Too Bad It Can't Just Be All About the Football.
I still like to sit down and watch a college football game or three. Let the eyes dart from TV to laptop to iPhone.
It’s a feast for the eyes and the brain. College football trumps them all because there’s so much emotion, such a variety of offenses and defenses. And the games are so important because it’s the sport with the fewest games in a season.
And yet, it’s getting more and more difficult to tune out the problems.
I am glad to see the growing dissatisfaction with Alabama-Clemson Fatigue. Dedicated TMG readers know that I have been railing about that for years.
That’s the contradiction of college football: For all of its unpredictability from play-to-play, game-to-game and week-to-week, it always seems to come down to the Crimson Tide, the Tigers, Ohio State and Oklahoma.
I don’t know that an expanded College Football Playoff will change that. But it’s worth a try. It would take away a recruiting edge by letting more schools dangle the playoff showcase. It would make the regular season more exciting by putting more teams in the hunt.
And it wouldn’t water down the regular season. Winning your Power 5 league would mean a lot. A playoff spot.
But oops. This is where it gets complicated. Some people think there needs to be some formula that assures that a 10-2 also-ran that has played a tough schedule should get the nod over an 8-4 league champion that has more grit than talent.
To which I say. . . if we’re going to do that, let’s just go back to letting voters crown the national champion.
If we can’t even agree that conference champions are assured a playoff berth. . . this is one of those problems I am talking about.
Another issue is the whole Name, Image and Likeness compensation controversy. I know it’s important. I have always felt college athletes who generate revenue should have a bigger share of the revenue.
But I also have this concern that it will lead to less competitive balance. The stars at Ohio State, Notre Dame and Alabama will benefit the most—and that will encourage the future stars to want to play at Ohio State, Notre Dame and Alabama. And that’s before we start talking about the ways star athletes can pick up under-the-table money from over-zealous boosters.
And when they start talking about how to resolve this—at the state, federal or NCAA level—that’s when I really glaze over.
This is one of those things that I want some really good people to figure out. To the satisfaction of everyone. As long as I don’t have to ponder it. . .
And ICYMI, Northwestern, of all places, has recently nuked its reputation as an example of how to be successful while doing things the right way. With an incredibly botched attempt to hire athletic director Jim Phillips’ successor.
Despite an amazing amount of baggage, NU chose Phillips assistant Mike Polisky, who is credited with coming up with the phrase ``Chicago’s Big Ten team.’’ OK, so a marketing whiz who really annoyed Illinois, which countered with ``Our state. Our team.’’ The slogan rivalry, by the way, is much more interesting than the one on the gridiron.
But here’s the deal: Polisky was one of four defendants in a December lawsuit by a cheerleader who accused NU of not properly handling complaints about her and her teammates being sexually exploited. And he was hired on May 3. He resigned eight days later amid mounting protests.
Northwestern couldn’t find a better candidate than that? Phillips accepted his new job as ACC commissioner in mid-December—plenty of time to get this right.
All I can say is. . . Say it ain’t so, Wildcats.
And finally, the new Pac-12 commissioner has a Las Vegas/gambling/marketing background. And this apparently is a good idea to many scribes. Maybe it is. I don’t really know what to think about things like that any more.
As I said, I still enjoy watching the games. But this other stuff? There’s more and more of it that I don’t understand. And I would just as soon leave it that way.