The BCS, or why not to watch college football

bonus points if you can identify this helmet

Here at the Clarion Content we don't understand why they had Oklahoma play Oklahoma State on Saturday. Couldn't they just have gotten a few computers and a bunch of experts together and voted on who was better? After all according to the BCS (read: BS) isn't that the better way to decide which team is superior?

We have no love loss for Texas. Over the years we have come around to a point of view which would argue that college football is a useless joke. There is no reason to watch save for two things, rooting for a school one has personal loyalty to, and scouting who is going to be good in the NFL. (A league where the champion is decided on the field.)

That said, we are pulling for Missouri in the Big 12 championship game (strongly) and Florida in the SEC championship game (tepidly.) We are hoping for the maximum amount of chaos to expose the system for the fraud it is. Missouri and Florida victories would leave 8 teams with a legitimate claim to a spot in the national championship game.

in no particular order
1 loss Florida
1 loss USC
1 loss Texas Tech
1 loss Texas
1 loss Alabama
1 loss Penn State
undefeated Utah
undefeated Boise State

Excellent. In that scenario the voters and 'puters definitely take Florida and then it is the proverbial coin toss between Texas and USC. Incidentally, a coin toss seems an equally, or perhaps even more fair method to adjudicate things than the status quo. Rocheambeau anyone?

One other college football note, how's this for the difference between the Texas Tech Red Raiders two best players. Superb wideout Michael Crabtree sprained his ankle in the first quarter and returned to the sidelines of Tech's game against Baylor in his street clothes to watch. Heisman Trophy candidate, quarterback Graham Harrell, broke his left hand in nine places in the second quarter, at halftime he had the training staff "tape it up" and he returned to lead the second half comeback victory over the Baylor Bears. The next day Harrell had four hours of surgery and nine plates inserted in his hand. Crabtree took a couple of Tylenol (allegedly.)

Oregon State and the Rose Bowl

Oregon State University is playing the University of Oregon today for the right to compete in this year's Rose Bowl against the Big Ten champion, Penn State. It is a game that has traditionally been called "The Civil War." Oregon State has played in the Rose Bowl twice since Pearl Harbor, once in 1965 and once in 1942. The 1942 game was the only Rose Bowl ever held outside of California. It was played in Durham, NC. Despite the obvious tie-in there to the Clarion Content, it was not that portion of the story that caught our attention.

The 1942 Rose Bowl was played in Durham in part because of war-related concerns about holding the game in California. The Japanese government had declared war on the United States only months earlier. An article in the Los Angeles Times we spotted earlier this month told a tragically fascinating story about that 1942 Oregon State Rose Bowl team. Jack Yoshihara, a Japanese American was a sophomore reserve on Oregon State's football team, as well as a wrestler. According the story the LA Times recounts, one drizzly day during practice for the 1942 Rose Bowl, two FBI men in overcoats showed up at the Beavers practice field. They spoke with the coach and escorted Jack Yoshihara from the field.

Oregon State went on to upset Duke in the '42 Rose Bowl. Many of the players on both teams went on to serve in the war, Jack Yoshihara was denied the right to enlist in the Army and was sent to the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. Oregon State awarded Yoshihara a Rose Bowl ring in 1985 and an honary degree last June. Yoshihara who lives in Edmonds, Washington after retiring from the refrigeration business he ran in Portland, Oregon is still a loyal Beavers supporter and fan. For years, he attended all their home games. According to the LA Times whatever the outcome of "The Civil War" this year, health concerns will prevent Yoshihara from attending the Rose Bowl. In 1942 Japanese-Americans were not permitted to travel more 35 miles from home, so he listed to that game on the radio, while German-American teammates were allowed to participate. He never played organized football again.

Amazingly, Jack Yoshihara's is not the only strange but true story from the 1942 Rose Bowl. The LA Times reports that, "During the Battle of the Bulge, Stan Czech, a tackle for that Beavers team, was sharing food and coffee with another soldier in a foxhole. After a few minutes of conversation, he realized it was Wallace Wade, the Duke coach. Charlie Haynes, Duke's backup quarterback, and Frank Parker, an Oregon State tackle, became platoon leaders in different companies. During the Arno Valley campaign in Italy, Parker came across a severely wounded Haynes and carried him to a farmhouse, where medics saved his life."

A reminder to all of us basking in the glow of Thanksgiving to be truly grateful. It is only a game, but the Clarion Content will be rooting for the Beavers from Oregon State to win and hopefully shine an even brighter light on Jack Yoshihara's story.

See ya P.J.

P.J. Carlesimo, coach of the NBA's Oklahoma City Franchise Thieves got canned today after a 1 win and 12 loss start to open the season. Sweet. The Clarion Content has disliked P.J. since his days at Seton Hall when some of our senior editorial staff was living in New Jersey. Carlesimo, who was a successful game coach at Seton Hall, was known far and wide as a sanctimonious jerk, who was despised by his players. As a fan of the young, dynamic Kevin Durant, the Clarion Content was dismayed when the Sonics brought Carlesimo on board. The NBA is tough enough; physical hard knocks, 82 games, money managing, road trips, et cetera, to have Durant start his career in the kind of hostile, negative atmosphere P.J. Carlesimo embodies, was the coup de grâce.

P.J. Carlesimo's style is braggadiccio and bombast. He was known for screaming at his players long before Latrell Sprewell decided to throttle him. This is the second time that Carlesimo, a Scranton, P.A. native, has been fired early in the season in his NBA career. He is not the guy you want around when things are going poorly, his attitude only makes it worse. His career record in the NBA now stands at 204-296 a .408 winning percentage.

The University of Buffalo Bulls

The Buffalo Bulls have not exactly been a football powerhouse in recent years. They came to the Clarion Content's attention recently because they are leading the Mid-American Conference's Eastern Division. The Bulls rise to prominence deserves special mention because they have been playing Division I-A football for less than ten years. As newcomers to the top division they have had to face scheduling difficulties and go on the road to play doormat to the powerhouses. Yet that hasn't deterred them, and this year the sweet smell of success is in the air. The Clarion Content originally wrote about U Buff football in effort to recognize their tremendous young head coach, Turner Gill, and to promote Coach Gill for the nearby and now open Syracuse University football coaching job.

This week the University of Buffalo Bulls have come to our attention for another, better reason. ESPN's show Outside the Lines is doing a program on the 1958 football team. This squad was the only team in 102 years of the Bulls program to be invited to a bowl game, the 13th annual Tangerine Bowl. The Bulls refused the bid, and therein as Paul Harvey would say lies the rest of the story. The Bulls of 1958 were a racial integrated squad in a still segregated America. The Tangerine Bowl was to be played in Orlando, Florida. The Orlando High School Athletic Association was at the time the Tangerine Bowl stadium's leaseholder. It strictly prohibited blacks and whites from playing together. The Bulls were told they would be allowed to participate only if their athletes of color, starting halfback Willie Evans and reserve defensive end Mike Wilson, did not play. Asked by their coach to vote on whether or not to participate the college kids who made up the 1958 University of Buffalo Bulls football team unanimously rejected the bowl bid.

Here is hoping they get their first chance since this year!!! From the Bull City we support the Bulls, read the full ESPN story here.

Michigan Mess

This just in, Rich Rodriguez is a jerk! All season the Clarion Content has been resisting the urge to mock Michigan football as they struggle to the worst year in their program's history. But no more, as Coach Rich Rodriguez gave loyal Michigan fans the metaphorical bird today for having the temerity to complain up the historical lows their program has sunk to under his leadership. Coach Rodriguez said that Michigan fans needed to, "Get a life," and worry about bigger things like the economy. Clarion Content to Coach Rodriguez, "A, hey there coach, news flash, people watch sports to take their minds off distressing, uncontrollable news, like the economy..."

What Michigan fans? You're surprised that a guy who did West Virgina like that, his home state school and his alma mater, would treat you like crap? Duh! Enjoy 3-8 and staying home for bowl season. At least the basketball coach you swiped from West Virginia might be able to get the crummy Wolverines to .500, but here at the Clarion Content we hope not.

Brad Lidge got jobbed

Albert Pujols please! The Philadelphia Phillies Brad Lidge got jobbed out of the National League Most Valuable Player Award yesterday. St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols had an excellent season. However, as is clearly written into the title of the award, it is for the Most Valuable Player!!! It is not for the "best offensive season," which Pujols may have had.

Problem is Pujols played for the fourth place St. Louis Cardinals, who finished 11.5 games out of first and only got there by surging to win their final six games of the season after they had been eliminated. Pujols did not lead the N.L. in runs batted in or home runs. Not since Andre Dawson in 1987 has a slugger or any player for such a non-contender won the M.V.P. The only way a player is supposed to win M.V.P. for a non-contending team is if his season is so sublime, so superior, it is impossible to ignore. When Dawson hit 49 homers for the mediocre 1987 Cubs, nobody had hit that many in the National League in ten years. We repeat Pujols didn't even lead the league this year. He was picked because voters wanted to reject the Phillies first baseman, Ryan Howard for striking out too much and hitting for too low a batting average. Reasonable objections to the Clarion Content. Furthermore, Howard had already won the award once. The Clarion Content is not lobbying for Howard from the World Champion Phillies, but rather his teammate Brad Lidge whose candidacy did not receive the serious consideration it deserved.

The reason Lidge did not get a fair hearing is because he is a pitcher. There is a certain faction of the folks who vote for baseball's post-season awards who prima facie refuse to consider pitchers for Most Valuable Player because, "they have their own award." This is a ridiculous argument. Yes, the Cy Young honors the best pitcher in the league each year, but that should have no bearing on whether or not a pitcher is the most valuable player in any given baseball season. Lidge who was 41 for 41 in save opportunities this year clearly was the most valuable player. If he alone had switched franchises and worked for the New York Metropolitans instead of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets would have won the N.L. East. The Phillies might have missed the playoffs instead of being the world champs. If the L.A. Dodgers had Lidge, they likely would have beaten the Phils in the N.L. playoffs.

Furthermore there is precedent for a relief pitcher winning the M.V.P., Willie Hernandez won for overpowering 1984 Tigers. Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers won three years earlier for the beer makers and Dennis Eckersley nearly ten years later for the Oakland A's "Bash Brothers' team. The 1984 Tigers who bolted out of the gate 35 wins and 5 losses and cruised to a World Series win, had Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker and Kirk Gibson, but rather than pick the best slugger, the voters picked the most valuable player, the lower profile Hernandez. This year's Phillies were set up perfectly to follow the same scenario. Ace reliever Lidge was the essential difference between this year and last year's Phillies. The same Phillies who despite having three hitters in a row who had won the M.V.P., Howard, second sacker Chase Utley and shortstop Jimmy Rollins, couldn't get over the top until they got the closer, Brad Lidge. Brade Lidge got jobbed, he was the N.L. MVP this year.

The Red Sox diminutive second baseman Dustin Pedroia was a deserving, though not clear cut, winner in the American League.

Enough already!

Can we finally dispense with all this ridiculousness about Roger Federer being the greatest tennis player of all-time? Surely, this year has debunked that ludicrousness. It is only the hype-filled era that we live in that ever elevated Federer to that spot on the pantheon. It is the same media outlets who wanted to tell us that Marion Jones was the greatest female sprinter ever and that Michelle Wie was on her way to golf superstardom. The same self-promoting, fiscally incentivized folks who say things like, 'Roy Jones Jr. is greatest pound for pound fighter of all-time.' Pshaw! Don't believe the hype.

Roger Federer is the Ivan Lendl of his era, surely amongst the all-time greats, but with a fatal flaw. He was never able to win on clay because his game, though more than one dimensional, was built primarily around his huge serves. Federer has played in era which was a modern nadir for tennis. It has never been less popular or less highly regarded by youths entering sport. In the 1960's or 1980's Federer would have been a top five player who won a couple grand slam tournaments.

It was an epic game

Or so we hear anyway... Last night's classic AFC East battle between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots highlighted two of the NFL's biggest problems. For a league that is at least tied for the best operated professional sports league in North America, this may sound like nitpicking, but they were kind of major issues.

Issue one, we didn't see the game. The Durham, NC based Clarion Content offices do not get Direct TV. Our cable system Time Warner isn't getting on with the NFL Network folks who had the exclusive broadcast rights to last night's humdinger. Hence, we were left to listen to it on the radio. Long time Clarion fave Ian Eagle did a bang up job, admirably assisted by the just gruff enough, Denny Green. It was a delight to listen to, but for a game that big, it might have been nice to be able to see it, too.

Issue two, the game was decided by a coin flip! A freaking coin flip! How ludicrous. The NFL overtime rules have long been derided as based on luck. Unlike the college football overtime, there is no guarantee that both teams will see the ball. The Jets won the coin flip, went down the field and won the game with a field goal. Had the Patriots won the coin toss, odds are they win the game. They had just gone down the field at the end of regulation and scored a touchdown with one second left, in OT they would have only needed a field goal. Both teams were scoring at will. It was disappointing to have a game this good decided that arbitrarily.

For those of you who also did not see the game, NFL.com has the highlights here.

Going the other way

If you read our post earlier this week about the difficulties the Yankees are having selling luxury boxes and the highest priced of their exorbitant season tickets then the title of this post will make perfect sense. The Yankees who are moving into their new stadium next Spring are jacking the prices and screwing the little guy. Two franchises are going the other way in different manners.

The Boston Red Sox are holding the line on their ticket prices, albeit for the first time in 14 years. Still, the Red Sox chief sales and marketing officer, Sam Kennedy, sounds like he gets it. Here he is quoted in the Boston Globe, "We do not want to be the ballpark of the rich and famous." The Red Sox took this position despite 469 consecutive sellouts and a waiting list of over 7,000 for season tickets.

The other franchise, the hapless New Jersey Nets did them one better. In a plan that we could hardly like better if we had thought of it ourselves, the New Jersey Nets basketball team will give unemployed fans who submit their resumes to the Nets Job Bank up to four free tickets, plus access to a Nov. 22 career fair at their home arena and distribute applicants' resumes to the team's corporate sponsors. Brilliant! Now all they need to do is find Vince Carter a job. (Up to 1,500 total tickets will be available.) Fans that are seeking jobs can sign-up at www.njnets.com and should email their résumé, former employer, contact information, and career field of interest to the Nets Job Bank at jobbank@njnets.com.

Ha, ha

The greedy people operating the Yankees and abusing the public trust by moving to a publicly financed stadium, right across the street, which was built over a Bronx park, are getting a little bit of comeuppance. Word is the they are struggling to sell some of their luxury boxes and outrageously priced tickets during this tough economic climate. The New York Times reports, "Seven luxury boxes down the foul lines priced at $600,000 remain available for the 2009 season...the team still had seven available in August, too." A similar story is playing out for the $500 to $2,500 per game tickets in the first nine rows of the twenty-five sections closest home plate. Nearly 20% of those extortion rate tickets remain unsold. In the immortal words of Nelson Muntz, we can only say, "Ha, Ha!"

The Yankees held a presser today with news they would rather you concentrated on, they have wired the whole stadium with Cisco products. That's right the wealthiest will be able to use a customized Cisco system in their luxury box to order food or surf the internet. Also noted, 1,100 flat-panel, high-definition TV monitors will be installed in concession stands, the luxury suites, around the restaurants and bars, and in restrooms.

Korean golfers

Despite the xenophobic mindset of the LPGA, and their deplorable leadership, the women golfers of Korean origin on the Ladies Professional Golf Tour do not fit into one neat stereotypical box. Their personalities, backgrounds and even their English language skills run a wide gamut. Here is a link to an excellent article in the New York Times by Karen Crouse covering the range of differences and similarities. Here is a link to a somewhat older article in the Bay Area rag, Metroactive covering one Korean golfer, a multiple tournament winning, less than categorizeable, self described "hip-hop goth," Christina Kim. The Clarion Content was most heartened when the hue and cry of the public and the media helped force the LPGA to withdraw its draconian "English only" policy.

Don't typecast me

Florida State junior safety Myron Rolle is one of 15 semifinalists for the Bednarik Award, given each year to college football’s Defensive Player of the Year. He also happens to be a finalist for a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

The accomplished and impressive Rolle, priorities in order, will miss FSU’s game with Maryland on November 22 to interview for the Rhodes Scholarship in Alabama that day.

"I thought about the fact this may come up a while ago," Rolle said of the scheduling conflict. "It didn’t crystallize in my mind until weeks ago when I learned I could be a finalist. It really hit me recently, but this is a priority for me and very special for my family."

His role model is Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Medical Institution. Carson who grew up poor in a tough Detroit neighborhood, in a single parent home, is the author of The Big Picture.

Fantasy Football has peaked

Like Starbuck's circa 2003, fantasy football has peaked. The Clarion Content's editorial board was first introduced to the game in New Jersey in 1986. There were no on-line sites to look up stats. Heck, the manual was a printed copy which had to be shared amongst participants. Drafts were conducted in person. When the Mile Square FFL league created Excel spreadsheets to assist in scoring, it was considered a tremendous advance. Even then, stats still had to be laboriously transcribed from the USA Today sports page into said spreadsheets.

The game has come light years from there. Drafts can be held virtually, on-line. There are not only numerous fantasy football magazines, but endless player rating websites. All scoring and even transactions can be processed for free by an outside service provider like ESPN, Yahoo, CBS Sportsline and their ilk. The central themes remain the same, a love of sports and competition with friends. But unfortunately, as with so many things, technology is squeezing the joy out of it. There is so much information on every game and every player available to everyone at this point, fantasy football has become overwhelming. Hours and hours can be wasted perusing not only box scores and injury reports, but scouting sites featuring minutia like average yards per carry, home and away, on turf and on grass, night and day, in cold or warm weather, ad infinitum, ad naseaum.

A brilliant description of the state of fantasy football now from Clarion fave, Bill Simmons, "Really, the fantasy football season isn't fun. Winning is OK; losing is agonizing. You constantly feel awful about your choices and your bad luck; it's the only exercise that causes arguments with friends you normally never would argue with; and you spend roughly a kazillion hours managing your team for the 10 percent chance that you might win your league. There's just not a ton of upside. It's almost like smoking cigarettes -- it started out with good intentions, and it's something to do, and it can be fun in the right moments, but ultimately, there are an inordinate amount of moments when you find yourself leaning out a window in 20-degree weather to puff out a quick cig as your nose gets frostbitten, or bumming a cig from a group of horrible girls and then feeling obligated to talk to them, or waking up in the morning and coughing up your right lung. Really, it's more harm than fun. And yet, we continue to do it. And love it. This entire paragraph made me want to smoke."

Latest LeBron speculation

Read ESPN basketball writer Mark Stein's latest analysis about how LeBron James's impending free agency is going to play out here. The Clarion Content has long said and continues to believe that there is no chance of LeBron being a Net. As veteran New York politics watchers, we knew Nets owner Bruce Ratner was never going to be able to get the development deal done in Brooklyn that he was claiming he could. Even before the global economic credit crunch, there was no chance. (Recall the NYC Olympic bid and the Jets West Side football stadium follies.)

This inability to move to Brooklyn means that the Jay-Z being a minority owner of the Nets shtick is cool, but not necessarily a game changer for LeBron's free agency decision. The Clarion Content would say now that Isaiah is no longer running the team, the Knicks have to be at least co-favorites for the LeBron free agency sweepstakes. The other favorite, has the opportunity to offer him the one thing the Knicks can't between now and then, a championship. If LeBron wins that title, he just might stay in Cleveland.

Stein's Daily Dime also has a list of the highest salaried NBA players this year, including such genius contracts as tied for the second highest paid player in the league at $21 million plus per annum Jason "Zero Titles" Kidd and Jermaine "North of the Border" O'Neal. Of course, no one really tops the non-playing, sixth highest paid player overall, Knicks bench warmer, Stephon Marbury.

Knicks hope

As Knicks fans we will continue to hold out hope for at least a few more weeks...

Texas Tech, epic

Here is a link to an excellent article about Texas Tech's stupendous win over the #1 Texas Longhorns last night. Texas Tech's euphoria may only last a week or two, highly ranked opponents Oklahoma State and Oklahoma lay ahead, but this game will be sewed into the tapestry of Lone Star state football. In a state that loves its football as much as anywhere in the nation, this was a game for the ages. It was the best game the Clarion Content has seen since Vince Young found away to propel the Longhorns to a national championship victory over mighty USC, a real humdinger!

Florida-Georgia

It is now fair to say that Georgia Coach Mark Richt's ridiculous and unsportsmanlike stunt last year won Georgia one game, but lost them one, too. Florida looked pretty motivated today.

For those who don't know the story: Coach Richt in the locker room before the big game in Jacksonville last year told his kids to "make sure" that they got an excessive celebration penalty after they scored their first touchdown in the game formerly known as 'The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.' He claims despite making this asinine recommendation that he didn't realize his entire team would storm the field to stomp on the Florida endzone. Whether he knew it or not to get the unsportsmanlike penalty was his suggestion, not the kids' spontaneous idea. It appeared to motivate Georgia last year, though Knowshon Moreno's 188 yard rushing day probably helped at least as much.

This year it surely motivated the Florida Gators as they were asked about it all week. Florida Coach Urban Meyer put a gag order on the team in regards to the incident, but it was all over the airwaves and the newspapers. Today Florida took Georgia out behind the woodshed. Leading 49 to 3 over the formerly one loss, 6th ranked Bulldogs, before beating them 49-10.

Singletary

The NFL has been buzzing about Hall of Fame linebacker and new San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary. Not only did Singletary send a player to the locker room early, launch into a postgame press conference tirade, but apparently he dropped his trousers at half time to make a point to his team about how badly they were playing. The Clarion Content has no problem with it. Discipline at work for highly paid athletes, it is their job. They are likely playing in a stadium that was at least partially publicly financed. We are glad to hear that Singletary thinks they have an obligation to try to play their best. Hold them accountable, coach.