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Rhubarb Diaries
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Tuesday, 23 March 2010 16:06
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 You know it’s a sad day when this headline actually becomes a reality.
There was a time in January 2010 when the University of Texas men’s basketball team was 17 – 0 and atop the national rankings. Number one. They were typically going 10-deep on the roster without any loss of quality or production. They were a “can’t miss” Final Four team if ever I’ve seen one. And now? After staggering into the NCAA tournament, this same team was eliminated in the first round by a Wake Forest team that subsequently had it’s proverbial backside handed to it by Kentucky one day later. Texas is one of only five teams in NCAA history to have been #1 and then unranked. That’s not a statistic of which we should be proud. But there are plenty of reasons for their demise this season, and they start from the top. |
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Rhubarb Diaries
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Friday, 15 January 2010 02:14
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 Thirty-something bowl games later. That’s a whole lot of football. And, frankly, much ado over nothing. Another year of college football ends in turmoil. Sure, there was a “national championship” game, and yes, there was a winner of this “national championship” game. But when the best bowl game was the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl, you really have to wonder about the state of the post-season.
As an aside, the Humanitarian Bowl had Idaho edging Bowling Green 43 – 42. The fourth quarter was, without doubt, the most entertaining (and refreshing) 15 minutes of football all year. With the game tied at 35, Bowling Green scored a touchdown with 32 seconds left. Score: Bowling Green 42, Idaho 35. Idaho then stormed back to score a touchdown with 4 ticks left on the clock, making it 42 – 41. In perhaps the gutsiest coaching move I’ve seen in a long time, Idaho went for the two point conversion – and made it – to win 43 – 42. Now that’s not something that even Les Miles or Nick Saban would do. Games like this would be commonplace if college football had a playoff. It is laughable that the NCAA continues to claim that the BCS is “in the best interest of the universities”. As it stands, there are 34 bowl games, which means that 68 of 120 schools are in a bowl game. Most of these bowl games have incredibly low attendance. If this is what is “in the best interest of the universities”, then it’s kind of like being in elementary school and everyone getting participation awards because “everyone’s a winner”. And if that is the case, there is a lot of money being invested in college football so that “everyone is a winner”. Yeah right. Now that we have the benefit of having watched a few bowl games, and having established who showed up and who didn’t, let’s take one final look at December Delirium, and find us a real national champion. The good ‘ole fashioned way – on the field. |
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Rhubarb Diaries
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Wednesday, 16 December 2009 23:37
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 The NCAA needs a college football playoff. I’ve said it once (or twice) before, and I will say it again. Annually. It’s pretty simple, actually. No matter how many people you talk to, it seems that the overwhelming response is yes, there needs to be a playoff format for the top 4, 8, or 16 teams. But in 2009, we have another year, and another mess. Sadly, the only people that don’t tend to agree with this are the school presidents and conference commissioners. We’ve heard all sorts of reasons to not have a playoff, most of which are incredibly lame and self-serving. Let’s be realistic here – the number one reason (unspoken, perhaps, after everything is said and done) is “maintaining the status quo”. Now the federal government – yes, the same government that is struggling with health care reform, the banking industry, and two wars – has put college football in the political spectrum. Please welcome H.R. 390, the College Football Playoffs Act. It’s good to see our government working on things that truly effect the population [sarcasm inserted here]. But seriously folks, this is what the law would look like: |
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