Over at College Football News, they’re doing that Experts Roundtable thing they did last year. Along with their own Pete Fiutak and Richard Cirminello, here’s the list of guys they’ve got reviewing the world of college football as we know it:
– Charles Davis, NFL Network/FOX Sports
– Dennis Dodd, CBSSports.com – College Football Columnist
– Bruce Feldman, ESPN.com – College Football Columnist
– Steve Greenberg, The Sporting News – College Football Columnist
– Teddy “Mr. Media” Greenstein, Chicago Tribune – College Football Columnist, Media Columnist
– Stewart Mandel, SI.com – College Football Columnist
The discussion slate has been considerably expanded this go ’round, as they’re shooting the breeze on fifteen or so different topics. Here’s a taste of a few of their comments:
From What aspect of college football should you care about, but really don’t?
Stewart Mandel: I know it sounds bad to say this, but the scandals. I know as a journalist I should be outraged and ready to tear down walls every time any hint of unseemliness arises at a school — be it player arrests, academic scandals, etc. — but I’m just so jaded to it at this point that I pretty much shrug my shoulders.
From Should a two loss LSU team really have won the national title?
Dennis Dodd: Absolutely. Here’s the problem: Once you lose one game in this system, it’s a crapshoot. If you lose two, you’ve got absolutely no argument for being in the national championship game. But last season was the 500-year flood of college football — seven teams with two losses in the top 10 of the BCS in the first week of December.
Someone had to get in. That it was LSU didn’t bother me. In the end, The Tigers benefitted from winning the strongest league in the country. What’s wrong with that?
It was all the outrage that followed that got to me. Why? To me, USC was eliminated because it was the victim of the biggest upset in the game’s history — losing at home at Stanford. I suppose Georgia had a beef but I really got turned off with the whole Michael Adams, Rose Bowl argument. By the end of the day, Georgia looked like donkeys because its actions were a backhanded slap at the Sugar Bowl.
Missouri lost twice to Oklahoma. West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh. LSU was basically the last comic standing when it came time to pick two teams to play for the national championship.
From How should college football be more like the NFL?
Bruce Feldman: I love the NFL playoffs format and the college doesn’t have that. On the opposite side, college football has no such things as games that don’t count in some preseason. I know GMs and NFL execs would argue it helps them decide who should be on their roster and make sound business decisions, but make your cuts off scrimmages and practice.
From Your college football guilty pleasure
Teddy Greenstein: I like when Charlie Weis is interviewed at halftime on NBC with his Irish trailing by four touchdowns.
Definitely a mixed bag…
Get The Picture 
We looked like donkeys for insinuating we should’ve gotten a draw to the Rose instead of kowtowing to the espn machine and the Big (not so big) Ten?
We looked like donkeys for making the argument that we were one of the best teams in the country and desrved a better bowl and maybe some consideration in the mnc game?
Seriously?
Dennis, the only thing you got right with that statement concerns Michael Adams. He was, is, and always will be a big ‘ol donkey. I’ll give Mr. Dodd that one because I know of which I speak – I have the degree to prove it.
But otherwise, I think Dennis Dodd looks like a donkey for making such an assinine statement about the Dawgs.
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How dare we say things in support of our team. We should have been more like Urban Meyer, who kept completely quiet in 2006 w/r/t Florida playing in the BCS Championship Game. Completely, absolutely, 100% quiet.
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I’m not sure where the “backhanded slap at the Sugar Bowl” comes from. How is it a backhanded slap for trying to get your team in the MNC game? Or wanting to play the 2nd best team (USC) in the nation in a bowl game?
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Correct me if I am wrong, but did LSU not do the same thing in 2006 to some degree? If I remember correctly was the school not taking pre-orders for the Rose Bowl?
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Ally, nail —>head. You should seriously send that to Dodd. I’m sure you can find his e-mail on the college football section of the CBS Sports website. Don’t paint UGA and us fans by adam$.
Unknown, I think LSU did pre-sell Rose tix in 2006. But when Southern Cal lost to UCLA and Florida got into the BCSCG (over Michigan, despite Kirk Herbstreit’s protests), the other BCS bowls fell into line. There was not the two-tier protest we had this past season, both over the manipulation of the rankings for the title game then also why the Rose caved in to the Big 10 and took a marginal Illinois team instead of the best at-large team available.
Jim
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I had mixed feelings about last postseason. I felt that we really didn’t have much of an argument for the MNC game because of the SC and Tenn games and Tennessee won the East. I thought that playing Southern Cal at the Rose Bowl would be awesome but the Sugar Bowl needed us. The SEC/Sugar Bowl tradition is very important to me and they needed us to ensure a sellout and gain the highest possible interest.(see Utah vs. Pittsburgh, 2005 Fiesta) I disagree with Dodd’s extreme take on the situation but there might be some merit to his mention of the Sugar. Obviously, as I stated earlier, I do believe in maintaining historical bowl tie-ins so that might put me at odds with the more progressive postseason opinions. Anyway, lets just go to Miami this year.
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