Miscellaneous

Ojo Rojo's Brilliance, and Other Lies

By Chris Stevenson

1. I'm hugely in favor of a college football playoff.  The main reason isn't because I hate the current system so much.  Don't get me wrong, the current system is ridiculous - voters, polls, computer rankings, blah, blah, blah.  Almost every other major sport in the world annoints their champion through some sort of playoff system.  That should tell you something right there.  But what I really hate is the fact that the people in control of the deal are getting away with such blatant lies.  College presidents, conference commissioners, bowl chairmen and TV execs are the people behind the current system.  Despite what anyone of those people have said are the reasons that the current system remains in place, the real reason is simple:  MONEY.  Everybody already knows that.  What I don't understand is, why are they just honest about it?  Why can't these people just say, "The current system is the most lucrative for all concerned and that's why it exists."  But I'll go one step further and say that the biggest impediment to a playoff isn't money, it's uncertainty.  A college football playoff might generate EVEN MORE money than the current system.  But the people who could really make this decision - college presidents, the NCAA and conference commissioners - don't really know if that's true or not.  Furthermore, if the system is changed, the people who stand to lose the most are the bowls.  They hold enough sway as it stands now to keep the status quo.  And this is unlikely to change anytime soon because college footbally is as popular as it's ever been.  The people at the top point to that fact as evidence that the current system is working.  I think that's a coincidence.  I think college football is as popular as it is in spite of the current system.  I think college football is so popular now, in part, because of the NFL's marketing failures, but those are subjects for another time.  The bottom line is this:  the bowls are antiquated and should be killed in favor of a playoff system.  If there is some way to keep the bowls and still have a playoff, fine.  However, I don't think that would ever happen because of the revenue sharing that would have to occur.  For example, can you imagine if each playoff game is one of the bowls?  One team could play in the Emerald Bowl, Holiday Bowl and Orange Bowl before playing in the national championship final?  At current payouts for those bowls, that team would be getting in excess of $20 million.  I don't know how the money from bowl payouts is currently distributed now, but presumably the conference gets a slice, but that's it.  Currently, ten teams feast on the big payouts from the BCS bowl games and all of the other FCS teams get much, much less or nothing at all.  Again, I don't know how much bowl payouts figure into the budget of a program, but it wouldn't take long for a group of 10 or 15 teams who perennially appear in one of the big bowls to start to move way out ahead of lesser financed teams.  I know that money isn't all that goes into building a successful program, but it's a huge chunk of it.  Anyway, I just don't see one team being able to rake in all that money.  If that were allowed to happen a huge disparity would develop between playoff bound programs and all the others.  We're already starting to see that now with some conferences being treated like second class citizens because it is much more difficult for their teams to get into the big money games.  Anyway, bowls can coexist with a playoff.  As it stands now, all but one of the bowls are meaningless as far as a championship goes, so what's the big deal?  You want to have the Big XII no. 3 play the SEC no. 4?  Go to it, Cotton Bowl.  People will still go to the game and watch the game and the players will still get the bowl reward.  The game just won't have any playoff implications (unless the bowl itself is made a playoff game).  I could go on and on and on about this, but my main point is this - people in charge stop lying to us!!  Just tell us the truth:  that your decisions are only motivated by money and that you're too scared of the alternative.
2. If you want to defeat fundamentalist Muslims and win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and diffuse a potential conflict with Iran, empower their women.  It starts with education.  Educate their women, instigate social programs that encourage women to become professionals and entrepreneurs and community leaders and it's done.
3. I thought I had more than two.

Full post as published by Cursed With Ambition on December 04, 2009 (boomark / email).