With the 2012 high school and college football seasons in the history books, it's only fitting that we take a look back at what was to me, a very exciting and enjoyable Fall. I've decided to split up my thoughts into two posts, so tonight we'll take a look at my high school football experiences and next Saturday I'll mull over my thoughts of the college football season.
This year I made it to 32 football games (24 high school, 8 college) which was down from 35 last year. (My record of 43 stands for another season.) Still, that's a pretty impressive number if you consider the fact that I'm in my second year of medical school and I wasn't sure before the season started just how many Friday night's I'd be able to make it out. In the end, I was able to find a good balance between work and play which worked out great.
Here's a list of all the high school games I saw this year in order of least to most enjoyable (for me):
24. Nov. 8: Godby 40 Lincoln 28, Gene Cox
Obviously my team losing drops the game down a little, but the real reason this game is so low is because of the manner in which it was played. Early on the game was very competitive and Lincoln looked to have the upper hand, but a lack of focus quickly spiraled things out of control. The Trojans were on the 2 yard line about to score to take a two touchdown lead when they fumbled at the goal line and Godby recovered, running for a 99 yard touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, Godby stormed down the field and recovered the ball just before it rolled out of bounds for a penalty. A couple of plays later they scored again, ending a 21 point turn around. The game never got any better. Luckily for Lincoln, this last game of the season served as a wake up call as they would win their next four playoff games, but still, it wasn't fun to watch.
23. Aug 24: Fall Jamboree Lincoln over Leon, Gene Cox
Preseason game, not very memorable and not very well played.
22. Sept. 14: Lincoln 42 Florida High 30, Florida High Field
Lincoln won, but it was a poorly played game and in a continuous rain. Lots of mistakes and poor defense.
21. Dec. 15: Miami Central 37-14 Gainesville, Orlando Citrus Bowl
Class 6A State Championship Game
20. Aug. 24: Fall Jamboree Rickards vs. Leon, Gene Cox
19. Nov. 23: Lincoln 34-21 Gainesville Buchholz, Gene Cox
Second round of the playoffs, not very close and annoying at the end because all of Buchholz's points came against 2nd and 3rd stringers in the last 5 minutes of the game.
18. Sept. 28: Lincoln 39 Rickards 3, Gene Cox
17. Aug. 24: Fall Jamboree Godby over Lincoln, Gene Cox
Good close game, but frustrating at the end as the refs failed to run the clock on two consecutive running plays with seconds left and Godby won on the last play of the game as time expired. Meaningless win, but still frustrating.
16. Oct. 18: Lincoln 39 Ocala West Port 0, Gene Cox
15. Sept. 21: Lincoln 54 Chiles 7, Gene Cox
The T-wolves have still never beat Lincoln. Fun game, but never close.
14. Sept. 7: Colquitt County 14 Lovejoy 7, Mack Thorpe Stadium (Moultrie, GA)
Close game between two very good teams, but it was rather boring with neither offense doing much.
13. Oct. 12: Lincoln 49 Leon 10, Gene Cox
The biggest rivalry in Tallahassee is always a rewarding game when Lincoln wins, but in terms of competitiveness is was even more lopsided this year than usual. Leon was just plain bad.
12. Dec 14: Godby 21 Immokalee 20, Orlando Citrus Bowl
Class 5A State Championship Game, close game and a very exciting and weird finish, but the vast majority of the game was just dull.
11. Oct. 26: Gainesville 14 Madison County 9, Boot Hill (Madison, FL)
Another close, yet boring game.
10. Oct. 5: Lincoln 45 Gainesville Buchholz 7, Citizens Field (Gainesville, FL)
9. Oct. 19: Liberty County 20 Blountstown 7, Bulldog Stadium (Bristol, FL)
First time ever going to a Liberty County game. Nice stadium, big rivalry game, and overall a lot of fun.
My top 8 high school games will be revealed next Saturday along with my thoughts about the college games I attended!
-JT
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Football Fridays: My Solution to the College Football Postseason
If you're not a huge fan of college football, turn away now. (Don't worry, if you're not a sports fan, my blog doesn't deal with sports 5 days of the week, so check back Sunday.)
Ok, that fact that you're still reading this means your predilection for understanding and caring today's topic is significantly increased. This being my last Football Friday until next Fall, I've decided to tackle (hahaha, unexpected football pun) a problem which interests me greatly and is at the forefront of national attention right now: the College Football Postseason. So hang on for a wild ride because we're about to plummet into the extremely complex and controversial.
If you follow ESPN or any other sports outlet, chances are that you've heard sports writers refer to the BCS bowl system as "broken". If you don't know the history of the BCS, however, it can often leave you scratching your head as to what exactly is broken and how it got to be that way. Well, I'll attempt to ease some of that confusion with a very brief history of the system that today determines our champions of major college football. (If you already know this, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.)
Prior to 1998, there was no "system" for determining national champions in college football. 'But how did teams win the national championship?' you ask. Well, technically, no team has ever actually won a national championship as the NCAA has never officially sanctioned a champion. That doesn't matter however, as a champion is still recognized and accepted each year by the general public. Before the BCS this process of identifying a champion was done exclusively by third parties, mainly polls, at the conclusion of the season. Teams would play in bowl games (most bowls at this time did not have conference tie-ins, more about that later) and then the polls would be released declaring their own national champions. Typically most of the polls agreed and a single national champion was widely accepted by the public, but sometimes there was major disagreement and almost every season there would be a few national championships handed out by various "major selectors" which were not in line with the rest.
In fact, if you count the years that Florida State was declared a national champion by 1 or more of these "major selectors", FSU could claim SEVEN national championships! (1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1999) So why doesn't Florida State prance around with a banner displaying those accomplishments? Well, the reason is that two of those "major selectors", the AP and Coaches polls, are held in higher esteem than the rest. Since inception of those two polls, the generally accepted national champion(s) was declared such by at least one or both of those polls (in years that they crowned different #1's, there was said to be a "split championship").
Fast forward to 1998 when the BCS bowl system was created. Basically, the BCS was an alliance of four major bowls (the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange) which guaranteed major conference champions and highly ranked teams the opportunity to play each other in hopes of making the championship selection process easier. More often than naught, the top two ranked teams would face off against each other. For a while this worked out well, but ultimately the desire to have a true "national championship game" spawned the creation of a 5th BCS game: the BCS national championship, in 2006. A complex formula involving human and computer polls would theoretically choose the best two teams in the country and match them up, crowning a de facto national champion. This failed pretty quickly however, as people realized that the formula for picking the best two teams was often flawed and excluded other deserving teams at least the chance of winning or sharing a title. Because of this, and some of the things I'm about to touch on in the next section, it was recently decided to scrap the system beginning in 2014.
Now that we're all on the same page, let's talk about the MAJOR problems facing the college football postseason today. (It's extremely important to note that many of these problems will not be resolved even with the four team playoff method which is set to begin in 2014.)
1. Bowl Attendance is plummeting.
A picture taken at the Military Bowl in Washington DC between Bowling Green and San Jose State at the START of the 2nd half.
This year's bowl attendance average, across the board, was down over 3,000 people from last year... and that was down from the year before and the year before and so on. In fact, attendance has dropped so much, that one game (the Military Bowl in Washington DC) managed only to draw a measly 17,000 fans! To put that into perspective, that's just a couple thousand more fans than Lowndes High School's stadium in Valdosta, GA can hold. Some people argue that this is the result of having too many bowls, but if that alone were the case, we wouldn't expect to see a sharp decline in attendance in BCS bowls or bowls featuring teams with major fan bases... but we are. In fact, when UF, a program with very large fan support, is only able to sell 7,000 of it's 17,500 school allotted tickets and the Sugar Bowl has its lowest attendance SINCE 1939, you know something's wrong.
2. Bowl tie-ins cut down on interesting and competitive match ups.
Not too much to say here, case in point is the Orange Bowl this year with FSU and Northern Illinois.
3. Half of FBS is essentially denied a chance to win a national championship before the season even starts.
Because the current format (or even the version coming in 2014) is so exclusive, it's virtually impossible for teams from "mid major" conferences (the Mountain West, Conference USA, Sun Belt, Mid American, formerly WAC, and soon to be Big East) to climb high enough in the rankings for an opportunity to compete for a national championship. Because of this, it cannot be said that we have a true national championship in major college football.
4. A highly exclusive championship game or series drastically cuts interest in every other bowl game.
Having a single national championship game, or even three (including semifinals in two years) decreases interest in every other game that is not the national championship. Now of course this is bound to occur in any scenario where there are non-championship-stake games (like the NIT in basketball), but since it's SO exclusive in college football, almost every game is left with this negative aura, and as a result any season for any team that does not end with a national championship is viewed as a complete failure (not so much the case in any other sport where playoffs are used).
And the obvious...
5. A national "playoff" with only (currently) two or four teams will routinely exclude teams which legitimately have the potential to be the best in the country.
It happens almost every year. This year, Oregon. Previous years, Boise State, USC, Oklahoma, Ohio State, the list goes on and on. Almost every season there's controversy about the team(s) that got left out and it's impossible to answer with absolute certainty whether they deserved it more or not.
And all of that leads up to this: my proposal for a solution to the current BCS mess and current impending lackluster remodeling.
Let's start with the national championship and then address the bowls.
My proposal would be to expand the current expected 4 team playoff to a 16 team playoff with 10 automatic bids going to the 10 conference champions (the WAC is now dead as far as football goes) and 6 at-large bids remaining for the next 6 highest ranked teams. Additionally, each conference would be limited to a maximum number of 4 teams in the tournament so as to prevent a single conference completely stacking the field. This would provide a perfect balance between smaller conferences (like the Sun Belt) and larger ones (like the SEC): On the one hand, teams in smaller conferences would have something to play for (an automatic bid) while larger conferences are not punished for having better competition (the strongest conferences will receive the most bids).
Here's how the tournament would work: 16-teams with 8 first round games to be played at the home field of the 8 highest seeded teams. (1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc.) The following 2 rounds would be then be played at what are now considered to be the best bowls on a rotating basis. The bowls would get preference in picking whichever match up (resulting from the first round) they wanted based on their order that year. What I mean by this is, bowls in this category would rotate each year, moving up a spot. The top 2 spots would host the semifinals, the other 4 the quarterfinals. Bowl payout (to the teams appearing in the games) and preference for picking a game would increase with each rotation upward. For instance, if the Orange Bowl one year was the highest in the order, and a Florida school made it to that round (regardless of who they'd be playing), the Orange Bowl would probably want to pick that game as to have a higher attendance.
The six quarterfinal and semifinal sites would be: the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Chik-fil-A Bowl.
Finally, the national championship game would be bid out each season to any city in the country, similar to how it's done with the NFL. This would generate more revenue for the NCAA and also give fans all across the country an opportunity to see a championship game close by.
As for how the tournament might have appeared this year:
First Round
16. Tulsa (CUSA champs) @ 1. Alabama (SEC champs)
15. Arkansas State (SBC champs) @ 2. Notre Dame (at-large)
14. Utah State (WAC champs) @ 3. Oregon (at-large)
13. Wisconsin (B10 champs) @ 4. Georgia (at-large)
12. Louisville (BEC champs) @ 5. Florida (at-large)
11. Boise State (MWC champs) @ 6. Stanford (P12 champs)
10. Northern Illinois (MAC champs) @ 7. Kansas State (B12 champs)
9. Oklahoma (at-large) @ 8. Florida State (ACC champs)
Quarterfinals
8. Florida State vs. 1. Alabama in the Sugar Bowl
7. Kansas State vs. 2. Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl
6. Stanford vs. 3. Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl
5. Florida vs. 4. Georgia in the Chik-fil-A Bowl
Semifinals
4. Georgia vs. 1. Alabama in the Orange Bowl
3. Oregon vs. 2. Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl
Championship TBD
***It's important to remember, this was based on the rankings at the end of the regular season, not after the bowl games this year, hence why no Clemson. Obviously if done retrospectively, Clemson would have taken Oklahoma's place.
Critics have two major arguments when it comes to a 16-team playoff: The first is that playing potentially 4 games is too many and cuts into classes. The second is that teams like Arkansas State or a team from the MAC couldn't compete, so why even bother including them?
My answer to both of these criticisms is: First off, every other NCAA sport has a playoff. Every other division of college football (D-III through FCS) has a playoff (with 24-32 teams in each in fact). Somehow all those sports and all those levels of football are able to conduct their playoffs with minimal time lost in class and without any significant extended risk to players. If it can work in virtually ever other level of competition, why not the highest where it's arguably needed the most? And secondly, when was postulating about whether a team can compete ever an argument against an expanded playoff. If anything, that should be an argument IN SUPPORT. Upsets happen every day in football, and even if a smaller team does perform as expected and get blown out, well, those kids and fans will have the thrill of playing in the national spotlight and having the dream of winning a championship regardless of how realistic it is or isn't. No one sees SWAC and MEAC players complaining that they made it to the Big Dance after they lose by 30 points to Duke or Kentucky. Fact is, they made it, and they're proud.
Ok, now with the playoffs out of the way, what about the rest of the postseason? What about the bowls?
Well, I have a solution that would cut down on the number of teams without cutting down on the number of postseason games AND make bowls more exciting and higher attended.
Here's how it'd work:
First off, get rid of all bowl tie-ins and allow the bowls to pick whoever they want. This increases the prospects for interesting and competitive match ups and also increases attendance due to higher excitement levels and closer proximity teams.
Second, divide the non-playoff (current existing) bowls into 3 "tiers" based on payout. Similar to the bowls in the playoffs, bowls within each tier would rotate for selection order. And here's where we cut down on the number of bowls: the lowest tier (Tier 3) would be divided in half into a group A and group B. Each year, the group which would be playing games would flip. So one year, bowls in group A would play, and the next bowls in group B would play. The negative is that each of these bowls would not play each year, but on the flip side, they're not very prestigious and they're compensated for this loss by having lower payouts.
The really neat thing with how this all works out is that since we have multiple rounds of playoffs, we end up with the same number of postseason games as we have now, but fewer, more selective, teams. (There are currently 35 bowls and 70 teams in the postseason, under this proposal there would still be 35 games, but only 56 teams.)
***Note, the following teams which made bowls this year would not have made a bowl under this system: Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Duke, Iowa State, Kent State, MTSU, Nevada, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Rice, Syracuse, UL Lafayette, UL Monroe, and Western Kentucky.
And there you have it. My proposal for how to fix the college football postseason. If you made it through all of that, I want to sincerely congratulate and thank you. Honestly, that took quite the effort. Now if you would please excuse me, I am going to submit this as my thesis.
-JT
Ok, that fact that you're still reading this means your predilection for understanding and caring today's topic is significantly increased. This being my last Football Friday until next Fall, I've decided to tackle (hahaha, unexpected football pun) a problem which interests me greatly and is at the forefront of national attention right now: the College Football Postseason. So hang on for a wild ride because we're about to plummet into the extremely complex and controversial.
Alabama has dominated in recent years, but for the second time, a highly ranked Oregon was denied a chance to play the Crimson Tide due to a limiting championship system.
A Brief History
If you follow ESPN or any other sports outlet, chances are that you've heard sports writers refer to the BCS bowl system as "broken". If you don't know the history of the BCS, however, it can often leave you scratching your head as to what exactly is broken and how it got to be that way. Well, I'll attempt to ease some of that confusion with a very brief history of the system that today determines our champions of major college football. (If you already know this, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.)
Prior to 1998, there was no "system" for determining national champions in college football. 'But how did teams win the national championship?' you ask. Well, technically, no team has ever actually won a national championship as the NCAA has never officially sanctioned a champion. That doesn't matter however, as a champion is still recognized and accepted each year by the general public. Before the BCS this process of identifying a champion was done exclusively by third parties, mainly polls, at the conclusion of the season. Teams would play in bowl games (most bowls at this time did not have conference tie-ins, more about that later) and then the polls would be released declaring their own national champions. Typically most of the polls agreed and a single national champion was widely accepted by the public, but sometimes there was major disagreement and almost every season there would be a few national championships handed out by various "major selectors" which were not in line with the rest.
In fact, if you count the years that Florida State was declared a national champion by 1 or more of these "major selectors", FSU could claim SEVEN national championships! (1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1999) So why doesn't Florida State prance around with a banner displaying those accomplishments? Well, the reason is that two of those "major selectors", the AP and Coaches polls, are held in higher esteem than the rest. Since inception of those two polls, the generally accepted national champion(s) was declared such by at least one or both of those polls (in years that they crowned different #1's, there was said to be a "split championship").
Fast forward to 1998 when the BCS bowl system was created. Basically, the BCS was an alliance of four major bowls (the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange) which guaranteed major conference champions and highly ranked teams the opportunity to play each other in hopes of making the championship selection process easier. More often than naught, the top two ranked teams would face off against each other. For a while this worked out well, but ultimately the desire to have a true "national championship game" spawned the creation of a 5th BCS game: the BCS national championship, in 2006. A complex formula involving human and computer polls would theoretically choose the best two teams in the country and match them up, crowning a de facto national champion. This failed pretty quickly however, as people realized that the formula for picking the best two teams was often flawed and excluded other deserving teams at least the chance of winning or sharing a title. Because of this, and some of the things I'm about to touch on in the next section, it was recently decided to scrap the system beginning in 2014.
A Broken System
1. Bowl Attendance is plummeting.
This year's bowl attendance average, across the board, was down over 3,000 people from last year... and that was down from the year before and the year before and so on. In fact, attendance has dropped so much, that one game (the Military Bowl in Washington DC) managed only to draw a measly 17,000 fans! To put that into perspective, that's just a couple thousand more fans than Lowndes High School's stadium in Valdosta, GA can hold. Some people argue that this is the result of having too many bowls, but if that alone were the case, we wouldn't expect to see a sharp decline in attendance in BCS bowls or bowls featuring teams with major fan bases... but we are. In fact, when UF, a program with very large fan support, is only able to sell 7,000 of it's 17,500 school allotted tickets and the Sugar Bowl has its lowest attendance SINCE 1939, you know something's wrong.
2. Bowl tie-ins cut down on interesting and competitive match ups.
Not too much to say here, case in point is the Orange Bowl this year with FSU and Northern Illinois.
3. Half of FBS is essentially denied a chance to win a national championship before the season even starts.
Because the current format (or even the version coming in 2014) is so exclusive, it's virtually impossible for teams from "mid major" conferences (the Mountain West, Conference USA, Sun Belt, Mid American, formerly WAC, and soon to be Big East) to climb high enough in the rankings for an opportunity to compete for a national championship. Because of this, it cannot be said that we have a true national championship in major college football.
4. A highly exclusive championship game or series drastically cuts interest in every other bowl game.
Having a single national championship game, or even three (including semifinals in two years) decreases interest in every other game that is not the national championship. Now of course this is bound to occur in any scenario where there are non-championship-stake games (like the NIT in basketball), but since it's SO exclusive in college football, almost every game is left with this negative aura, and as a result any season for any team that does not end with a national championship is viewed as a complete failure (not so much the case in any other sport where playoffs are used).
And the obvious...
5. A national "playoff" with only (currently) two or four teams will routinely exclude teams which legitimately have the potential to be the best in the country.
It happens almost every year. This year, Oregon. Previous years, Boise State, USC, Oklahoma, Ohio State, the list goes on and on. Almost every season there's controversy about the team(s) that got left out and it's impossible to answer with absolute certainty whether they deserved it more or not.
A Modest Proposal
And all of that leads up to this: my proposal for a solution to the current BCS mess and current impending lackluster remodeling.
Let's start with the national championship and then address the bowls.
My proposal would be to expand the current expected 4 team playoff to a 16 team playoff with 10 automatic bids going to the 10 conference champions (the WAC is now dead as far as football goes) and 6 at-large bids remaining for the next 6 highest ranked teams. Additionally, each conference would be limited to a maximum number of 4 teams in the tournament so as to prevent a single conference completely stacking the field. This would provide a perfect balance between smaller conferences (like the Sun Belt) and larger ones (like the SEC): On the one hand, teams in smaller conferences would have something to play for (an automatic bid) while larger conferences are not punished for having better competition (the strongest conferences will receive the most bids).
Here's how the tournament would work: 16-teams with 8 first round games to be played at the home field of the 8 highest seeded teams. (1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc.) The following 2 rounds would be then be played at what are now considered to be the best bowls on a rotating basis. The bowls would get preference in picking whichever match up (resulting from the first round) they wanted based on their order that year. What I mean by this is, bowls in this category would rotate each year, moving up a spot. The top 2 spots would host the semifinals, the other 4 the quarterfinals. Bowl payout (to the teams appearing in the games) and preference for picking a game would increase with each rotation upward. For instance, if the Orange Bowl one year was the highest in the order, and a Florida school made it to that round (regardless of who they'd be playing), the Orange Bowl would probably want to pick that game as to have a higher attendance.
The six quarterfinal and semifinal sites would be: the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Chik-fil-A Bowl.
Finally, the national championship game would be bid out each season to any city in the country, similar to how it's done with the NFL. This would generate more revenue for the NCAA and also give fans all across the country an opportunity to see a championship game close by.
As for how the tournament might have appeared this year:
First Round
16. Tulsa (CUSA champs) @ 1. Alabama (SEC champs)
15. Arkansas State (SBC champs) @ 2. Notre Dame (at-large)
14. Utah State (WAC champs) @ 3. Oregon (at-large)
13. Wisconsin (B10 champs) @ 4. Georgia (at-large)
12. Louisville (BEC champs) @ 5. Florida (at-large)
11. Boise State (MWC champs) @ 6. Stanford (P12 champs)
10. Northern Illinois (MAC champs) @ 7. Kansas State (B12 champs)
9. Oklahoma (at-large) @ 8. Florida State (ACC champs)
Quarterfinals
8. Florida State vs. 1. Alabama in the Sugar Bowl
7. Kansas State vs. 2. Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl
6. Stanford vs. 3. Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl
5. Florida vs. 4. Georgia in the Chik-fil-A Bowl
Semifinals
4. Georgia vs. 1. Alabama in the Orange Bowl
3. Oregon vs. 2. Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl
Championship TBD
***It's important to remember, this was based on the rankings at the end of the regular season, not after the bowl games this year, hence why no Clemson. Obviously if done retrospectively, Clemson would have taken Oklahoma's place.
Critics have two major arguments when it comes to a 16-team playoff: The first is that playing potentially 4 games is too many and cuts into classes. The second is that teams like Arkansas State or a team from the MAC couldn't compete, so why even bother including them?
My answer to both of these criticisms is: First off, every other NCAA sport has a playoff. Every other division of college football (D-III through FCS) has a playoff (with 24-32 teams in each in fact). Somehow all those sports and all those levels of football are able to conduct their playoffs with minimal time lost in class and without any significant extended risk to players. If it can work in virtually ever other level of competition, why not the highest where it's arguably needed the most? And secondly, when was postulating about whether a team can compete ever an argument against an expanded playoff. If anything, that should be an argument IN SUPPORT. Upsets happen every day in football, and even if a smaller team does perform as expected and get blown out, well, those kids and fans will have the thrill of playing in the national spotlight and having the dream of winning a championship regardless of how realistic it is or isn't. No one sees SWAC and MEAC players complaining that they made it to the Big Dance after they lose by 30 points to Duke or Kentucky. Fact is, they made it, and they're proud.
Ok, now with the playoffs out of the way, what about the rest of the postseason? What about the bowls?
Well, I have a solution that would cut down on the number of teams without cutting down on the number of postseason games AND make bowls more exciting and higher attended.
Here's how it'd work:
First off, get rid of all bowl tie-ins and allow the bowls to pick whoever they want. This increases the prospects for interesting and competitive match ups and also increases attendance due to higher excitement levels and closer proximity teams.
Second, divide the non-playoff (current existing) bowls into 3 "tiers" based on payout. Similar to the bowls in the playoffs, bowls within each tier would rotate for selection order. And here's where we cut down on the number of bowls: the lowest tier (Tier 3) would be divided in half into a group A and group B. Each year, the group which would be playing games would flip. So one year, bowls in group A would play, and the next bowls in group B would play. The negative is that each of these bowls would not play each year, but on the flip side, they're not very prestigious and they're compensated for this loss by having lower payouts.
The really neat thing with how this all works out is that since we have multiple rounds of playoffs, we end up with the same number of postseason games as we have now, but fewer, more selective, teams. (There are currently 35 bowls and 70 teams in the postseason, under this proposal there would still be 35 games, but only 56 teams.)
| Rotation | Tier 1 Bowls | ||
| 1 | Capital One Bowl | Clemson | LSU |
| 2 | Outback Bowl | Nebraska | South Carolina |
| 3 | Gator Bowl | Miss State | Navy |
| 4 | Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl | Texas A&M | Oregon State |
| 5 | Alamo Bowl | UCLA | Texas |
| Rotation | Tier 2 Bowls | ||
| 1 | Russell Athletic Bowl | UCF | Michigan |
| 2 | Holiday Bowl | San Diego State | USC |
| 3 | Sun Bowl | Arizona | Texas Tech |
| 4 | Music City Bowl | Vanderbilt | Cincinnati |
| 5 | Pinstripe Bowl | Rutgers | West Virginia |
| 6 | Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas | Louisiana Tech | Baylor |
| 7 | Belk Bowl | East Carolina | NC State |
| Rotation | Tier 3 Bowls | ||
| 1 | Liberty Bowl | Northwestern | Oklahoma State |
| 2 | Heart of Dallas Bowl | BYU | TCU |
| 3 | BBVA Compass Bowl | Georgia Tech | Ole Miss |
| 4 | Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl | San Jose State | Washington |
| 5 | Little Caesars Pizza Bowl | Toledo | Michigan State |
| 6 | Hawaii Bowl | Arizona State | Air Force |
| 7 | Poinsettia Bowl | Fresno State | Minnesota |
| 8 | New Mexico Bowl | Virginia Tech | SMU |
| 1 | Independence Bowl | Group B | Off |
| 2 | Famous Idaho Potato Bowl | Group B | Off |
| 3 | Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl | Group B | Off |
| 4 | New Orleans Bowl | Group B | Off |
| 5 | Armed Forces Bowl | Group B | Off |
| 6 | GoDaddy.com Bowl | Group B | Off |
| 7 | Military Bowl | Group B | Off |
| 8 | MAACO Bowl Las Vegas | Group B | Off |
***Note, the following teams which made bowls this year would not have made a bowl under this system: Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Duke, Iowa State, Kent State, MTSU, Nevada, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Rice, Syracuse, UL Lafayette, UL Monroe, and Western Kentucky.
And there you have it. My proposal for how to fix the college football postseason. If you made it through all of that, I want to sincerely congratulate and thank you. Honestly, that took quite the effort. Now if you would please excuse me, I am going to submit this as my thesis.
-JT
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Literary Thursdays: Kubla Khan
Thursdays are a day that I want to dedicate to discussing literature: from my favorite books, to things I'm reading, to prose, to my own writing. Reading and writing is one of my favorite enjoyments in life and therefore, I really wanted to set a day each week aside that I could share that passion with you.
This week I'm pretty busy between a pile of med school work that is amassing and spending time with loved ones, so I do apologize that my post tonight will be shorter than previous nights or Thursdays in the future. Nonetheless, since it is my first ever Literary Thursday, I want to make it something special and so I have decided to share one of my absolute favorite pieces of poetry.
I first came across reference to this poem in one of my all-time favorite movies "Xanadu" (I won't go into any detail about the movie here because I know I'll end up talking about it some Monday or another) in which the first couple lines of the first stanza are repeated a few times. I don't know why but it just always has resonated with me. It's not so much the flowery language or the image that it produces that speaks to me so much but rather the emotion it evokes. I guess that I just picture my version of that paradise each of our minds construct somewhere deep within our personal subconscious and I feel at home. To me, Xanadu is not a place nor a time, but rather a sense of belonging. Love.
This week I'm pretty busy between a pile of med school work that is amassing and spending time with loved ones, so I do apologize that my post tonight will be shorter than previous nights or Thursdays in the future. Nonetheless, since it is my first ever Literary Thursday, I want to make it something special and so I have decided to share one of my absolute favorite pieces of poetry.
Kubla Khan
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
-JT
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Wild Card Wednesdays: Turtles
Don't blame me for it, every Wednesday I only discuss what you give me. This week the suggestions were all a tad odd, but the random number generator made the choice and turtles it is. Kind of ironic since I just finished watching Florida State wipe the court with Maryland.
So I guess that's a good way to begin this post. Does this intimidate you?
So I guess that's a good way to begin this post. Does this intimidate you?
I'm not a gamer, but doesn't Maryland's mascot look remarkably similar to Bowser from Mario Brothers?
Some people say that Maryland's mascot, the Terrapin, is not scary or intimidating; nor is their motto of "Fear the turtle". Well, I happen to disagree with said naysayers, I think that mascot is pretty darn scary... Heck, it'd scare me away from being a fan! (Ok, well Maryland fans do that on their own...) I have a new hypothesis for why nobody goes to Maryland football games... this guy:
He looks like a cross between a piece of, well, you know, and an empty seat: the perfect mascot for the U of MD.
It could also be that the terrible piped-in music keeps fans away, and speaking of music...
One of my favorite bands from the 60's happens to be, you guessed it:
The Turtle's were a big band of the 60's with hits like She's My Girl, She'd Rather Be with Me, Elenore, and of course Happy Together.
Besides having some good hits from the 60's, The Turtles also happened to write one of "our" (Miranda and me) songs: Happy Together. Here's a video of The Turtles performing Happy Together on the Ed Sullivan Show and I SWEAR to you, it's worth the watch... for entertainment purposes alone:
^^^
For some reason Blogger won't allow me to embed this version of their performance, probably due to copyright stuff, so just click the link instead, trust me, it's worth it.
Ok, so if you watched the video, you probably couldn't help but notice this guy:
Just look at that hair... just look at it!
And how couldn't you? I mean, besides his goofy acting, horrible turtle neck, and nerdy glasses, just look at that hair! His name is Mark Volman and there's good reason you notice his hair, it's one of a kind. In fact, it's so special, that Mark felt it was worth insuring for ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. That's right, in 1968 he had his hair insured for 100K against fire, theft, or loss due to illness. Hey, who wouldn't? You know a guy with hair like that has to be picking up the babes...
By the way, am I the only one who sees a very unique resemblance between our Turtle friend here and this kid from the ex-Disney show "The Suite Life on Deck"?
Long lost son?
And speaking of the Suite Life on Deck, they dealt with a lot of sea creatures since they were on a cruise ship, but they probably never dealt with this one: the Florida Soft Shell Turtle.
Isn't that just crazy looking?
I'm not a big reptile person, but I have to admit, these critters look pretty darn cool. I've never actually seen one around, but supposedly they're not too difficult to find. They also happen to be one of the fastest turtles in the world! On land that is... Which means it only takes them hours to cross the road instead of days! (Kidding of course... maybe.)
Well there you have it! As requested by my good friend Elena, that's all things Turtles for this week's Wild Card Wednesday! I hope you enjoyed it! Leave me a comment here or on Facebook if you'd like to suggest a topic for next week and who knows, maybe fate will choose yours!
Until next time,
Ok, maybe not.
-JT
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Toss Up Tuesdays: Florida, Northern or Southern?
Today's the first Toss Up Tuesday which means that I get to pick whatever subject I want to talk about! Here's a high five to myself for self serving introductions, woooo! *slap* Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about. Nothing like congratulating yourself on absolutely nothing.
Anyways, for my first ever TUT (hahahaha, Egypt) I've decided to select a topic that most of us Floridians can relate to: Is Florida a Northern State or a Southern State? And please note, I'm not talking about geography... well, actually I am, but cultural geography specifically.
I was debating about whether to include this whole long spiel on the 500 year history of what is today the State of Florida, but I've decided to spare you on that for now (unless sometime you would like to learn a little interesting history about the state, which I enjoy). Instead, seeing as I'm hoping to build more of a community here, I'll leave it open for you to tell me. So what do you think about Florida's culture? North, South, or something else entirely? If you had to divide the state into two new states, where would you divide it?
In answer to that question, here is how I would do it:
Anyways, for my first ever TUT (hahahaha, Egypt) I've decided to select a topic that most of us Floridians can relate to: Is Florida a Northern State or a Southern State? And please note, I'm not talking about geography... well, actually I am, but cultural geography specifically.
I was debating about whether to include this whole long spiel on the 500 year history of what is today the State of Florida, but I've decided to spare you on that for now (unless sometime you would like to learn a little interesting history about the state, which I enjoy). Instead, seeing as I'm hoping to build more of a community here, I'll leave it open for you to tell me. So what do you think about Florida's culture? North, South, or something else entirely? If you had to divide the state into two new states, where would you divide it?
In answer to that question, here is how I would do it:
Let me say that I'm a fan of natural borders, so in this case I'd use the Suwanee, Santa Fe, and St. Johns rivers as borders. It's also nice because it maintains county lines.
And as for how I see Florida's cultures:
As for what the colors mean: green = Southern, pink = mix of Southern and beach culture, blue = Snowbird Central, gold = ranching and farming culture, maroon = Caribbean culture
Let me know what you think in the comment section below! Also, if you haven't done so already, follow my blog by clicking the button to the right! It's super easy!
-JT
Monday, January 7, 2013
Movie Mondays: Didn't Fall For Skyfall
Disclaimer
For my first ever Movie Monday, I'm tackling Skyfall (and I know I'll get a lot of heat for this, just be sure to read the disclaimer before attacking me) which I have seen twice in theatres. Before I begin, let me first provide you with a little bit of my personal background with James Bond as to highlight any personal biases which I might have:
Bond and me
The first Bond movie I actually saw in theatres was Tomorrow Never Dies, but this was after countless hours of playing GoldenEye at my cousins' houses of course. For the most part, I really liked the Brosnan films. My favorite Bond is still Moore with Connery just barely behind, but Brosnan is a solid third. Of course the only movie he majorly tanked in was Die Another Day... gosh that was a terrible film.
Like I said, I like over the top, but invisible cars and surfing a giant wave in the arctic on an electronic surfboard is just a little too much, even for me.
This brings me to the current Bond-incarnate, Daniel Craig. I'm not a fan. Now before some of you come for me with pitchforks, just remember my disclaimer: if you love him, that's fine, but to me Craig is just not Bond. People could argue night and day about Bond being blonde (and there is a right answer, he is not according to Mr. Flemming), but what is more important to me is that Daniel Craig's version of Bond has stripped away so much of what I loved about Bond to begin with: the crazy gadgets, the humor (it's all dry now), and the sophistication. In many respects, he reminds me more of a mobster than a spy-member of the aristocracy with a penchant for trouble and the finer things in life. So unsurprisingly, none of his films rank at the top of my Bond-list.
Now with my biases out of the way, let's take a look at the actual Skyfall movie:
Skyfall: The Good
1. The Villain (Acting)
Something I REALLY liked about Skyfall, actually, probably the biggest thing I liked was the acting of Javier Bardem in playing the villain, Silva. While I do have some major issues with the character (see The Bad below), Bardem's acting alone instantly has made him one of my all-time favorite Bond villains. (For me he ranks right up there with Blofeld.) I felt like he truly captured the personality of a deranged, highly intelligent, ruthless psychopath, and I mean all of that as the highest complement. So many Bond villains find themselves either on the border of being too obnoxious or simply forgettable. It's a difficult line to tip toe, but Bardem did it perfectly.
2. The Cinematography
There are some truly beautiful scenes captured in Skyfall and I'm not just talking about panoramas. I love the delicate way some scenes were filmed, most notably the one where Bond is shadowing the assassin inside a Chinese skyscraper at night. The use of glass, lighting, and color in that whole sequence is breathtaking. Even though there is little in terms of action, it's mostly suspense, it's easily my favorite part of the movie just for it's visual artistry. Other grandiose scenes include the Chinese casino and the yacht as it approaches Silva's island (lair?).
3. The Song
4. The Family History
5. Nostalgia
6. Someone Dies
Skyfall: The Bad
1. The Villain (Background)
2. The Plot
3. Unexplained and Unresolved Issues
1. Who did the assassin shoot from the building? Why did Silva want him dead? What was the role of the girl in having him killed? Why the painting? Why couldn't they just shoot him INSIDE the room instead of from one building to the other since everyone in the room obviously knew it was happening (except the guy that got shot).
2. Why did Silva provide MI6 (and Bond) with a map of the underground tunnel system when he escaped? It obviously didn't help Silva at all since he was running around on his own. Why encode that into the virus? On top of that, how did Bond magically appear on this map allowing Q to track his location?
3. Why does the Chinese island-city look like it's been abandoned for 50 years?
4. What happened to the list of names of undercover operatives? Maybe I'm missing something, but wasn't the entire original mission (besides the side mission of rescuing M) to re-acquire the list? I understand Silva is defeated, but never once do they ever mention what happened to the list. I guess they just forgot...
4. The Bond Girl?
5. The "Gadgets"
6. Forced References
-JT
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Sanctified Sundays: Combatting Monotony
Today's post is a little bit different than the past two days. Confused? Check out the weekly schedule to the left.
Life's been pretty overwhelming lately... between my final exam last semester, visiting family, Christmas, my best friend's wedding, spending time with loved ones, and now the start of a new semester. I almost feel like I need a break after winter break! (That's never a good sign.)
Anyways, one thing I have been struggling a lot with lately is where God fits into all of this. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not referring to 'neatly packaging God away into some little time slot of my life'. What I'm talking about is God-me time: time that I can be alone with God in my life where I can silently meditate, pray, read the Bible, whatever. It's something I really long to do, and something I need to do everyday, but is becoming increasingly difficult because of my hectic life. It seems like 90% of the time I'm just too busy, and in that 10% of time I have left, I'm either too burned out or want to do something else that I haven't had time for.
It's a difficult situation and I really don't have any answers right now. In the past I've made time in the mornings or the evenings to read the Word and pray, but nowadays I find it increasingly difficult to do so. In the morning I'm exhausted from having to get up at 6:20 every day and in the evenings I'm exhausted from 7-12 hours of class and studying.
Do you have any suggestions or advice for what I could do?
Also, as a side note, I don't entirely like the title "Sanctified Sundays", anyone have a better idea? I really want my posts on Sundays to be about my walk with God and any personal struggles or blessings I have to share.
-JT
Life's been pretty overwhelming lately... between my final exam last semester, visiting family, Christmas, my best friend's wedding, spending time with loved ones, and now the start of a new semester. I almost feel like I need a break after winter break! (That's never a good sign.)
Anyways, one thing I have been struggling a lot with lately is where God fits into all of this. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not referring to 'neatly packaging God away into some little time slot of my life'. What I'm talking about is God-me time: time that I can be alone with God in my life where I can silently meditate, pray, read the Bible, whatever. It's something I really long to do, and something I need to do everyday, but is becoming increasingly difficult because of my hectic life. It seems like 90% of the time I'm just too busy, and in that 10% of time I have left, I'm either too burned out or want to do something else that I haven't had time for.
It's a difficult situation and I really don't have any answers right now. In the past I've made time in the mornings or the evenings to read the Word and pray, but nowadays I find it increasingly difficult to do so. In the morning I'm exhausted from having to get up at 6:20 every day and in the evenings I'm exhausted from 7-12 hours of class and studying.
Do you have any suggestions or advice for what I could do?
Also, as a side note, I don't entirely like the title "Sanctified Sundays", anyone have a better idea? I really want my posts on Sundays to be about my walk with God and any personal struggles or blessings I have to share.
-JT
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