The Penn State Football Show

I figured I'd use this blog to express some of the issues I have with the current college football system.

I've never really voiced much of an opinion on the BCS in the past. While people have been making a big stink about it for years, my stance was always "Yeah, it has it's flaws, but its 500 times better than the previous system."

People seem to forget that before the BCS, there wasn't even a national championship game! The conferences would send their teams to whichever bowls they were assigned, so the #1 team could wind up playing the #17 team. It was pretty ridiculous. People now make the argument "How can you crown a national champion without having a playoff?!" Well, at least they have a national championship game now. They used to crown a champion without even playing a national championship game.

So, in that regard, I never was very against the BCS. Until now. This season has made it more clear than ever that a playoff is necessary. The fiasco in the Big 12 was ridiculous, not to mention the fact that Utah went 13-0 with some very impressive wins, and doesn't get a shot for the national championship. Rick Reilly wrote a great column on why Utah should be the champs, check it out if you get a chance at ESPN.com.

Anyway, I think a playoff would be much better than the current bowl system. College football in my opinion has by far the best and most exciting regular season of any sport, but probably the worst post-season. Some teams don't show up in their bowl games because they are unhappy to be at that particular bowl, and it throws everything off. Besides, if you can't win it all, what exactly are you playing for?

The thing that bothers me the most about the BCS, though, is the fact that the entire reason it exists is money. Think about it: how many people do you hear on TV complaining about the BCS? How many people do you hear defending the BCS? Certainly not many, if any at all. Coaches, analysts, players, virtually EVERYONE agrees that there needs to be a change made. So why isn't there one? The Conference Presidents and University Presidents with all of the money and all of the power won't allow it. The BCS system allows the major universities in the major conferences to clean up financially. They fear that a change, while better for the sport and the athletes themselves, would harm them financially. So they won't sign on to do it.

To me, that's ridiculous. One of the things that makes college athletics so special and unique, is that it's supposed to be void of the distractions of money. The players are all amateurs, and more importantly, students. Unlike the pros, they aren't playing for millions of dollars and signing huge contracts and getting various endorsement deals. So, if this is one of the aspects of college football that is promoted to make it seem wholesome and genuine, then how can you totally contradict yourself by sacrificing the benefit of the game and the players for the sake of the monetary interests of the universities? It really bothers me that, in this sense, college football has become more of a business than a sport. I hope these conference presidents and higher ups are exposed and a new system is put in place that will truly benefit the game.

On to less important matters that still irk me:

Why does the NCAA feel the need to continually mess with the rules in crazy ways to attempt to make the games go faster? I hate this for SO many reasons: 1. The changes they have made so far, don't make any sense and don't fit in with the game of football. Remember that dumb rule two years ago that Bielema exposed against Penn State where the clock started when the ball was kicked? If not, let me refresh your memory: Two seasons ago, there were all these new clock rules. Well, Bret Bielema, head coach of Wisconsin, did his homework, studied the rule changes, and found a blatant flaw in them. He strategically used this flaw to run out the clock at the end of the first half in a game against Penn State by purposely running off-sides before each time they kicked off. Since the clock started as soon as the ball was kicked, about seven to ten seconds were run off the clock by the time the kick return had been made. Also, keep in mind since the kickoff team was running offsides, they would get a huge headstart, and prevent any succesful return by tackling the return man immediately. Then, they would be penalized for the offsides and forced to kick again, which ran off another 7-10 seconds. They did this about three or four times until the half came to an end, preventing Penn State from even attempting a drive at the end of the half.

Many Penn State fans have complained about this move by Bielema. I have gone back and forth on how I feel about it. From a coaching perspective, it was a brilliant move, because it ruined any hope Penn State had of getting a score in before half-time. That was the intent, and it worked. You have to at least applaud him for actually reading the rulebook and realizing this flaw. No other coach in the country had done so. Not to mention, by doing what he did, he was able to bring this issue to the attention of the NCAA, and that rule was changed this season. I don't know if that was his intent or not, but if he did intend to expose the flaw to the NCAA, he was able to do that and bring about the necessary change. (Although he could have simply called them and told them.)

The thing I didn't like about the move was that it put Penn State's players in danger. Since the coverage men were getting a head start, they were right in the return man's face each time he caught the ball, and he took some big hits as a result. In my opinion, that is bush league. If you want to expose this flaw, or even use it to your advantage, that's one thing, but do so in such a way that doesn't risk injury to the opponent.

Anyway, that was a very long rant and I have strayed from my point. My point is this: I think it's absolutely pathetic that the NCAA made a rule change with such a blatant flaw, and didn't realize it. That should never happen. They should review everything very carefully to prevent something like that. It just makes them look careless. Rules should not be put in place on year and then changed the next year.
College football has been around forever. In my opinion, if you are going to be making a change in the rulebook, it should be for something that is absoultely essential and necessary. There should not be little tweaks each year like there have been the past two seasons.

This year, the whole business of the clock continuing to run when the ballcarrier goes out of bounds really bothered me. I mean, that is part of football: if you get out of bounds, the clock stops. Period. You can't just make that the case for the last two minutes of the half. This makes the game go by way too quickly. Teams don't even have much of a chance to make a comeback with these rules because the game goes by so quickly. I don't really know why they want to speed up the game, it only makes it worse. They weren't too long before, in my opinion. I hope after this season ends (tonight) they will go back and review that rule and take it out.

OK that's all I'm going to gripe about for now. More to come later. Your thoughts?