Now here’s a pointless exercise.
They’re not the AP. They’re not ranking teams for the heck of it. Their job is to seed a four-team tourney and they’re not needed for that until the regular season concludes.
The only thing weekly rankings will do is provide endless fodder for ESPN and the like and cause more noise in the system. Which, come to think about it, is a good strategy if you’re trying to stir up public dissatisfaction with the process, dissatisfaction that only has one cure…
Filed under BCS/Playoffs
Remember back in 2005, when the NCAA voted to expand college football’s regular season with a twelfth game and visions of sugar plums danced in our heads of schools using that extra game to swing a good matchup?
It turns out at the time that Georgia took that stuff seriously.
“I don’t even remember how this thing happened,” Richt said. “We made a decision at Georgia. ….We said when we go to this 12th game we’re going to add another BCS opponent, mostly somewhere out of the Southeast region. So the Arizona States we played and the Oklahoma States we played, and we did a little bit of that kind of thing and we also, Clemson got put in during that time. It was still another BCS opponent out of our league.”
That was then. This is now:
“Periodically, it’s good to play these kind of nonconference games,” Georgia AD Greg McGarity said a few weeks back about Notre Dame. “Whenever we schedule a game whether it’s them or someone else, it’s just periodic in nature. Does that mean every three or four years? I don’t know. It’s just what feels right and what’s best for our program.”
Time will tell, right, Greg?
At least now Georgia can get back to the basic reason the NCAA added that twelfth game in the first place.
The prospect of extending the season had raised the concerns of the reform-minded Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which urged NCAA officials to reject the 12th game until the impact of rigorous new academic standards had become clear. ACC officials unanimously opposed it, arguing that an 11-game season was sufficient for college students. The American Football Coaches Association also lobbied against it, fearing the physical toll it would take on their squads.
But with millions of dollars of untapped revenue at stake, NCAA board members met behind closed doors yesterday and voted, 8-2 with one abstention, in favor of adding a 12th game.
For football powers such as Michigan, Ohio State and Tennessee, which play in 100,000-seat stadiums that dwarf the typical NFL venue, an extra home game could mean more than $3 million per year in additional revenue.
Kansas Chancellor Bob Hemenway, chairman of the NCAA directors, said in a conference call after the vote that “there were a number of issues” that argued in favor of extending the schedule. “It was not just money,” Hemenway said.
When they say it’s not about money…
Filed under Georgia Football
If you don’t think the threat of unionization has already had an impact on the big schools, you’re not paying attention. The latest NCAA governance proposal would give student-athletes almost 20 percent of the voting power in the rules-making process. That may not sound like much, but when you consider where the schools were a few short months ago…
Board steering committee member Kirk Schulz, the Kansas State president, told CBSSports.com in March he had “mixed emotions” about players having a vote.
“We ask so much of our student-athletes now …,” he said. “My concern is not students don’t offer great perspectives. I’m just trying to figure out what six hours per day that they’re supposed to sleep? Are we going to have students able to show up and work with NCAA?”
No word on whether ol’ Kirk said that with a straight face.
Filed under Look For The Union Label, The NCAA
The NCAA files its third and fourth appeals of the District Court’s rulings in O’Bannon. It’s doing it for the kids, you know.
The NCAA’s chief legal officer, Donald Remy, said in a statement Monday night: “This issue is critical to fostering equity and opportunity in college sports. We support all student-athletes, regardless of whether their sport brings in revenue, and we believe that the current model provides opportunities for many young women and men to access higher education and earn a college degree.”
Evidently Stacey Osburn could not be reached for comment.
Filed under The NCAA
When you’ve got Chris Low asking “When’s the last time the fans really mattered?” in the context of the new SEC schedule rule, I’d say the house line at ESPN indicates your broadcast partner isn’t very impressed with your work, Mike Slive.
Filed under ESPN Is The Devil, SEC Football
Nom, nom, nom…
Get The Picture 