Pete Fiutak at CFN kinda gets on my nerves this morning with a twofer.
First, there’s his open letter to Heisman voters about why Tebow should win the award over McFadden. Now, I disagree with that position, but I can certainly see an argument being made for it. Nor would I have a problem if Tebow won. He’s had a helluva year.
But then Fiutak writes this…
So how does McFadden have Tebow beat in the Heisman race this year? I’m looking for anyone to provide one cogent reason why and how No. 5 has been better than No. 15. A monster game against LSU isn’t enough.
Well, wait a minute. Why isn’t that LSU game a cogent reason? Where’s Tebow’s signature victory this year? Florida’s got almost as many losses as Arkansas and won’t be playing in a BCS bowl game, either, even though many would insist that the Gators are one of the elite teams in college football at this point in the season. So what have all of Tebow’s excellent statistics gotten his team this year that any number of other great (or even very good) QBs wouldn’t have accomplished?
If you extend this reasoning out to its logical conclusion, we’re going to risk reducing this whole thing down to a numbers game. There are a whole lot of kids at less than stellar programs who should have their names thrown in the mix each year if that’s where we want to follow Fiutak on this.
And just out of curiosity, why does Tebow’s GPA matter?
Moving on, Fiutak lays down the law. Georgia shouldn’t play in the BCS title game, because
… If you’re not going to have a playoff, then the regular season has to mean everything, and that means you cannot play for the national title if you can’t even win your own conference. Double that if you can’t even win your own division…
and in case you missed his point, he repeats it…
If you can’t even prove that you’re the best team in your own division, how can you even be considered among the two best teams in the country?
Well, first off, Georgia tied for the SEC East title. It didn’t lose the division; it lost the tiebreaker to play in the championship game. Ordinarily, that’s a distinction I could care less about, but if Fiutak’s gonna make an issue over it, he should at least be accurate about it.
But it’s Fiutak’s larger point that I have a problem with. To state that any team like Georgia that isn’t a conference champ should not be eligible to play for the MNC is fine – if that’s the rule going into the season. An ad hoc change on the fly as Fiutak suggests would be awfully unfair to schools that play in conferences that have championship games and, in some years, to schools not named Notre Dame.
You want to make certain that you devalue the meaning of the regular season? Tell every player on the Georgia team that the way he did his part to help his squad claw back in the national title picture isn’t going to make any difference now because of a rule you just implemented.
This isn’t a BCS vs. playoffs argument I’m making here. You could have this same issue with a four or eight team playoff format. It’s about being fair. As Mark Richt has said, there shouldn’t be a problem with Georgia being in the mix if that’s how the process has been arranged. If you don’t like it, fix it in the offseason, Pete.