The Round Mound is Right On

Recently Auburn hired former Iowa State head football coach Gene Chizik to be the new leader of their football program. Chizik went 5-19 at Iowa State. The school passed up Buffalo head coach Turner Gill, who led a once sorry program to the MAC Championship (beating an undefeated Ball State to do so, I might add). Charles Barkley weighed in by pulling out the race card. In this instance, he is right on. There can't be any justification for hiring a coach that went 5-19 at his last job. None that would make sense to me, anyway. And Barkley went on to say that the same thing happened when he was on the search committee for a new Auburn basketball coach, and again numerous successful black coaches were passed up for a white coach that had never even been to the NCAA Tournament with another team. Something needs to be done to fix this situation down in Auburn, probably beginning with the firing of the Athletic Director.

BCS uh-oh's

The Big XII and the SEC championship games showed us why we are in desperate need for a playoff system. Oklahoma crushed Missouri and Florida handed Alabama its first loss. Why does Florida get to play in the championship game. They lost to a sub-par Ole Miss team while 'Bama lost to the #4 team in the country. Why don't you give Boise State and Utah a chance to prove their worth. Plus, the extra games will give the teams some more revenue to work with and that can never hurt.

2008 More Proof Than Ever Against BCS

The 2008 college football season has offered up more evidence than ever before that a playoff system must be implemented in the sport.

Firstly, the situation in the Big XII. Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech all finished tied for first in the Big XII South. So how do they decide who gets to play for the conference championship--and a shot at the national title? BCS ranking. So Oklahoma gets to play Missouri and Texas and Texas Tech are screwed. I won't even get into the fact that Texas beat Oklahoma, because then it brings up Tech beating Texas and Oklahoma beating Tech and heads start spinning. The Big XII, at the least, needs to come up with a better tie-breaker for their conference championship.

Then we come to the issue of the undefeated teams in the FBS. If teams are in the top division then I don't want to hear the argument that "they aren't in a major conference." Ball State, Boise State, and Utah all finished off undefeated regular seasons. None will get to play for the national championship. This is fundamentally wrong when it comes to sports. How can it be possible that a team doesn't lose a game, but doesn't win the championship of their sport? It should be played out on the field.

Another maybe overlooked aspect is the potential of dual national champions. There is the possibility that the AP Poll could crown a different champion than the BCS Championship Game winner. There is a precedent, as this occurred back in 2003. If the two teams ahead of Texas in the AP Poll--Alabama and Florida--both lose later in the season, Texas could actually be ranked #1 at the end of the year. However, they wouldn't have played in the BCS Championship. Two separate national champions...END THE BCS.