Problems With A Playoff

One of my favorite debates in sports is the topic of a playoff system in college football. Why? – Because it’s a never-ending struggle. We’ll probably still be arguing about it 30 years from now.

Currently, people are more upset with the BCS system than Donald Trump is with Rosie O’Donnell. Everyone thinks that a playoff system needs to be in place. They claim that there is just too much controversy out there – too many politics. I think that they’re wrong.

Let’s look at what it would take to build a payoff system (we’ll try to keep this as simple as possible and just work with the logistics of the actual setup).

First, we’ll need to decide on how many teams make this playoff system. A 64-team field is almost out of the question seeing as there are only 119 teams in Division I-A football. Half the field can’t make the playoffs. A four-team playoff seems too small and wouldn’t suffice for what the pundits want. Eight seems to be the number that pleases most people. So, we’ll go with eight for the moment.

Now, we have to decide if conference champions get an automatic bid into the playoffs. If so, which conferences? I think we’d have to be looking at the Big 10, Big 12, SEC, ACC, Pac-10 and Big East. That’s only six…which two do you add in after that? The MAC? The WAC? Who knows? You’re going to leave someone out. And what happens when a 7-5 Baylor squeaks into the Big 12 title game and it happens to be their day? Then we have a playoff that includes a team ranked 40th in the country. (Keep in mind that this system would also make non-conference football games completely and totally irrelevant.)

Another fact to keep in mind: Notre Dame is independent. Does that mean that they don’t get the chance to play for a title. I’m actually okay with that. Moving on…

So, let’s say that we just run with the six power-conferences. We have to fill those last two spots. How do we decide on those two teams? I guess we’d have to leave it up to a selection committee. There are more than a dozen one and two-loss teams out there right now that will not win their respective conference and a still-undefeated Hawaii team to contend with. You’re talking about some BIG schools, with BIG boosters, who like to throw around BIG dollars. Now, if you don’t think politics are going to get involved in that process then you’re crazy.

Do we simply extend the field to 16 teams? If we do then we are going to be running into the same problems when we get to the three-loss teams. Possibly even more. The Southeastern Conference has seven teams in the BCS Top 25 – You have to think that more than three of them could make a case for this hypothetical tourney.

We all enjoy our college sports and college football seems to be our first love. When we talk about it we use words like “heritage” and “tradition.” There is a certain amount of tradition that goes into the Bowl System. People love talking about that year the team won the Sugar Bowl or the Cotton Bowl or the EricCheek.blogspot.com Bowl (I’m trying to convince everyone that this bowl needs to take place in 2010).

The system isn’t perfect. We all know this. One of the things that makes collegiate football so great, though, is that we argue about it. We constantly enter into debate with friends, co-workers and the “experts” sitting three seats to our right at the local watering hole. So go tell your buddy he’s a moron…heck, come tell me I’m an idiot. I welcome the conversation.

Off Topic For the Off Week

I was discussing this topic with a couple of buddies the other day and was actually surprised to find that we had many of the same answers. So, I pose to you: What are the greatest inventions of your lifetime?

First, we need to set a few parameters:
--This list will have no particular order. I’m not in the business of ranking.
--We won’t be using exact dates. It’s just too hard to find out when things were patented or first appeared on the market to the general public.
--We’re going to essentially look at 1980 as a starting point. That was the year that I was born, plus it’s just a good round number to start at.
--We are going to look at an approximate time when things became overwhelmingly popular. I understand that AT&T was talking with the FCC about cellular phones as early as the 1940’s but we’re going to be calling the birth of cell phones the early 1990’s (when Zach Morris started using his).
--We will also be discussing our “favorite” inventions, not necessarily the “best” inventions. I know that their have been great advances in the fields of technology and medicine over the past 25 years but that doesn’t negate the fact that at least 70% of my television viewing is ESPN.
--The internet as a whole cannot be mentioned because it has changed the world in way that no other invention has. The creation of the internet ranks up there with penicillin and the wheel.

So, let’s get this list started (at least the first seven that I can really think of):

-Digital Camera
The ability to take pictures, look at them, decide that the way that you were standing made you look fat, erase the picture, then take it again...all without using any film at all? Sorority girls across the country went berserk the day that they got their first digital camera.

-Cellular Phone
Don’t get me wrong, I still find this item evasively obtrusive. That being said, I don’t know how I ever found people in a crowd before I owned one. I even remember the moment that I figured out that cell phones were genius…July 4, 1998. I borrowed my dad’s cell to track down my friends at Lenox Mall so we could watch the fireworks. Now, I freak out if my cell leaves my pocket for more than five minutes.

-DV-R / TiVo
I’m not going to lie to you – I got in late on this phenomenon. I hooked up a DV-R in my house for the first time just a little less than a year ago. I was told how great it would be and even knew how great it would be. It turned out that it was even better. I don’t miss my favorite shows anymore. I don’t even miss the crap that I don’t want to see.

-High Definition Television
Going along the same lines, HD-TV. Just unbelievable. Action shows are absurd and sporting events are ridiculous. I remember watching The Masters in HD on CBS with my buddy O.C for the first time. We could have actually caddied for the players from our living rooms. We could read breaks in the green from the couch.

-The iPod (and for that matter…digital music)
I jumped on this bandwagon late too. My buddy Billy and I went to a bar in downtown Athens the other night (before Guster took stage at The Georgia Theatre). We started discussing the concept of digital music and realized that this was just an absurdly great concept. It just changed the way everyone listens to music. No tapes. No CD’s. No wires. No anything. Plus, iPods kind of look like they should have come from another planet, making them infinitely more cool.

-The yellow first down marker
I think that people underestimate this one. This invention single-handedly changed the game of football for women. Tell me, did you ever try to watch a football game with your girlfriend BEFORE the yellow line was developed? Of course you didn’t. Because she couldn’t figure out what was going on and didn’t want to be a part of it. Now she has a point of reference. If nothing else, she can chime in on crucial third downs and give you the ol’, “I don’t know, honey. I don’t think he got the first down.” She’s happy because you’re letting her participate and you’re happy because you think that your girl knows something about football. In the end, everyone’s a winner.

-ESPN
When I was eight years old, my parents made the great purchase of cable television. It took me a while to peruse all the channels but then one faithful day I discovered ESPN. Sports, all the time? It was amazing. The monumental discovery was made one morning when I got up to eat breakfast before school and stumbled upon SportsCenter. Back then it was a 30-minute show that ran on repeat for approximately 5 hours (this is not an exaggeration). SportsCenter immediately became my viewing choice before school. It’s as important to me as Good Morning America is to old people.

So, there they are. The best stuff to come around over the past 25 years. If you agree, great. If you don't, then I just don't know what to say...I've given everything that makes up our daily lives (except for video games which is an entirely seperate conversation all together).

The sports world is about to hit a pretty exciting couple of weeks coming up. We have professional football in full-stride, college football closing in on the "rivalry" weeks, the World Series, and hocke and basketball about to get under way.

Brace yourselves!

Three Of These Things Aren't Like The Others...

There were some big upsets this weekend. Colorado knocked off #3 Oklahoma, the Tiger-Plainsman-War Eagles of Auburn defeated #4 Florida (on the road and at night no less), Kansas State popped #7 Texas, Maryland took care of the “wood-choppin’” boys from #10 Rutgers and the Ramblin’ Wreck beat the #13 Clemson Tigers.

These were all good things that made for a great week in college football. It also made for an odd looking AP poll come Sunday afternoon. I mean, let’s look at your top five:

1. LSU
2. USC
3. California
4. Ohio State
5. Wisconsin

Okay, I’ll buy into that. That seems like it could be a top five on any given year over the past decade or so. But then…

6. South Florida
7. Boston College
8. Kentucky

These three schools are like those three random freshman girls who show up for their first big fraternity party of the year. They look great on the surface – they’re trendy and no one really knows anything about them so they have that “air of mystery” going for them. The thing is, they’ve just been nursing on beers so far and not really hitting the “hard stuff.”

Boston College, you did beat, a then ranked #15, Georgia Tech in Atlanta a couple weeks ago but we found out that the Jackets, despite beating Clemson, are not nearly as good as we all thought. That’s pretty much it…that’s all you’ve accomplished.

Kentucky, you beat Louisville a few weeks back when we thought that they would be vying for trip to the National Title Game…then the Cardinals fell to Syracuse and we all said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! These guys can play offense but their defense is just dreadful.” The win the Wildcats had at Arkansas was decent but they still gave up a lot of yards and 29 points.

South Florida…hmmm…you’re like the leader of the trio. You actually have some things going for you. You went into Auburn and beat them and then this past weekend you beat the speedsters that were #5 West Virginia. I’ve got to admit, you’re looking kind of hot right now.

Well, ladies, the bar just ran out of beer so if you want to continue to hang out then you’re going to have to turn it up a notch. It’s nothing but mind erasers and tequila shots from here on.

The first half of Boston College’s schedule isn’t exactly a gauntlet. They have gone through Wake Forest, NC State and Georgia Tech in conference and have tangled with Army and UMass over the past two weeks. They have Bowling Green and Notre Dame (and don’t even get me started on the Irish right now) for the next two. They should have a 7-0 start. Then it’s time to line up the shots – at Virginia Tech, Florida State, at Maryland, at Clemson, and Miami. Yowza!

Kentucky has played some stellar offense and has put up at least a 40-spot in each of their first five games but the Wildcats are about to hit it hard. This week, on Thursday night, the cats travel to #11 South Carolina. They’ll follow that up by hosting top-ranked LSU and #9 Florida. Later on they have to go to Athens to take on the Dogs and then host Tennessee. Yikes!

What I’m saying is that as good as those girls looked entering the party, we all know that they are going to end up doing too many shots, get trampled on the dance floor, break the heel on their left shoe, tear their shirts and end up throwing up all over themselves…they’ll end up back in obscurity.

The only thing that frightens me is that South Florida might end up looking great at the end of the night (like the girl who just calls a cab for her sloppy friends and then heads back up to the bar). The rest of South Florida’s schedule looks like this:

-at Florida Atlantic
-Central Florida
-at #21 Rutgers
-at UConn
-#20 Cincinnati
-at Syracuse
-Louisville
-at Pittsburgh

This isn’t tough. South Florida could do this. Their toughest game is at Rutgers. They have Louisville at home and Cincinnati is ranked despite not having played anyone at all. South Florida may be sitting there at the end of the season with an undefeated record.

Is the nation going to be okay with South Florida playing for a National Title if they run the table? I’m just not okay with it at this point.

The Betting Man Update:
Week 4: 1-4
Overall: 8-12 (I really need to turn this ship around soon.)

Pics of the week:

It was a beautiful day for football in Utah this past weekend.

Mike Flynt, 59, plays linebacker for Sul Ross State...Now that's old man strength.

Hey Coach Stoops, how did your Sooner's look this week?

SEC fans everywhere were cheering for Auburn.

The Thrills of Week Three

Week Three in college football's march to the New Year did not disappoint.

The SEC, in particular, was exciting with some big wins and tough losses. Kentucky got the proverbial monkey off their back after finally downing Louisville, 40-34 (but can you really have a monkey on your back after four losses to a team?...it seems like it should be longer than that).

Quick note: Hey, Kentucky, we’re going to have to talk about your incessant field-rushing problems. You can’t rush the field every time you win a game. We’ll discuss this further another time…

Alabama came back, after giving it away, to beat #16 Arkansas, 41-38. I actually watched this won…actually the fact that I watched this game says nothing…Lady Cheek watched it though and THAT says something.

Florida made Tennessee (the team that was supposed to give the entire country a fair shake this season) a thorough drubbing. Florida QB, Tim Tebow looked like he was for real, throwing for 299 and a couple scores.

Mississippi State even got on the board this weekend with a win over Auburn. Auburn, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Then there was Nebraska hosting USC and the Trojans proving to everyone in the country that they are a true and utter powerhouse. They destroyed Nebraska in what I had thought was going to be a decent game. The 49-31 score is A LOT closer than the game actually was. Will Ferrell was even on hand to take in the beat down.

And then there was Michigan playing host to Notre Dame – a game that I would haven’t watched if it had been played in my back yard. This game was set up to be a complete and total train wreck…and it was for Notre Dame. We realized this weekend just how terrible The Football University of America really is. Michigan, who we all learned was just plain awful, killed the Fighting Irish. And Jimmy Clausen: You were the nation’s most highly touted QB coming out of high school. How in the world do you average 4.4 yards per completion in a game?! Heck, Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno averaged 7.2 yards per carry last weekend. Jimmy, you’re my new go-to joke (somewhere Reggie Ball just made a sigh of relief).

Now for a little house cleaning:
-Tennessee got pummeled by Florida. I really thought that the untested Florida wouldn’t be able to run away from UT like they did.
-Ohio State took care of business against Washington.
-I didn’t realize that Kentucky would come with the horse-power that they did while hosting gunslingin’ Louisville.
-Southern Cal forced their will on Nebraska in Lincoln.
-Georgia Tech couldn’t hang with Boston College and we all realized that their win over Notre Dame wasn’t nearly as impressive as we all thought.

Last Week: 3-2
Season: 5-5

We’ll stay local with our “Pic of the Week” this time:

It’s good to see that Sean Bailey is back in the mix and has made a full recovery.

Have a good week everyone!

Tough Times In Week Two

Wow. Tough crowd this past weekend.

The Dogs get punched in the gut by Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks and I get punched in the stomach by my buddy O.C., who drilled me in the picks.

A quick recap of the picks:

-Virginia Tech got absolutely thromped by LSU. I knew that LSU was strong but I figured that VA-Tech would at least keep it close.

-Texas had a BIG (24-point) 4th Quarter against Texas Christian and was able to cover.

-Penn State took care of business against Notre Dame, 31-10.

-Tyrone Willingham led Washington to victory and snapped Boise State's 14-game winning streak in the process. Ty also kept me from a winning record for the weekend.

-The Crimson Tide of Alabama rolled to 24-10 victory over Vanderbilt. Things get tough fast for Saban this weekend though.

In all, 2-3 for the season.

As for the Dogs:

What a tough game to watch! I've heard people complaining from all different angles. "The offense was stagnant"..."The defense was soft"..."They gave up on the run too soon"..."Stafford threw behind the receivers"...yada yada yada.

Bottom line was everything was mediocre. The Buldogs didn't turn the ball over (outside of a pointless interception thrown late in the 4th Quarter) but they also didn't force any turnovers either. The defense allowed just 16 points to South Carolina. That's not bad but it's really not all that good either. The Bulldog defense should have steamrolled the Gamecocks.

Georgia's Knowshon Moreno strung together another set of runs good for 104 yards. Not a bad effort but keep in mind that one of those rushes was for 50 yards. That would give Moreno 54 yards on 13 carries (4.2 avg.), which isn't all that much better than Thomas Brown's effort.

Matthew Stafford overthrew, under threw, and even threw behind some receivers. That being said, he also hit some guys right in the hands and the ball still found its way to the turf. The receivers were reliving all of their woes from the year before.

The AJC's Terrance Moore says that the Bulldogs don't have a true leader in the locker room. That may not be a bad assessment, considering that the Georgia starting squad is filled with sophomores and freshmen. But let's also keep in mind that Terrance Moore is a complete moron...let's definitely not forget that.

Georgia has an opportunity to get things back on track and work on a few things this weekend as they host Western Carolina. This should be similar to playing Lassiter High School's varsity squad.

A note to Georgia players: Just dress out and show up. Play hard but don't get hurt. Win the game and get your tails out of there. Above all else, don't pretend to be Michigan and flush your entire season down the drain.

It's taken me a little extra time to get over this particular loss so we're a little late on the Pics of the Week. And away we go:

Anytime that Tuberville is upset, Cheek is ecstatic! And the guys who got Coach T so upset...

The University of South Florida Bulls.

This picture might sum up the Georgia game best...it just never seemed like the Dogs could get there.

So, you're telling me that Boise State fans actually get crazy about football?...Really?

And our "You Create the Caption":

Have a good weekend everyone!

Betting Man - Week 2

(Note: I never bet on Georgia football. Never. Not for money. Not for beer.)

I won't go into a lot of detail this week on my picks but I will tell you what they are:

Virginia Tech (+12) @ #2 Louisiana State
--I just have a feeling that Virginia Tech is going to be able to stop the LSU ground attack and keep this thing fairly close.

#22 Texas Christian (+9) @ #7 Texas
--I really like TCU this season and this will be their one really big test - heading INTO the Longhorns backyard. I think that this will be a great game.

Notre Dame @ #14 Penn State (-17)
--Look for the Nittany Lions to cover here. Notre Dame looked more clueless than Jessica Simpson when she's asked to do math against Gerogia Tech last week. With true-frehman Jimmy Clausen getting the start, I think that the Irish will struggle mightily.

#22 Boise State (-3) @ Washington
--One thing is true, Boise State is going to score points. Even when they are facing a legitimate Pac-10 opponent, they are going to score points. I like Boise State by a touchdown.

Alabama (-3.5) @ Vanderbilt
--It's 2000-and-Saban, people! How could the Tide possibly roll over this weekend?! Vanderbilt is a decent team that everyone would like to see do well but they just aren't going to have the horse-power to hang with the Crimson Tide.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Week One - Bulldogs Host OK State

I was never really worried. I have to admit that deep down I knew that the Dogs would take care of business against the Cowboys from Oklahoma State. I saw it when Boise State tried to come out to visit. They were just as excited and they just knew that this would be the moment that they would stand up on top of the college football mountain and declare that they had made it...and before B.S.U. knew what hit them (and I use that "B.S." for a reason), D.J. Shockley had thrown for five touchdowns and rushed for another.

I'm not saying that the Cowboys were a push over - far from it actually. They are a very nice football team that could be bowl eligible come late October. They have a decent quarterback and a defense that can compete in the Big 12. Plus, Adarius Bowman, their big wide reciever, may be the best pure talent in the Big 12 conference. He'll probably be making a lot of money playing on Sundays within the next couple years. Bottom line, though, Oklahoma State still has a lot of growing up to do.

That all being said, the Bulldogs came away with the victory. The biggest thing for me though was that the Dogs did not turn the ball over. It was a beautiful thing to watch Stafford scramble a bit, look down field and then say, "Hmm, no one is open. Well, I guess I'll just toss this one to the hot little sorority girl in the third row. Comin' at ya, babe!"

Plus, and I hope you're reading this Hilley, how about Knowshon Moreno?! That kid looked solid. He ran the ball well, he caught the ball, he made guys miss...I mean, what's not to like? He had 20 carries for 73 yards and two catches for 51 yards. He also had a couple of plays called back due to holding penalties.

And I just can't say enough about Mikey Henderson. This kid will without question cause a heart attack in Sanford Stadium. I liken his performance to watching my buddy Blank drink beer - he doesn't look like all that much at first and he doesn't get flashy on a regular basis but when you're watching either of them you just have to say to yourself, "You know, any second now we just might see something special."

So I'm pleased with the effort and the 35-14 win. This should give the Dogs a lot of momentum heading into the SEC-Opener against South Carolina.

Now for the Pics of the Week (A National Look):

I really have to hand it to the kids at Appalachian State. After they defeated Michigan in The Big House, students raided their own field (back in Boone, N.C.), tore down their own goalpost and dragged it to their President's house. Man, I wish I were still in college!

Apparently this football was shot out of a cannon!

USC's Vidal Hazelton makes a one-handed touchdown grab against Idaho over the weekend. That kid would have looked good in Red & Black.

Here's just a couple of things that I like about sports: Sports help us remember and forget. Sports bring people together, whether you are an athlete or a fan. Sports give us something to get excited about and give us something to rally behind. All of this has never been as important as it was this past weekend in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Just for the record...I called this Kelin Johnson interception. I said that he would take it back for a touchdown but I still called it. I just wish we coul see the look on Adarius Bowman's face in this one.

And finally...here's our weekly "You create the caption":


Have a good week everyone!