By Tim Clark / / Column, Tim's Two Cents
Two

I could save some time and just re-post last week’s column. But, hey, I’ve got some time to kill so what the heck. Let me try this again. College football is broken. This weekend we were shown more examples of just that, a broken system.

I will break this into two parts. Part one will be the idiotic playoff system. Part two will be the typical elitist response from Notre Dame.

When I’m done I will need someone to convince me college football shouldn’t do a total reset.

Part One: An idiotic system

Any playoff system that allows for a Group of Five team to steal a berth is unquestionably idiotic. Just for fun, this year college football allowed two Group of Five teams to steal berths. Idiotic squared.

 I still think 8 is the right amount of teams for a playoff, but we are probably looking at 16 in the very near future. Either way, my proposal is that a Group of Five team would have to go undefeated to qualify. Truly, that shouldn’t even qualify them. They just don’t play the same level of competition. When they step up to play a Power Four team it rarely turns out well. Who wants to see Tulane play Mississippi again? We saw it already this year and Ole Miss won by 5 touchdowns.

Have whichever you consider the top bowl game not involved in the playoffs host the top two Group of Five teams each year. Create a new bowl game, if necessary, and increase the payout for each team. That can be the reward for the Group of Five and it would be just as beneficial, if not more so, for those teams.

Next, the committee has to go. Along with the committee, the weekly ESPN ranking show can go with it. That will give Kirk Herbstreit another evening to play fetch with his dog. I suggested on the Wall2WallFootball podcast that they go to an 80/20 computer/human split. The computer would spit out the analytic numbers and the humans would strictly rank the teams on the eye test. I have changed my mind. Go straight to computer rankings, ala the BCS system. It got a couple wrong, but in a 12 or 16 team field those errors would be minimized.

This year the committee screwed the pooch, and the pooch hated it. Clearly this committee had no clue what they were doing. I would say they had an SEC bias, but I’m not sure they were smart enough to have a bias. I think they were just stupid. Of course, two things can be true.

The committee did have two underlying factors at play, brought on by the insanity of the entire system that is in place.

First, if you bounce Alabama out of the playoffs because of a bad showing in the SEC Championship Game, then a precedent is put in place that says why play a conference championship game if it can’t help you. I have said for a couple years that they should rid the college football world of these games, and now more than ever with these farcical unbalanced conference schedules.

Next, if you take Notre Dame over Miami despite the Canes head to head victory against the Irish you are also setting a precedent that would be very bad for all of college football. Why would any team schedule tough out of conference opponents(I will explain that concept to Notre Dame fans later) if it doesn’t matter at the end of the day. If wins is the only deciding criteria for the playoffs then simply schedule easy wins. Then fans of the sport can spend all of September watching Ohio State beat up Grambling.

Nobody could have watched Alabama the last month and thought they should be ranked ahead of Miami and Notre Dame. Should the Tide be penalized for playing in a conference championship? Probably not, but then don’t play them. If you play the game it has to count for something.

The ACC had issues of its own. The horrible unbalanced schedules led to a dogpile atop the standings. That led to a wonky tiebreaking system, which ultimately led to a five loss Duke playing in the championship game and winning it.

Nothing positive comes from playing in these games anymore.

Having said all that, 15 of 17 conference championship game losers dropped in the rankings including Ohio State, BYU, and Virginia this year. Alabama got manhandled by Georgia a week after squeaking by 7 loss Auburn. Yet, the Crimson Tide didn’t move in the rankings. Hunter Yuracheck, head idiot of the committee, babbled incoherently about why that occurred. So the committee essentially handed the Tide a bid they probably didn’t deserve. At least they didn’t tick off their daddy, Greg Sankey.

Then there was the Miami/Notre Dame fiasco. The analytics for both teams were amazingly similar. How to separate these two teams? Hmm…Oh, yea, Miami beat Notre Dame in week one. Problem solved, except for the fact that the committee of idiots had Notre Dame ahead of Miami in each ranking except the one that mattered  on Sunday. The problem is the committee should have placed Miami ahead of Notre Dame all along. This is exactly why the weekly rankings release show needs to be released.

Here’s the thing. Both Notre Dame and Miami should have made the playoffs. It never should have been either/or. Miami would probably be undefeated if they had a different game day coach. Mario Cristobal is always good for losing games for his team once or twice per year. I have thought for two months that Notre Dame was one of the two or three best teams in the country.

Both Miami and Notre Dame certainly are better than Alabama and Oklahoma; probably Ole Miss, too. The comparison should have been between Notre Dame and Alabama.

If the idea is to have the 12 best teams then Notre Dame clearly needs to be in the playoffs. The real issue goes back to the top of this section. There is no place for teams like James Madison and Tulane in a playoff system.

The Irish got screwed. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Part Two: Notre Dame’s Reaction

Oh, Notre Dame’s reaction to being left out of the playoffs was precious.

You aren’t including us in the playoffs??? Well then, we are going to take our golden football and go home and pray to Touchdown Jesus that a pox is spread throughout the ACC. AD Pete Bevacqua said that the ACC did permanent damage to the relationship they have with Notre Dame. Notre Dame refused to join the ACC full stop, opting to stay independent for football. Naturally, the ACC stumped for the school that IS a football member(Miami). If the ACC had any backbone and wasn’t strictly worried about the almighty dollar —or at least so many of those dollars— they would have given Notre Dame the all or nothing ultimatum long ago. Now they have another opportunity to do so.

On that same note, Notre Dame should get the bigger message being sent their way.

Join.

A.

Conference.

I have said it before and I will say it again, this isn’t 1950 and Notre Dame isn’t special. The playoffs will go on without them, and nobody will miss those crying Irish eyes. Notre Dame definitely got screwed, but it isn’t like they had a can’t miss resume. After losing to the two excellent teams on the schedule to start the season, Notre Dame beat a slightly above average USC and a bunch of nobodies. Take away USC, Texas A&M, and Miami, and the rest of the schedule had a combined record of 46-60. That record was propped up by noted powerhouses Navy, Boise State, and Pitt, and included the last place team from the SEC, last place team from the Big Ten, and the two teams that finished tied for last in the ACC.

Notre Dame has no idea what it’s like to go through a conference schedule, and play for a conference title. They are too good for that. And as long as college football allows it to happen, that elitist attitude will remain. They can schedule lightweights and coast. Next year the provision goes into effect that as long as Notre Dame is in the top 12 they automatically qualify for the playoffs. That provision is in effect unless the playoffs expand to 16 teams.

What do you say we expand to 16 teams?

College football continues to cater to the Irish. USC finally took a stand, despite Notre Dame accusing the Trojans of ducking them in the future. Next year USC plays Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana, Penn State, and Washington in conference. Why would they want to add Notre Dame to that list. Meanwhile, Notre Dame plays Miami and USC(maybe), oh, and Rice. Notre Dame needs USC, not the other way around.

I said earlier this year Notre Dame and its fans love thinking they’re special and have no inclination of joining a conference. They like keeping all the TV money, playing an independent schedule, and sticking their nose in the air. Listen to this guy.

 


That is every Notre Dame fan I’ve ever met. It is their current administration, their coach, and apparently their players. “No other team could pull off being an independent.””Screw ‘em.” Yep, every Notre Dame person. 

Who wants to tell these Irish fools they haven’t won a national title in 37 years and only three since I was born 59 years ago. They sure are showing the rest of college football.

Notre Dame isn’t going to a bowl game to prove a point. In the clip above that guy says many truths about bowl games. They are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. There will be opt outs. Maybe there needs to be a voice of reason on this topic. Of course, Steve Sarkisian.

 


It is still a fun experience for the players that show up. It is a chance to get three more weeks of practice for your young players. It is still a neat tradition, which I know is a word nearly erased from college football.

Again, we will all survive without Notre Dame this postseason. As a matter of fact, we can rejoice that —for once— those elitist Domers got the short end of the stick. Maybe it was SEC bias, maybe it was a message being sent, maybe it was karma casting its beautiful spell on a team that has had it coming for quite some time. College football’s stupidity finally gave us something good…a group of angry leprechauns.

Plus we get to see Notre Dame elitism at its best.

 


You did get the shaft, Notre Dame, and it started with this blatant missed call that cost you the game against Texas A&M in week two.

 

Sorry, not sorry.

 

Tweet of the Week

Darnell Washington has quickly become one of my favorite Steelers. More so after seeing this story.

 

 

The Weekly Shiny Penny

I am a sucker for these types of stories every time. I love seeing this side of these giant athletes. Aiden Hutchinson is one of the good guys.

 


A Penny For My Final Thought…

When USC athletics director Mike Garrett hired Pete Carroll he beamed from ear to ear, not yet knowing just how lucky he was. See, Carroll was Garrett’s fourth choice when he settled on him. Carroll went on to have one of the best runs in college football history at USC.

Penn State AD Pat Kraft made Garrett look like a genius with the recent coaching search he conducted. Matt Campbell wasn’t choice 4. He may have been choice 40. Of course, he may have been choice 4, too, if the reports are true that Kraft tried to contact Campbell early in the search but had the wrong contact information. Unreal.

Kraft took 50 something days, turning down some candidates while some candidates turned him down. To top it off, Kraft had a meeting he had with a handful of players leaked. The leaked audio was embarrassing, or at least it should have been. You can check out my entire thoughts on Kraft and the leaked audio here: https://pennsports.live/podcast/musings-sports-fanatic-dec-5.

Kraft is too much fanboy, not enough administrator. Here is how he greeted his new coach yesterday.

 

 

See what I mean? Fanboy. How about you greet him like a professional.

Clearly, Kraft is not on my Christmas card list. Frankly, he may have been in the process of cementing his demise at Penn State.

Signing Day passed. No coach.

He, mysteriously, didn’t have Kilani Sitake sign a contract before flying back to Provo.

He got outmaneuvered by the Mormon Crumbl Cookie CEO for Sitake.

He was a dead man walking.

Then he pulled this rabbit out of his hat.

 


Home run.

There are no guarantees. I am not suggesting his tenure at Penn State will match Pete Carroll’s at USC. But sometimes a fourth or tenth choice ends up being the right choice.

Campbell is someone I wanted USC to hire. He always says the right things. He loves his players. He does more with less. After this winding path, I can’t imagine a better(luckier) hire than Matt Campbell.

The clip above tells you what a great fit he is for Penn State. He mentioned a couple legends of Penn State past. Most importantly, Campbell paid tribute to Joe Paterno. Smart man. Keep everyone happy.

They threw the kitchen sink at Campbell. In addition to a pretty sweet contract, the school committed 30 million dollars to NIL and 17 million dollars to the coaching staff. To keep the peace —and it is a smart move— Terry Smith will become the highest paid non head coach in the country. Retaining Smith should smooth the transition and help keep some semblance of a roster together for next season.

Can Campbell handle the spotlight of a big time program? Can he recruit elite players? Will he be too conservative?

There are always questions about any new coach. Campbell is moving from a small town to a smaller town, but he is moving to one of the metropolises of college football in Penn State. I wouldn’t bet against Campbell. I think his teams will remind some of the oldsters of a few of Paterno’s teams.

Pat Kraft struck out his first three at bats, got hit in the head with fastballs his next three at bats, then staggered to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and took one last mighty swing. He hit it out of the park with the Matt Campbell hire.

Time will tell if it gets Kraft to the World Series like he demanded or whether the weirdos in Oregon will get the last laugh.

Just my two cents…