Expanded CFP

The call for an expanded college playoff is getting louder in a few places, mostly in places where people feel that their team got robbed.

Okay, mostly in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

What has passed quietly by is the fact that every single one of the top eight teams had a chance to play their way in. In other words, we had an expanded playoff and all but one team has no complaints. And that team would have no complaints had they not lost to Pitt and Michigan (by 473 or something I think it was).

The top 4 (Alabama, Clemson, OSU, and Washington) made it in by winning games.

Take the next four in the previous CFP Poll.

#5 Michigan would have been a top four with a win at OSU. They lost. They don’t get to go on. You don’t get redos.

#6 Wisconsin played #7 Penn State. This is arguably the team that got robbed because the winner didn’t make it. My previous comments stand true that it had to be a big win, and it wasn’t. Of course, they lost to Pitt and lost bigly to Michigan. But they had a chance to play their way in and didn’t get it done.

#8 Colorado played Washington and lost. They don’t get to go on.

The consensus, correct I believe, is that the CFP got the best four teams. The teams that didn’t make it all have blemishes that prevented them from making it.

So an expanded playoff took place this year. It worked just like it should have.

There is also a renewed call for having to win your conference to get in to the CFP. This is mostly coming from Penn State, but others are chiming in as well.

Someone that I can’t recall pointed out last night that Penn State better be careful what they wish for. There is a good chance that they could go 11-1 next year with their only loss being a close game at OSU who goes on to win the B1G. I think that is the most likely scenario for next season for both teams.

And that means Penn State’s chance next year requires the ability for the committee to jump over conference champions for better teams.

In other words, the very thing Penn State wants now is the thing that will hang them next year.

I am mixed on both of these issues.

I go back and forth on whether an eight team playoff would be good. This year it worked out fine. Next year it might not.

I think an expanded playoff devalues the regular season. Michigan would have gone to OSU knowing it didn’t matter whether they won or lost; they were in either way most likely (even with the Iowa embarrassment). While a rivalry game is always big, it is less big when you don’t have to win to be the national champion.

An expanded playoff devalues the conference title games. Why play a game if all the conference winners get in anyway?

However, an eight-team playoff would give some room in seasons where teams don’t play each other, or where a deserving conference champion loses out.

Speaking of conference champions, I think there is a strong case to be made that you can’t be the national champion unless you are first a conference champion. And by and large, I think that is true. OSU should have won against Penn State, and perhaps would have except for a call or two that went against them. (Remember Meyer’s tirades about officiating? Yeah, me neither.) But OSU seems a better team than Penn State.

If the NCAA goes to an eight team playoff, perhaps they need to do away with conference title games.

In the end, college football is good because of the debates that take place. There will always be questions about whether Michigan, or Colorado, or Oklahoma, or Penn State could have beaten Clemson, or Ohio State, or Washington in a playoff. There might even be a few debates about whether any of these teams could beat Alabama. Those debates will mostly involve people too drunk to speak clearly.

In the end, we have the four best teams. Let’s line up and play football.

Nothing Makes the News

Colin Kaepernick sat down for the playing of the national anthem in a preseason NFL game. He upgraded to kneeling in a second one. A few others have followed his lead.

And it’s news.

Why?

I am not sure. It’s nothing.

No, really. It’s nothing.

He sat down during a song in which it is traditional to stand. People have sat down before and people will do it again.

This is the biggest nothing since a gold-medal winning young lady didn’t put her hand over her heart for the national anthem.

At least she was standing up.

Undeterred by the common sense of priority and reality, the news media is making a big deal out of Kaepernick. It’s a $100 worth of news coverage on a twenty-five cent story. The reason is simple: The story is about Colin Kaepernick, not what Kaepernick says it should be about.

Kaepernick says did it to protest injustice that takes place under the American flag. He said that while being oppressed to the tune of millions of dollars which he will not earn by playing since he won’t be starting.

That means he will be sitting a lot. On one hand, I suppose he is getting in midseason form by sitting down. On the other hand, he has done nothing for the cause he claims to be concerned about.

In a moment of irony he surely missed, he showed up at a news conference to protest oppression while wearing a shirt with Fidel Castro’s picture on it. Protesting oppression alongside a Cuban dictator. Ironic!

On second thought, that’s not irony. It’s way past irony.

But I digress.

Here’s the big problem: No one is talking more about injustice than they were last month. Instead, they are talking about Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who has nothing to complain about.

All he accomplished was to spark a debate about how important it is to stand up for the national anthem and whether or not employers should mandate it.

Let Kaepernick sit down if he wants to. The flag and anthem he used to protest is what enables him to protest.

But if you want to do something about injustice, then get up off your seat. Sitting down while you make millions in on the back of a free college education isn’t exactly being Jackie Robinson. Or Martin Luther King, Jr. These days it’s not even being Doug Williams. (ICYDK, Williams was the first black quarterback to win an NFL league championship and Super Bowl.)

If you want to do something about injustice, it will take more than sitting down during the national anthem of an NFL preseason game. You are going to have to talk about real issues.

Let’s start with the fact that thousands of African-Americans are denied the basic justice of life itself every day. It’s called abortion. The Democrats stand firmly behind this systematic extermination of the black community. They won’t lift a finger to stop it. Instead, they are doing everything they can to prolong and protect this extermination. Republicans are scarcely much better. It helps to get them elected, but that’s about it. There’s no one speaking up much for the unborn. And Kaepernick didn’t change that.

Let’s continue with the fact that thousands of African-American children have no father in their home or even in their life. The government has become their daddy, doling out the basic needs of life while letting men have sex without consequences. Why should they care? They get to do their thing with their honey for the night (who may not be their honey tomorrow night), and they have a rich uncle (Uncle Sam, that is) that will take care of the few who make it long enough to see the light of day over the machinations of Planned Parenthood and the Democratic Party. Kaepernick’s sit-down didn’t spark any conversation about fatherhood. That’s ironic given the fact that Kaepernick was adopted and raised by two white people because his own father fled and left a single mother. If anyone knows, it should be Kaepernic.

How about the fact that thousands of African-Americans will suffer in substandard schools because the government forces them to stay there rather than giving them true school choice. And their parents don’t care enough or don’t have enough leverage to force change. Those kids will live in bad neighborhoods and go to bad schools. And some of them will end up like a young man a few blocks away from here who, a couple of weeks ago at the ripe old of age of fourteen, was paralyzed for life by a gunshot to the neck. Now the state of Michigan has decided that failing schools don’t have to close until 2019, meaning three more years of failing education for kids with all the results that come with it. Kaepernick’s seat on the sidelines won’t give these kids a new seat in the schoolroom. They are consigned to failure with no alternatives.

We haven’t even talked about the fact that thousands of African-Americans will have no mentors who will teach them there is a better way. No one will teach them how to work, how to shake hands, how to dress and talk appropriately, how to be a husband and a dad (in that order). There will be no women to help the young ladies learn to respect their bodies and their future, to get an education, to learn how to nurture children, and pick a good man and stay with him for life. Almost none of them will get a free ride to play football or basketball, or anything else. The only free ride they might get is in the back of a squad car. Kaepernick isn’t provoking anyone to talk about how to mentor the young people.

Kaepernick’s sit down isn’t sounding the message that a black person’s chances of being killed by the police are between slim and none, and none is a lot closer than slim when you do what you are told, even if you think it is unjust. There’s a place to fight police brutality and systemic racism. But you can’t do it from a casket. Kaepernick’s sit-down isn’t getting people to talk about that.

You see, this is simple: Sitting down for the national anthem won’t address any actual problems. And even if it got people talking about it, it won’t change anything because talk never does.

We don’t need more talk about it. Round tables simply go around. We need action. We need serious people with serious solutions. We need people who will get past the rhetoric and the talking points and start looking for things that work.

We need people who will move in to communities, coach ball teams, get involved in the local schools, hang out and play basketball with kids on the street, and talk straight to them when they need it.

We are past the point where sitting down for an anthem while preparing to make a few million playing a game will make much of a statement.

We need more. Stand up Colin. Do something meaningful. It won’t make the news. But it might make a difference.

On the Championship Game

Last night, Alabama defeated Clemson 45-40 to win the NCAA Football National Championship. It was a good game. It was probably the best championship game since Texas-USC. Two good teams came to play hard.

I still marvel at those who claimed Alabama was going to win big or win going away. I never thought that. If there was a blowout or a big margin, I thought it would be in Clemson’s favor because of their explosive offense. But I thought it would be a close game. And it was.

They say defense wins championships. Well, there was a lot of offense last night. Over a combined one thousand yards. Clemson’s DeShaun Watson passed for 405 and ran for 73 more. Alabama’s Jake Coker passed for 335 and Derrick Henry ran for 158.

But the big problem for Clemson was big play. Clemson simply gave up too many.

Here’s the stat of the night: For Alabama, just six plays accounted for 280 yards. When you add in the return touchdown of 95 yards, that means that 375 of Alabama’s 473 yards came on just seven plays. That’s right: 80% of the offensive production came on seven plays.

Some of those receivers were so wide open in Arizona that I could have completed a pass from my living room couch in Michigan.

It is hard to win when you give that up.

There was a clear officiating blunder that may have made a difference. At the end of the first half, the clock failed to stop on Clemson’s first down, which made them waste a time out and cost them at least one play. A 44-yard field goal attempt was blocked. Give them the extra play they should have had and that field goal may have been shorter and easier. And that means a five point deficit is now two points. But the officials were bailed out of that by the final score. Of course, if the game is three points closer, both teams are playing differently.

The onsides kick was a gutsy call and Swinney threw a fit about it. He may have a good case. His argument was that in the Clemson-USC game in 2014, Clemson had recovered an onside kick only to have it overturned because they did not allow the receiver an unimpeded chance to recover the ball.

Here is the play starting at the 28:00 mark:

What was the right call? I am not sure.

The NCAA rule book Rule 6 Article 3 (p. FR-64) specifies that “No Team A [kicking tean] player may touch a free-kicked ball until after: 1. It touches a Team B player (Exception: Rules 6-1-4 and 6-5-1-b); 2. It breaks the plane of and remains beyond Team B’s restraining line (Exception: Rule 6-4-1) (A.R. 2-12-5-I); or 3. It touches any player, the ground, an official or anything beyond Team B’s restraining line.”

However, it also specifies “A player of the receiving team within the boundary lines attempting to catch a kick, and so located that he could have caught a free kick or a scrimmage kick that is beyond the neutral zone, must be given an unimpeded opportunity to catch the kick.”

The play last night did not appear to have a receiving team player attempting to make the catch or in a position to make the catch, although it is possible he could have made a diving catch. It’s hard to tell how far away he was.

In the end, it’s hard to say the better team won. But it would have been equally hard to say that if Clemson had won. Clemson won in almost every statiscal category except time of possession where Bama edged them by less than a minute. But Bama won in the only place that matters—the scoreboard.

Everything But the Band …

The Saturday game between Miami and Duke had everything but the band.

Oh, and competent officiating.

Now, I am not one to complain about officiating. In fact, I only complain when they are bad. I realize that sets me apart from everyone else, but I gotta draw a line somewhere. And “bad” is where that line is.

But I digress. The last play was amazing. Eight laterals and a touchdown later, Miami wins 30-27.

Then the replay process started.

Nine minutes later, Miami is still the winner.

Then the league got involved.

Twenty-four hours later, Miami is still the winner, but now with a huge asterisk.

The league admits that the officials got it wrong both on the field and on the replay. A Miami player was down prior to his lateral, meaning that the game should have ended right there with Duke having won.

The league takes this so seriously that they suspended the whole officiating crew, replay officials included, for two games.

But they don’t take it seriously enough to actually fix the problem. And the result is that Duke is hung out to dry. With a win, Duke controls their own destiny. Run the table and show up to be a sacrificial lamb for Clemson in the ACC championship. With one loss (that the league declared wasn’t actually a loss), they can still get there, but it’s harder now.

Here’s the thing (and I have changed my opinion on this slightly): The ACC can and should fix this. They should declare Duke the winner. Because they already did declare Duke the winner. The only place they haven’t declared it is in the only place that matters—the standings.

Let me use a golf illustration. A player hits his second shot on a par 4 over a hill towards the green. He walks up to putt and can’t find his ball. He declares it lost and goes back and plays another ball which would now be his fourth shot (because of the penalty). This time he putts and makes the putt for a bogey, only to find that his original ball is in the hole.

What’s the ruling?

It’s a birdie, not a bogey.

Why? Because under the rules, the hole is over when the ball goes in the hole, even if you don’t know it. Thus, the second ball no longer matters.

In the Miami-Duke game, the game was over when his knee hit the ground. No matter how many laterals, yards, minutes, or days later, the game was still over. The rest of the play was nothing but exercise.

There were no other plays that perhaps could have changed the outcome of the game.

It’s not a judgment call in which you are undermining the officials by second-guessing their ruling (such as a pass interference call, as Lions’ fans [if there are any left] will remember).

No, this is black and white. A game-ender. Duke won.

The ACC should agree with their conclusion and fix the standings. Give Duke what they earned—which is the opportunity to control their own destiny.

This and That

Sounds like Jim Harbaugh is going to Michigan to coach. Michigan fans should brace themselves for another two to three years of mediocrity as Harbaugh tries to rebuild and convince recruits that he will be there to coach them. That will be followed by another coaching search when Harbaugh bolts for the NFL, leaving the players he recruited high and dry. Once you have been to the Super Bowl, it seems doubtful you will be happy coaching college again.

Speaking of mediocrity, the College Football Playoff starts this week. The committee got it mostly right, given the hand they were dealt, having to choose only four teams. The miss is Florida State. A team that wins that many close games by so small a margin has no business being considered in the national championship picture. For those who say, “Winning is the name of the game and they were undefeated,” remember Boise State when winning wasn’t the name of the game. I imagine Oregon will beat FSU pretty handily, and OSU will beat Alabama. That will set up the Ducks and the Bucks for the national championship which will be an entertaining game. Put your money on the Buckeyes.

The CFP needs to go to eight teams. That would remove a lot of controversy. It’s hard to argue that TCU or Baylor aren’t as good as FSU. They certainly belong in the conversation.

But at four teams, Florida State doesn’t belong in that conversation.

The NFL and Violence Against Women

Roger Goodell and the NFL absolutely dropped the ball on the Ray Rice domestic violence situation.

Rice knocked his then girlfriend/now wife (what was she thinking? Does she have no one speaking into her life?) unconscious in a hotel elevator. He is now suspended for two games of the 2014 season.

Yes, that’s not a typo. He knocked his girlfriend unconscious in a rage and is suspended for two games.

By comparison, Terrell Pryor pulled some shenanigans to avoid an NCAA suspension and get in the NFL through the supplemental draft and got a five game suspension before he was ever in the NFL.

A guy named Robert Mathis got four games for taking some fertility drugs to help his wife conceive. Yes, four games for trying to start a family with your wife. Two games for knocking out your soon-to-be wife.

Using marijuana will you get you a whole year in the NFL, even in states where it’s legal to smoke marijuana.

So assuming the rational position that the punishment should fit the crime, and that we reward or punish based on relative significance, the NFL has declared that beating a woman unconscious is not as significant as trying to have a baby with a women you are married to. It’s not as significant as taking money and favors in college when you have no accountability or responsibility to the NFL. And it’s way less significant than smoking pot.

Why should anyone think that the NFL takes violence against women seriously?

That’s not a rhetorical question. Go ahead. Someone tell me why anyone should think the NFL takes domestic violence seriously.

I’ll be waiting.

Until then, Roger Goodell should be without a job.

The league owners should demand either a higher suspension of Rice (at least a year, perhaps two, maybe even three), or a resignation from Goodell for embarrassing them and their league in this manner.

Until one or the other happens, no one should think the NFL cares about domestic violence.

Here’s My Take on the NBA, Sterling, and Race

You probably heard that NBA owner Donald Sterling made some racist comments recently. People are all up in arms. Everybody is weighing in to condemn this is no uncertain terms. And it should be condemned in no uncertain terms. It was an unconscionable statement with no place in civil society.

On Tuesday, the NBA responded with a life-time ban from anything NBA related, a $2.5 million fine, and will apparently try to force him to sell the team.

Here’s my take: this was easy. Too easy. Good, but easy.

It takes no great moral courage to sound off on this one. This was a soft lob right down the middle. You don’t have to be Miguel Cabrera to drive this somewhere long and deep.

It’s easy because it won’t require you to change anything in your life. You can say your piece, and go right on back to the way things are.

The problem is exactly that: It’s easy. This was a politically incorrect thing to say, and an easy target for response. When it comes to real issues, few are willing to take a similar stand. Why? Because it’s harder. As the old saying goes, what’s good for people isn’t good for politics.

I don’t know that that’s an old saying. In fact, I may have just made it up. But it’s true.

President Obama weighed in on Sterling and said it was bad. Good for him.

This is the same guy who, just a year ago, couldn’t muster up a word about a guy who murdered hundreds, maybe thousands, of black people.

Apparently telling your girlfriend you don’t want her being seen with black people is horrible.

Killing black people? Not so much.

Why? Because Kermit Gosnell was an abortion doctor. And one thing worse than killing little black babies is making it so little black babies can’t be killed.

Or saying you don’t want your girlfriend taking pictures with black men.

You see, Sterling was a old rich white guy with a young girlfriend who could work a recording device. Gosnell was an abortion doctor who killed babies for decades. Those two things aren’t equal. One deserves vicious tirades and substantial punishment. The other is painted as an anomaly and quietly goes to trial in hopes that the outcome doesn’t damage women’s abortion rights.

In another incredibly brave example of courage and social consciousness, word comes that UCLA turned down a $3 million grant for kidney research because it came from the Donald Sterling Foundation.

Imagine that conversation: “Yes, we were close to finding a cure for you, but the money that would have helped was offered by a man who man who didn’t want his mistress-girlfriend posting pictures with black guys, and it was important for us to make a social statement. But don’t worry, we still have our dialysis machine, and we will send flowers to your funeral.”

I won’t pretend to understand the complexities of race, economics, community, education, and all the related things, so I won’t pontificate on that. You probably don’t understand either, and you shouldn’t pontificate either.

I won’t pretend to think I can change the world. You can’t either.

Here’s what you may not know. The NBA didn’t learn anything new this week. Sterling didn’t change his views last weekend. This has been known about Sterling for years and years. And no one did anything. Stern sat on his hands while his wallet and the NBA’s wallet got exponentially fatter.

Now, new NBA commish Adam Silver doles out lifetime ban to Sterling. Whoopeee!!! He’s eighty-one years old. Eighty-one. 81. Yes, they gave a lifetime ban to an 81-year old. What courage. What a statement.

Oh yes, and they are going to force him to sell his team. Or at least try to force him. You know what that means? It means that Sterling’s $12.5 million purchase in 1981 will probably net him somewhere north of $750 millions. I don’t even know what the rate of return is on that, but please, punish me with such force.

NBA, you want to make a difference in race issues? Don’t make symbolic gestures. I am not saying reinstate Sterling. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Seriously. It doesn’t. No one’s life is changed or not changed by this.

If you want to make a difference, get serious about decimated family structures in urban areas. Start by leading the charge to make sure every black baby actually gets born rather than being eradicated from its mother’s body like some sort of cancer.

Figure out a way to help men take responsibility for their children. Start by getting serious about the children your players have with multiple women. $10K a month in child support is no substitute for dad loving mom, and being around the house, teaching their little boys to be men, and teaching their little girls to be women. And realize that a very large number of black children are growing up without active fathers. That’s far worse than Donald Sterling spouting off in private.

Do something about education. No, I don’t mean send a player to read a book for thirty minutes to a class in some upscale school district for a photo op. I mean figure out a way to make a meaningful difference in kids’ lives so that they can learn the basics of life, and have a shot at moving out of the urban ghetto they have grown up in.

Do something about black employment. I know your own employ is more than 75% black, but what how about start some urban initiatives for places where half that percentage are chronically unemployed. Do something about the situation where many people don’t look for jobs because they actually lose when they find one.

Be creative. Do something substantive. Take some of those billions you make and start addressing real racial problems.

By all means, keep Sterling out of the NBA for life. Take his $2.5 mill fine and spend it on some charitable organization addressing race. Sell the Clippers to a minority group led by Magic Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, or whoever.

But don’t think you killed the big one because it took you thirty years to make a non-meaningful social statement that won’t actually change anything.

And don’t sit on your laurels and think it was anything other than a non-meaningful social statement.

The real work starts now. So get busy.

Baseball and PEDs

The news of a new scandal, or at least recently discovered scandal, concerning performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball is making its way through the news today. Up to twenty players are involved, some of them actually decent players rather than scrubs trying to make it or old guys trying to hang on.

It’s a travesty that it’s come to this. Baseball records are now like photography. I don’t trust it. Too many ways to photoshop … or juice.

If it were just a modern problem, it wouldn’t matter. But it’s a historical problem. When we compare, say Barry Bonds, to Babe Ruth, it is an issue. Ruth’s PEDs consisted of beer and hotdogs. And he looked like it. It is simply unfair to history to compare Babe Ruth’s statistics to Barry Bonds.

To solve the drug problem, or to at least make a dent in it, MLB needs to hit players where it matters … in the pocketbook.

So in the interest of changing the world and making it a better place, here is my solution to the drug problem:

For the first offense, any player caught using drugs (based on a preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt) has an automatic one year suspension, and a mandatory and non-appealable fine, consisting of all baseball related income (contracts, endorsements, etc) over and above the league minimum (currently $490,000) for the next five years. To this fine is added all baseball related income above the league minimum salary for the previous five years. This means that the first offense for a drug violation receives a one year suspension and forfeiture of all baseball related income above the league minimum for ten years (five in the past and five in the future).

So for example, Alex Rodruiguez is slated to make $28,000,000 this year on his contract. Under this plan, he would make $490,000 for the next five years, which means his fine is $27,510,000 this year, in addition to all endorsements, plus the same for the next five years. Plus the same for the previous five years. If A-Rod knew that was the consequence, would he have thought twice before using PEDs? I bet he would have. No performance boost it worth over $100,000,000.

For the second offense, a lifetime ban is mandatory, including the immediate canceling of any contracts. This also includes a ban from the Hall of Fame, from any and all participation in any baseball related functions connected with Major League Baseball, including minor league assignments.

Draconian? Sure. But it sends the right message: Baseball won’t tolerate PEDs, and it will hurt if you get caught.

Now, this won’t bother the hangers on or those marginal player looking for an edge to make it. They are willing to take the chance that they won’t get caught. And if they do, they aren’t losing anything they wouldn’t have had anyway.

But it will tell the world, and the fans, that drugs will not be a part of the game.

Will it happen? Of course not, because the MLBPA (the player’s union) doesn’t want to solve the problem. They never have. And MLB doesn’t have the courage or the leverage to solve it.

But a guy can dream, can’t he?

Thoughts on “The Game”

The NCAA Championship Game was last night.

Louisville defeated Michigan by six in a pretty good game. It’s the first complete game I have watched in several years. Having grown up in ACC country in the days of Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Lefty Driesell, Jim Valvano, and the like, it’s hard to get excited about the college game today.

But I watched it anyway, with no rooting interest.

At half time I tweeted that everything was going Michigan’s way and if it evened up, they could be in trouble.

Well, it didn’t really even up.

But Louisville came on strong. They went on a strong run at the end of the first half to take the lead and then go into the half down by one.

Louisville played a strong second half, and pulled away by ten, and eventually won by six.

Overall, it was a good game between two good teams.

A lot of people are complaining about the officiating. It wasn’t as bad as many are saying. There were some missed calls to be sure. But there always are. And it’s a lot easier for us sitting at home without a whistle (at least a whistle that matters), who get to make calls with no ramifications and then see if a replay confirms our call. Game officials don’t get that.

Louisville had three or four people in foul trouble by the middle of the second half, and Michigan had one. Then Louisville had five or six, and Michigan had two.

The officiating was perhaps best summed up in this: Without about five minutes to go in the game, Louisville had ten fouls against them, and Michigan had four. So whatever the case may be, Michigan can’t really complain.

The fouls only evened up because Michigan was intentionally fouling at the end.

Going into the game, I thought Louisville was the better team, even without Ware. I thought their defense was tougher. That was borne out, and is probably one reason why they had so many fouls.

In short, Michigan got outworked by a better team. And those are the two reasons they lost.

Yes, the call against Burke on the block was troubling, although the only replay they showed looked like he led with his forearm into the chest. But it was probably a bad call. It wasn’t the only one, and it wasn’t a turning point. Even if they get that call, they still have to make up six points, something which was not going to be easy in any case.

By the way, if you want to see that block done right, look up Tayshaun Prince against Reggie Miller.

Michigan was probably outcoached. Burke sitting on the bench for the bulk of the first half was a problem. As a coach, you have to expect your best players to be the best players. And you have to trust the National Player of the Year to play. You go with what got you there, and Beilein didn’t do that. Burke could have sat a long period in the second half just as well as in the first, and he may not have had to.

On the other hand, having Burke in the game at the end when you have to foul immediately was boneheaded. Burke had four and couldn’t foul.

In other words, Beilein had Burke out when he should have had him in, and had him in when he should have had him out.

And he didn’t know the foul/bonus situation.

Those are major coaching failures.

But rest easy because Michigan was in this game only by a coaching error. Bill Self of Kansas violated the primary rule of basketball: Never get tied by a three at the end of the game. Foul and send someone to the line for two at best.

If Self takes care of business there as he should have, Kansas is playing this game instead of Michigan.

At the end of the day, Louisville was the better team. They were stronger, played harder, and were better coached. That’s the reason they were the overall #1 seed.

In my view, the officiating in college basketball is way too loose. It is inconsistent because they allow so much contact and then call contact sometimes.

In my opinion, the game would be better if they started calling it right. Yes, it would hurt at the beginning of the season, but a few weeks in, the teams would learn to play with it. The game would be cleaner. It would flow better. And it would be more exciting to watch.

Ah well. There’s always next year.

At least there was for Louisville this year.

Weird News Week

Is it just me, or is it really weird that the two biggest current news stories (aside from gun control … maybe more on that later) are a story about a guy who had a pretend girlfriend (I dare one guy to claim he never had one) and a guy who took drugs in professional sports (Did anyone believe he didn’t?).

Is this a slow news week or not?

I used to be a huge cycling fan, back in the days of Greg LeMond, the first American to win the Tour de France. I think the Tour is hands down the toughest, most brutal, athletic contest on the planet since the days of gladiators. I rode in a few amateur races back in the day.

But I find it unremarkable that Lance Armstrong took performance enhancing drugs. In fact, I think the drug issue has taken the shine off of virtually all major sports record, most off baseball. Barry Bonds may be a great hitter, but he was dirty. So was McGwire. So was Sosa. They don’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath with Hammerin’ Hank or the Babe.

And by the way, International Cycling Union, stripping Armstrong of those seven titles will not strip the vision of Armstrong’s backside from all the other riders who finished behind him seven times.

Perhaps it is fitting that Armstrong admits all this on Oprah’s network. Ironic that such a huge non-story gets pub on a network that apparently no one watches unless it gets replayed on an actual TV station.

And hear me out on this one: If you defund cancer research because the guy who is leading the charge took performance enhancing drugs, shame on you.

Double shame.

Triple shame.

Get off your high horse and help people who are researching cancer. Lance Armstrong’s drug use should not the be reason you don’t help people find cures for cancer.

And Manti Te’o. What’s there to say about a guy who has a pretend girlfriend?

Nothing.

Seriously.

Nothing.

So there’s a college football played with a pretend girlfriend who may have knowingly lied about it.

Where’s the news there?

If you think this is significant, then you have serious needs in your life. Needs like reality. A job. A hobby. A book to read.A sock drawer to organize. Something. Anything.

Let’s move on.

The NFL Does It Again

Only in the totally stupid world of the NFL can today’s game happen. The Texans score a touchdown after a guy was indisputably down. And the NFL totally blows it again.

By rule, all scoring plays are reviewed by the replay booth. This rule was established to get the biggest calls in the game correct.

By rule, certain plays are reviewable when the coaching staff decides to take one of their two flags and take a chance on being right on a missed call. This rule was established to give chances the coach to get bad calls corrected during the game.

But in the inane and stupid world of the NFL, these two cancel each other out. A play that should be reviewed and easily overturned by two rules established for the exact purpose of getting calls right turns out to be reviewable by none.

As a result, a touchdown stands and the Lions lose in OT.

In an even more bizarre twist, Mike Perreira (former head of the NFL officials) says in a tweet that if the ruling had benefited the Texans, it could have been reviewed.

And for some reason, the NFL continues to be the biggest sport in the country even with this bizarre turn of events.

Hopefully the NFL comes out and admits their error. In the real world, they should disallow the touchdown, and change the records of the Texans and the Lions to the results of the play on the field.

In a league not known for common sense and integrity, it is unlikely that will happen. We will likely see them double down on the stupidity.

Schwartz is known for not blaming the officials or the rules.

If he doesn’t do it this time, he is dead wrong.

He should throw an absolute fit both at the game officials and at the rules that allowed this to happen.

The Lions have underachieved this year to be sure.

But even the Lions deserve better than this.

The NFL has to get this right.

When you have a system designed to get the calls right, you shouldn’t be stupid enough to refuse to get them right.

NCAA vs. Penn State: Too Little

The child abuse/sex scandal at Penn State that has come to light over the last year is now being addressed by the NCAA. The NCAA has punished the school by vacating all wins since 1998 (the year of the initial issues), by imposing a four-year post-season ban, and by fining the school $60 million dollars (about one year’s football revenue). The fine will go into an endowment for "external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university” (from article).

In a nutshell, assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was accused in 1998 of child sexual abuse. The school apparently covered it up, successfully, until last year. Sandusky was found guilty and now faces up to fifteen years in prison (which is effectively a life sentence for for the 68 year old).

So what of the penalty? Too light. Way too light.

The vacating of wins is meaningless. Joe Paterno will still be recognized as having those wins, even though they won’t show up on his record. The players still won those games and the other teams still lost them. In short, no one cares that these wins are taken away. The old adage rings true: “Scoreboard, baby.”

The four-year post-season ban is mostly meaningless in the big picture. But no one really cares. When it’s over, no one will care.

The $60 million dollar fine is more significant, but it’s one year’s revenue from the football program. It won’t be missed all that much.

Compare this to the “death penalty” given to Southern Methodist University in 1987. Two whole seasons were cancelled for … wait for it … paying players under the table. Today, that offense is so common it doesn’t even merit much consideration by the NCAA.

And a child abuse scandal receives less than paying players under the table.

Not a good move by the NCAA.

Here’s what should have happened to Penn State, in addition to what has already happened.

Penn State should have received a ten-year ban from college sports. The ban would be reviewable in five years if Penn State has taken appropriate actions to make restitution to the children and families involved, to completely separate themselves in every way from anyone who was connected with this cover up (including the immediate termination of any and all payments such as health insurance, pensions, benefits, etc), and to institute policies so that this never happens again.

In addition, Penn State must hire an outside overseer chosen by the NCAA, and must subject itself to regular reviews by an oversight board to whom the outside overseer is accountable.

The NCAA needs to send a stronger message to its member schools, and to the college sports industry: “If you do this, we will come down hard. Very hard.”

The NCAA has shown it can tolerate a lot of stuff. Now they have shown a willingness to tolerate more.

This was a chance for the NCAA to send a real message. They could have said, “If there are other schools in a similar state, now is the time to come clean. Fess up. And you will receive the same treatment as Penn State. If we find out about this after close of business today, the penalty will be worse.”

But they didn’t.

They missed a chance. Sadly.

Around the Horn - Football Edition

A list of the fifty worst NFL coaches highlighted Josh McDaniels, a name that Bronco fans will recognize (though no one else will because he was coaching Denver). As an interesting side note, the list revealed that somehow there are four coaches worse than Rod Marinelli, something even Rod Marinelli was probably surprised by.

But most notably, this writer says that “Tebow could easily wind up the biggest bust of the 2010 draft.”

Oops.

Cuz’ Tebow did it again yesterday. Pretty amazing. The Broncos are now 6-1 under Tebow, having been beaten only by the Detroit Lions.

Speaking being beaten by the Detroit Lions, the Lions managed to even beat themselves last night. What a joke. They were flags flying like it was July 4th, and there were a few fireworks. I kept looking for the barbeque grill. And the flags were (almost) all well deserved. The only thing missing from that game was a “running into the punter” foul.

But fortunately for the University of Michigan, that call got made on Saturday night when MSU got the short end of the stick. Typically, when a player is blocked into the punter that call isn’t made, and that player was clearly blocked into the punter, who might get an Oscar nomination this year for that dive. But other than that, it was a great game.

While I have no love lost (or gained) for anything in Big 10 football, simply because I just don’t care, I think MSU was robbed there. But if Kirk Cousins had made a throw or two on the previous possession, that call is no issue, which is usually the case. If you take care of business for 59 minutes, one minute won’t hurt you.

And since MSU lost, the BCS has done its magic once again. Typically, I think the top of the BCS usually does a pretty good job at getting the two best teams. I don’t know if they did this year. I think Oklahoma State has a good case, especially after the hurtin’ they laid on Oklahoma Saturday.

The egregious part of the BCS was the selection of Michigan for a BCS bowl. What a joke. Michigan did not even win their division. They are at least the third best team in their own conference, and have two losses only because they didn’t play Wisconsin and they didn’t play well enough to get into the conference championship.

In fact, Michigan only beat one ranked team all year (#17 Nebraska). Michigan barely beat ND, scoring 28 in the fourth quarter, and scoring with two seconds left to win 35-31. MIchigan also barely beat a very bad Ohio State team, giving up 34 points. How they ended up in the BCS is almost criminal, except it doesn’t really matter. The Sugar Bowl passed over four higher ranked BCS teams to get to Michigan.

Did MSU deserve that spot? Perhaps not, but hardly anyone thinks Michigan deserved it, probably not even Michigan fans who are not typically known for clear thinking anyway. They are among the biggest homer whiners in the country. I think even the die hard Michigan fans would find it hard to keep a straight face while arguing that Michigan deserved that bowl bid.  Certainly no one around them would keep a straight face listening to them try.

No, Michigan got the bid based on the old bowl rules, namely, “Which team will bring a lot of fans and a lot of money?”

Hey folks, you can’t have it both ways. If you want the BCS to have meaning, then stand against this kind of stuff. The presidents aren’t listening, but hey, talk anyway. If you want this kind of stuff, then go back to the old way.

Michigan fans were all upset when they didn’t get a rematch against OSU in 2006, even though they lost what amounted to a tournament game the week before when they knew what was at stake. They hated the BCS then. I doubt we will hear that kind of whining from them this though.

It’s hard for one football team to get robbed twice in the same weekend, but MSU did. They got punished for for being blocked into the kicker, and then they got punished for making, and barely losing, their conference championship game.

Should we have a tournament in college football? I still say no. Let’s go back to the old way. Let bowls do what they want.

And end college football on January 1.

All for now … And keep those Doritos close by during bowl season, because we all need some exercise while watching football.

Say It Ain’t So!!!

Word is in: USC* Stripped of 2004 BCS National Championship

What a tragedy for college football.

What a blight on the BCS.

What a joke.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that not a single one of those 55 points USC scored on January 4, 2005 are coming off the board. And Oklahoma will still have their 19 today, and a hundred years from now.

Somehow I don’t think the players on the 2004 USC team will suddenly change their story. In fact, they probably don’t care. The truth is that they got what they wanted—a chance to play in the game and a victory. Their celebrations are over, and they will always be able to say, “I was on that team that won.” And they will always be able to point and say, “Scoreboard.”

On a related note, I met a guy this week who showed me his national championship ring from the Texas Longhorns team he played on in 1969. It was a relatively small ring by today’s standards. If you saw it on his hand, you wouldn’t take a second look. But it is something he treasures because, in his words, “It was neat to be a part of something bigger than yourself.”

It was a pretty unglamorous ring, to tell you the truth. In fact, most class rings (the one’s you buy to congratulate yourself for graduating) are bigger. Perhaps after four decades or so, some of the gold has worn off. But not so much that you are unable to read “Texas Longhorns National Champions” on it.  And that’s what made it special.

He told me he couldn’t imagine how someone could sell their ring like the players at OSU did in the recent scandal that landed Jim Tressel in the back of the line that 9.1% of the American public are already standing in.

Of course, that’s the unemployment line though I doubt The Sweater Vest will be seen down at the welfare office anytime soon. I imagine he has enough to tide him over for a  while, and perhaps his boy Terrell can slip him a couple of Benjamins to get him through, and maybe give him a lift down to Kroger for a bag of rice and some bagels. Besides, I imagine he will be employed somewhere soon.

And his players will go on with their lives. Just like Reggie Bush and the rest of the USC gang has.

And there will be some who, like the man I met this week, are still proud to be part of something bigger than themselves and won’t their souvenir from that event for a tattoo, or a used car, or anything else.

College athletics are big business.

If you want to crack down on this type of stuff that got OSU, USC, SMU back in the day, and lots of of other schools in trouble, the death penalty is probably the only way to do it.

End the USC football program for five years for this offense, and warn them that next time it will be ten years. And fine them the gate receipts for the seasons in question.

You see, the penalty has to be a deterrent. It can’t be worth it to succeed when you cheat.

Oh, and the standard will be a civil trial standard: preponderance of the evidence as considered by a jury made up of your rival’s season ticket holders.

I like that plan.

Any chance of it passing?

____________________

*For my friends in my home state, the USC here is University of Southern California, not University of South Carolina. It is probably obvious since we are talking about football national championships and only one school in South Carolina has one of those. Truth be told, the last time that USC sniffed a national championship was probably the exhaust from the plane when Notre Dame flew over SC on its way to it's bowl game in 1988.

Best Team?

Evansville, Milwaukee, Wright State, Milwaukee, Valparaiso, Youngstown State.

What it this you ask?

It is the list of teams that beat one of the teams playing tonight in the NCAA “Championship” game. (And you get bonus points if you know there are only three states represented there.)

It’s also a list of teams that didn’t make the NCAA tournament.

It’s not quite as bad as it looks though because at least the team that beat them twice actually made the NIT tournament, and then promptly lost to Northwestern in the first round.

The other team in the championship game actually finished 9th in their league.

Yes, you read that right. Ninth … as in 9th.

It sounds really bad until you consider that their league has sixteen teams. That means they were at least better than seven teams. It also means that they finished first … in the bottom half of their league. (Spin isn’t just for politics.)

That means that the “best team” in college basketball is a contest between a team that lost to Evansville, Wright State, Valparaiso, Youngstown State, and Milwaukee (not once but twice) and a team that was worse than eight other teams in their league.

That, friends, means compelling basketball. (As I write, it is 22-19 at halftime. If you took the “under” at 100, you might be retiring tomorrow on your winnings. You might get the under at 80 the way this thing is going.)

And that, friends, is exhibit A in the case against an NCAA football championship.

Here’s why: One-and-done tournaments are great for excitement, fans, and money.

They are bad ways to determine the best teams.

I doubt there is anyone who hasn’t been drinking since lunchtime that wants to suggest that UConn and Butler are the two best teams in the country. There’s a reason why, only 72 people out of two million+ (according to one bracketeering website) had these two teams in the finals.

Part of that reason is that people don’t know anything about college basketball but still want to get in the office pool on the off chance that three minutes clicking team names might lead to that $50 gift card to Red Lobster. So 72 of them came up with Butler and UConn, though they probably can’t find either on the map, what with Butler not being a state and Conn being a small one with a long name that doesn’t fit on the map).

The other part of that reason is that people do know something about college basketball. And they knew that these two teams were not good bets.

UConn was 12-9 against tournament teams. Butler only played four tournament teams and they lost to three of them.

Oh yeah, and there are a few alumni of Butler and UConn who are unashamed homers. Which is a great thing about college sports: Your diploma comes with a free pass for stupid tournament picks.

The reality that a tournament is exciting. There’s no tomorrow. So you play differently. You don’t save anything because you can’t take it home with you.

The reality is also that tournaments highlight flukes. Anyone can get a good break from the officials (remember the Big East tournament, the Butler-Pitt ending, and a dozen others). But you won’t get thirty games worth of breaks.

Any mediocre player can get a hot hand for a game or two, and a good player might have an off night or two. But neither will have thirty.

Over the course of the season the officiating, the hot hands, the injuries, and the coaching mistakes even out. And over the course of a season is is pretty easy to see who is good and who is not.

And it doesn’t take 68 teams to sort it out. It only takes that many to make 73 bajillion dollars.

So why have a football playoff? Because fans love tournaments.

Unless your football team is number 5 in a four team playoff. Or number 9 in a eight team playoff. Or number 17 in a sixteen team playoff. Of if your team loses its conference championship because it lost to a team the conference champion didn’t have to play because of the luck of the draw.

Then you will whine about a tournament the same way you whine about the lack of a tournament.

A tournament in football will not determine the best football team in the country anymore than a tournament in basketball determines the best basketball team in the country.

The only thing it will do is cause talk radio hosts to have to come up with hours of stuff to talk about because the rankings won’t matter anymore.

Is college football perfect?

Of course not.

But all in all, it’s not that bad. And not having a tournament makes it more important to win every game. And if you win them all, chances are you will have a say in who is the national champion.

And you can spend the next seven months arguing about it. 

And the NCAA football schools can enjoy the 73 bajillion dollars they make without a tournament.

After all, it’s all about the education, you know.

Right.

They’ve Gone and Done It Again

Well, Michigan finally has a new football coach.

And in my view, they probably just made it worse.

Sure Rich Rodriguez held hands and sang Josh Groban at a football dinner. And there was that embarrassment in the bowl game. And there were some practice violations.

And then there were loudmouth fans (most of whom never coached a sport a day in their life assuming that yelling at their TV set doesn’t qualify as coaching).

They were complaining that no progress was being made under RichRod.

I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that it’s a sad testimony to the state of thinking among Ann Arborites when going from three wins to five wins to seven wins isn’t considered progress. I’ll admit to not being a genius, but I think more wins is better than fewer wins. Even Michigan State people know that’s progress.

Sure they didn’t beat MSU, OSU, or win any other big games. They struggled a lot. The defense was pathetic, if it could even be called a defense. The offense was schizophrenic.

But RichRod had a tall order. He had to come into a starched shirt environment of “old money” types and break the mold.

You see, I think Lloyd Carr left in 2007 for a reason. The handwriting was on the wall for him. The UM program was stagnant at best, and probably could be accurately described as declining. People were whining big time about him and his play calling. He was getting some relatively good recruiting classes and not bringing home the bacon with them.

On top of that, the “Big 10 football” he was coaching (the three yards and a cloud of dust) was not winning nationally. If you doubt that, just take a look at the Big 10 bowl record. It isn’t particularly pretty. And if that isn’t enough, look at the schools that are winning. They don’t play “Big 10 football.” But they know how to beat “Big 10 football.”

So UM hired RichRod. He was at least their second choice, and perhaps their third. It was bungled from the very beginning. And it brought a different personality and a different style of playing. But it was one that had worked wherever he had gone.

He had the big job of taking a declining program playing a subpar style of football and turning it into something that could compete nationally.

And that takes time.

Sure he made mistakes. Lots of them. He seemed out of touch at times.

And recruiting was subpar, though I imagine it’s hard to recruit someone who isn’t convinced your going to be their coach in two years because the style that he coaches and the style you want to play is not popular where he is trying to get you to come and play.

But the luster seems gone from Michigan, at least for a time.

For evidence, see how hard it has been for UM to find a coach. UM alum Harbaugh stiffed them for the NFL and Les Miles decided to stay at LSU. Petersen, Pinckel, and others wouldn’t even talk to them.

Why?

Only they know. But apparently even Boise State, and who knows where else, is considered better than UM these days.

My guess is that this didn’t make it any better.

How will Brady Hoke do? Who knows. He has had success at schools with a different level of competition. And let’s face it, winning against the competition at Ball State or SDSU isn’t the same as winning against OSU, MSU, PSU, Wisconsin, or Nebraska.

My guess is that they were closer to winning under RichRod than many thought, and they were closer to winning under RichRod than they are now. This probably set them back two to three years while they go after a different style of player.

And when the “old money” gets tired of another rebuilding program, they will have to start again.

On the upside, perhaps the coach from Ann Arbor Pioneer will be available then, because he might be the only one left who will take it.

Quotable

"I don't worry about what Kirk Herbstreit says, to tell you the truth," Pryor said, according to the Plain Dealer. "Has he beat Michigan?"

Ohio State quarterback Terrell Pryor, after hearing that Kirk Heibstreit criticized Pryor and other Ohio State players for profiting from selling team related items.

Joyced Again

Wow!!! What to say? That’s bizarre beyond any level of rationality.

It’s far worse than the Galarraga perfect game call because the officials had a chance to get it right and still missed it. At least Joyce had no recourse. He would have fixed it if he could have.

This group had that chance, and still missed it.

And unlike Joyce’s blown call, this affected the outcome of the game.

They actually looked at the play, probably several times, and still missed it.

The “process” was over when he came down  in control of the ball, with two feet in bounds, then a third foot down, then fell down on his backside, then rolled over, and then put the ball on the ground.

Anywhere else on the field, that’s a catch.

In fact, if the receiver catches the ball short of the end zone, simply reaches out and breaks the plane of the line, and then has the ball knocked out of his hands, it is a touchdown.

But this isn’t?

That’s simply bizarre.

The Lions don’t need any help to lose.

And they don’t deserve any help to win.

But this one was stolen from them.

The Shot Heard ‘Round the World

Bobby Thomson has died. You never heard of him? Then you're unfit to be an American and must move right now to someplace outside the country, like Nancy Pelosi's congressional district. Bobby Thomson was the greatest heartbreaker in the history of sport...well, in the history of Brooklyn, New York.

Bobby Thomson is the one who hit the “shot heard round the world” in the 1951 playoff game between the Giants and the Dodgers, after the Giants came back from 13 1/2 games down on August 11 to tie the Dodgers and earn three game play off series. The Giants scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to win 5-4. He did it with 20 year old Willie Mays waiting on deck.

What I didn’t realize until just recently is that the guest of honor at my sixteenth birthday part was involved in that game. That’s right, Alvin Dark who led off the inning with a single and then scored just ahead of Thomson’s homerun to cut the deficit to 4-2, surprised me by coming to my sixteenth birthday party.

You talk about a night. A dozen or so high school baseball nuts (with one girl as I recall) sitting around talking baseball with Al Dark who not only played in the majors, but  had also managed the A’s to two World Series (72 and 73). And we talked and talked and talked about baseball.

Great stuff.

The 1951 playoff game was made famous by Russ Hodges’ radio call, “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” (Interestingly, long time (and recently deceased) Tiger broadcaster Ernie Harwell was calling the game for the Giants on their flagship station.) This 1951 comeback later became the scenario for an episode of MASH.

Why Izzo Should Not Go to the NBA

The Cleveland Cavaliers are courting Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.

He should not go. Here’s why:

First, he owns Michigan basketball. Not just University of Michigan basketball, but the state of Michigan. He is the man here.

Second, he has a chance to be a Dean Smith or a Coach K, two classy coaches who spent their lives at one school building dynasties, who are deeply loved and highly respected by college basketball. That does not come very often.

Third, college coaches typically do not do well in the NBA. Count ‘em up. After Larry Brown, the list is almost non-existent. Izzo is a great coach, but the NBA is a different game.

Fourth, it’s Cleveland. … ‘Nuff said.