BCS

[Carolina_Packer]

In theory they are providing them with educational opportunity, but in practice it is not so.

So whose fault is it? You are honestly claiming it is the fault of the university for students that don't have the desire or work ethic to graduate? People are responsible for their own actions...

There is responsibility with both parties. The university has to provide an environment where athletes, often with poor preparation, are able to get some educational value, even if they aren't degree bound. The student has to take advantage of the opportunity.

Your view of the situation at football factories is that the athletes typically don't do any academic work, just get passed along. Total corruption. How can you just accept this situation, and absolve the university of any responsibility for changing the environment?

There are some concrete steps schools can take so that athletes get more benefit from school, even for athletes who aren't focused on a 4-year college degree. The current system too often uses and discards the players, a disgusting abuse of young people.

I agree HH. I don't think that there should be an instant expiration on their scholarship when their eligibility is used up athletically. I do think that the athlete bears some responsibility to meet some minimum standards academically during their athletic eligibility.

It's understood that an athlete might be a semester or two away from graduating because they have taken a lighter academic schedule during their respective sports season. The school should not play a game of gotcha with the athlete they were utilizing to help sell tickets and otherwise generate revenue for the school and then when they are short of a degree say, well, we've given you what we are going to give you. Granted, an elite athlete who ends up playing pro sports will not have a problem paying their own way to come back, but what about the many more who will not turn pro and who don't have their degree yet? The schools should fill in the gap by extending the scholarship of those athletes as a reward for what they have done to help bolster the school's finances.

Again, the athlete needs to be responsible for keeping up academic standards and conduct standards to remain eligible for the extension after their playing days are over. The avenue and the access should be open. If the student doesn't want to take advantage, that's not the school's deal.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Big schools are academically competitive. Athletes are often admitted with poor preparation, they have the skills to compete athletically only. You can't just say they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, that's the same as putting a pencil-necked geek on the football field and saying, "show some guts and make the team."

From a little anecdotal evidence, I think many schools are already doing quite a lot to help student athletes. And the NCAA rules are reasonable. But they can do more by showing some flexibility.

What colleges need to do is open their wallets. Let athletes in the money-making, high-demand sports continue their education after their eligibility runs out. Many come after doing little work in high school, it might take them extra years to complete a degree. And even more importantly, their freshman year should be best spent on remedial courses, rather than just finding bullshit college classes that can be passed with assistance. A basic education will help them in tech school or college later on.

Only about 1% of college athletes have professional sports careers, so the argument that they are getting a chance at the pros is weak, and maybe a destructive deception for a lot of players.

[mraynrand]

The extra game complaint about the 16 game schedule is weak. Two teams will play four games, two will play three, four will play 2, and eight will play one extra game. The extra games are a small burden on a very small number of teams. Very likely, the teams competing in the final rounds will be heavily slanted towards major football schools where a large percentage of the players are there to get a shot at the NFL and won't mind the extra games (who would mind anyway? It's very unlikely that the average player will play beyond one game more than once his entire college career).

About the athletes and scholarships. I was a student athlete tutor. I can tell you that there is a good percentage of players in college are not college material, nor will they ever be. The players who are college material surprisingly take college seriously and work very hard at their academics, despite the time commitment. I also knew and was one of a number of college students who worked through school. Many of my friends worked 40hrs/week and maintained high GPAs. It's possible to do.

One change I think would be useful would be to allow players to play their four years and keep their academic eligibility, for later use. There is a reasonable number of guys who are just playing sports and don't even think about their future. Only once the sport ends do they think about academics, and then it's too late. So it would be good to have a provision to allow these guys back later to get their education, once they're more focused.

[VegasPackFan]

I know this is slightly off topic, but these players should get a piece of revenue for team paraphenelia sold in the seasons they play for the team.

Also, if you are a star player or starter on the team and your jersey number sells, you should get a piece of that too.

[Bretsky]

The six BCS conferences currently monopolize 95% of the pie.

If they go to a 16 team playoff system, they'll have to share the pie with the other schools. They don't want to do this, even if the pie is bigger.

That is precisely correct Harv.

Okay, Bretsky.

How did I get into this ? I never say you are right because it hardly ever happens

Crap, now I have to go back and read this thread.

I don't find this topic interesting

It is what it is. And it'll be a long long time be4 it changes.

What about the college kids ? Extra games in all likelihood will get added to a schedule of a team that goes to the final four and plays for a title.

What if AJ Hawk made it to the title game and Tore his ACL ?

Too many complications for a playoff system in college football.

[cpk1994]

The interest in the smaller bowls comes from the fans of both teams and the cities and businesses that host and get an economic bump, the very hard core fan that is going to watch the lesser bowl games and the advertisers who buy TV time during those games. I don't think interest will be pullled away from the lesser bowls at all. Bowl games are like pizza and sex, even when they are bad, they still are somewhat pleasing.

I think you are right. A playoff will only impact Jan 1/BCS bowl games. It would have no impact on the lesser bowls IMO.

If done properly, I think you could even greatly minimize the impact to Jan 1/BCS bowls as well...by incorporating some into the playoff and allowing first round playoff losers to have a chance to play in the other Jan 1 bowl games (Outback, Cotton, etc.)

I disagree about impact to lesser bowls. The bowls(Outback, Cotton, Cap One) would have to wait additional weeks to make their matchups. That also impacts peoples ability to go to bowl games, which in turn impacts the gate revenue.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I'm doing my own playoff system.

Participants:

ACC winner - Virginia Tech
Big 10 winner - Ohio State
Big 12 winner - Oklahoma
Big East winner - West Virginia
Conference USA winner - Central Florida
Mid-American winner - Central Michigan
Mountain West winner - BYU
Pac 10 winner - USC
SEC winner - LSU
WAC winner - Hawaii
At large - Georiga
At large - Missouri
At large - Kansas
At large - Arizona State
At large - Florida
At large - Illinois

First round
#1 Ohio State vs. #16 Central Michigan
#2 LSU vs. #15 Central Florida
#3 Virginia Tech vs. #14 BYU
#4 Oklahoma vs. #13 Illinois
#5 Georgia vs. #12 Florida
#6. Missouri vs. #11 Arizona State
#7. USC vs. #10 Hawaii
#8. Kansas vs. #9 West Virginia

ESPN has stolen my idea.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls07/bracket

I did.

#1 Ohio State vs. #16 BYU
#2 LSU vs. #15 Boston College
#3 Virginia Tech vs. #14 Wisconsin
#4 Oklahoma vs. #13 Illinois
#5 Georgia vs. #12 Florida
#6. Missouri vs. #11 Arizona State
#7. USC vs. #10 Hawaii
#8. Kansas vs. #9 West Virginia

Simulated.

Ohio State, Kansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Missouri, USC, and LSU won in the first round.

In round 2, Kansas upset Ohio State, Georgia beat Oklahoma, Missouri beat Wisconsin, and LSU beat USC.

In the semis, Kansas upset Georgia and LSU beat Missouri.

LSU beat Kansas in the national title game.