As the college football season continues, it becomes more and more evident that we need a playoff system. Any team can be beaten on any given day, and it is unfair the Championship game is often played by those who benefit from gratuitous positions in the pre-season polls. Hopefully, this thing will shake out and a couple of teams who legitimately climbed in the polls after playing well week after week will be the ones who decide the championship. I would love to see a South Florida - California matchup. These teams have reached their rankings the hard way.
Had it not been for Michigan, Louisville, Wisconsin, Texas, and a few others that have been clogging the line since being flushed in the opening weeks of the season, Missouri, Boston College, and Arizona State may be ranked in the top 10 right now. South Florida and California could be ranked even higher.
So where are our season opening top 10-ners at now? I have listed them below in the order in which they started the season and have listed their present ranking to the right.
1. USC 10
2. LSU 1
3. W. Va. 8
4. Texas 23
5. Michigan Unranked
6. Florida 13
7. Wisconsin 19
8. Oklahoma 6
9. Va. Tech 12
10. Louisville Unranked
These teams opened the season in the top 10, but now have a combined total of 17 losses. This number is a little distorted because Michigan and Louisville account for 8 of the losses and LSU has not lost. Still, I think this makes a good argument for a playoff. Several good teams will go unnoticed again this year, while some of these were ranked so high early on, that they will be able to have a high finish due to their soft schedules.
Do Missouri, Boston College, Arizona State, Hawaii, and the others play some soft teams? Sure, they do. But, they will never get any kind of publicity due their location in the ranks. Any of these could go undefeated and would still finish behind USC and Oklahoma. Remember what Boise State did last year? Undefeated and unnoticed until they beat Oklahoma.
Come on, South Florida. Keep playing and let's hope that some of the teams ahead of you drop a game. The only way we will ever see a college playoff is if the underdogs continue to beat the big dogs. Then, the powers that be will say, "There must be something wrong with this system."
11 comments :
The BCS sucks. They usually don't get it right. A playoff system can't really be developed. The polls are terrible.
Although it's no "solution", I favor just an open bowl system. Let teams play where they want and with who they want and we can all argue the polls when it's all said & done.
Hi, Otter! Thanks for visiting my blog. I took a quick trip over to yours and now am left thinking about the similarities and differences between blogs and journals.
In the beginning, I viewed a blog simply as an online journal or diary, but agree with you that I would put some things in a journal that I would not put on the blog!
I plan to use my blog as an avenue for venting, talking sports, and maybe promoting my artwork. Right now, it more of the first two as I have not posted any of my paintings in awhile.
Thanks for stopping here...
Whooooooooooooooo boy, 431, let me explain a few things.
Otter is my wife. She wouldn't know a football from a baseball (and I kinds like it that way). Somehow, when I logged onto the blogger it was as her for some reason I do not know. She's looking over my shoulder and was really interested in your reply regarding her blog. In fact, she's got a book contract to write a elementary curriculum book about blogging.
BTW, the BCS still sucks.
LOL! That was too funny, blazer!
It took my wife awhile to catch on to football, but she is making progress. When I took her to her first live football game, I was kind of expecting her to ask where the yellow line was that you see on TV, but she did not.
Made me feel good... (1) I married the right one. I did have a girlfriend once that wanted to know what happened to the line!
Good luck to Otter with her book. I have been working on a couple of stories for sometime now and hope to be able to get published one day. I noticed that she has Stephen King's On Writing listed on her blog.....good stuff in that, I have read that two or three times.
Blazer...I am still laughing about your last post.
When I first read it, I was thinking, "This sounds like something Blazer would say."
But, I traded that for, "Someone else has found my blog."
Funny.
By the way, my wife is an elementary gifted education teacher. My wife attends several conferences a year and wants to know if your wife ever speaks or sells her books at conferences. Just shoot a response to my email address if you prefer since we are getting kind of personal here...
The other day you mentioned Alabama's recruiting progress in a link to Rivals.com. I forgot to tell you that one of our own local high school players recently committed to Bama. Rivals has him as a 4-star player...his name is Courtney Upshaw.
"bama's mild resurgence is going to pay immediate recruiting dividends. My Ducks are not doing well as of yet on their recruiting.
I can't find your email address, but my wife was a teacher, and she has 10 published books, is working on another contract and has self-published some. She speaks at writer's conferences (and hawks books there) and teacher in-service sessions. She also has a bunch of book propsals out.
Me? I read the sports page.
And now, a word from my wife (Otter)- if I sign in as otter it messes him up. Yes, Stephen King's writing book is good stuff. What kind of stories are you trying to write?
btw, to continue any conversation about teachers or writing, you can check my blog, "otter musings"
Otter....I have some fictional stuff that I have been working on for years. Afraid of finishing and being rejected; afraid of not finishing and wondering "what if".
I have several stories that I started, got to a certain place and lost interest. From time to time, I pick one of them up and add a little more. I remember King talking about this in On Writing.
Recently, I started something else that is about my deceased grandmother, who was my hero, and adult life through a child's eyes. I guess you could call it a memoir....as it is a flashback to my childhood life and things I witnessed as a small child. The words have come easily for it and I believe I could finish it a couple of weeks if I tried.
I like to write, paint, and argue!
blazer just told me today that you responded on your blog to our conversation about writing. L'Engle also said (past tense, she just died last month--one of my favorite authors) something about having ideas like several pots on the stove and every now and then you bring one pot forward, throw in some more ingredients and stir it some, then let it simmer some more.
So... write the memoir while it comes easily and then work on the fiction stuff some more. I have more ideas than time or common sense, so right now I'm trying to figure out how to actually get some writing done. (other than "work")
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