Best Team in NC, Dez Bryant, and Early BCS thoughts
First of all, I never thought I’d write this. But right now, currently, Duke is the best football team in the state of North Carolina. I know, shocking. I’m shocked. Wake not only got creamed by Clemson two weeks ago, but lost last week to Navy. Duke is talking about which bowl game they will go to. NC State somehow managed to upset Pitt, but has looked anemic otherwise. All the while, Duke talks about how Thadeus Lewis is the second coming of Wallace Wade. North Carolina can’t even hold onto a 21 point lead late against a mediocre Florida State team. If they didn’t get bailed out by the officials against UConn, they’d have a losing record right now and their only wins would be against non-BCS opponents. Meanwhile, at Duke, they’ve postponed talk of basketball season until at least November! November! Normally, they switch from football talk to basketball talk up in Durham in August. With Elon’s big win over Chattanooga last weekend, I think the second best team might be Elon. Unbelieveable. Hopefully Duke will upset overrated Georgia Tech in a few weeks and we can put this “left out of the BCS” talk to rest for the Yellow Jackets. Which leads me to my next thoughts…
It’s still too early too talk about who is getting ‘left out’ of the BCS and who the two teams that should be playing in the title game are. Too early. Way too much football to be played. I’ve heard people actually say that if all 7 teams went undefeated how unfair it would be to particular teams, etc. Like 7 teams are actually going to go undefeated! Not happening. Two of them play each other. How are they both going to be undefeated after that game? The most teams I can ever remember being undefeated at the end of the season is 3. So, the likelihood of 7 teams ending up without a loss is slim to none. USC will lose at least one more game so everyone can stop talking about how the computer polls rank them so low. The computers understand that the Washington loss was a bad loss and the USC defense has looked weaker and weaker as the weeks go by. And just because the humans despise the Big 10 and think that the best team in the Big 10 doesn’t deserve consideration and ranks Iowa poorly, that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be ranked highly in the BCS by the computers. The computers realize that all Iowa has done is win, that they have beat more teams with winning records than any other team country. Even though they have scraped by a few times, so has Florida, so has Alabama, so has Texas. Ohio State’s misfortunes in BCS title games is Iowa’s biggest enemy right now. Our biggest problem with the BCS is going to be the shear amount of one loss teams. Some of the numbers I look at when evaluating teams are turnovers, points per game (both scored and given up) and yards per point. According to one of my power polls that uses these stats, Cincinnati is the best team in the country. And yet, everyone discounts them as second class citizens. I’m not saying they should be the number one team, I’m just saying that statistically, there is no reason for people to dismiss them, especially as easily as they do. There will probably be 7 or 8 or those. I think the amount of 1 loss teams are going to be the biggest issue come season end. But hear this, I think the current BCS rankings are fine, I have no issue with how any team came out in the rankings except that maybe USC is ranked a spot or two above where they should be.
No one should ever try to understand the NCAA. Never. It will cause your head to explode. Want to know why people have brain anurizms? It’s becaue they are pondering NCAA rulings. The most recent one that bewilders me is Dez Bryant. I work at a law firm. I understand that lying is normally just as bad as committing the crime. In e-discovery there is term called spoliation. Spoliation basically means that once litigation has begun, deleting or losing data, either on accident or on purpose, then the missing data is considered to be incriminating, even if it wasn’t. You could simply be cleaning up your mp3 collection and blow up the entire case. So, I understand that what Bryant did was wrong and the severity of it. However, suspending him for not just the rest of this year, but into next season too is absurd. I hate it when they try to make statements when a case like this one is high profile and in the media. We don’t need a statement case just beacuse it’s being covered by the media more. Dez was apologetic and fessed up. All indications is that he’s a good kid that got nervous and made a mistake. Why not make a statement with someone who isn’t. It’ll make it to mainstream media if you do. I guess it just seems unfair to me that Bryant is effectively missing all of this season and parts of next season for jogging with a former NFL player who is not an agent and then Oregon is allowed to bring LaGarrett Blount back after 7 games when he sucker punched an opposing player on national TV on opening night of the season when everyone was watching. And Blount has a history of getting in trouble. He’s the one that should be told to never play college football again.
Mark McGwire and Pete Rose
So, let me get this straight. Everyone and their mother knows that Mark McGwire took substances in order hit home runs. The legality of it all, which substances, for how long, etc, we’ve never gotten a straight answer on and never will. He admitted to at least taking something, though, and that particular something was probably not all he took. Regardless, it’s safe to say that good eating and a better workout regime is not what caused him to bulk up and run down Roger Maris. Despite the fact that it’s a bad move for the Cardinals as he has no professional coaching experience and he wasn’t exactly known for his hitting prowess as much as his propensity to strike out, I’m more surprised that Bud Selig has nothing to say about it and let’s him into the league as an assistant coach with no reservations. Is betting that much worse than steroids? They both violate the “integrity” of the game (which I’ve already blogged about a while back that baseball has never had very much integrity to violate) and both won’t fully admit to what happened or apologize. And yet Pete Rose, who could hit, is banned for life and can’t be admitted into the Hall of Fame and Mark McGwire, who can’t hit, can easily become a hitting coach with no apprehension from the league? What a sham of a league. Just another one of the many reasons why baseball has fallen from it’s status as America’s Pastime and is falling further behind football in our collective sports conscious. I don’t have any experience as a professional hitting coach, but I’ve taken leadership classes, coaching classes, and watched a ton of baseball. Also, in little league, I was known for my ability to strike out against any pitcher, am I qualified to coach in MLB or do I need to have done steroids and lied under oath about it first? Wait, wait, never mind, I always participate in March Madness pools, so I’m technically banned for life from baseball.
NASCAR circa 2009 vs. CART circa 1994
I am about to make a bold prediction. NASCAR will split and a new series will form within 2 years. That is my opinion, I’ve not heard rumors of such or anything. I just know that many fans are starting to feel the same way as me based off of message boards and ESPN article comments.
The first and number one reason is none other than money. If you will recall, one of the reasons for the CART/IRL split was that the series was dominated by a handful of wealthy teams. Thus has become the case for NASCAR. The cost based barriers for entry into the series are tremendous, between testing, amount of cars and personnel needed, etc. Equipment and quality of team are just as important if not more important than the quality of driver on your team. Just as Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske’s cars were so much faster and superior that they could take any driver and make them win, the same goes now in NASCAR for Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush. The TV contract is giant and the cost to sponsor a car has grown to the extent that only the largest of corporations can afford to finance a car for the entire season. All eerily similar to the CART series in the mid-90’s. Also, it’s getting more and more expensive to attend a NASCAR race, and the typical NASCAR fan isn’t your upper middle class business executive with significant discretionary income. NASCAR needs to make it’s money off TV deals and licensing fees, and not suck every penny they can out of fans on race day.
The second reason is also very important and that’s the way that the championship is decided. The Chase for the Cup isn’t working. It was designed to try and keep interest in NASCAR after the NFL had started it’s season because people were running away with the championship. It’s not a bad idea entirely. However, it negates the regular season too much. It’s not like a traditional playoff system because the guy who was 10th in points with no shot of winning the championship, now has a pretty good chance. I know that there’s some separation based on the regular season, but there needs to be more. For example, in football, there’s opening week bye’s and home field advantage. You can win every race and dominate the season, but once the chase starts, you are still just 5 points ahead of second place. Also, the points are confusing, I’ll never understand how second and third place can sometimes earn more points than the winner of the race. In CART, there was debate over whether some of the races should be worth more points than others and how many positions should earn points, etc. Many were upset with how the championship was decided. In my opinion, they need to rotate the 10 tracks that are used. If I were a NASCAR driver, I would only test and practice at the Chase tracks. I’ve seen it calculated before, you only need to finish something like 10th place on average to get into the Chase. I’m not saying that’s easy, but aiming for 10th every week is certainly easier than winning every week until you need to. The timing of the races needs to change so they are not competing directly with the bulk of the NFL games, which kick off at 1:00 pm on Sunday. Run them Saturday night, Sunday night and maybe even Friday night if possible. But they can’t survive mono e mono with the NFL and win the TV rating war, not even with a sham Championship points system, so what’s the point? Besides, what’s wrong with the best driver winning the championship? I know, I know, the best team doesn’t always win the championship in other sports either, but I guess I don’t understand why we need 36 races if we aren’t going to give the championship to driver with the best season in the end.
Back in the mid-90’s, a major complaint against CART was all the regulations and lack of stock equipment. NASCAR is supposed to be stock car racing, however, need I remind you of the Car of Tomorrow. Which has reduced the variances in manufacture, increased the amount of standardization and regulations, and reduced the amount of stock equipment used in the car. There are more manufacturers than ever with the addition of Toyota, but less actually variety in cars. It was supposed to increase cost efficiencies for the teams, but if it did, why are only the richest, largest teams the most successful? I understand that for safety and competition reasons, the cars can now longer be suped up cars that you can buy off the street, but I think the fans would like to at least see some resemblence of them and some slight variety in body type.
Another problem with CART was the drivers. Most of the top open wheel drivers were foreign and the fans wanted more American drivers. As more top drivers are choosing NASCAR over other racing series, the amount of foreign drivers are not increasing, but more drivers are from areas outside the South. Though NASCAR has tried to leave its Southern roots and have a broader fan base, it’s roots are Southern and traditional. As it leaves those behind, some of its fans have been left behind too as they can’t identify with the newer drivers like they could with a Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, etc. Also, NASCAR has done a lot to limit fan exposure to drivers and has significantly reduced driver personality from the equation by placing stiff fines and point penalties for ‘bad behavior.’ Drivers can’t have a personality anymore or voice an opinion for fear they get docked points and made to look selfish and egotistical in the NASCAR controlled media outlets. That connection with the fans to the drivers that NASCAR has tried to eliminate, in my opinion, mirrors the disconnect that CART fans had with the foreign driver dominance at the time of the open wheel split.
One of the reasons that the IRL was successful was because it was backed by the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Therefore, CART lost its premier race, the Indy 500. Can NASCAR lose one of it’s premier races? If a startup or alternate series were to spin up, their key to success would be to steal a big race, such as Daytona, Talladega, or Charlotte from NASCAR. By involving one of those track owners in their ownership group, they may be able to. With more than one top billing race, NASCAR could probably afford to lose one, but as with CART/IRL, the fans would be split. The TV revenues would die down and sponsorship would dwindle trying to support two series. Ultimately, the open wheel market was not large enough to support two series, and stock car racing wouldn’t be either. Remember too, that when the IRL started out, it was much smaller and CART dominated for several more seasons until the IRL took over. A startup series wouldn’t challenge NASCAR in the beginning. But it could slowly chip away, stealing a driver here and there, then a major sponsor or two, then a major team (like when Chip Ganassi left CART for IRL in 2000) to slowly gain that momentum and turn the tables.
In the end, I feel like when/if there is a split, someday the two series will merge back into one like CART and IRL now have. But it will not come about without some bloodshed on each side. In due time, a split and the competition would help NASCAR. It will force them to re-evaluate their series and the way they do things and hopefully make the needed changes that will make them stronger in the end. I think that the CART/IRL split and now reunification as the IRL has helped open wheel racing. The fan base, TV ratings, etc are not what CART enjoyed at its height in the mid 90’s, however, had the IRL not happened and CART continued on as is, open wheel racing as we know it may not exist right now. Too many entertainment options, disconnect with the fans in an increasingly connected world, the NFL, the growth of NASCAR, etc, and open wheel racing would be in serious trouble in the 2000’s. But the IRL changed that, it lowered the barriers to entry and brought the series back to its true fans and brought about the changes that open wheel racing needed to survive in the 21st century. For NASCAR, a split may be the best thing that can happen and help stock car racing take that next step in moving up our sports world consciousness that NASCAR has been on the verge of, but unable to cross so far.
Red River Rivalry and more…
As I’m sure you’ve heard, this weekend is the big Red River Rivalry game between Texas and Oklahoma. Whereas this game has been a great game in years past and has had national title implications the last couple years as well as this year, I tend to think Texas wins this game by 14. They are still upset that they were left out of the Championship game last year even after beating OU (which I still think was the right decision, by the way) and I think the revenge factor, injuries for OU, and the OU offensive line will be the difference. I’m a little concerned that they haven’t dominated their weak competition so far, and for that reason I see OU taking an early lead and then Texas charging back and dominating the second half.
ND-USC – I don’t see this as big of a game as everyone else. I still haven’t quite figured out what everyone sees in Notre Dame that I’m missing. I see this as a blowout. Probably a 17 or 21 point win for USC. Don’t get me wrong, I still see at least one more loss for USC this season, but not the Irish.
TCU has looked really good so far this year and I feel like they should be getting a little more respect. I’m looking forward to the upcoming BYU-TCU game. I won’t be surprised if they run the table and break into the BCS, they are playing better than Boise State and are very well coached. I would be surprised to see them slip up and not give every game their best. Iowa is a very dangerous team too that is not getting much respect and flying under the radar right now because not many pollsters picked them to do well.
I think we should get rid of the over celebration penalty in college football. It irritates me. These are young kids who aren’t getting paid and 99% of whom are not going to be playing in the NFL. They can and should get excited when they’ve made a big play. Taunting should still be a penalty and it pains me to see a player celebrating a sack or tackle for loss when his team is down by 30, but a touchdown in the closing minutes of a game or big play to ice the game, you should be able to celebrate that. Another uncool rule in college football, pass interference. I hate it. It’s so vague and subjective. Unless it’s just completely obvious, let’s not throw the flag. I don’t like refs bailing out offenses for bad play calling and inability to make plays. It gets called so often, every time there is a play on the ball the receiver is begging the ref to throw a flag. Shut up, you didn’t catch it, the defender made a play, leave it at that.
I’ve never been one to blame the refs for costing a team a win because in the end, you should make the plays to win the game and a bad call here or there shouldn’t cost you the game. But the refs can change the way the game is played over time, and I feel like they have with pass interfence. We need some clarity on the rule and it shouldn’t be called nearly as much.
The Pitiful ACC Atlantic
Well, the Atlantic Coast Conference once again revealed how bad a conference it is, especially this year. In particular, the Atlantic division is pathetic. Here is what the standings look like today:
Wake Forest 2-1 4-2 Boston College 2-2 4-2 Maryland 1-1 2-4 Clemson 1-2 2-3 North Carolina State 0-2 3-3 Florida State 0-3 2-4
- Wake Forest – Beat Maryland 42-32 to jump to the top of the division as the only team with a conference winning record.
- Boston College – Got thrashed by Virginia Tech (The ACC Coastal’s division leader) 48-14.
- Maryland – Lost to now division leader Wake Forest 42-32.
- Clemson – In perhaps the best week of the season, Clemson amazingly did not lose. Perhaps that was due to the fact they had an off week to try to figure out some semblance of an offense.
- NC State – In an effort to cement itself as the worst team in the ACC, the Wolfpack allowed the Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis to go 40-50 for 459 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. They got beat 49-28 at home in Dukes first conference road win since 2003. Awful, just awful.
- Florida State – Kept their O-fer in the conference alive but losing a shootout with Georgia Tech 49-44. FSU has played the hardest in-conference schedule thus far (Miami, BC, GT), but they are now 0-3 in the conference.