College Football Is Under Siege

I have been saying this for two years now.

But now that Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly is saying it, too, maybe my argument—the argument that teams from the SEC and Big 12 have gained a massive and unfair advantage in the national championship race due to ignorant and baseless media bias, and that the game of college football is in danger of a true national meltdown as a result—will finally gain some traction.

We better hope it gains some traction. Otherwise, the sport we love is headed for a disaster.

I’ll say this much for Kelly. He’s no dummy. He’s not clouded by delusion. He fully understands the reality of his situation.

He knows that, even if his Bearcats end up running the table this season, and even if they win every remaining game on their schedule by 30 points, there is a very strong possibility—heck, I’ll call it a “probability”—that the voting bloc in the Southeast, Southwest and, maybe most importantly, Bristol, Connecticut, will mobilize and prevent his team from playing for the national championship.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If the voters in all of the myriad polls that make up the BCS formula are given the chance to choose between an undefeated Cincinnati team or a one-loss Alabama or Florida team, they will choose the SEC team.

Every time.

Guaranteed.

In fact, I will go so far as to say this: Cincinnati has less than a five percent chance of playing for the national title. And that’s even if they go undefeated.

Iowa? Well, they’ve got less than 10 percent chance.

TCU and Boise State? Zero.

Such is the system we’ve created in college football today—a system where actual on-the-field results no longer matter. The game has changed. Today, nothing matters but perception. And perception says that no team from any other conference can be as good the teams from the Big 12 and SEC.

Facts be damned. Reality be damned. Perception wins the day.

Asked about his predicament this week, Kelly caustically said the following; "Close down all the other football teams and have six teams play for it and we'll all play for something else. It's almost silly. We're already picking the national champion."

Damn right, Brian Kelly. You’re 100 percent correct. Because those voters? Well, their minds are made up. There’s not a thing you or your team can do to change their minds. Their final votes are already cast.

And here’s the part that kills me, folks: We created this BCS system specifically with the intention of taking bias out of the equation. We created this system to let the Mythical National Championship be decided on the field. Remember the pre-BCS years? Remember how championships were decided by vote? Remember how regional bias robbed countless teams of their rightful titles? Remember how angry that made us?

Well, we’re right back where we started!

In fact, we may have regressed.

It’s taken just ten years of the BCS for the powers-that-be to turn college football back into what it was decades ago: A sport in which champions were crowned before bowl games are even played.

Just like Kelly suggested, there some teams in this country that have already been eliminated from the national title race.

Cincinnati is one of them. And that's just wrong.

Here’s the bottom line, folks.

My buddies at The Worldwide Leader In Being Blind To Reality and all those guys down in SEC country may never admit it, but they—and, for that matter, anyone else who votes, by rule, for SEC or Big 12 teams over teams from anywhere else—are doing nothing short of fixing the sport of college football.

They are one step removed from the guys who fixed the 1919 World Series.

I just wonder: Who’s going to stop them?

Out And About: News And Notes You May Have Missed

• If you’re a Penn State fan, or even a casual college football fan, you know what Michigan week means to the Nittany Nation. It means ... misery. At least, that’s what it’s meant for the better part of the last decade. Because between 1997 and 2007, Penn State never beat Michigan. Not once. There was the crushing defeat on Judgment Day in 1998. The blowout in Ann Arbor in 1998. The Tom Brady-led Wolverine comeback in 1999. The shutout in 2000. There was the infuriating “we got robbed” game in 2002, and the equally infuriating “we got robbed” game in 2005. There was the beatdown in 2006. And there was the stunning “how-the-%&$-did-we-lose-to-these-guys” snorefest in 2007. Then, last year, finally, there was this: Penn State 46, Michigan 17. It was cathartic, folks. And yet, as another Michigan week approaches, Your Editor cannot help but dread what might happen on Saturday in Ann Arbor. It’s not really about worrying that we might lose. It’s worrying about how we’ll lose: Will Dave Witvoet, the worst official in the world, rob us again? Will Daryll Clark turn into Anthony Morelli and toss the game away? Will our usually stellar defense morph in to utter averageness? Will Penn State Coach and Great Man Joe Paterno play it too conservative, allowing an inferior (talent-wise) Michgian team to hang around just long enough to pull off the upset? These are the questions that keep me awake at night, folks (well, that, and the cries of Princess Leah). And I have to admit, this bit of news didn’t exactly make me any more optimistic, folks. Asked this week whether he and his teammates were confident heading into the Big House, given Penn State’s failures there, tailback Evan Royster said: "I think we feel like we're the better team and we can go out there and still beat them. It's not to make anybody mad or anything like that. We feel like we are the better team." That, folks, is what they call Bulletin-Board Material. Replied Michigan defensive end Brandon Graham: “He's just going to have to show it. ... If he feels pretty confident, he'd better prepare, that's all I can say." Ugh.

• All is not well in The Land of The Senator. Criticism of “quarterback” Terrelle Pryor—and of The Senator’s handling of Pryor—has reached a fever pitch. And with good reason: Pryor is playing worse now (he threw two interceptions and fumbled twice in last week’s 26-18 loss to Purdue) than he ever has during his time as a starter, and as I’ve mentioned repeatedly (most recently here), the kid is simply not getting any better. To me, there’s no mystery as to his lack of development: He’s simply not a quarterback. But others, as you might imagine, have different opinions. First, there is Pryor’s old high school coach, Ray Reitz, who this week told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that The Senator and his staff simply aren’t using Pryor correctly; Reitz says though Pryor chose Ohio State because he was promised he would run a “pro (snore)-style offense,” it’s glaringly obvious that Pryor is a runner first, a passer second—and that Ohio State should, naturally, let him run more. Said Reitz: “The kid wants to be in the NFL and Ohio State ran an NFL-type offense, and there's a lot of validity in that. I understand where he's coming from. What I'm saying is, it would enhance his athletic ability if you run more of that [option] stuff.” Pryor, for his part, refuted Reiz’s comments, saying he came to Ohio State “to be a quarterback.” Pryor also said (here’s a surprise!) that he learned a lot from the Purdue loss, and that (here’s another surprise!) things are going to be different from now on. "Last week, that opened me up to the world and opened me up to myself and who I am as a person, and us as a team. Maybe that was the best thing that happened to us.” And maybe you’re not a quarterback.

Quick Hits: Straight And To The Point

• For the record, I'd like to state the following: Given the amount criticism I’ve thrown Terrelle Pryor’s way of late, I fully expect him to throw for 300 yards and rush for 200 when the Buckeyes come to Happy Valley in three weeks.

• Last week, BYU won the 500^th game in program history. And what a coincidence that, on the same weekend, BYU’s biggest rival, Utah, won the 600^th game in their program’s history. That’s just odd.

• I have been feeling somewhat nostalgic of late, folks. And the year I am most nostalgic for? 2005. That was a good one. Both in football and in life. Also was the year I discovered Victory Hop Devil.

• Iowa is currently ranked. No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25, behind one-loss USC and every other undefeated team except for TCU. The Hawkeyes are No. 8 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. This, despite the fact that Iowa is the only undefeated team in the country to have beaten three teams in the BCS Top 25. How many has Florida beaten? Answer: one. What does this mean? Answer: Any voter who has Iowa ranked lower than No. 5 is a complete flipping moron and should have their voting rights revoked.

• Besides, of course, the About.com Heisman Trophy Watch, there are two principal weekly opinion shapers in the Suzuki Heisman Trophy race, folks. One is CNN/SI’s “Heisman Trophy Watch,” penned by Gene Menez. The other is the cleverly named "Heisman Trophy Watch" compiled by (surprise) ESPN. And what is striking to me about the current differences between Menez’s selections (and About.com’s, of course) and those of ESPN is this: Menez at least recognizes that The Chosen One is not playing all that well. ESPN, as per their habit, has chosen to completely ignore the stats/facts/reality. If ESPN wants to know why people get frustrated with them, well, this is one small example why.

• Speaking of The Worldwide Leader in Ignoring Stats/Facts/Reality, these jokers are still all about the SEC. Yes, ‘Bama is the nation’s No. 1 team. And yes, Florida is undefeated (note that I did not say the Gators are the nation’s No. 2; that honor instead goes to Iowa). But Tennessee is awful. Georgia is average. LSU will be proven average (trust me). Auburn is average. South Carolina is average. Arkansas is average. So please, somebody, tell me why this league is so great? When two of your longtime powers are suffering historic lows (Georgia, Tennessee) that means your league isn’t as good as it used to be. Why won’t anyone just admit this?

• So as I type this very Quick Hit, I am sitting on an Amtrak train headed up to New York, where I am to conduct an interview for The Day Job. Usually I enjoy traveling Amtrak, too. But on this fine day, my otherwise pleasant train ride has been ruined by the asshat sitting (well, not sitting; laying down) in front me. I am trying to type here, folks. But this jerk has his seat reclined all the way back. Thanks, dude. Oh wait, you're a girl. Now I feel bad.

• Newark has got to the ugliest city on the planet. You know that setting for the scene at the end of The Great Gatsby, when it all goes to hell? Well, that’s what the entire city of Newark looks like as you pass by on Amtrak.

• TCFA Song of the Week: "Set Out Running," Neko Case. She has the best voice in the world.