As we start nibbling on the cheese that is college basketball, the big news is the college football playoffs. Who’s in, who’s out and how come? There is one certainty about this flawed system for establishing the best football team in college football: a bunch of folks are going to be unhappy.
The committee that does the picking of the four-team playoff has 13 members but, just like last year, only 12 will participate this year. Last year Archie Manning didn’t vote. Just a few week’s ago USC athletic director Pat Haden backed out due to health problems.
The committee is made up of four athletic directors, three former head football coaches, a retired Air Force Lieutenant who played football, the former Big East Conference commissioner and three people with no playing, coaching or athletic director experience.
There now, don’t we all feel better that these folks will pick the four best teams? Especially when there AREN’T four BEST teams. Even picking eight would leave out a deserving team or two but we only get four and that makes a mess of things before we even begin.
Going undefeated is the best way to get into the playoffs but even that is no guarantee. Right TCU, Iowa, Oklahoma State or a Memphis, Tulsa, Houston or Lower Slobovia Tech? If your name is Alabama, Oklahoma, Notre Dame or Michigan you get a look by the committee, yes, even a second and, perhaps, a third look. That’s based on your history and tradition, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with the football being played this year! Still, a one-loss Alabama or Oklahoma is almost a certainty over an undefeated team that hasn’t made a “name” for themselves over the past two or three decades.
Notre Dame? Football folks almost break out into salivating, hoping they can make it.
Is the football playoff system fair? No. Will it ever be? No, not under this system, this format. So, if Oklahoma wins out, they WILL be in the four-team playoffs. If Oklahoma State wins out they get just a MAYBE, a PROBABLY. Sorry Cowboy fans, you just don’t have that pedigree that the folks in the know are looking for. Blame it on Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer!
CHALK TALK
You think politics and social upheaval don’t affect the sports world? How about at Missouri where the false claims of racism and the administration ignoring it have caused big problems. Just this week a four-star football recruit from Georgia backed out of his commitment to attend Mizzou citing he doesn’t “feel safe there”. I wouldn’t feel safe there either with the inmates running the asylum! Another casualty is head football coach Gary Pinkel who backed the players’ boycott. He has announced he will be resigning. He cites health reasons but one’s got to wonder.
St. John’s Dean Wade is showing that, yes, he IS ready for prime time in Big 12 basketball. The 6-10 freshman has started and been a leading scorer for the Wildcats. Folks in this part of Kansas know of his talents.
Hunting season is underway and it would appear that there are a lot more hunters than there are pheasants! Score one for the birds!
FREE CHIEK! Those are the signs of the fans at Kansas as they implore the NCAA to make Chiek Diallo eligible for this year. Watching KU lose a close one to Michigan State Tuesday evening would lead one to surmise that, indeed, if the Jayhawks are to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament, they need more athleticism in the post. Diallo would/will supply that. On one night’s performances though, not a lot of difference between Michigan State, Duke, Kansas and Kentucky.
A hunter came up with this one while rubbing his sore feet: “What do you call a dog with no legs?
It doesn’t matter; it’s not going to come!”