Bowl Season: Corporate Nonsense for many Bowl Games

So I fell a bit behind on the bowl previews. A combination of family commitments, travel, sickness and wonky unreliable internet caused be to just stop writing them. When I was writing them, the Locale, Bowl Pedigree and Corporate Nonsense sections were quite entertaining and well received. Thus, I give them to you my readers for all of the bowl games I didn't cover. Note the BCS games and the Cotton Bowl are not covered. Those game are all high pedigree and high locale with necessary and unobtrusive corporate sponsors. There was nothing interesting to say about them.

Bowl Game: Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl

Locale/Bowl Pedigree: One of three games in the Dallas-Fort Worth area makes this one ripe for the killing whenever we decide to finally kill some bowl games. Also, that this one is played on either SMU or TCU's campus doesn't exactly help matters. It looks small time, it feels small time and it is small time.

Corporate Nonsense: At least this game has a sponsor that fits. Also, it is a sponsor that doesn't usurp its bowl partner like so many others (some of which will be skewered a bit further down this post).

Bowl Game: New Era Pinstripe Bowl

Locale/Bowl Pedigree: This game is played a Yankee Stadium. It connects with the tradition of big games played at Yankee Stadium in the olden days. A nice throw back... Or maybe not. This game is played at New Yankee Stadium. That alone is worth -10,000 points. Add in that the game hosts a mediocre Big East team and an even more mediocre Big 12 team and there is a recipe for disaster, even if the first one last year was good.

Corporate Nonsense: Another sponsor that fits, especially as a hat maker sponsoring a game played in a baseball stadium. This could get boring quick if we don't get some absurd sponsors (and we will soon).

Bowl Game: Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl

Locale/Bowl Pedigree: The stadium in Nashville is nice. Nashville itself is nice. Nothing more to say about the ho humness here. Even the pedigree is ho hum. At various points in this game's history, it has hosted mediocre Big East, ACC, Big Ten and SEC teams. Right now its ACC/SEC, probably the best combination possible for itself, even if the matchups sometimes are dull.

Corporate Nonsense: And here we have a pointless sponsor. Franklin American Mortgage and Music City just go so well together don't they. Why can't this game get a record company or something along those lines to sponsor this. At least if going off the board, do what this game used to do and go totally off the board. By totally off the board I mean bring back Gaylord Hotels as the title sponsor. The laugher and snickers that used to be had at this game's expense at least used to mean everyone knew what it was. Now, it's just a soulless corporate nothing of a game.

Bowl Game: Insight Bowl

Locale/Bowl Pedigree: Not bad, all things considered. This game actually has a history over 20 years, going back to its beginnings as the Copper Bowl. It survived being a .com bowl game (unlike most every other one) and it is now played at Sun Devil Stadium, a site where national titles have been decided and great games have been played (by the big brother Fiesta Bowl that moved to the new stadium in Glendale). Even the matchup is normally decent, hosting the Big Ten and Big 12 in a game that normally has a team in the back end of the top 25.

Corporate Nonsense: I don't know what the heck Insight does, but as the sole corporate sponsor since 1997 and having survived a few years as the Insight.com bowl, nobody remembers that this game used to be the Copper Bowl. Given that, this sponsor gets a passing grade for staying with it so long that the corporate sponsor has become the bowl and has had a long enough tenure to be accepted.

Bowl Game: Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas

Locale/Bowl Pedigree: My first order as commissioner of college football would be to kill this game off in swift fashion. It is an abomination. Other than the fact that it has already died and been revived once and is a corporate monstrosity of failure (more on that below), it has awful matchups annually. For example, I have no idea why anyone thought either Illinois last year or Northwestern this year was a good idea, but here we are. Let it also be noted that the tv broadcast of the 2006 game is considered one of the worst bowl broadcasts of all-time (thanks NFL Network). That year, the sideline reporter just didn't bother coming to the game (that would be Marshall Faulk), the yellow first down line malfunctioned during the telecast and the play by play guy kept channeling his inner Elmer Fudd during the game, calling Rutgers RB Ray Rice Way Wice.

Corporate Nonsense: Incarnation one: two years as the galleryfurniture.com Bowl. A few years as the EV1.net Houston Bowl. If you can tell me why Houston based Gallery Furniture would need to sponsor a national bowl game about its website, gold star for you. If you can tell me what EV1.net does, many more gold starts for you. Incarnation two: the Houston Texans of the NFL sponsored the game, calling it the Texas Bowl. Then came idiocy this year. That would be the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. Normally that wouldn't be too insane except the of Texas is necessary because the Meineke Car Care Bowl was played in Charlotte the last few seasons. That game is now the Belk Bowl (ugh) while this abomination of a game gets Meineke Car Care.

Bowl Game: Hyundai Sun Bowl

Locale/Bowl Pedigree: I'll be quick. The bowl has a lot of history and has had tv coverage by CBS for a long time. The locale sucks. Who the heck wants to spend New Year's in El Paso, Texas?

Corporate Nonsense: Nothing out of the ordinary here. Car makers have been reliable sponsors of games for a long time and will likely be solid sponsors for many years to come.

Bowl Game: AutoZone Liberty Bowl

Locale/Pedigree: Memphis is a nice town (ok city for those who might get bent out of shape over me calling it a town when it is much bigger than that). The stadium is a falling apart, dilapidated dump that Memphis University refuses to fix despite the place being its home field and that the bowl refuses to fix because it's Memphis' home field. The Liberty Bowl name came with the game when it moved from Philadelphia to Atlantic City and then Memphis in 1965.

Corporate Nonsense: Nothing terrible. AutoZone is a national chain based in Memphis. There is no real corporate tie-in, but sometimes there doesn't have to be. As long as we aren't dealing with the AutoZone Bowl in the future, its ok if there must be a corporate sponsor.

Bowl Game: Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl

Locale/Pedigree: Pathetic. It's a game played in a baseball stadium between usually bad football teams (2010 exempted when 12-1 Nevada was in the game). If you learned nothing from the Pinstripe Bowl, learn it again here: don't play football in baseball stadiums. If you must, get a better matchup.

Corporate Nonsense: The Kraft Fight Hunger Initiative is nice. Nothing bad to say about a corporate sponsor using a bowl for a good cause. Of course this game has its checkered stupidity in sponsorship previously. Most notably, it carried the ridiculous Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl name for a couple of years. After that, it became the Emerald Bowl (still the same sponsor) and was notable for giving us the first national airing of this before it aired during the Super Bowl:

Bowl Game: Chick-fil-A Bowl

Locale/Pedigree: This is a first class bowl game in a first class stadium. It gets a good SEC team against a good ACC team every year and it has the longest sell out streak of any bowl game (that includes the BCS games, even the Rose that failed to sell out in 2002) owing that streak to being in the mecca of college football and having huge alumni bases for nearly every school that gets to play in it. If not for the miserable New Year's Eve night time slot (unless I am there, I refuse to watch my Auburn team play in this game again), this might be my non-BCS Bowl game.

Corporate Nonsense: Of course there has to be one drawback. That is here. Chick-fil-A is a great sponsor. It is a good company. This game is still the Peach Bowl. I refuse to acknowledge it otherwise except in posts like this one.

Bowl Game: TicketCity Bowl

Locale/Pedigree: Let's just call this what it is: Zombie Cotton Bowl. It is played in the Cotton Bowl stadium. It is played in the Cotton Bowl's former New Year's morning timeslot. It has had a former Southwest Conference team in the game in each of the first two incarnations (Texas Tech last season and Houston this season). Of course all of that doesn't make this game worthwhile, even if it got a plum matchup this season (only happened because of some Conference USA finagling and the Jerry Sandusky scandal that sent Penn St. sliding down the pecking order in the Big Ten). Let it be noted that this is the only game relegated to the ghetto known as ESPNU for tv coverage. Every other game except one is on either ESPN or network tv (and that one is on ESPN2 at the same time this game is on).

Corporate Nonsense: And the Zombie Cotton Bowl has an appropriate sponsor too: the poorman's StubHub. TicketCity just isn't as good as its inspiration at StubHub. In the same way, the Zombie Cotton Bowl will never be as good as the real Cotton Bowl.

Bowl Game: Outback Bowl

Locale/Pedigree: The former Hall of Fame Game has had a nice SEC/Big Ten matchup for as long as I can remember. Looking at the history, it hosted Duke in the Blue Devils final bowl appearance in the last year before the SEC/Big Ten contract kicked in. Also, Tampa is a good bowl site too (at opposed to that abomination across the bay in St. Petersburg known as the Beef O Brady's Bowl).

Corporate Nonsense: Outback Steakhouse has been sponsoring this game for longer than I can remember there being an Outback Steakhouse. That's how we want all of our corporate sponsors to be. If we must have them, do a good job of integrating the company into the game. One way to do that is longevity.

Bowl Game: Capital One Bowl

Locale/Pedigree: The locale is the same as the Champs Sports Bowl. Thus, it is pretty good. The pedigree is much better than its cousin. SEC 2 against Big Ten 2 is much better than ACC 3 against Big East 2 (even when Notre Dame replaces Big East 2).

Corporate Nonsense: Ugh. See Chick-fil-A Bowl comments. Repeat, replacing Chick-fil-A with Capital One and Peach with Citrus.

Bowl Game: Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl

Locale/Pedigree: The most hated upon decent city in the country. Jacksonville isn't bad, it just isn't what anyone wants (except for during World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party week). Thus, this game has lost its luster after being a marquee game for many years. The start of its slide certainly started with the decision to get away from the Big East and ACC. It did well before that. Now, it is an awful game making up the pathetic end of the New Year's SEC/Big Ten Challenge while the Outback and Citrus Bowls do the heavy lifting.

Corporate Nonsense: A .com bowl game? You're dead to me Gator Bowl. Only your insistence on keeping Gator in the name keeps me from wanting to kill you off for taking a dump on you glorious New Year's history.

Bowl Game: BBVA Compass Bowl

Locale/Pedigree: The dump known as Legion Field in Birmingham. Why anyone would want to play here is beyond me (and part of why UAB is eternally terrible). Double that for a bowl game played on the Saturday before the national championship game when people would rather watch college basketball.

Corporate Nonsense: I suppose BBVA Compass isn't a bad sponsor, but if I were a company I wouldn't want to be associated with a game and stadium this bad.

Bowl Game: Godaddy.com Bowl

Locale: Mobile, Alabama, home of the Senior Bowl. Despite some memorable game between non-BCS league powerhouses over the years, this game is still an oddity that is overshadowed in a lot of way by it cousin the Senior Bowl, played here a few weeks later with oodles of NFL scouts watching seniors try to improve their draft stocks.

Corporate Nonsense: .com game. Blech. Go away. Bring back GMAC. Bring back the Mobile Alabama Bowl name. Make GoDaddy drop the .com (though the GoDaddy Bowl Would sound quite awkward while saying it). Whatever it is, do something...

Fixing the BCS – Because no matter how much people want it, we aren't getting a playoff

There are a ton of problems with the BCS. Everyone is aware of that. And even if they aren't actively thinking about it, nearly everyone has that agitated college football fan friend that is frustrated annually (of course the frustrated friend is all of us discussing this).

Knowing that, I am still pro-BCS. It has done wonders for the popularity of college football (even though everyone hates the system). It has kept the meaning of the regular season (most of the time, there are four terrible cases where the system screwed up badly). It brought the Pac-10 and Big Ten into the system allowing for a true championship game (no matter how much everyone hates the BCS, any year where a Pac-10, now 12, or Big Ten team is in the title game is a point in favor of the BCS because it couldn't have happened before, allowing for split national championships like the 1991 Miami-Washington and 1997 Michigan-Nebraska splits). And it moved college football from a mostly regionalized sport where nobody cared about anyone outside of their own area to a national sport where LSU against Alabama matters in California and Oklahoma against Oklahoma St. matters in Big Ten country. All of these changes are good things for the sport and good things for fans of the sport.

Of course that is the rosy view of the BCS. There are problems. Start with the four total failures of the system where undeserving teams reached the BCS Title Game: 2000 Florida St., 2001 Nebraska, 2003 Oklahoma and 2011 Alabama I am looking at you here. Each of those seasons had teams that caused the majority of America to be outraged at the BCS Title Matchup. Go from there to all of the ridiculous off the reservation choices bringing undeserving teams to BCS games (2011 Virginia Tech and 2007 Kansas most notably). Then add in the automatic bids even for awful champions from BCS Conferences (2011 West Virginia, 2010 Connecticut, 2004 Pittsburgh, 1999 Stanford, 2002 and 2005 Florida St., 2006 Wake Forest). Mix all of that together along with college football's general bizarreness and you get total chaos, regularly, even when there is an argument over teams in teams where the system does its job (2008 Florida-Oklahoma, 2007 Ohio St.-LSU, 2006 Ohio St.-Florida, and 1998 Tennessee-Florida St. are all years where there weren't the perfect two undefeated teams and the system did its job very well, picking deserving teams).

So what needs to be done? As a note, there are some things that I believe are non-starters and so I won't suggest them even though they might be good ideas. Some of these are a selection committee, a plus one system, and eliminating the coaches poll from the system (one of the best ideas anyone has had).

1 Only Conference Champions (or Independents) are allowed to play for the BCS Title – Years system got this wrong: 2001 (Nebraska), 2003 (Oklahoma), 2011 (Alabama)

The argument in favor of the BCS is that the regular season means everything. If the regular season means everything, then winning your conference is a prerequisite. In a playoff type system, the playoff means everything so this is less of an issue. But everyone wants to keep the best regular season in sports. That means only Conference Champions need apply for the National Championship.

Matchups in failed years under this system – 2001 Miami vs Colorado (replaces Nebraska), 2003 LSU vs USC (replaces Oklahoma), 2011 LSU vs Oklahoma St. (replaces Alabama)

2 Give the BCS formula a makeover with the computers having more power

I know some will say that the computers had too much power, causing some of the stupid matchup in the early years of the system. That is exactly right. The computers did have too much power in the early days of the system. Now though, they have too little. When the formula was changed after the 2003 debacle, the influence of the computers went from too much to too little. Now, it is 1/3 of the rankings. In the early BCS days, the computers were closer to 2/3. It really should be half. The computers need to have a say because they are objective and unbiased. They don't need the entire say because computers can only read the data. And the data being put into them is often flawed (especially right now, more on that later). Despite that, there is space for the computers to have a legitimate say in matters here. We need some objectivity.

3 Make changes to the computer components

This goes along with number 2. Right now, the computers are limited in what they can do. Other than a cap on Margin of Victory (but bring it back), let the computer programmers do whatever the heck they want. The only rules are a three touchdown cap on Margin of Victory and the formula being used must be released to the public, even if nobody in the public would understand what the heck is actually happening with the formula. From there, more computers should be brought into the system. There needs to be a cross section of computer rankings. Kenneth Massey (who runs one of the BCS computer rankings) keeps a composite ranking that includes over 100 different computers plus the human polls and the BCS in a composite rankings. Why not go get some of those rankings that take some different things into account and broaden the spectrum of computer rankings? If nothing else, having more of them could allow them to be easily arranged into a poll like set of rankings that the public can more easily digest than what occurs now (when they are just dismissed) or what happened with the old formula (when the public yelled WTF is going on, get rid of these stupid things because I don't understand).

4 Automatic BCS bids to any conference champion of any league that finishes in the top 8, at-large pool extends to 14.

Rose and Sugar Bowls automatically get their traditional champions if in the top 8 and not in the National Title Game. Rose Bowl always gets first at-large pick to take either the Pac-12 or Big Ten Champ if ranked below 8 and in top 14 as Rose Bowl would not allow this plan otherwise.

Does this fix everything we have with undeserving teams getting into the BCS? No. Of course not. As long as the bowls are involved, there are going to be some befuddling picks. Would it fix a lot of the problems that we have seen the last few years? Absolutely.

5 Three team limit per conference instead of two

Do some want the cap eliminated entirely? Yes. That just can't happen. No conference is strong enough to be deserving of sucking up four out of ten BCS slots. The only way to get four teams ranked that high is to be top heavy, meaning it is likely that at least one of those teams is overrated and not really deserving (2011 South Carolina I'm looking at you). In the rare event that none of those teams was overrated (2010 SEC West), well the lesser bowls will be glad to have you as always and you should have beaten the better teams in your league when you had the chance. That said, the unbalanced schedules that nearly every league now plays makes a cap of two teams as exists presently impractical.

With those changes (in particular 1 and 4 that we can apply to ), this is how things may have looked each season since the expansion of the BCS in 2006 (I didn't worry about pick order too much so the teams would likely be close but the matchups off).

2011	Actual	New System	3 Auto-Bids – LSU, OK St., Oregon
BCS Title	LSU vs Alabama	LSU vs Oklahoma St.	No non-conference champs allowed
Rose	Oregon vs Wisconsin	Oregon vs Wisconsin
Sugar	Michigan vs Virginia Tech	Alabama vs Baylor	With Alabama dropping down, no need or desire for VT
Fiesta	Stanford vs Oklahoma St.	Kansas St. vs Stanford	With Ok St. in the BCS Game, KSt. Lands here to replace
Orange	Clemson vs West Virginia	Arkansas vs Michigan	2 team cap abolished gets Orange a good game, finally
2010	Actual	New System	5 Auto-Bids – Auburn, Oregon, TCU, Wisconsin, Oklahoma
BCS Title	Auburn vs Oregon	Auburn vs Oregon
Rose	TCU vs Wisconsin	Stanford vs Wisconsin	Rose Bowl gets desired matchup, sorry TCU
Sugar	Arkansas vs Ohio St.	Arkansas vs TCU	Didn't worry about pick order here, these 6 are the teams though
Fiesta	Oklahoma vs Connecticut	Oklahoma vs Michigan St.
Orange	Stanford vs Virginia Tech	Ohio St. vs LSU
2009	Actual	New System	8 Auto-Bids, Bowl pairings unchanged
BCS Title	Alabama vs Texas	Alabama vs Texas
Rose	Oregon vs Ohio St.	Oregon vs Ohio St.
Sugar	Florida vs Cincinnati	Florida vs Cincinnati
Fiesta	TCU vs Boise St.	TCU vs Boise St.
Orange	Georgia Tech vs Iowa	Georgia Tech vs Iowa
2008	Actual	New System	5 Auto-Bids – Oklahoma, Florida, USC, Utah, Penn St.
BCS Title	Oklahoma vs Florida	Oklahoma vs Florida
Rose	USC vs Penn St.	USC vs Penn St.
Sugar	Alabama vs Utah	Alabama vs Texas Tech	No 2 team limits allows Texas Tech
Fiesta	Texas vs Ohio St.	Texas vs Utah	Utah is pick since Ohio St. would be off board
Orange	Cincinnati vs Virginia Tech	Ohio St. vs Georgia Tech	GT is a stretch, but options were lacking (Boise finished 9th, no AQ)
2007	Actual	New System	5 Auto-Bids – Ohio St., LSU, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, USC
BCS Title	Ohio St. vs LSU	Ohio St. vs LSU
Rose	USC vs Illinois	USC vs Illinois
Sugar	Georgia vs Hawaii	Georgia vs Missouri	Hawaii finished 10th (No AQ) and Missouri was deserving
Fiesta	Oklahoma vs West Virginia	Oklahoma vs West Virginia
Orange	Virginia Tech vs Kansas	Virginia Tech vs Florida	If you have to have undefeated Hawaii, replace Florida
2006	Actual	New System	5 Auto-Bids – Ohio St., Florida, USC, Louisville, Boise St.
BCS Title	Ohio St. vs Florida	Ohio St. vs Florida
Rose	USC vs Michigan	USC vs Michigan
Sugar	LSU vs Notre Dame	LSU vs Wisconsin	No 2 team limit allows Wisconsin
Fiesta	Oklahoma vs Boise St.	Oklahoma vs Boise St.
Orange	Louisville vs Wake Forest	Notre Dame vs Louisville	Orange is happy to be rid of Wake Forest

Why there should never be a BCS Title Rematch

I am staunchly anti-rematch. Back in 1996, I understood Florida getting a rematch against Florida St. because it was before the BCS system and before the Pac-10 and Big Ten were allowed into the championship game. In some years in that era, it was unavoidable. The Big Ten and Pac-10 champions were ranked too high for any other outcome to be possible. That said, I still didn't like the rematch and would have favored Nebraska to get the spot over Florida had they not lost to Texas in the Big 12 Championship game.

I bring this up because we, unless you have been living under a rock (which is certainly possible for some of you), are staring down the barrel of an LSU-Alabama rematch. And I don't like it at all. Here are my reasons:

There is not enough non-conference play to determine with sort of true merit that two teams that played each other are definitively better than everyone else in college football, even if it appears to be so.

In the context of this season, I bring to you the Big 12. Yes, Iowa St. is a middling Big 12 team. So is Texas Tech. Those two teams beat the elite of the conference: Oklahoma and Oklahoma St. But if you look closer, neither team lost a non-conference game. They only played three each and both teams won all of them. How can we say, with any certainty that these teams are weaker or stronger than middling SEC teams like Auburn and Florida (who, by the way, are higher on the SEC foodchain this season than Iowa St. and Texas Tech are on the Big 12 foodchain)? We can't, because we haven't seen enough evidence. We can speculate and guess (if I had to, I would guess Auburn would beat both Big 12 schools and Florida would beat Texas Tech but not Iowa St.), but there is no empirical evidence that one set of teams is better than the other. This applies to the conference as a whole, an increasing problem when conferences are often judged as a whole.

So if the loser beats the winner, which should be ranked higher

Obivously, the one that should be ranked higher is the one with the better body of work. Except in the BCS, if we have a rematch and Alabama wins, they will be the champion with an inferior body of work. I'm ok with this normally with a head to head win, but not when the loser would also have a head to head win. Honestly, if I were voting and we have a rematch, an Alabama win doesn't affect my vote at all. LSU is the number 1 team in a rematch scenario, period.

Shouldn't the National Champion also have to win its conference

Obviously, this is not the case in some other sports (college basketball in particular where every so often you get a champion that won neither its regular season or conference tournament championships), but those sports have playoffs that are designed to reward more teams with a postseason trip and a shot at the title. This sport also rewards teams, but with a bowl game. Not a championship shot. And as long as that is the case and only two out of 120 get a shot at it, the National Champion should be a conference champion unless they aren't in a conference. Go back to 2001 and 2003. How loud was the screaming that non-conference champions got into the National Championship Game. How loud would it have been had Michigan gotten a rematch against Ohio St. without even a share of the conference championship (particularly from the same SEC country that is now arguing in favor of an Alabama-LSU rematch)? With all of that and the whole we won the conference over the National Champions thing to stain the title and it's just not worth it.

Every game counts right

The crux of the argument. In the BCS, every game is supposed to count. And, despite all the controversy in past years, every game has counted (expect one). Even in 2001 when Nebraska didn't win its division and got to the title game, there were many things that could have prevented (chief among them being the playing of the Washington St.-Colorado game canceled because of 9/11 that would have lifted either 2-loss Colorado or Pac-10 Champ Oregon into the championship game) the Cornhuskers from reaching the game. The one time a game didn't count, we got the single most unsatisfying result of the BCS era, and that's saying something considering the existence of so many unfulfilled seasons and controversies. That year was the year of the split national title because the Oklahoma-Kansas St. game didn't count in the eyes of the BCS. Now, we have reached the same point. The LSU-Alabama would not have counted in the eyes of the BCS if we get a rematch and we are setting ourselves up for a fate that is quite awful and terrible if we allow it... of course the fact that it is so awful and terrible for the BCS, is one of the many reasons people are in favor of a rematch.

LSU-Alabama week - The SEC's Forgotten Big Game

LSU-Alabama is going to be huge. Nobody doubts that. There are other games with varying degrees of national relevance that others will be paying attention to, especially in the Big 12 (Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. and Oklahoma-Texas A&M). Yet most have, at least for now, forgotten about another game between top 10 teams that are at least on the fringe of the National Championship race.

SEC fans likely know that I am talking about the Arkansas-South Carolina game this Saturday, set to kickoff at the unfortunate time of 7:15 ET (why couldn't we get some schedule rejiggering from ESPN to fix this?). That is all of 45 minutes before the Game of the Century for this season kicks off. Too bad for those teams. Their showdown is likely to go all but unwatched, especially with Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. and Notre Dame (for all their faults as a program they are still a good draw on tv) on in the same timeslot.

Other than the obvious, why does nobody care about this game, especially considering it could decide the SEC East winner?

LSU and Alabama are perceived to be so far above everyone else that one of them losing to another SEC team is considered inconceivable – What that really means is even though this game matches the 7^th and 9^th ranked teams in the country, nobody really thinks these has a chance against their conference overlords. In Arkansas' case, they were already blown out at Alabama and will likely suffer the same fate against LSU and really there has been no evidence to contradict that belief in regards to the LSU game. As for South Carolina, they are riddled with problems at quarterback and running back and they lost at home to Auburn. Despite the high ranking, there is no way anyone believes this South Carolina team, even with its great defense, is going to score enough to beat Alabama or LSU if they reach Atlanta.

Arkansas and South Carolina both look overrated, especially in recent games – Other than smoking Auburn, Arkansas has done little to justify its high ranking other than not lose. They should have lost to both Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. They also nearly lost to Ole Miss. This is hardly the stuff of a top ten team. As for South Carolina, the offensive struggle against Tennessee was brutally ugly and the loss to Auburn wasn't too long ago. Remember that since the South Carolina-Auburn game, Auburn has been destroyed by both Arkansas and LSU and played in one of the worst major SEC games of the season against Florida. Each week that goes by, that loss seems to become more of a boat anchor on the Gamecocks resume as Auburn obviously isn't great.

There is a lack of star power on both rosters right now – Let's face it, star power sells matchups, especially in games below the top game in a given week. Because of Andrew Luck, people have cared about Stanford even when playing such middling competition as Washington and Duke. On the Arkansas roster, Tyler Wilson has been good, but hasn't really become that kind of 'IT' guy and Knile Davis injury robbed the Razorbacks of that possibility at running back. As for South Carolina, the Marcus Lattimore injury crushed their star power and, as good and hyped as Melvin Ingram and Jadaveon Clowney have been, they haven't really become stars. With no real superstars, there is no compelling reason on a players level to watch this game.

The rest of the SEC behind the top two really isn't very good at all – Let's face the facts. This year's SEC with Alabama and LSU at the top looks a lot like the 2008-9 SEC with Alabama and Florida well out in front of everyone else and little elite depth in the league behind them. That Auburn is still ranked somehow is proof of this (and the difficulty of the Tigers schedule so far) because Auburn most certainly does not pass the eye test as a top 25 team this season. Other than Auburn, and the teams in this weekend's big games, only Georgia is ranked and that could even be considered dubious given the lack of quality wins the Bulldogs have banked (Florida and Mississippi St. are the best ones). What this really means is that LSU and Alabama have elevated the league this season and they have elevated it to the point that everyone else benefits in the rankings, even when they lose to those team. That has led to overrated teams. When those overrated teams play each other, nobody really cares, even if those teams are ranked highly. Hence we have our top 10 showdown this week, that might as well not be taking place.

So should we really care about this game? Only in the context of the SEC East race. The division championship still means something and even if South Carolina is way overrated at number 9, especially without Lattimore, they still have a chance to win the division. That likely only happens if they win this week, making the game meaningful. As for Arkansas, they sit in limbo, headed to the Cotton Bowl to play Texas in all likelihood with not much else they can do other than surprise LSU and steal a BCS berth for a second consecutive season (good luck with that Hogs). So, for all of that, this game needs to be watched. I recommend getting the second tv out or set your espn3 feeds to this game. It is nowhere near the best game of the week and it really isn't of the stature a top 10 game normally is, but it still is a big game with major implications, especially in the SEC race.

LSU-Alabama week - LSU's future as an elite college football team

November 16, 1991 – Miami 17, Florida St. 16

November 13, 1993 – Notre Dame 31, Florida St. 24

November 30, 1996 – Florida St. 24, Florida 21

November 18, 2006 – Ohio St. 42, Michigan 39

Those are the last four November meetings between numbers 1 and 2. All among the greatest games in college football history. All with incredibly high stakes (though only Miami would actually manage to win the National Title among the winners while two losers would of these games would rebound to win). This is the expectation that LSU and Alabama are stepping into. Anything less than a classic is a disappointment. That is the subtext for the next number 1 vs number 2 November game. Luckily for us, it takes place this Saturday.

So with that as the background, what is really at stake here?

Skipping the obvious conference and national implications, LSU's status as a true national powerhouse is what's on the line here. I went to Auburn, but grew up and live in Pac-12 country. I can say that despite LSU's status in SEC land, out here, they are viewed as the team who's turn it is to be a prolonged contender from the Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, LSU crew. Despite two national championships, LSU is still grouped with those schools on a program level (not on a this season level where they are obviously accepted given their status as the top ranked team after starting 3rd), not Alabama or Florida and not Michigan, USC, Notre Dame, Ohio St., Nebraska, Oklahoma or Texas. This game is LSU's chance to be accepted at that higher level of the sport.

So why doesn't LSU have that kind of status given that Florida, Miami and Florida St. have all made the jump to that status in recent college football history? Part of it stems from the lack of a truly dominant National Championship season, much like the one LSU is currently authoring. The 2003 championship came with a lost to a Ron Zook coached Florida team and controversy when the top ranked team in the human polls was left out of the championship game. The result was a split national championship. (I view that whole thing as a disservice to LSU, who didn't get their rightful shot at the number 1 team. The rest of that is a discussion for another day.) The 2007 team managed to win the national championship, but only as a two-loss team. Many believe that LSU was the best team that season and deserved its championship, but it wasn't the kind of dominant season along the lines of Miami's championship teams, Florida St.'s 1999 team or Florida's best teams that battled Florida St. year after year while dominating the SEC. Winning Saturday and finishing the season off with an undefeated National Championship would go a long way to truly establishing the LSU program with the elites of the sport, not just as a program having a long period of success a couple of levels above normal (like Tennessee in the 1990s).

The other reason for LSU's lack of standing among the very top programs is a lack of games like the ones listed at the top of this page. Only the 2007 win against Florida comes even close, but that Florida team had been beaten the week before by Auburn. Imagine if LSU lost to Auburn two weeks ago. What would we be writing about this game? That would be exactly what we were writing going into the 2007 LSU-Florida game. Even though we got a classic, Florida having a loss already took some level of shine off the game. Other than that game, we have a string of controversies and close calls in less than big games despite the prolonged stretch of winning. We have mind numbing defeats that never should have happened like the 2006 loss to Auburn and the 2005 loss to Tennessee. We have the quirky Les Miles wins like the 2010 win over Tennessee and the 2007 last second pass to beat Auburn. We don't have a game at the level of those previous 1 vs 2 games to cement LSU in the top level of the sport.

Another question about LSU's status? Where is the classic win or moment that pushes LSU into the top level of the sport? The only one that comes to mind is the Billy Cannon punt return. For USC, there are numerous wins over Notre Dame and UCLA and plays like the Anthony Davis kickoff return, the OJ Simpson run and the Bush Push. For Alabama, there's the goal line stand against Penn St. and the George Teague strip of the Miami player in the Sugar Bowl. For Michigan, there's the Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard punt returns against Ohio St. (no Woodson didn't deserve the Heisman over Peyton Manning but that was a heck of a play). For others, there have been games above plays. Think Catholics vs Convicts. The 2006 Ohio St.-Michigan game referenced above. The Choke at the Doak. In the Miami-Florida St. series alone, there are the Wide Right and Wide Left kicks. LSU has nothing of this sort to push it into the national conscientiousness. What are you going to do LSU?

So LSU, it's right there in front of you. Win this week, and it is the biggest win in the history of your program. This game is your chance. Do you want to be seen like Alabama, Michigan, USC, Texas, Oklahoma and the rest of the elite? Or are you just another flash playing above historical level for a prolonged period like 1990s Tennessee, 1980s Auburn or early Mark Richt Georgia?

It's all in front of you Tigers.

Just win the game.

Creating a 14-team SEC schedule that everyone likes

At this point, it appears that Missouri is going to be team 14 in the SEC. That isn't so much my concern (those who read this blog regularly know I have pretty much avoided this round of realignment in favor of other off-field stories and the games themselves). My concern is what this will do to the SEC schedule in the future. Right now, the SEC is split into two divisions with one protected rival in the other divisions. That means there are six permanent opponents with five schools rotating among the remaining two places. Missouri throws everything off.

The first Missouri problem: Re-alignment

Missouri and Texas A&M are both western schools. Given that NCAA rules say a full round robin must be played in each division to keep the championship game, somebody has to move to the East. At this point, there are two options: send Missouri all the way to the East, or move the Easternmost school in the West to the East (that would be Auburn). If the schedules can be figured out to keep rivalries intact, I favor shipping Auburn to the East.

Problem two: saving rivalries while still playing other league members

If we send Auburn to the East, then there is a problem: the 8-game conference schedule won't allow for rivalries to be protected. In particular, Alabama will lose its annual cross-divisional game against Tennessee (or, heaven forbid, the Iron Bowl against Auburn). Both of those games need to be saved on the schedule and it would be nice to regain some of the rivalries lost when the SEC split into divisional play. For example, Auburn will regain its former yearly games against Tennessee and Florida by switching divisions while only losing the LSU and Arkansas games and neither of those schools were traditional rivals before the divisional split in 1992.

With this in mind, the SEC needs to move to a 9-game conference schedule. That would allow for six divisional games and three cross-divisional games. Those cross-divisional games should come with two of them locked each year. It would look something like this: team – rivals

EAST

Auburn – Alabama, LSU

Florida – LSU, Mississippi St.

Georgia – Ole Miss, Texas A&M

Kentucky – Missouri, Mississippi St.

South Carolina – Arkansas, Missouri

Tennessee – Alabama, Arkansas

Vanderbilt – Ole Miss, Texas A&M

WEST

Alabama – Auburn, Tennessee

Arkansas – South Carolina, Tennessee

LSU – Florida, Auburn

Missouri – Kentucky, South Carolina

Ole Miss – Vanderbilt, Georgia

Mississippi St. - Kentucky, Florida

Texas A&M – Georgia, Vanderbilt

Admittedly, this isn't ideal in some cases, but it saves the rivalries that need saving (Alabama-Tennessee/Auburn, Auburn-LSU) and regains many former yearly games that were lost either during the 1992 expansion of when the schedules were redone taking one of the permanent games away in 2002 (Auburn-Tennessee, Auburn-Florida, Florida-Mississippi St., Georgia-Ole Miss). The flaw, of course is what to do with the new teams. Texas A&M and Missouri have little history with any of the Eastern teams. Especially in A&M's case, I can't see them being too keen on playing Vanderbilt every year. For Missouri, they likely won't want South Carolina as a permanent opponent, but Kentucky seems to be a good fit given proximity (nearly a border clash with only a small sliver of Illinois between them). As for Georgia, there is no natural fit in the West with Auburn moving East. They need to have a stronger opponent than Ole Miss for their second game, so A&M it is.

Problem 3: teams don't play each other often

There isn't much to be done here, but the SEC should move away from the current home and home approach to rotating games. What it should be is school rotates on, home game. Next time it rotates on, road game. Do this and rotate every season. With that, a player who stays four years at a school will only miss one opponent in the league. Once again it's not ideal, but what is with 14 teams (though 14 works better than 16)

So with the problems pointed out, does anyone else out there have a better solution? If so I would love to see/hear it.

Follow me on twitter

Offseason Lowlights Countdown

The season is here, finally starting tomorrow with a bad slate of games. With the offseason out of the way, it's time to look at the Lowlights of the offseason and oh do we ever have Lowlights this offseason

10 Attempted Sabotage is Never a Good Thing – West Virginia has a new coach this season in dana Holgerson. He wasn't supposed to be the coach yet. Bill Stewart was set to coach one last season, but he wanted more. He called up journalists and had his wife do some work. The result, planted evidence of alcohol improprieties from Holgerson, journalists outing him to the West Virginia administration and resignation in disgrace. My only thought here: if you are going to plant evidence, don't use your wife and the media. The wife (or really any non-professional) isn't qualified and the media will squeal when things go wrong. It's their job to do so.

9 We lost a conference title over $312 – Georgia Tech won* the ACC Championship in 2009. Of course there is an asterisk there because, in the eyes of the NCAA, the great 38-33 shootout against Clemson never happened. The reason: WR Demarius Thomas, now of the Denver Broncos took $312 worth of clothing from a family member (really a cousin) that the NCAA defined as a street agent and then the Georgia Tech administration discussed it amongst themselves when they weren't supposed to. Just retarded.

8 'Headkick Jefferson' – Of course this is ongoing and there is sorts of legal wrangling going on, but the fact is that LSU QB Jordan Jefferson was out after curfew and is charged with assaulting a marine by kicking him in the head. If that as the end of the story though, it wouldn't be here though. It continues with reports of marines posting marine tributes and threatening Jefferson on his facebook page and then word came out that the marine in question is actually a former marine who shoved his girlfriend and has had a restraining order filed against him at least once. He also started the fight according to eyewitnesses. No matter though, Jefferson is suspended for the biggest game of the early season against Oregon and possibly a whole lot longer.

7 Opportunity Is Nowhere –

The door out of the Tennessee locker room. This wasn't thought out very well

Obviously that is supposed to say Opportunity is Now Here in the Tennessee locker room, but that program has had enough issues that we can poke fun at it and move in. Tennessee will happily do the same.

6 Willie Lyles – Lache Seastrunk was a five-star recruit from Texas. He surprisingly chose Oregon over many others. People wondered why. Willie Lyles is likely the answer. Lyles styled himself as a handler and talent scout. Cal, Oregon and LSU evidently paid him money for what they say are tapes of players. Cal's story checks out and they never had a Lyles player commit to them. LSU's is under investigation because of links back to Patrick Peterson. Of course this whole investigation started at Oregon with the recruitment of Seastrunk. Of course something happened, nobody knows what and if there's a paper trail to prove ie but something happened. Of course in the really strange category: the Oregon investigation spread to opening week opponent LSU, who has WR Russell Shepard suspended in the investigation because once the NCAA gets on campus they look at everything else too. Oregon had Seastrunk transfer to Baylor. So an investigation at Oregon ends up benefiting them in their opening game. Only with the NCAA.

5 Armed Robbery Stupidity – This one has been mostly forgotten about in the wake of all the NCAA issues, but Auburn lost four players back in March when they robbed a place armed with a handgun. Of course what nobody in the media said and what you would only know with some knowledge of Auburn, it that they robbed a trailer housing students. Seriously. The only thing this proves is that not all the Auburn players are on the take, only Cam Newton was (and maybe a few other stars).

4 Normally being the coach at media day is a good thing... - Butch Davis had a terrible time last season getting his team ready to play with suspensions ravaging the roster. Then it got worse when his defensive line coach turned out to be working as a runner for an agent. Then Davis won 8 games and looked safe. After that, Davis watched the allegations continue against his program with the letter of inquiry from the NCAA showing it was even worse than anyone was led to believe. Even with that, Davis showed up at ACC Media Days to talk about his team and preview the season. Then he was fired, two days later. And everyone wondered why the heck North Carolina would do it when they did. They could have done it when the suspensions were announced, they could have done it when the defensive line coach was implicated, they could have done it after the regular season, they could have done it after the bowl game and they could have done it when the notice of infractions was released in June. Instead, North Carolina has sabotaged another season and will play with an interim coach. Just dumb.

3 Evidently college football senators lose power the same way real ones do – Covering up a scandal and resigning in disgrace – The Jim Tressel story has been well chronicled. I don't think I need to cover it more here, but it deserves a mention.

2 Harvey Updyke – Another well-covered issue, this one just speaks to the insanity of Alabama and Auburn fans and the crazy radio show the extreme fringes listen to to inflame them, the Paul Finebaum Show. May these levels of fringe insanity remain with the message board trolls from now on and no longer cross over to actual life again.

1 The Smoking Crater that will be Miami – What else could be number 1? Yacht parties. Check. Illicit recruiting visits. Check. Prostitution. Check. Abortion. Check. Ponzi scheme. Check. Coaching staff members involved. Check. There is so much more but I don't want to write and I don't think you want to read another full post. Besides, just go look up the Yahoo! Investigation yourself and get all the deals if you want them and haven't actually read it. It is quite salacious.

Follow me on twitter

R.I.P. Miami Hurricanes – 1983-201?

Note the question mark here. It is a matter of when at this point, not if. The end date could be today, it could be when the NCAA revels its sanctions years from now, it could be any number of other days, but the Yahoo Sports report revelations about what has been occurring in the Miami football program over the last 10 years mean it's the end.

Why is it over for the Hurricanes?

Since program patriarch Howard Schnellenberger left after winning his national title in 1983, no Miami coach other than Butch Davis has exited the program scandal free and Davis has his own issues considering his recent firing from the North Carolina job. With that as a backdrop, the question must be asked: Can anyone win at Miami cleanly?

There is a lack of stability – All of the other major programs (except Notre Dame and they have always had some other built in advantages) have had some sort of long term coach to establish things on their way to national power status. Ohio St. had Hayes. Florida St. had Bowden. USC had McKay. Florida had Spurrier. The list goes on. Every single major powerhouse has had at least one iconic coach and most have had two or even three. Heck even the non-BCS powers, TCU and Boise St., appear to have their coaches to build to this level in place. Miami is the outlier. No one coach built it. It was the 'U' and it was bigger than one coach. Of course, some of that was attitude and some, as we know from the excellent ESPN documentary “The U” about Miami's late 80s and early 90s teams was NCAA violation based. Now, the violation part will have to be brought to a total heel and the attitude is long gone, dead and buried when the team started to fade in the mid-2000s.

There is a lack of commitment – In both recent coaching searches at Miami, there has been a perception that Miami has settled for a lesser man than their standing (that is certainly true with Randy Shannon who was promoted internally from a failed staff). The reason is a lack of funding and a lack of commitment to spend the money needed even when the funding is there. Big-time college football takes a lot of money to run now and Miami doesn't have it. They are a college team not playing on campus in a fair weather sports town that notoriously doesn't support its teams even when they win. The combination of all this means the Hurricanes will never have the money to recover from massive NCAA sanctions the way USC will do and the way Alabama, Oklahoma, Auburn, and Washington did over the last 20 years.

The penalties will be steep, and uncertainty will reign – First of all, the uncertainty could last years. At this point, if I'm a recruit, I avoid Miami like the plague. At any time, the NCAA could finish its investigation and ban the team from bowl games. In addition, this time looks like the two really big fish in the NCAA arsenal that have not been used in the BCS era are on the table. The TV ban (horrifying for recruits who want to be seen) and the death penalty (why go to a school if a forced transfer because of things that happened well before you got there might make you leave). At this point, recruiting just became nearly impossible.

The most important reason why Miami is toast:

CFB 2011 – Can we finally get back to on the field action? Yes, after a brief interlude

Ever since the Cam Newton story broke last season, college football has been inundated with off the field issues. In fact, it has been the only thing discussed. Just since then the list of items is just huge:

The Newton situation overshadows the second half of the season.

The Ohio St. suspension situation overshadows the bowl season along with Cecil Newton's attendance at the National Championship Game.

Nobody really talks about spring practice because the Jim Tressel revelations come out and the fallout begins that would claim his job at Ohio St.

Willie Lyles lands Oregon under investigation and possible LSU and Cal too.

The West Virginia coach in waiting situation explodes with the end of Bill Stewart's tenure, a few months earlier than planned.

Georgia Tech is stripped of its 2009 ACC Title over $312 and a lack of cooperation.

North Carolina gets its notice of infractions from the NCAA and then fires Butch Davis two days after ACC Media Days.

Texas A&M tries to get itself out of the Big 12 and into the SEC in a drama likely to continue through the season.

At least last season, we were able to focus on the on field issues for most of the first half (given that realignment was mostly taken care of in the summer and North Carolina's suspension issues were stuck in the ACC media backwater). Hopefully this will be the case this season, but I doubt it. Some of the reasons why I doubt it:

The Texas A&M/SEC thing is going to go for awhile. Even if that part of it is resolved, who will be the 14^th member of the SEC and will there be divisional realignment in the league. Will the addition of that 14^th member cause other conferences beyond the Big 12 to shift and move?

Charles Robinson has some sort of Earth-shattering investigative report on a top level program coming. Robinson has become the Angel of Death as far as corruption and not following NCAA rules goes. If he is snooping around campus, bad things are about to happen. Remember that it was Robinson who broke the Reggie Bush story and the Connecticut basketball story that lead to Jim Calhoun being suspended three games next season and he has said this is the biggest thing he has ever reported on.

The anti-NCAA pro-playoff media will not allow the off field issues to die. In the eyes of many in the media, keeping the attention on everything wrong with the game will bring the change they really want: a playoff. While that may be true with the realignment stories, it most certainly is not on the corruptions and investigation stories.

So what of the season?

The Death of Tresselball – Who should be the next coach at Ohio St.?

Part two in a series about Ohio St. football and what comes next both for the Buckeyes and the rest of college football. Part one about the on-field effects in 2011 can be found here.

Let me dispense with this now. There is no way Ohio St. should hire Urban Meyer. The Florida job almost killed him and he probably should take more than one year off. I believe he will come back to coaching and I believe he should at some point, but only taking one year off the recharge the batteries would be insane. In fact, I believe Ohio St. is the perfect job for Meyer, in the future. That said, its not the place right now.

Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe
Thanks to coacheshotseat.com

My choice for the job is someone who will never get a sniff of it because of his low-profile, but would be great whether he succeeds or not. My choice is Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe.

Now you might be asking what I am on or if I've lost my mind here but hear me out please. Why would Grobe be a good fit at Ohio St. considering he has never won big? First, he was the head coach at Ohio. That means he has recruited the state before and will allow him (along with the Ohio St. name) to continue recruiting the best in-state prospects.

Second, he won a conference title at Wake Forest. The only thing more difficult to do in the ACC is to win the conference title at Duke (something only Steve Spurrier has done in the modern era). That season shows me that when everything lines up, Grobe can win big and with the talent that naturally flocks to Columbus, everything will line up more often. Will it be Tressel level good? No, but that's the point.

The reason is Grobe's age. At 59 (60 starting the 2012 season), he can be easily jettisoned if things don't work out, right as the probation ends. He very well might only go for five years even if successful. That makes him the perfect fit. Grobe can win big or win moderately. It doesn't really matter. He will have done a nice service getting the Buckeyes through probation, and he can retire off into the sunset leaving the job in either great shape or sleeping giant mode for whoever follows him.

Depending on when that follows him comes, Meyer very well might be ready and available at that time. Even if he is not, there will be no shortage of incredible candidates for the job that might not be there now because of Tressel's legendary status and the probation that is obviously coming. So simply, the Buckeyes should look to Jim Grobe to hold the line. They might win big with him or they might not, but they will certainly set the program up well for the future if they make the move.

The Death of Tresselball – On field effects for the coming season

Part one in a new series on what happens next at Ohio St. and what it means for the rest of college football.

As most know by know, Ohio St. coach Jim Tressel finally resigned in disgrace after the allegations and problems within his program kept coming to light and the details kept getting worse. As many who read this blog know, I have been conspicuously silent on the entire situation thus far. For the most part, that was because I was waiting for the process to play out. On some level, I had no belief in the Ohio St administration to do the right thing and I believed the big smoking gun (the SI report) wasn't going to see the light of day until after the upcoming season, making Tressel safe for the upcoming year.

With Tressel gone, the job falls to Luke Fickell, a former nose guard and the current co-defensive coordinator. To him I say good luck. He likely has no shot at the job full-time barring a miracle undefeated season that looks unlikely given the turmoil. Fickell will do a good job under the circumstances and put himself in line for a good first head coaching job somewhere either after this season or next.

On the field, Ohio St. will look a little bit different, at least on offense. Given that Tressel was the primary play-caller, I expect things to be different on that side of the ball most. Tresselball was obsessive in its commitment to the running game and safe conservative gameplans. With a young quarterback, this was usually more so. That won't be the case here. Considering this team has been built around the talents of the currently suspended and possible permanently ineligible Terrelle Pryor, I expect whoever the quarterback is to have a chance to go win games instead of playing not to lose and managing the game. Whoever that quarterback is never would have had that chance with Tressel still running the show. All that said, the framework will be the same. It is way too late to put a brand new offense in place even if the new coaches wanted to. I expect a more aggressive passing game and more attempts to get opposing offenses off balance, but nothing major.

On defense, Ohio St. still has as much talent as anyone in the country and the entire defensive coaching staff remains in place with only co-coordinator Fickell not exactly where he was during the spring. It will be its usually salty self that shuts opponents down regularly. The question is crunch time. How motivated will this team be knowing they likely will have a new coach in December? If they don't work very hard, this team could easily crumble in the second halves of game, especially if the offense struggles (remember what happened to Auburn and Tennessee in 2008 with great defenses and terrible offenses).

With that out of the way, what will actually happen this season for Ohio St.? First, I expect a loss to either Miami or Michigan St. with the suspended players out. Then a loss to Nebraska in the first game back for the suspendees. There is no way they will be clicking the way they need to in Lincoln at night against the Cornhuskers. After that, I expect a totally unexpected loss to someone and then one more to Michigan. This offseason, after the coaching change at Michigan, feels like the kind of change in that rivalry that Tressel taking the Buckeyes over in the first place was. Even though the Wolverines will struggle, I expect them to beat Ohio St. and go into next year with a ton of momentum built up.

Next up, who will be coaching Ohio St. in 2012.

Why suing the BCS is stupid and won't accomplish anything...

...except adding to the have-nots.

Nobody (except me evidently) likes the BCS. Do I think it could be improved? Yes. Are there issues of exclusion and unfair practices to get certain teams into the games? Yes, there most certainly are. That said, unless the goal is strengthening the top leagues at the expense of everyone else, the BCS needs to win in court when the seemingly inevitable anti-trust suit comes to light.

It appears that there are some major illegalities involved in the BCS system. Quite obviously, schools from outside the major conferences are penalized in the current system. Nobody is going to dispute that. TCU and Boise St. have to go undefeated just to get into a major game while Connecticut can lose four games and go because of its standing as a member of the Big East, nothing more. Obviously, this is where things start on anti-trust grounds. I am no law expert, but this looks like unfair business practices excluding the smaller teams.

The other point of the lawsuit would be challenging the championship game as exclusionary. This is a far more difficult challenge. There is no way to prove that the BCS has colluded against the smaller leagues in this case. Everyone starts out at zero in the computer formulas (with the exception of the idiot Billingsley's) and the polls determining the teams in the national title games are made up of coaches from each of the conferences (for the coaches poll) and people nominated by the leagues, all of them including the lesser leagues without automatic bids (for the Harris Poll). It might not look fair, it probably isn't fair, but there is likely no way the championship game gets overturned. In theory, any team can get there and starts on level ground, even if that is not really the case.

SO what would things look like if the current structure is changed but the title game is kept in place? First, forget automatic bids. The bowls will be able to do whatever they want once the championship has its game. Goodbye TCU in the Rose Bowl, Boise St. in any BCS game and goodbye any other non-AQ school. With no rules because the bowls would in effect be forcibly de-regulated, those non-AQ schools would be sent back to the stone age as far as access goes. The bowls don't want any of them at any point barring some odd anomaly (we certainly would never see Boise St., and TCU would have likely missed out two years ago and then been in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma and not the Rose Bowl last season).

Also, the ACC other than a few schools and the Big East can pretty much say goodbye to their BCS money. The ACC had consistently been a part of the lower rated BCS game for most of the BCS's existence. Only Florida St. and Miami are worth anything from a television standpoint and only Clemson and Virginia Tech or North Carolina depending on the matchup are worth anything from a ticket selling perspective. The rest get to join TCU and Boise St. If you doubt this, remember that Georgia Tech won a share of the 1990 National Championship out of this league coming from the Citrus Bowl played in the morning on New Year's Day and never considered one of the biggest bowl games.

With the Big East, West Virginia spent much of its time as an independent and in the early Big East days as a top level program consistently relegated to lesser match ups unless they were undefeated. That would continue to be the case now. Syracuse and Pittsburgh would join them while Cincinnati's two recent Big East title teams would have been held so far from the major games they would rather be in Boise St.'s position. Out of both the Big East and ACC, perfection would, in most cases garner the big invite, but that is all except for a select few from those leagues.

SO what would become of the newly opened spots in the BCS games? The SEC and Big Ten would take them. ALL of them. With no two per conference limit (that would get done away with too on financial grounds in a de-regulated BCS), the bowls would be free to pick whoever they want no matter the affiliation. The Rose Bowl would continue to keep its Big Ten/Pac-12 matchup as it drives the economy of the region at that time of year. Oh well with merit, that is the best financial matchup for the Rose Bowl, every year, no matter what anyone says.

The Sugar would also gets its SEC champion every year for much the same reason and put them with the best they can get out of the Texas/Oklahoma loser, Big Ten runner up, and ACC or Big East Champion. The Fiesta, Cotton and Orange would also be free to do whatever they please. Believe me it would end with 12 bowl slots (current games plus Cotton) and two Pac-12 teams, two Big 12 teams, one from the ACC/Big East/everyone else (maybe two in a weird year) and seven from the SEC/Big Ten combo.

I think this scenario is hardly what anyone wants. Of course the Pac-12, Big 12, SEC and Big Ten would love it, but everyone else would lose greatly. Needless to say, filing a lawsuit against the BCS is not a winning plan. In fact, unless a fan of the biggest schools and biggest conferences, everyone loses.