Tag: College Football Playoff National Championship

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education and schooling ideological culture sports

Un-​Sportsmanlike Conduct

college football, sports, education, money

Tonight, the undefeated Dukes of James Madison University will travel to play the Thundering Herd of Marshall University in a Sun Belt Conference college football game. My youngest graduated from JMU, so I feel heavily invested in the team. 

Duuuuukes!

One might think this sport and spectacle a welcome relief from politics — and surely it is — but not entirely. Because, of course, these great college football programs are attached to public universities financed by us, by our tax dollars. 

The problem? As The Athletic put it recently: “For the second consecutive year, James Madison looks like one of the best teams in the Group of 5. And for the second consecutive year, the Dukes are ineligible for the postseason.”

The Group of 5 are the five best football-​playing conferences after the best five conferences known as the Power‑5. That’s pretty impressive — especially considering this is only the second year since James Madison made the jump from the second division into the first division of football-​playing schools of higher yearning and earning. 

JMU is in the big leagues; it can now play for the national championship. Well, not now. Again, this year, like last year, JMU’s football team is banned from playing in a bowl game or being declared the champion of the conference … even though last year they did win the conference … except for the rule that says they cannot win the conference.

This year, the Dukes are 6 – 0 and could perhaps go undefeated. What if College Football’s Magic Computers pick them as among the best? They would still be denied a chance to compete.

Why? Well, those are the rules the colleges and conferences have agreed on. The rationales don’t hold much water. It seems like a hazing ritual holdover to me. 

But, of course, the universities can do whatever they want. 

And suffering the harsh two-​year punishment is not so terrible for the coach who will possibly have a decade-​long career, or the university that will play on in perpetuity. 

All the unfairness is placed on the shoulders of the student athletes. Denied the conference honors and the post-​season play they deserve, these unpaid players who’ve earned millions for their schools have at least learned a lesson. When it comes to sports and money, the kids come last. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Accountability folly

Win On the Field

College Football Playoff National Championship, University of Alabama Crimson Tide, University of Georgia Bulldogs, Central Florida Athletic Director Danny White, Peach Bowl

Tonight, the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship Presented by AT&T will pit the University of Alabama Crimson Tide (12 – 1) against the University of Georgia Bulldogs (13 – 1). Millions of Americans will tune in to see the game’s winner declared “national champion.”

Regardless, University of Central Florida Athletic Director Danny White, after UCF won the Peach Bowl to finish the season 13 – 0, stated emphatically, “National champs. Undefeated.”*

What’s going on here? Well, UCF wasn’t ranked in the top four or chosen for the four-​team championship playoff. Coming from the American Athletic Conference, UCF’s strength of schedule was far below that of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and Oklahoma — all representing major conferences.

But strength of schedule is not everything; it should not trump what takes place on the field. Alabama, Georgia and UCF all played Auburn University. Alabama lost to Auburn. Georgia lost to Auburn, too, but then played again weeks later in the Southeastern Conference championship game and beat Auburn. On the other hand, the UCF Knights defeated Auburn on New Year’s Day, 34 – 27.

The whole point of the College Football Playoff is to have the champion decided on the field of play — not in a backroom by computers and politics. 

As happened this year.

The CFP should go to an eight-​team playoff, which would allow any undefeated team, even from less prestigious conferences, to be included. 

Isn’t this awfully reminiscent of U. S. presidential campaigns? There, so-​called “minor” party candidates are prevented from appearing in the debates — and thus removed from competition not by votes but by private poll results. Often before most voters have heard anything about them. 

Let winners be decided on the field and at the ballot box. Not by backroom experts limiting opportunities.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

* Apparently, UCF is putting its money where its mouth is: paying out $325,000 in contracted bonuses to the coaching staff for winning a national championship.

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