There was an episode of Seinfeld where a friend kept telling Jerry and his friends, “Ya gotta see the baby!”

For years, college football fans said, “Ya gotta have a playoff!”

Well, here we are, and ain’t it grand?

People hated the BCS era because college football relied on computers to spit out numbers that would select the two top teams. From there college football went to a four team playoff. Now we are in year one of the 12 team playoff. Both the 4 and 12 team versions rely on a committee full of suits sitting in a room debating who should make the playoff and where they should be seeded.

If you want something to go south in a hurry, have a room full of suit wearing, alleged smart people make the decision for you. You would have a better chance of the OJ Simpson jury getting it right. In fairness, it isn’t just the committee but the clowns that put this system in place.

I am so flabbergasted by this process that I am not sure where to start.

First, I have been saying since the inception of the 12 team playoff that 8 was the correct number. No byes, which is fair to all. Four auto bids and four at large, which could include a group of five team if they are undefeated and deserving. 

This year proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that 8 teams is the correct number. Clemson is not a playoff caliber team. SMU is not a playoff worthy team. Boise State is not a playoff caliber team. Indiana is not a playoff caliber team. Arizona State is not a playoff caliber team. Of the teams that are playoff caliber, a strong resume is still hard to find. Texas lost to the only good team they played, losing to Georgia twice. The rest of the Longhorns schedule is terrible. Penn State beating Illinois is their best win of the season. The Nittany Lions lost to the only two good teams they played. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois. Tennessee lost to Arkansas. Ohio State lost to a beyond mediocre Michigan.

With all of those facts, there is no doubt 8 teams would have been the better format. Somewhere up there, Dick Van Patten is yelling, “Eight is enough.”

Aside from having too many non playoff caliber teams involved, the biggest error in the setup is giving automatic byes to the four highest ranked conference champs. Consequently, Boise State and Arizona State received the 3 and 4 seeds respectively. Thus, the 5 and 6 seeds are suddenly the prime spots to land in. Texas, the 5 seed, needs only to beat Clemson and Arizona State to reach the semifinals. Penn State, the 6 seed, needs to beat powerhouses SMU and Boise State to reach the semifinals. Texas and Penn State should win both of their games by double digits.

Meanwhile, although receiving a bye, 1 seed Oregon will have to beat Ohio State again or Tennessee. Georgia will have to beat, most likely, Notre Dame. Even though both teams only have to play one game to reach the semifinals, that one game will be by far more difficult than the two games Texas and Penn State have to win.

College football, and especially the playoff format, should be a meritocracy. Well, Oregon is the only undefeated team and should be awarded the number one seed. In turn that should provide the Ducks with the easiest path. Nope. Not even close. Now, it couldn’t happen to a nicer squad but still remains ridiculously unfair. 

Next, all of these games should be neutral site games. Don’t talk to me about drawing a crowd. Giving home games and a ton of extra revenue to seeds 5-8 but not seeds 1-4 is silly and unfair. I would be much more okay with the first round home games if the 1-4 seeds got to host games the following round. Of course you can’t do that and get all the major bowls involved at the same time.

Now to the committee…

My biggest issue with the committee is the same issue I have with the basketball committee, lack of transparency. Why not let us know your list of criteria, and also let us know which criteria gets the most importance. That way we know whether to focus on schedule strength, conference record, big wins, bad losses, etc. But that isn’t what they do. Instead we get the good old “body of work” comment from the committee.

This way the committee can massage the bracket how they want with total impunity.

With this selection process, I think the committee chose the teams correctly. At least as correctly as they could considering the lack of viable candidates. I have no problem with keeping Alabama out with the Tide’s three losses. If Alabama wanted in it should have beat Vanderbilt and a bad Oklahoma team. Nick Saban would have, that’s for sure.

 Ole Miss has no complaints, despite head coach Lane Kiffin whining like a baby all weekend.

 

Lane, try not losing at home to an awful Kentucky team. And maybe find a legitimate quarterback. Oh well, you’ll always have that silly cigar picture with Jaxson Dart to brag about beating your two win rival.

Kirby Smart even joined the whine fest on the podium at the SEC Championship trophy ceremony when he slammed Greg Sankey for giving his team four difficult road games. This from the coach of a team that had two of the easiest schedules in back to back seasons I have ever seen.

Now, these coaches aren’t totally wrong. With these ridiculously large conferences you will never have a fair balance in schedules. Schedule strength has to be given some legitimate weight moving forward. Saban is right when he says teams will really dumb down the out of conference schedules, wiping out chances for fans to see great intersectional games they crave. Of course, who cares about the fans? Certainly none of the suits that run this fiasco.

My real problem with the committee wasn’t the choices of teams from among a group that, as I said above, just didn’t cut the mustard. My problem was where they seeded teams.

Texas got the five seed despite beating nobody of worth all season long.

 Penn State being seeded above Ohio State, despite losing at home to the Buckeyes, seemed askew.

SMU lost to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, yet was seeded one spot ahead of Clemson.

Boise State should not have received a bye over any other team. Yet, there the Broncos sit as the third seed.

Like I said, no consistency of thought process. For one school schedule strength seemed to matter. For others it was reaching the conference championship. Just a total haphazard process.

Here is what the playoffs should look like, if not for the idiotic automatic byes. 

It isn’t even close. Instead of having two throw away quarterfinals, you would have Texas/Tennessee, Penn State/Notre Dame, Georgia/Ohio State, and Oregon/Indiana. That would be a thousand times more compelling than the games we will currently have. It still wouldn’t have fixed the poor seeding of some teams, but it would be a significant upgrade.

Call me a grumpy old man if you wish, but please take me back to the bowl system of yesteryear. The Rose Bowl was important. The Orange Bowl was important. The Sugar Bowl was important. I know, I know, then we relied on poll voters. I would argue the voters got it right at a higher percentage than a committee full of suits will ever get it right.

Right now, here is where we are at:

  • Most years there won’t be 12 worthy teams. Of course, basketball doesn’t have 68 worthy teams but still has a tremendous event. So, maybe it won’t matter.
  • The best 12 teams are not in this year’s playoffs, and if no changes are made, never will be.
  • Remember when the adults said we have to protect the kids? A team could potentially play 17 games this season. That is a full NFL season, which is also too long.
  • Championship games are useless. This year an important quarterback was hurt playing in said useless game.
  • We have teams that lost in the useless championship games that were given a far easier path than the teams that won the championship. Oh, and an extra home game and all that revenue to boot.
  • We have kids on playoff teams wanting to hit the transfer portal to have the best chance at making more money. Are opt outs for lower seeded teams far behind?
  • We have greed ruling the day and common sense being thrown out the window.

Once the games kickoff, hopefully we can focus on the good. Ah, the good. When we had top ten schools play each other in bowl games that had the historical significance to make them spectacular. When we had correctly sized conferences that had regional impacts.

Then…

via GIPHY

We are relying on men(and women) in suits to create a playoff system that isn’t influenced by commissioners, AD’s, university presidents, ESPN, or greed. We are relying on the suits to be transparent, use common sense, and base decisions on sound logic.

In other words, we are screwed.

Two Cent Takes

College Football

~I make a conscious effort to not agree with James Franklin as often as possible, but he got me here. He is correct and Drew Allar can’t hold back laughing. How long has Indianapolis hosted the Big Ten Championship and you still get this?

 

~Miami went from playoffs to Pop-Tarts in about two weeks. Here is a newsflash Canes fans: Mario Cristobal ain’t it. He will get recruits and still lose games he shouldn’t. Always.

~If ESPN was smart —they are not— the network would make Sean McDonough their lead college football announcer rather than saddle us with the stale combo of Fowler and Herbstreit. When you have the best at your disposal use them.

~I got ridiculed when I said the referees directly affected the outcome of USC’s games against Michigan, Minnesota, and Penn State. Now Penn State fans have similar complaints after not one holding call was made against Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game. Shouldn’t you  Nits be aware already that your conference employs terrible officials? They absolutely refuse to call holding and randomly make calls that aren’t there. In addition they screw up replay usage. Just awful for a major brand like the Big Ten. Maybe noe my PSU brethren won’t keep saying I was exaggerating.

~Congratulations to Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi on leading his team to another bowl game nobody has heard of. The GameAbove Sports Bowl in beautiful Detroit against powerhouse Toledo. Bravo, Pat. Bravo. Another job…done.

~The more I think about it, the more I think USC should cut bait on Lincoln Riley right now. Aside from the astronomical buyout, I thought USC should give him another year mainly to hold together the recruiting class. He mostly failed at that as well. Kids transfer on the regular anyway, so why wait around. He had a team with major flaws that should have won 5 of the 6 games they lost. He wasn’t close to good enough to get them to the finish line in those games. He won’t be good enough next year either. Riley is stubborn and suffers from “I am the smartest man in the room” disease. The problem really goes to USC’s athletic department. It has been a mess for two decades. Why should I trust AD Jen Cohen to hire a good replacement? I can’t wait for more 6-6 seasons and Vegas Bowl berths.

College Hoops

~Kansas lost two in a row, including a court storming loss at Missouri. The Jayhawks will be just fine because of this guy’s leadership.

 

~Speaking of court stormings, Penn State hammered Purdue last week. Give a listen to my Musings of a Sports Fanatic podcast to hear my thoughts on Mike Rhodes and Penn State hoops.

~USC coach Eric Musselman candidly admitted after bleeding away a lead against Oregon that he doesn’t see his team winning many Big Ten games. The Trojans immediately went to Washington and won their next game. He is going to need more master motivating efforts with that disjointed roster.

~Duke’s Cooper Flagg is going to be a great player. He is also going to be the latest white kid in a Duke uniform that competes for Douche of the year. I mean, it is a Duke requirement to have one of these kids.

 

Leaving Jon Crispin speechless is hard to do.

NBA

~Why I can’t watch much NBA. This is disgraceful from a Lakers team that is in LeBeon created shambles.

 

NFL

~Lions coach Dan Campbell is a macho guy. Going for every fourth down is not macho, it is foolish. Foolish will eventually lose a close game. Remember the playoffs last year? Someone needs to reign him in.

~Sam Darnold threw for 347 yards and 5 touchdowns Sunday. The Vikings are 11-2 and one game out in the NFC North. Yet the team doesn’t want to commit to Darnold long term. Being drafted by the rudderless Jets set his career back drastically. He always had the talent.

~The Falcons have lost 4 straight and despite an easy finish to their schedule cannot be trusted. Money NOT well spent on Kirk Cousins.

~The Eagles are 11-2 and may have the MVP in Saquon Barkley. Yet, there is always drama in Philly. This week AJ Brown wasn’t happy with the passing game that registered only 108 yards. Always weird vibes coming out of the City of Brotherly Love.

~The Chiefs needed a doinked field goal by a backup kicker to beat the Chargers. Is there a strange way the Chiefs have not won a game this year?

~The Rams are this year’s yo-yo team. They’re up. They’re down. This past Sunday was an up, as they outscored the Bills. I still think the Rams will win the NFC West, overtaking Seattle.

~Josh Allen gets my vote for MVP, just by a hair over Barkley. Allen ran for 3 touchdowns and 82 yards. He passed for 342 yards and 3 more touchdowns. He literally puts this team on his back. It is incredible. To me, the Bills are the favorites in the AFC. As a Steelers fan I would prefer not seeing the Steelers have to go to Buffalo in the playoffs.

~The Steelers said George Pickens was hurt. Most think he was being sent a message by Mike Tomlin for his childish behavior. Better to get him reigned in now before it is too late. Turns out Russell Wilson has made all the receivers more confident. From Pat Friermuth to some guy named Scotty Miller, the Steelers really spread the wealth Sunday.

~Keanu Benton made a great interception on a screen pass. Benton showed great hands for a defensive lineman.

Benton now has one more interception than Minkah Fitzpatrick. That seems like a problem.

~Cam Heyward is having a Pro Bowl year. Remember when people said not to sign a guy his age? Yea, me neither. Heyward should be team defensive MVP, as well.

~Najee Harris didn’t rush for 100 yards, but with Jaylen Warren looking his best all season the two combined for 100 yards rushing.

MLB

~Juan Soto signed a 15 year 765 million dollar contract with the Mets. If you need proof that baseball is totally broken, check this out.

 

The Weekly Shiny Penny

The internet can be a cesspool, but sports memes are still undefeated. Ryan Day, this one is for you.

 

A Penny For My Final Thought…

For the past four years I have written column after column thumping my black and gold drum for Dave Parker to take his rightful place in Cooperstown at the MLB Hall of Fame. This year I chose to wait, thinking maybe I was jinxing Parker.

 

It worked.

The Veterans Committee selected Parker along with Dick Allen for inclusion in the Hall. Ironically, both players had to wear batting helmets at times because fans were throwing things at them. Both were misunderstood, both had off field issues, but both are highly deserving players to be in the Hall of Fame.

Parker was the best player in baseball in the late 70’s. Power, speed, defense, and that electric throwing arm made Parker stand out from the crowd. Parker’s five tools propelled the Pirates —along with a guy named Stargell— to a 1979 World Series championship. Sadly, the last Pittsburgh would celebrate.

Parker was a free spirit and became the first million dollar man in Pittsburgh. Though they loved his play, fans didn’t care for the money he made or the occasional antics he displayed. The truth is Parker played the game the right way. He hustled every bit as much as Pete Rose. Whatever was needed for his team Parker would do.

Two batting titles, three gold gloves, an MVP, and a World Series ring made his Pirates career golden.

After leaving Pittsburgh amid a drug scandal, Parker reinvented himself in Cincinnati, his hometown. He finished top five twice in MVP voting with the Reds. He won another World Series in Oakland in 1989, as a DH and veteran leader of the team. He made one last all star team in Milwaukee at age 39.

The fact that Parker was the best player in baseball over a five year period and had the productive longevity that he did made this a long overdue inclusion.

Parker, suffering from Parkinson’s disease will now get to enjoy his induction. It sounds like he has a speech prepared already.

 

The Hall of Fame voting process is certainly flawed, and after seeing some of the inclusions over the last ten years, it was becoming frustrating for Parker and his fans. He was clearly a better player than some that were getting voted into the Hall.

Finally, it is Parker’s turn.

As a kid growing up a diehard Pirates fan, Dave Parker was always one of my two favorite players. While playing wiffle ball in the backyard —wearing my #39 Pirates batting helmet mind you— I could be found imitating Stargell and Parker. Watching him on TV and going to the occasional game in person to see him was always a treat. Not only was he a great player and hustled all the time, but Parker had the flare that caught a kid’s attention. I used to flip my glove when catching pop flies ala Parker. That is until my dad told me to never do that again, reminding me I wasn’t Dave Parker. Fair point.

I am ecstatic that Parker is finally going to have his day in Cooperstown and is still around to enjoy it.

If you hear something next summer in Cooperstown, don’t sweat it.

 

Just my two cents…