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I’m not smart enough nor do I have the time right now to understand ins and outs of college football’s Bowl Championship Series. If you do an archive search on this blog, which typically focuses more on the NFL than college football, you’ll see that neither my brother nor I like the BCS as it sits right now.

But I would guess neither of us would claim to be an expert on what conferences make huge chunks of money or whose teams have the worst chances of being selected for the big money bowl games.

I was intrigued during the last couple weeks, however, as discussion emerged about the possibilities of the Big Ten, which includes the University of Minnesota where we both went to college, potentially adding any number of teams from big name Notre Dame to up-and-coming Rutgers, to recent power Missouri to trying-to-re-emerge Nebraska.

But I’ve been hesitant to embrace the talks too much because when you follow college sports you know that A) the BCS sucks and B) there is always a money angle somewhere along the line.

Yahoo! Sports has a fantastic story describing one view of how the Big 10 fought off a “plus one” playoff format a couple years ago as part of a plan to get its own network up and running so it could now raid the Big 12 and become one of what could become three or four “super conferences”. Read the rest of this entry »

We realize that here at Zoneblitz.com (and at our baseball site) we sometimes rant on particular topics a little too much.  But sometimes, the subjects of our rants make it too easy not to.

Case in point–last week, Andy pointed out that Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk castigated Jim Kelly for saying that he would be comfortable recommending Tim Tebow to his former team, the Buffalo Bills, saying:

“The fact that he was a quarterback doesn’t make him qualified to determine the round in which another quarterback should be drafted. And it especially doesn’t qualify him to assess overall team needs and determine whether Tebow or any other quarterback should be picked instead of the best player available at another position, or the best player available regardless of position.”

Florio thought this was was worthy of a post, despite the fact that:

• Kelly was answering a question from a reporter, not actually making a recommendation to the Bills in their draft war room (that we know of)
• Kelly admitted he didn’t have enough information to decide whether he was worthy of a 1st round pick, but that he would be ok as a 2nd round pick
• Kelly acknowledged that he’s not qualified to make a recommendation as to whether the Bills should use the ninth pick in round one or the ninth pick in round two to get Tebow

Despite this, Florio added:

“If Kelly wanted to recommend players to the Bills, he should have become a scout upon retiring, rolling up his sleeves and grinding away and visiting college campuses and watching film. “

And this:

“Indeed, we doubt that many/any Bills scouts offered Kelly unsolicited advice about playing quarterback during his career.  He would be wise to return the courtesy now.”

Now, five days later, Florio offers up this gem:

“Even if he’s not ready to contribute at the NFL level as a rookie, his long-term potential likely makes him worthy of a selection in the top 20 picks.”

That quote was featured in a short piece about Jason Pierre-Paul, a defensive end prospect considered a “freakish athlete with unlimited potential”, but one that has raised questions about maturity and his readiness for the NFL with “nonsensical answers to fairly basic questions” during team interviews.

Hey Mike, I doubt that any scouts offered you unsolicited advice about how to try cases during your legal career–it might be wise to return that courtesy now.

Otherwise, some other blogs might start wondering just what you’re getting out of hyping a player that has raised legitimate concerns with his behavior during interviews–not to mention the fact that his “huge splash in only one year of major college football” amounted to only 6.5 sacks and only 7 starts (but still 13 games played)–hardly the kind of production that warrants a first round pick.

But hey, maybe you finally found another way to monetize all that traffic your site gets–I would guess that agents would pay pretty heavily to get a recommendation on a site that so many NFL insiders supposedly visit?

So this story is already a week old, but apparently the Obama administration really is looking into reviewing the legality of the BCS Championship.  I only bring it up a week later because we’ve written about it a few times before.

And also because, when we shared the link above with a friend of ours (who’s a little more politically oriented than we are), he had an interesting reaction:

“I’m trying to imagine going back in time and asking the Federalists, ‘Now, if we ratify this thing, will it give the federal government the power to regulate tournament rules for collegiate sporting events?’”

You can find more of his thoughts on the topic at his blog.  Being a football blog, Zoneblitz does not necessarily agree or disagree with a lot of the topics covered on his blog–but we do agree with him that, if the NCAA wants their BCS solution to look good, getting the government involved might be the best thing for them.

The folks over at Despair.com have probably summed it up best:

“Government: If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions.”

I know I just wrote 2,200 words the other day focused at least in part on describing why I think ProFootballTalk.com isn’t as good a site as it used to be.

And I hate to harp on the topic. But he wrote another post today that raised my ire. Today Mike Florio’s topic was Noel Devine, the running back from West Virginia who decided to pass on the draft and go back for his senior season.

Sure, there might be little for him to prove by staying a Mountaineer. And yes, the NFL might impose a rookie salary cap for the 2011 season. So it’s possible – even likely – that Devine might cost himself some money by staying in school.

But at the end of the day, even if the NFL imposes a rookie salary cap, if he’s taken in the first couple rounds of the 2011 draft (assuming there is one) he’s going to make plenty of money.

Isn’t it just possible that Devine is enjoying the college experience? Can it be that he likes his teammates and wants to make a run at a major bowl game? Perhaps a national championship? Or, maybe he wants to guard against the chances that an NFL career doesn’t work out by, cough, cough, getting a degree?

Many college players come out early. And sure, it’s hard to blame them with the payouts they see in front of them. But many stay in school, some because they just enjoy it.

So often college football players are criticized for pretending to be students and using the NFL as a springboard for a pro contract. It’s almost surprising with a good to great player when it goes the other way.

So whatever Devine’s reasons, can we just enjoy the fact – injury risks aside (yes, see the cases of Sam Bradford and Michael Bush) – that this guy might be in the college game for more than just the big payoff? He’s taking a risk. But there’s insurance for that. I applaud Noel Devine. I don’t watch a lot of West Virginia games but I hope this move pays off for you.

No matter what ProFootballTalk.com says.

College football’s Bowl Championship Series is a joke. There are few things dumber in sports than having teams play 13 games and then having a collection of computers determine who’s number one and number two. As much as I have always enjoyed bowl games (though there are WAYYYYYYYYY too many) college football should long ago have instituted a playoff system that takes the top eight or 16 teams and plays them down to a final two, just like every other sport does.

But it’s not a congressional issue.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, should not be calling for Justice Department investigations into the BCS – at least not because it’s a crappy system. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, is free to think the system is unfair – he’s not wrong about that. Major conference or not, any team that wins all of their regular season games should have at least a shot to win or lose the national championship on the field

But as unfair and stupid as it is, he and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee (Really? The House Energy and Commerce Committee needs its own subcommittee? Maybe these elected clowns, err, officials would be better off spending their time trying to eliminate layers of government and making the system more efficient? Just a thought) should not be co-sponsoring bills to change the system – certainly not now, when there are so many other things for them to be spending time on and, in my opinion, not ever.

But yes, that subcommittee Wednesday approved legislation aimed at forcing college football to adopt a playoff system.

The bill, according to an Associated Press story, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game as a national championship unless it results from a playoff.
Read the rest of this entry »