Posted by
rightinsight on Thursday, January 03, 2008 3:49:19 PM
Again this year we are being put to sleep by bowl games
before, on, and after New Years Day because they are meaningless. There is only
one game that counts. That comes on Monday night, January 7 when Ohio
State meets LSU to decide the
national championship, which is still as mythical as it was thirty years ago.
There is a simple solution to this, but not simple enough for the dunderheads
of the NCAA.
Here is how
it would have worked this year. The top eight teams are selected much as the
selection process works now. Sure there would be controversy and complaining.
Good grief, you have that when the top 65 are selected for the NCAA basketball
tournament. But nothing like the idiocy that arbitrarily surrounds picking the top
two in football. You pair these off, 1-8, 2-7, etc. and play those four games on and around
New Years Day accommodating some of those traditional Bowl games. The ratings
would SKYROCKET. Four teams are going to live for another day.
This year
the other day(s) would be January 13, prime time, after the last NFL playoff
game of the weekend, and that Monday night, the 14th. Now we’re down to the two best teams based on
head to head playoffs. What a novel idea! The championship game is scheduled
for, no, not a Monday night, when kids have to go to bed at halftime. This year
the game would be played either on January 26 or 27, the DEAD weekend in
between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl. It’s a marketing
bonanza all the way, actually adding three games of revenue for the NCAA.
I want the
Buckeyes to win the championship game. I just want some credibility to that
championship every year. I covered the solution in the two preceding paragraphs. It
extends the season and compromises the school schedule of only four
universities in the country. Yet, I believe it’s still too complicated for the
NCAA to adopt.