BCS bashing

Note: Author is an alumnus of a BCS conference school (albeit a bad one).

The BCS is a joke. Okay, not exactly stepping out on that one. But, here's what it comes down to: Money. No, I'm not talking about the lame Bowl Money (that one's been argued to death). No, I'm not talking about TV revenue money, so has that one.

I'm going to talk about the one no one wants to talk about: The Haves and the Have nots.

The Haves (BCS Schools) have so much money from TV, Guaranteed Bowl Money, and Large Stadiums/Fan Bases that there is no way they are going to just let some Have Not play them and potentially beat them and tear down the aristocracy that they have built. The Haves have so many built in advantages to keeping the money on their ledger and preventing the money from going to the Have Not Ledger. One of the more unheralded advantages is the fact that most BCS teams rarely play out of conference road games because it doesn't make their athletic department any money. They basically hire the Washington Generals to come to town for a beating, pay them $300,000 for their time and pocket the additional 4 million+ dollars for their Women's Rowing team (insert your favorite minor sport team here). This isn't competition this is the Globetrotters sans Curly Neal!

Here are 4 teams that scare the Haves: Boise State, Hawaii, TCU, and Fresno State. Why? Because IF somehow they got into the championship game AND won, the purpose of the whole BCS would be ruined. Right now a precedent has been set that these four teams and the teams in their conferences can only finish 10th in the nation at best, which will always keep them out of the Championship Game. This is LEGAL segregation, and unfortunately this is their "I had a dream" speech. So, the BCS is never going to allow the Have Nots a way into their party, because eventually its going to cost them their free ride.

George Mason went to the Final Four 2 years ago in Hoops. George Mason (and every other DI hoops team) has a chance every year to make it to the Big Dance. Its a shame that Hawaii doesn't have the same chance to play for the National Championship in football.

Hey BCS: there's a white elephant in your living room, (this year it's Hawaii) I'm pointing it out!

My solution: 6 Conference Winners (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, PAC 10, Big 12) plus 2 of the following in this order: Undefeated Cinderella or/if not then Notre Dame if they are in the Top 6 in the BCS Poll, if none/one apply take the next highest rated BCS conference team/s.

A 3 Week (9 Bowl Game) Tournament can be managed under the current BCS system, Non qualifiers still get their bowls/bowl experience. And the fear of academics would never be in play, all of these games happen during Semester break. The Basketball Tournament takes 3 weekends and effects a lot more kids and teams than this tournament would.

This Year's Seedings:

1. Ohio State (Big Ten) v. 8. Hawaii (Undefeated Cinderella)
2. LSU (SEC) v. 7. Georgia (At Large)
3. Oklahoma (B12) v. 6. West Virginia (BE)
4. USC (PAC) v. 5. Virginia Tech (ACC)

Under this format 2 current BCS teams are left out (Illinois and Kansas, neither really threatened for their conference title). Notre Dame despite a late surge with quality wins over Duke and Stanford didn't make it.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

TZ

College Hockey Unis

Got a lot of requests for my take on college hockey uniforms after my post on college football uniforms. I have 5 top ones and an assortment of "others receiving votes".

1. Wisconsin Badgers - Two Colors, never changes from year to year...they are the Penn State of hockey uniforms. Note: the only reason I can stomach giving the hated "94 Easts" this title is that their team is always so beatable, their fans are so uneducated, and their arena doubles as a basketball gym. Enough said.

2. Maine - A brilliant design of color and class. Always fun to see a Black Bears highlight.

3. CC - For years this has always been a favorite: Black and Gold done right. A uinque type treatment for CC combined with a taste of the tiger stripes

4. Michigan - Classic Jersey never changes, great helmets. The whole package, again their fans don't know the difference between a forecheck and and a body check.

5. St. Cloud State (3rd Jersey) - A great jersey could have been much higher but their Home and Away copy of the Montreal Canadiens almost bumped this jersey to the Others Receiving Votes.

Ohters Receiving Votes:

Denver/BC - I love this uniform, the little number in front is always a cool touch. Denver needs to kill the shiny material.

UND (old logo) - an entire book could be written about the logo controversy at UND. MY vote is for the old Chicago Blackhawks style Indian head (home whites were so sharp...brings back fond memories of Gino and the old Englestad).

Minnesota 75 year replicas - The Gophers donned a 75th anniversary uniform in the mid-nineties (Justin McHugh, Jeff Nielsen era) it had horizontal maroon and gold stripes with the old school shoe lace tie on the neck.

Ok guys, your turn to sound off

Rick Reilly

I'm in the airport the other day and there he was the one and only Rick Reilly. When I was a KID I wanted to be Rod Carew, Chuck Foreman, Neal Broten or John McEnroe....somedays I wanted to be Tom Chorske but thats a whole 'nother story.

When I was an ADULT (I still am by the way), I wanted to be Rick Reilly (see bio: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/rick_reilly/archive/index.html). Rick Reilly is funny (still working on that part), a great writer (still working on that part), and highly respected.

Anyway, back to the airport. So I'm not the kind of person who approaches public figures (see Glen Mason Story below). The urge to meet the guy overcame me like a man from Pittsburgh who goes home every weekend to watch the Pitt Panthers play Big East Football...it was ugly. So for like 20 minutes I rehearsed (yeah like it was a huge sales call or something) what to say and go up and talk to him. Being respectful of his time I talked to him for about 10 minutes. As I figured, we had a lot in common and we hit it off. In fact, he asked me for my business card. My brush with fame has just been elevated from playing golf with Wayne Severud every year to meeting Rick Reilly.


Glen Mason: I sat right next to Glen Mason two weeks ago and pretended I didn't know who he was....talked the whole flight with him. At the end of the flight I introduced myself as Tony he introduced himself as Glen and we went on our merry way!

Great College Uniforms

My first blog since August 29. Hmmmmm, does that mean the sports world hasn't delivered anything worth posting? Not hardly, two days after the post Appalachian State gave me plenty to say. In fact, my high school's football team won several (more than 3) football games this year...that in itself is blog material, trust me we've sucked forever. Finally, Red Sox nation is now so big that I'm moving to Canada.

The real reason for the silence is in my previous blog, I predicted a fruitful season for my beloved Golden Gopher football team. For the record: I was wrong. The sad part is the Big Ten is really bad. Check that really, really, really bad. After watching Michigan this weekend, that team doesn't exactly strike the fear of anything into me.

Onto the fun. As most know, college football is my favorite past-time. Thought I'd share my favorite college uniforms. You'll see a trend, until the last one.

My Criteria: The uniform cannot have changed drastically over time. No such thing as an all one color or special jersey for special games, etc.

1. Alabama - the number on the helmet is so cool, the gray facemask...the tide has this one sewn up every year for me.
2. Michigan - most recognizable helmet in sports
3. Penn State - these guys don't need fancy uniforms....what you see is what you get
4. Texas - great logo on helmet....the burnt orange is very unique...they lose points for the "Texas" on the front of jersey.
5. LSU - probably would've ranked higher, but they've had a special jersey or two over the years. I absolutely love the stripe on the shoulder...they get points for their field (the tiger eye at midfield is by far the coolest/unique field graphic out there).

Honorable mention....Oregon. Okay, they miss out on every criteria on my list. Its just that I respect a team that is so far out there that they deserve a mention. I read somewhere that they have 300+ combinations of uniforms. Admit it everytime you see an Oregon highlight on Saturday, you get a little excited to check out their unis?

Time to sound off.

Big Ten Picks

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is finally here. My favorite season. College football. I can't honestly name my second favorite (NCAA BB use to be until the late 90s when a kid from Monticello decided he was too good to go to class for a couple weeks so he could play out the string, instead he played video games and turned pro...no thanks).

Here goes my picks for this year's Big Ten Football season. You can bank on at least one of these to be correct by year's end.

1. Michigan, 12-0 (will eventually run into a buzz-saw vs. LSU, USC or Oklahoma)
2. Ohio State, 9-3 (all 3 losses will be to teams beginning with M)
3. Iowa, 9-3, (easy schedule...no Michigan or OSU, Drew Tate is gone, that's 5 wins right there)
4. Minnesota, 8-4 (4 easy NC games, plus 6 winnable BT games should equal 8 wins and a trip to Alamo/Outback)
5. Penn State, 8-4 (Best team in PA, that's for sure...will beat the teams they are supposed to, that's it)
6. Purdue 6-6 (Does anyone care about Purdue...really?)
7. Illinois, 5-7 (Ron Zook continues to pile up sweet recruits and sub-.500 records...something's gotta give)
8. Michigan State, 5-7 (Best looking team on paper, worst looking team come November)
9. Northwestern 3-9 (can you say water finding its proper level?)
10. Indiana, 2-10 (some say Bowl team, I say Bowel Movement)
11. Wisconsin, 0-12 (Bielema fired in November)

Never had so much fun writing #11....boy that felt good.

All kidding aside Michigan wins BT. No one else will matter come November. The BT will be a non-factor except Michigan. They will get to the BCS game and get mounted on some living room wall by some superior team like LSU, USC or Oklahoma.

There will be one surprise: Minnesota (Picked last by everyone except me)
One dissapointmet: Wisconsin (see Iowa last year...okay they won't be 0-12)

Hot Seat Coaches:: Joe Tiller & Lloyd (I'm arrogant enough to believe that we don't have to play Minnesota on a Friday night in case the Twins make the playoffs, they'll have to come to Michigan to play instead) Carr

One final prediciton: I won't do a BT Basketball preview. Maybe WCHA for all you puck-heads.

A letter to Carl

The following is a letter written to my good friend Carl Monty who has lived in Hong Kong since January. Believe it or not, Carl likes the blog.

Dear Carl,

Hope the family is doing well and you've adjusted to the Asian lifestyle. The sports landscape has definitely changed since you left the States. Here are just a few highlights:

1. NBA refs fix games. This is the same set of guys who were cashing in First Class Tickets for Coach and keeping the money. Wasn't that a sign of things to come? Another sad sign of the once proud NBA.

2. Barry Bonds The Martyr. He hits 755 in San Diego and gets standing ovation (couldn't believe it). Then he hits 756 at home, and somehow the next day everyone and their brother is Barry's buddy and Bud Selig is the Goat for not being there. I had my left foot in the Barry-is-alright Camp until I saw an interview and he was wearing a hat that had "756" embroidered on it. Are you kidding me? Do you think Cal Ripken had a hat made that said "2,131"? No. Because he wasn't a complete idiot.

3. NFL Quarterbacks kill dogs. Michael Vick will confess to owning a dog kennel that raised dogs to fight other dogs. That's right fight other dogs. Several dogs were killed if they weren't tough enough. No this isn't an April Fool's joke. He's out of the NFL for at least 2 years. So much for an improved society. My guess is he won't be suiting up for the Cleveland Browns when he comes back!

4.Playoffs ain't what they use to be. The FedEx Cup starts this week in golf and the best player in the world doesn't need to show up in order to win. Can you name another sport where you physically don't have to show up to win?

5. The Gophers have good coaches. Tubby Smith is going to lead the Gophers to their first Big Ten Title since 1997 (error, 1982) and Tim Brewster is already turning heads as the football coach. His first recruiting class is already rated #4 in the Big Ten (18th nationally) and season ticket sales are already up 30 percent from last year. Imagine 50,000 fans for a Bowling Green game. WE'RE COMING!!!!!

6. The Pittsburgh Pirates Suck. Okay, they stunk before you left but taking a shot at the Buccos is always fun. (In a Lobl tone of voice):Great Stadium, Great Uniforms, Terrible Team.

Hope to talk to you soon.

TZ

The Bad Sports Stereotype

First of all, are there any good stereotypes? Okay, the one about big hands isn't bad (that is if you have big hands).

So I've been watching televised sports for a good 30+ years. My first memory of a televised game worth value was Hank Aaron's 715 (I was 6 and a half). As a young impressionable kid you have no idea what a stereotype is, so let's throw out the first 20 years.But over the last 10 or so years, there is this one that just makes my blood boil:

Black Guys are "athletic" and white guys are "smart". Okay I said it. This pisses me off for a ton of reasons:

1. I know a ton of really athletic white guys (and no Steensland, you're not one of them), but because they can't do a Dominique Tomahawk Jam (DTJ), they aren't athletic.

2. Conversely, I know a ton of really athletic black guys who can do the DTJ, but I wouldn't call dumb.

3. Finally, the stereotype diminishes great white performers as non-athletic (i.e. John Stockton). How many times did you hear an announcer say this about Stockton: "Stockton is so crafty". Last time I checked crafty is an important skill for all Point Guards (white or black). It also does not allow great black athletes (i.e. Ladanian Tomlinson) to be something other than an athlete and not something more...which is sad.

Here are a few smart black guys that made good on being smart rather than athletic:

1. Robert Parrish (my favorite Celtic): this guy would be lucky to be drafted today based on flash. Had Duncan-like numbers and 3 rings. Never allowed a DTJ on him, much less performed one.
2. Travarus Bennet (my favorite Gopher BB player). Was Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year twice, rarely missed a free throw, and made open shots consistently. 0 DTJs.
3. Aaron Gibson (Offensive Tackle, Buffalo Bills). This guy is 6-6 390 pounds of non-athlete. But for some reason, he was drafted in the first round and has been in the NFL for 8 years. Currently has 0 DTJs.

Here are a few dumb white guys that have/had a ton of athletic ability:

1. Jason Williams: big ranch, no cattle
2. Ryan Leaf: could only read headlines, not blitzes
3. Phil Mickelson: did you watch the 2006 US Open?
4. John Greenagel

Please add to the list.

TZ