Cheering Fans, Thrilling NCAA Tournament Disgust BCS Officials | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source
DETROIT—Claiming that determining an unquestioned national champion through a playoff system “went against the very idea of sporting competition,” and that the sheer exuberance of college basketball fans was “a shocking and nauseating display of everything wrong with collegiate athletics,” top BCS officials roundly condemned the NCAA Tournament Monday.
It’s a parody folks. A PARODY.
But go read the whole thing.
21 users commented in " BCS weighs in on NCAA tournament "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’m fine with the current system — unless they start paying college athletes.
Genius! I don’t know who wrote this for The Onion, but they deserve a tax-free bonus…
The misspellings near the end are truly priceless.
Drax: Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!! Good one!
Thanks Cosmic. I needed a good laugh today.
A couple comments…
First, the photo associated with the article is of the BYU Cougars who frankly suck like a vacuum cleaner in Tournament games. Sorry Cougs, I gotta call it like it is.
Second, Drax is serious…
The parody is funny.
But, yeah….I’m serious.
Okay, I guess I missed something. I thought that Drax was making a joke about college athletes NOT being paid.
That’ll be the day…
My daughter has been a D1 college athlete for the past four years. They paid her tuition and provided a nice athletic clothing allowance. Yeah, I guess she was paid…
Oh, I understand that all college athletes get “paid” as does anyone on scholarship.
Of course, the student who gets “paid” to go to the college due to his intellect or ability to play the trumpet isn’t asked to put themselves at risk of permanent injury/death or ending all possibility of earning a living as an athlete…but, is, instead INCREASING the likelihood that they’ll make money in the area in which they receive a scholarship.
Athletes (especially baseball/football/basketball) who go to school on scholarship and are “paid” aren’t getting “paid” to better themselves intellectually or in any other fashion. They are getting “paid” so that their school can attract people to purchase tickets, to get into a televised game, to get into a bowl game, to MAKE MONEY FOR THE UNIVERSITY.
So, when the colleges who use up these football players to fill their own coffers actually PAY the athletes something which reflects the money that those athletes bring in — AND which might compensate them for those times that the potential PRO-Bound athletes have their career ended (since, for the most part, those who go to the pros are members of those teams which go to bowl games and are likely to be members of the teams which would be invited to a “Playoff” system) — then, I’ll join the chorus of people clamoring for a “football playoff system” in college.
Besides all that, I simply don’t think it’s necessary.
Say a playoff system is expanded to 4 teams. Aren’t there going to be teams which “experts” say were unjustly excluded? (Before you answer that, review the many ESPN shows after “Selection Sunday” in which, after SIXTY-FOUR teams are selected for the NCAA basketball playoffs — panels of “experts” debate which of the teams included shouldn’t have been and which teams which were excluded shouldn’t have been.”
It doesn’t MATTER how many teams are included in any “playoff system,” there will ALWAYS be some teams which have a legitimate argument that they should have been included.
ALWAYS.
So, they have decided on a system in which EVERY SINGLE GAME means something during the regular season. How you perform throughout the season determines whether and which bowl you play in.
After the regular season is over, the “experts” come to a CONSENSUS about which teams rank where. As with any consensus, there will be disagreement as to the placement.
But, the GOAL is to have the TWO BEST TEAMS fight it out for the national title.
A Playoff system has no more potential to fulfill that GOAL than does the consensus opinion of the “experts.” Games are often won due to a variety of factors which have little to do with which team is the BEST TEAM. (Unless you’re going to argue that the NY Giants were a “better team” than the Patriots….)
If you were to add a playoff system, then you would have in college football, the same thing you have in pro ball … meaningless games. I’m not much a fan of meaningless games.
Matchup, injury, luck, officiating, weather, and more factors than can be counted often determine who wins a game. So, often, a “better team” loses to a lesser one. (The Bulls — the 72 win Bulls — lost 10 games. Is there ANYONE on the face of the planet who thinks that ANY team was better than them that year? Yet, they lost 1/8th of their games…. Or ask the “experts” about U.Conn…this year, sitting home watching a lesser team fight for the national title…)
So, I see nothing wrong with sitting down and figuring out, based on total performance during the regular season, which are the TWO BEST TEAMS and letting them fight it out for the national title.
And, when you add to that the potential for injury…I’m overwhelmingly in favor of not adding any more games to the schedule.
Drax:
I’m somewhat sympathetic to your arguments here, although I do support a Div 1A Playoff system for college football simply because I find the opposing arguments more compelling.
The most unpleasant, inconvient “truth” about college sports is how much colleges make off of them (the vast bulk of which is college football) and how many kids are injured (or even killed) in that pursuit. Now, I’m not one who thinks that colleges deliberately have manipulated the system to take advantage of the risk kids take, but it’s still there. Like most things I think college football became what it is today through organic evolution from much simpler times.
Still, a playoff system makes sense to me. I’ve seen plenty of seasons for local college teams where they play plenty of “meaningless” games during the season.
I think what you are saying is that with the BCS system every game a CONTENDING team plays is meaningful. Which may be true, but it still leaves a huge number of meaningless games every weekend.
CC: I agree that what I meant is that every game for a “contending” team is meaningful.
Of course, since the bowl system has teams with the same number of wins as losses…the number of “contending” teams is the majority of the teams, and the vast majority of the GAMES are meaningful to at least one of the two teams (and “meaningful” in a “non-bowl-seeking” sense in that the overwhelming underdog seeks to whip the ranked school….)
I just don’t find ANY “playoff system” as compelling IF the goal is to have the TWO BEST TEAMS play for the national championship.
I certainly, as a sports fan, can UNDERSTAND the desire AS A FAN to want to see a playoff system. (I can’t IMAGINE pro football, for example, being decided in such a way as the BCS does it…)
I just don’t see ANY playoff system as being anything OTHER than something for the fans and wouldn’t bring anything to the table other than more games while doing nothing to ensure that the two best teams play for the national title.
And, frankly, having seen three decades (and more) of playoffs in several different sports — and having seen the “better team” knocked out of those playoffs by a “lesser team” on a CONSISTENT basis….I really can’t see an argument which will convince me that a playoff system would ensure that the two best teams played for the national title.
That is — ASSUMING that that is the goal after all….
I really don’t understand how any true sports fan can endorse the present BCS system. It’s a sham based purely on greed and elitism and little more. Here’s what I know:
Virtually all games will continue to be meaningful for any team trying to win a spot in a limited playoff structure. One and done would likely be the case.
It would not be necessary to extend the season significantly to implement some of the playoff proposals I have seen.
Playoffs work well in lower division college football and I believe they would work just as well for D1.
NOTHING is an adequate substitute for competitors proving their worth on the field of play. Oddly, arguments I see against a D1 football playoff system would directly apply TO VIRTUALLY EVERY SPORT ON THE PLANET (PRO AND AMATEUR) WITH A PLAYOFF SYSTEM, yet playoffs work well for them and are a source of great anticipation, excitement, and FUN, to fans, coaches, and players alike.
Kill the BCS…
Drax: The goal is simply to create a system in which the unexpected CAN indeed happen. In my view, that is the magic of athletic competition. It’s not about who SHOULD win; it’s about letting competitors play to see who EARNS the win through their effort, tenacity, heart, and desire.
This is all so self-evident to me. It surprises me it isn’t to everyone else…
Dadman: Everything you say is true of the regular season.
The “unexpected” can and frequently does happen in the regular season as the #1 and #2 slots change many times as a result of the games played.
Through CONSISTENT excellence, the two consensus top teams EARN their slots through their “effort, tenacity, heart, and desire.”
On the other hand, a playoff system tends to reward MATCHUPS sometimes as much as it does EXCELLENCE. In a playoff system, frequently a team which has CONSISTENTLY done better, played better teams and won, won more games, has displayed nothing BUT “effort, tenacity, heart, and desire” lose to another team which ON THAT DAY performed better — but is UNQUESTIONABLY the “lesser team” when any comparision is made over what the two teams have done over the regular season.
And, I completely agree that the playoff system is the best system from a fan’s standpoint. More games is more entertainment for the fan. The potential of YOUR team (or any team, for that matter, as we all like the underdog…) somehow being a “Cinderella” team adds more entertainment for fans.
But, that’s just answering the question: “How can I make college football more entertaining for the fan?”
If that was the only question, then I would agree.
But, if the question is: “How do we ensure that the TWO BEST TEAMS fight for the national title?” then adding a playoff system doesn’t answer that question. And, unlike most sports, in football the potential of a career-ending (even life ending) injury in football is significantly greater.
So, even though your arguments are “self-evident,” unless and until MINE are addressed and defeated, I really can’t join you in advocating to add a playoff system to college football.
(Although, if one were added…I wouldn’t raise any hue and cry about it…I’d watch them along with every other “fan…”)
Dadman: A couple of things. You hit the nail on the head in your own life experience of having tuition, clothing allowance, etc. handled by your daughter’s University (due to her obviously inherited athletic abilities).
That is worth far more than the 20 grand per year it may (or may not) cost annually. (College is cheaper here in LA)…so, I don’t know, but it’s a bunch of greenbacks to send a child to college regardless of location (or public/private).
My cousin’s husband, Craig Wilson went to Kansas State on a baseball scholarship. He played for a few years in the majors…bumped around through the Royals, Tigers, and Yankees. He got paid good money to play the game. But, when he went on back to real life. He has made a bazillion dollars in business because of the contacts he made in college in Manhattan, and the contacts he made while trying to make it big in the majors. He took advantage of the education he received…and the perks of being an athlete…
I’m not even going to mention the football players that get paid to work at some local car dealership in Norman, or Los Angeles, yet never show up…or yada yada yada…
And I am “with you” on a D-1 playoff system providing “hope” for upsets. I guess my teeth got completely cut when our US Hockey team beat the CCCP back in ’80. I became a true fan of the underdog then and there. There is something about “dukin’ it out,” on the field that grabs the attention of sports fans.
I am a fan of “the game,” as we all are. I’m more a fan of college, than the pros. But I’ll watch either (I’m pathetic).
Drax does have a point though. Often the two best teams don’t contend for the title…even with a playoff system. But I think I’d rather see a regular season 8-3 LSU face off against an 8-3 Utah if they worked through a few games to get there.
I think the main objection to the BCS system is not so much that people are against a fair and consistent means of selecting the “best teams in the country.” The main objection I’ve heard about the BCS is not so much that it isn’t a playoff system, but more that it is EXCLUSIVE and UNFAIR to non-BCS teams, some of which are every bit as good as the BCS teams. In other words, the BCS is as much about excluding certain schools and including certain schools as it is about picking a national champion.
I’ve seen the arguments on that and I frankly think they have merit. If the system was not based around a few special schools, and was purely based on actual statistical evaluation of ALL schools, I’d be less opposed to it.
But I’m not a huge college football fan so I don’t have a terribly strong opinion one way or the other. I do think that there are a lot more important things in this country that get a lot less attention and a lot less analysis.
“I do think that there are a lot more important things in this country that get a lot less attention and a lot less analysis.”
Yeah, you’re right Cosmic. But us college football fans use our team, our conference favorites, and our mutual hatred of the BCS as an escape from the really important stuff.
I just love college football. On Saturday afternoons in the Fall, I can hone in on it, and forget for a few hours how screwed we really are…
After all, WE CAN pull our team through to a win by crossing our fingers, closing our eyes, and screaming at the TV.
That doesn’t work with our elected representatives.
I love college football too…
Just a couple more points and then I’m done.
The argument that a playoff system is merely the ‘best system from a fan’s standpoint’ is a rather odd one as an argument AGAINST a playoff. Of course, it is true a playoff would be better for fans (which I think is VERY important), but I would feel very comfortable in assuming that most players, even in auto-qual BCS conferences, would prefer a playoff system to the current one. Many coaches would as well. It’s the university and conference presidents that feel differently because huge sums of money are involved and they don’t want to see any of it going into another school’s coffers.
Second, a playoff structure would get us much closer to determining which teams should play for the national championship – just like ALL other sports including DII and DIII football. Again, this seems self-evident to me if for no other reason than it’s the way other college sports determine their champions. Fans, players, and coaches seem to approve (because huge sums of money are not involved).
We’ll just have to agree to disagree. Of course, there are some legitimate issues that must be addressed (and some have been mentioned in this thread), but I believe D1 college football should make every effort address them and create the playoff structure most fans and players desire. I believe some day this will happen and we’ll look back on these BCS days and wonder why a playoff was not implemented sooner…
CC: We wouldn’t be debating the BCS right now without your OP…
Andy: CC is the swimmer. He even has an official BHS Swimming t-shirt!
Dadman: Of course players/coaches want a playoff system. No competitive person wants things decided by committee…they want it decided on the field. Clearly, the fans want it. (I didn’t use their desire as an argument against a playoff system; I just said that their desire was IRRELEVANT to the question IF the question was: “How best to have the two best teams play for a national title?”
Currently, I only watch the Championship game as I really don’t care about college football much. If there were a playoff system, I’d likely watch as much of that as possible. (As I watch Baseball playoffs and NBA playoffs but could care less about regular season games..) So, I am fully aware of the draw.
So, if we move the argument from the supposed argument that everyone uses when the championship comes around, i.e., “Does the current system cause the two best teams to be playing for the title…? to — “What is most entertaining for the fans?” then I concede.
Is that the question?
Seems there are two questions on the table:
What’s best for fans?
Which system would be more effective in determining the two teams that play for a NC?
To both questions my answer would be the same: Playoff…
That’s where we disagree. I don’t think that playoffs determine the “best team.” It determines the “best team on a given day.”
That’s all.
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