Tucked in at the very end of the Bulldog Hotline show from last night comes this pearl of wisdom from Georgia’s head coach:
William in Augusta said CMR has made it easy to be a Georgia fan the last seven years. College football is the greatest sport but the only one where the championship is not decided on the field. Presidents need to decide whether their loyalties are to their schools and teams or to a stodgy old bowl system. CMR – you may not like the answer .. the regular season is more exciting than any other sport ..because there is no playoff system. [Emphasis added.] If you had a playoff system, some of these games wouldn’t be as meaningful since teams that lost knew they could make the playoff.
Well said.
Now, if we could just get him to see the light about keeping the WLOCP in Jacksonville…
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UPDATE: Dan Wetzel, on the other hand, is about as clueless as a man can be. The “Wetzel Plan” (cool name, hunh) manages to combine just about every bad playoff concept ever conceived into one overarchingly stupid concept. So I guess it does have the virtue of being economical.
It’s not just the appearance of all the usual dumb ideas – 16 team playoff with all conference champions qualifying (Central Michigan, come on down!); the elimination of all of the major bowl games; the automatic assumption of massive increases in revenue; Cinderella and brackets (aka December Madness) – that makes his “Plan” so moronic. It’s the relentless, cheery detachment from reality that elevates it into something truly special. Such as when he writes
… Does anyone without direct rooting interest really care if USC wins the Pac-10 Saturday? How about the Virginia Tech-Boston College ACC title game?
Since when did “direct rooting interest” become dirt under our shoes? Christ, that’s the essence of college football.
My favorite part – after Wetzel complains that the current system is “illogical”, he goes on to say
… For even lower-rated conferences – the Sun Belts, the MACs – allowing annual access to the tournament would not only set off celebrations on small campuses but it would encourage investment in the sport at all levels. Suddenly, there would be a reason for teams in those leagues to really care. This would improve quality throughout the country…
Dude. No. Look at your brackets. You’ve got a 7-5 Central Michigan team playing in a tournament that excludes schools like Tennessee and Texas. However you may want to characterize that, logic ain’t part of the equation. Or your article, for that matter.
Get The Picture 