttering the sports landscape in December in January.
But postseason play, as confusing and excessive as it is, generates a LOT of money. So the folks running college football have decided to keep the BCS as it is, refusing to add a four-team playoff to determine a real champion.
And a separate group of administrators voted to add two more crummy bowl games, the St. Petersburg Bowl and the Congressional Bowl.
The latter game will pit Navy — no matter how bad the Midshipmen are in any given year — against an ACC school in Washington D.C.
The other bowl will sent a middle-of-the-pack Big East team against a Conference USA also-ran in Tropicana Field.
“The St. Petersburg Bowl is another great bowl opportunity for the Big East,” league commissioner Michael Tranghese gushed. “The game is played in a Big East market and already has generated great interest in the local community.”
That’s great, but C-USA now has six bowl berths. Six!
Tipsheet can’t imagine fans actually paying to watch some of these games, but last year the 32 bowls distributed $222 million to the competing schools.
So look for the NCAA to keep going until every major college team at 6-6 or better has some place to play. How long before Shreveport gets a second game?
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while Mark Mulder recovers from that thrashing he took while hurling for the Memphis Redbirds:
- Now that Rick Ankiel and Chris Duncan are both locking in at the plate, will the Cards really need to add an “impact bat”?
- Who is this Geovany Soto and why is he terrorizing the National League?
- Upon further review, was it really a good idea for the Mavericks to acquire Jason Kidd and the Suns to add Shaquille O’Neal?
A DALY DISASTER
Despite John Daly’s claims to the contrary, swing coach Butch Harmon insists he is done helping the porcine golfer.
“That won’t ever happen,” Harmon told ESPN.com. “I like John Daly and wish him well. I hope he gets his act together . . . I saw this ridiculous video the other day of him playing without his shirt and shoes. He does one bizarre thing after another. I feel sorry for him. He’s a tremendous talent. But he’s wasted all of his talent and continues to do so.”
QUIPS ‘R US
Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:
Dwight Perry, Seattle Times: “How can an 11-team conference that calls itself the Big Ten possibly be opposed to a ‘plus one’ football playoff?”
Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “ESPN analyst Bobby Knight suggests the NCAA men’s basketball tournament expand from 65 to 128 teams. What, like we needed one more reason to hate Bobby Knight? I say they go the other way. Restrict the tournament to only teams with no tattooed players, and have a three-team round robin.”
Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Seamheads are still wondering how Barry Zito could be 0-6 with a 7.56 ERA. But the real question is this: How did Scott Boras get him $126 million without using a gun?”
Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Kelvin Sampson is talking to the Milwaukee Bucks about an assistant coach job. Still, I can’t help thinking he’d be a better fit with the Wizards. I mean, if there’s one place Sampson belongs, it’s in an arena nicknamed the Phone Booth.”
Jerry Greene, Orlando Sentinel: “NBC will show the last two rounds of the U.S. Open in prime time June 14-15. This is brilliant — especially when you consider NBC’s programming. If this works, other prime-time shows in NBC development include Everybody Loves Tiger — Daly or No Daly — and Phil’s Big Losers.”
MEGAPHONE
“They’re elite players coming into the prime of their careers. They have great will and determination. And that to me is what separates you from being a regular player to being a star, is how much drive you have, and how much heart and how much passion you have. They’re elite in that way. I thought they were magic throughout the game, but even better in the third period. Every time something went wrong, they went out and turned the game in the right direction for us.”
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock, on Pavol Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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I’m a fat loser who thought he knew everything about the Cardinals…I’m sure they’ll start to fall off, right? I mean…right? God if this doesn’t pan out I’ll never get another radio gig…guess I could move to Pittsburgh - should be easy ripping on that team!