Week Fifteen: Eight Seconds

Eight seconds.

It's hard to believe that the Longhorn's season came down to 8 seconds in Lubbock. With eight seconds left, Graham Harrell throws an interception ... almost. 

But let's not play "coulda shoulda woulda". It is what it is, and all it does now is highlight the stupidity that is the BCS. There is a good possibility (if you believe the pigskin prognosticators) that Texas will play Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. Hold on a second - that gives the Big 10, the craptastic Big 10, two teams in the BCS. Ohio State is barely scratching into the top 10. Texas Tech, who has been there all season and is still number 7 or 8 in most polls (and who's only loss was to Oklahoma, lest we have selective attention again) is getting the short end of the BCS stick. And yes, let's not forget that Texas beat OU - regardless of whether it was October or December. They were still number one at the time.

Here's a thought - I think we should send Texas and Texas Tech to Tempe. Better yet, let's just cancel Tempe and have the game in Waco or Dallas. Surely we can line up a decent high school field somewhere between Lubbock and Austin.

I feel badly for Mike Leach - well, sorta, since he did just score a big pay increase. Of course, everyone gets a pay increase or contract extension as a college coach. Mike Gundy is 27 - 22 at OSU ... contract extension. Charlie Weis - yeah, I won't go any further on that one. Sorry Golden Domers. That deadly contract extension is a sure sign that next season will be ... lousy. And don't worry, because there is a "coach recycling program" in the college and pro ranks!

Of course, Texas probably isn't the one to talk either. At one point, didn't they have 3 ex-coaches on their payroll?

But back to that dastardly eight seconds. That's also the amount of time that Sam Bradford had to find a receiver on virtually ever play tonight against Missouri. I can tell you that if the average JV quarterback gets eight full seconds to make a decision and find the right receiver, he'll do pretty well. So let's not even think about Bradford as a Heisman candidate until we see what he does under pressure. Oh yeah, we did actually see that - when they played Texas.

Now if you want to give the Heisman to his offensive line - I am all for that. They are one solid unit, and would make a lot of quarterbacks look fabulous!

What else is there to say about tonight's game? Not much.Oh, wait - it did reaffirm that there are now three  things you can count on in this world - death, taxes, and Bob Stoops running up the score for the benefit of the computers. Seriously, Bob, what's the deal?

We also got to see an interview with Dan Beebe, Big 12 commissioner. Somewhere along the line, he stated that the players don't want a playoff since it would remove the option of experiencing the hoopla of a bowl game ... or something to that effect. Dan, you might want to ask any player in the Big 12. Let's start with Texas and Texas Tech, if you like. If given the choice of playing in a playoff (and deciding this on the field), or going to the "Whatever Bowl" (which anyone can do at any time, as long as they have a minimum of 6 wins and some legendary "style points"), I can almost guarantee what the answer will be. Dan - ask the players, ask the coaches, ask the fans - ask anyone.

Then he told us how it might ruin the regular season, and that in 10 years we might regret having made the decision. Are you serious? A college football national championship final would be HUGE! And he has apparently not been in Austin lately, where we get 80,000+ fans attending UT versus North Texas! The regular season could afford to be a game or two shorter. They are just filler material anyways.

Since I am on the topic, I will (here and now) propose my solution to the sham that is the BCS.

A total of 16 teams will partake in a college football playoff. There are 11 major conferences - Big East, SEC, ACC, Big 10, Conference USA, MAC, WAC, Mountain West, Big 12, PAC 10, and Southland. Hopefully, I didn't miss any. Each conference has a conference championship - yes, that includes you, PAC 10 and Big 10. Select 5 "at large" teams - the next 5 best teams that were not conference champions. This can be done by the computers. Use the computers to rank the conferences (and teams) based on strength of schedule, and seed the teams accordingly.

Sounds a bit like college basketball, doesn't it? The #1 seed would be the conference champion from the conference with the toughest schedule (established at the end of the season). No human input necessary - though I bet that any 10 reasonably unbiased humans could agree on the top 16 teams in the country.

Use 15 of the current bowl games (you can keep the names, just shift the dates to accomodate the playoff schedule and rotate the "big daddy" as they do right now). There are no more than 15 bowl games that really amount to anything anymore. Get rid of the fluff - now. Just because you won 6 games means absolutely - nothing. And most players and coaches wouldn't mind this.

Play them off - #1 vs #16, #2 vs #15, etc. Week two, second round games. Week three - semifinals. Week four - national championship.

If we eliminate one game from the end of the season, the conference championships would be done by the end of November. The first two weeks of December could be first and second rounds, send the kids home for Christmas, then have semifinals and finals in January. No more time than they currently use. College basketball goes from October to April, and the NCAA doesn't seem to be too worried about those "student athletes".

Imagine - simple ... and no popularity contests. If you have won and played a tough schedule but still didn't win your conference (i.e. Texas Tech) you would still be in the playoffs and ready to play another day.

What do you think, Mike? Mack? Dan?

Nonetheless, I still think we should we just find that high school field and let Texas and Texas Tech play a game they deserve.