BCS Debate Part II:

In yesterday's post, I discussed the historical reasons for why the BCS is a system built for failure. Today, a look at one of the possible solutions: go back to the old system.

The "old system" according to me can be defined as a world with very few bowl games pitting conference champions against each other with some polls saying this team or that team is "the best." It's a national championship in the sense that "high school national champions" are champs: some people who are supposed to know something said they were. This system encourages rivalry games (Big Ten v. Pac-10, etc.) and tradition, as well as accentuating conference play. Bowl games would be rare experiences for any but a "dynasty" team, and would put the focus on those regional rivalries instead of the more national focus of today's system. I like this system more than what we have, mostly because it is sings TRADITION like a fat Russian and doesn't pretend that the "national championship" is what really matters. The rivalry games matter and that's where the focus is.

Having said that, this system is gone forever. There's too much money to be had, and it's likely that we will continue to see the expansion of mediocre bowls, not a contraction. It still doesn't solve the problem of a long lay-off, but then it doesn't need to because the really important conference games are over before the bowl game is played.

Even though it's gone, I prefer old school honesty to BCS pretension.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another possible solution...

The Great BCS Debate...Part I

Here at 40:20 we don't enter into many debates, but I think it's time to change that. I'm throwing down the gauntlet on the BCS as a total wackjob and that there are only three solutions that are viable. In this first post, why the BCS system is a sham.

If you haven't been paying attention in previous years (i.e. Auburn), let me point you to two games this year which showed why the BCS system is a joke: Ohio State v. Florida and Michigan v. U.S.C. I don't want to talk about the whole Florida/Michigan controversy which supposedly has been put to rest, that's focusing on the smoke and not the fire. Ohio State played in that game after 51 days off. 51 days! That's almost two months! No other professional sport (except maybe boxing or horse racing, which are quite different) asks a team to remain at the top of their game and the peak of their performance for two months without a contest. NFL announcers every single year ponder whether wild card teams will have an advantage over Division champs who had only a single week off, and every year we're told that it factored in somehow when that division champ loses (see Baltimore this year). For anyone who watched those two games, there was one thing that was abundantly clear about both Michigan and Ohio State - they didn't show up. I could have told you Michigan wouldn't show up because they never show up to a bowl game or a California game, and certainly not to a California Bowl game, but Ohio State was a surprise. Tressel is too good a coach for that, and I think the system is to blame for the lop-sided wins that characterized the bowl season this year.

The heart of the matter for me is that the current system is built on a bowl structure that was never meant to produce a true national champion. Sure, there have been polled national champions for the past 100 years, but what teams really cared about were the rivalries, the conference games, and the bowls reflected that. The old bowl system was, well, collegial, and is ill-suited to produce a "true" national champion because that's not what it was made for. If your goal is to crown a national champ, you need a different system.

Part II Tomorrow...

Razorback awards



If you live in Arkansas, you are a University of Arkansas Razorback fan. This year our football team had a better than expected season, although it hasn't ended on such a high note. However there is something to be proud of, and that is Darren McFadden. For all of you who don't have the privilege of being from Arkansas, you probably don't realize just how amazing he is on the football field, because you don't get to see him too often. It is your loss though, because he just won the Doak Walker award as the best running back in the country. He is also one of the three finalists for one of the most coveted trophies in all of sports, the Heisman. Although Troy Smith from Ohio State deserves to win this one, we are still pretty proud of him around here. Look out next year. After all he is only a sophomore.

Why baseball?

With the St. Louis Cardinals, and the baseball playoffs being a common theme in my posts of late, you may be wondering why someone would care so much about something like baseball, when there are so many important things to worry about. To baseball people, it is next to impossible to explain why they like the game so much. Believe me. I tried last year to answer this exact question for my school's yearbook. I would like to share a paragraph from Ken Burns' book Baseball: An Illustrated History, which is a companion to his Baseball documentary. To me, this statement is a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg:

“The historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. has remarked that we suffer today from 'too much pluribus and not enough unum.' Few things survive in these cynical days to remind us of the Union from which so many of our personal and collective blessings flow, and it is hard not to wonder, in an age when the present moment consumes and overshadows all else – our bright past and our dim unknown future – what finally does endure? What encodes and stores the genetic material of our civilization – passing down to the next generation the best of us, what we hope will mutate into betterness for our children and our posterity? Baseball provides one answer. Nothing in our daily life offers more of the comfort of continuity, the generational connection of belonging to a vast and complicated American family, the powerful sense of home, the freedom from time's constraints, and the great gift of accumulated memory than does our National Pastime.”

World Series Champs!



The Cardinals have won their first world series in 24 years, which also happens to be the first in my lifetime! I am sure that everyone is just as excited as I am!

The Stem Cell Debate in Missouri.



Michael J. Fox has been all over the news lately for promoting a candidate from Missouri who is promoting embryonic stem cell research, but there is another ad that hopefully will be drawing just as much attention in the very near future.

Jim Caviezel (Catholic), Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton (Catholic) St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan (Catholic), St. Louis Rams Super Bowl winning quarterback Kurt Warner (raised Catholic), and Kansas City Royals player Mike Sweeney (Check out his sweet Catholic website!) are in another ad speaking against embryonic research. You can see it here.

I had seen Heaton on the cover of Catholic Digest before, and obviously Caviezel is sincere in his faith, but I didn't know this about the others. Personally I think this is pretty impressive. Kudos to them!

BTW, Suppan pitched for the Cardinals last night, and they won. God is definitely on our side!

GO CARDINALS!!!



I told you on opening day that you needed to root, root, root, and aren't you glad you did. While the rest of the world gets more and more wrapped up in football, I will be paying attention to a real sport!

Follow them through the World Series on the blog of one of the Cardinals outfielders, John Rodriguez.

Hail to the Victors! A Fan's Tribute (before disastor strikes...)

It's been a long journey for me as a Maize and Blue fan, and I can't say there haven't been times when I wished I could just shut down the part of me that loves this team. They're a frustrating bunch, seeming to savor the sweet scent of victory, but too greedy to keep it to themselves. They blow fourth quarter leads and undefeated streaks like it's their job, maybe they just want more face-time on ESPN Classic.

But not this year! Harkening back to the Glory Days in '97 (yes, I still have the hat and the shirt from that championship run), the Winged Helmets are flying all over the field, looking like a team that could challenge for the title come January. The best part of it is that we've got that blitz-the-hell-out-of you attitude back again, the one that dares you to drop back and throw, because we can probably get to the fifth step of your drop before you do. Umm, it feels so good!

It's hard not to have the weight hanging there, in the back of my mind like the Swords of Damocles waiting to end the dream at one fell stroke. I can't help the worrying, it's genetic. My dad, the only one in the family with actual ties to Ann Arbor (engineer, graduated back before we started counting time in "years") can't watch the games anymore, they ruined too many Saturdays. I wish I had the strength of will...I can't count to number of Saturday nights I've spent, wishing to God that I could find that part of my stomach that seemed to have fallen out back in the family room by the TV. Always took at least a day to remember that life would go on, that rankings weren't everything, and I could wear all that Michigan apparell again when the season was over.

So, do I think we're going to blow it again this year? Hard to tell, but I think the ulcers are on their way. I'm just so scared that Ron English is going to lose his mind and go into "prevent defense" (more like prevent-your-team-from-winning-defense), that Lloyd will call a 1 yard pass on fourth and 5, and that the demons of the past are all-too unexorcised from the Big House.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Wife Carrying - This is Getting Serious.


This is one of the best things I have ever seen, and it's just the thing to re-re-restart my blogging career. Here's an except from the authoritative site on the subject, and watch out for those crafty Estonians!

" Tired of football, basketball or other boring sports? Well, come to Finland for the ultimate world sports event: The Wife-Carrying World Championship.

In 1992, the people of Sonkajärvi decided that it was time to revive some long-forgotten traditions: back in the late 1800's there was in the area a brigand called Rosvo-Ronkainen, who was said to have accepted in his troops only those men who proved their worth on a challenging track. In those days, it was also a common practice to steal women from the neighbouring villages.

So that's how this small town in central Finland became the focus of attention of world media and sportshusbands and wives. From year to year a large number of competitors, public, and media from Finland to Canada attend the annual Wife-Carrying rendezvous in Sonkajärvi, doubling the population of the town for the weekend.

The Wife-Carrying World Championship is becoming increasingly popular. If he were alive today, old Rosvo-Ronkainen would have faced tough competition from husbands from as far away as Estonia, Norway, Ireland, or the United States of America. And being fit would just not be enough for Rosvo's troops taking into consideration that qualifying Wife-Carrying competitions are already being held in Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, the USA, and South Korea..."

Also on: ESPN, Wikipedia,

The dreaded "Estonian style carry" - dominating competition since 1994:

Win one for Il Papa!



For the Catholic baseball fan, this post and video from the Holy Whapping is a can't miss! After all, he did start the Vatican sports department!

As a baseball fan you've gotta love it.



Rookie Anibal Sanchez of the Florida Marlins, making just his 13th big league start, made history by throwing a no-hitter.