Ask not what the BCS can do for you, ask what you can do to the BCS.

Senator Orrin Hatch, mad as hell and not willing to take it anymore, is firing with both barrels:  July 7th hearings on the BCS in front of the Senate Antitrust Committee on which he sits and a “Why I Fight” piece he wrote that appears in today’s Sports Illustrated.

He sounds pretty fired up.

Hatch notes the sentiment for a college football playoff and writes that “almost anything would be better” than what the BCS has in place now.

Hmmm… I wonder if that would include ditching the BCS in its entirety and going back to the old system.  Hey, that did get dear ‘ol BYU a national championship in 1984!

Nah, probably not.  Because as much as he keeps talking about playing for the title, he keeps looking at all that money.

“Every team from a preferred conference automatically receives a share from an enormous pot of revenue generated by the BCS, even if they fail to win a single game,” Hatch wrote. “On the other hand, teams from the less favored conferences are guaranteed to receive a much smaller share, no matter how many games they win.”

And that, my friends, ain’t right.  If those heartless commie bastards that run the BCS won’t voluntarily share the wealth, well, then, by God, good conservatives like Orrin Hatch will just have to do something about that.

If “those with the power to reform the system” don’t do so voluntarily, Hatch writes, then “legislation may be required to ensure that all colleges and universities receive an equal opportunity.”

All I can say is that it’s a damned shame the BCS doesn’t control Wall Street.   Or the health insurance companies.

********************************************************************

UPDATE: Judging from this, I’m sure the WAC would like to see Senator Hatch move things along.

********************************************************************

UPDATE #2: This is a fun read.  Especially this part:

That’s been the problem all along. The BCS system is the natural outgrowth of college athletics’ essential stance to the outside world — one hand outstretched to hold the cash, one hand held aloft with the middle finger prominent.

Even the fight against the BCS, feeble though it’s been, has been fought by Orrin Hatch, the senior senator from Rice-Eccles Stadium, solely because his state school, Utah, was the latest one to get jobbed by the system. Otherwise, he’d be a loyal Republican and defend the BCS’ right to strangle the competition as part of doing business in a capitalist system.

If Hatch were serious, he’d actually be trying to strip college athletics of its power to hide behind the tax laws, or force it to be run as a separate entity outside the protection of the university, or find other ways to slap the system out of its institutional and extra-ethical arrogance.

But no, he just wants his favorite school to be a greater beneficiary of the currently corrupt system, and so does Calhoun. In other words, the Mountain West folks are not reformers, they’re just failed candidates without the throw-weight or interest to help overthrow the system. They just want their place at the trough.

Advertisement

Some strategery stuff

A couple of unrelated pieces caught my eye.

First, there’s an article posted at OrlandoSentinel.com that, misleading headline set aside, explores how the NFL is adapting spread and single wing features that have proven successful on the college level to its own game.  The hero worship of Meyer is overdone, and the author muddies the waters with regard to the spread and the wildcat, but there’s a lot of good stuff there.  And Meyer, to his credit, is an interesting read when it comes to x’s and o’s.

He really nails the dilemma the pros face when they look at deploying their quarterbacks as runners.

… That’s why Meyer thinks White could be a game-changer in the pros; not only a different sort of weapon at quarterback, but one in a very different place relative to quarterbacks and the salary cap.

“Everybody’s concern is the guy is making $27.8 million,” Meyer said, referring to a typical franchise NFL quarterback. “Are you really willing to get him hit like that?”

Meyer hopped off his couch and stood in the middle of his office, assuming the bent throwing position a quarterback works from in the pocket. It’s in that position, he reminded, that quarterbacks like Brady and Carson Palmer have suffered devastating, season-ending injuries the last few years, as defenders rolled into a lead leg that was planted to throw the ball.

Elsewhere, I’m sure that many of you have read this depressing post by a Navy blogger regarding Paul Johnson’s offense by now.  It’s depressing because it uses much from last year’s Georgia-Georgia Tech game to illustrate its points.  Chris at Smart Football distills things down even further by noting that a lot of Johnson’s genius is related to his skill as a playcaller.

I’m not going to argue against that – the tape doesn’t lie, you know – but it’s only fair to point out that this was an offense that sputtered on occasion last season, including the game it played after it faced Georgia.  I’ll be interested to see what Chris has to say in a promised future post about defending Johnson’s flexbone, but all things being equal, give me a dominant defensive line that can penetrate, affect the offense’s rhythm and pound a running quarterback, and I’ll take my chances.

Come to think about it, that worked pretty well against Florida in 2007, too, so maybe this stuff does tie together more than I thought.

Kiffin watch: taking notice

I’ll say this for Junior – he wanted a high profile, he’s got a high profile.

Now he’s not only got his fellow football coaches paying attention to his antics, he’s got guys in other sports doing it.  Like Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox, who, in response to a question about secondary violations, had this to say:

I don’t know if they’re a growing problem. I will tell you this, I think that you’ll probably start reading about much stiffer penalties with secondary violations.

Nothing like making an impact…

Ranking those schedules

Both Bruce Feldman and Matt Hayes have their ten toughest non-conference schedules lists up, and while Feldman is evaluating all D-1 teams and Hayes is only ranking BCS conference teams, there’s still a decent amount of overlap.

Georgia makes both of their lists, which isn’t much of a surprise to me, but I was interested to see how many Pac-10 teams showed up.  Say what you will, but I’m impressed to see four schools play a round robin conference schedule and then play OOC slates without a single 1-AA team on them while taking on the likes of Ohio State, LSU, Boise State (in Boise) and Notre Dame.  That’s not too shabby.

Envy and jealousy: the golden years edition

Honestly, I don’t know what’s gotten into SI.com’s Andy Staples.  Maybe it’s the pressure of having to perform in Mandel’s absence, maybe it’s something else, but he’s sure written some silly stuff lately.  Like this ode to how “smart” Tennessee was to offer a scholarship to Eric Berry’s 13-year old younger brother.

I mention this only because of how ludicrous it is to hear Evan Berry talk about one of the deciding factors in his, ahem, commitment being the opportunity to play for Monte Kiffin.

Puh-leeze. As Doc Saturday puts it,

… Monte Kiffin (above, with Eric Berry) is 69 years old. He makes a million dollars as a coordinator. Even if Lane Kiffin is still in Knoxville when Evan is eligible to sign in five years — a risky bet, maybe even if he wins — Monte’s interests are going to increasingly include “Wheel of Fortune” and “the couch.”