2008 Pre-Season Rankings

There is no such thing as a pre-season ranking.

There are predictions, ambitions, and equivocations, but no legitimate standings. That's why I find myself irritated every time ESPN Columnist Mark Schlabach, sunburnt, unshaven and recovering from a 6 day, 7 night stint at Disney World in Orlando for his 4th grade daughter's spring break, takes it upon himself to assemble a list. (Ed. I don't really know if Mark Schlabach just got back from Orlando or if he even has a daughter, but it seems like the kind of thing an off-season college football columnist would have going on).

See, http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3388100

In case you didn't click on the link Ohio State is No. 1. Which means, well...nothing. Or does it?

"Rising" to the occasion of inpermanence is something the Buckeyes do better than any team in the country. Since 2005 Ohio State has been ranked No. 1 more weeks than anyone in the FBS. In fact, they've been ranked at the top more times than the next closest four teams combined. (Source: CollegeFootballPoll.com, BCS Standings).

"There is no such thing as a pre-season ranking."

But football is a game of ends, not means -- a tension that's had a strange impact on the national consciousness.

LSU enjoyed the spoils of their 2007-08 National Championship for all of 24 hours before the new cradle of rankings boiled them back to the Bayou. In their place, Almighty Georgia gained a handsome consolation for being passed over in New Orleans: the confidence of the pundits for 2008-09.

But status quo doesn't sell magazines. It doesn't tune-in viewers -- especially in the off-season. So, citing the resolution of National Signing Day and spring workouts, Schlabach stirred the pot again.  "...With an extraordinary number of juniors and seniors returning" he writes, "Ohio State seems poised to become the first team in the 112-year history of the Big Ten to win three straight outright league titles."   

But is that really anything we didn't know back on January 9th, when Schlabach's first "Top 25" hit the press?  (Okay, one James Laurinaitis not withstanding.)  To showcase spring momentum reference the landing of top-ranked dual-threatster Terelle Pryor, the "Block O" recruits, the potential for a double-headed attack, low injuries, big-game familiarity, and the general climate of optimism in Columbus.  

Don't dock the SEC favorites, then quip "Georgia might be more explosive and talented than Ohio State, but the Bulldog's schedule is much tougher."  Schedule?  That's an immutable characteristic; something a team can't change.  The last time I checked, a pre-season Top 25 wasn't a descriptive predictor of how things would shake out, rather, it's purely normative: who should walk into September with everything to lose.

If you think Georgia is more talented, put Georgia at the top.  Period.

Anything else is sensationalist; chumming the saltwater for SEC sharks thirsty for blood.  

Wait Wait Wait...How does one spell Ohio again?

O-H-I-O!

As a Michigan football fan, I am disgusted and underwhelmed whenever I see Buckeye fans chant O-H-I-O and accompany this intellectually challenging chant with arm motions. This repetitive chant is not original or witty (i.e. when an inspired crowd cleverly mocks an opposing player). The chant is not deep and meaningful, like an English soccer crowd singing a one hundred year old drinking song. The O-H-I-O chant leads me to believe that many Ohio State fans are not very educated and truly rejoice when they realize they can spell the name of their beloved state.

"The O-H-I-O chant leads me to believe that many Ohio State fans are not very educated and truly rejoice when they realize they can spell the name of their beloved state."

However...

As a college football fan, I think the O-H-I-O chant is the kind of ritual that is as important as football game and the players themselves. The chant shows pride and tradition (however simple that tradition is). The chant breeds familiarity: if you're an OSU fan screaming O-H-I-O in the Horseshoe, you're surrounded by 100,000 of your closest friends.

It is easy to be cynical about college football. College football is a behemoth system built on the hard work of unpaid young men, work that borders on exploitation. Furthermore, the BCS system has made college football even more of a business than it ever has been. For these very reasons, the simplicity and tradition of the O-H-I-O chant makes it a vital part of college football. So next time you see fans with O-H-I-O on their lips and there arms raised, do not instinctively throw tomatoes or obscenities their way. Just appreciate the spirit and purity of thousands of people being of the same mind and sharing the same passion, college football.

Being an apologist for Jim Delany is easier than it sounds

Jon - Wonderful, enlightening, and surprisingly restrained (ha) post regarding our buddy, Jim Delany. I think one of Jim Delany's comments about the Plus One format and the Big Ten is quite telling. Delany commented (and I paraphrase): "Hey, if you look around, you will not see that much support for a Plus One format or a playoff, I would assume."

Delany is probably correct, oddly enough, because Delany spends time in boardrooms with college trustees, presidents, and businessmen who directly profit from the BCS and its set up. The BCS has been a tremendous boon for D-1 Major Football Conferences because of the way the bowls are setup. Gregg Easterbrook, the resident ESPN Page 2 football writer (mostly NFL, but he delves into NCAA) explains the numbers but I will sum it up: Every Big Ten program receives a fixed amount of TV money under the BCS format, so there is no changing format. Every year, the University of (Insert Big Ten School here) receives a set amount of TV and advertising money. The Big Ten gets 7 bowls, the Universities many programs get support, and everyone is happy. As Easterbrook points out, the BCS system is working exactly as it was planned out.

"Do you hear UCLA and North Carolina whining about not having a chance to play in the NCAA basketball final this year?  No...you never will"

Obviously, the idea that the BCS is working...is in the eye of the beholder. Jim Delany sees consistent money and exciting bowl match-ups (2008: Ohio St. v LSU, UM v Florida, Illinois v USC) and sees no problem. The normal NCAA football fan sees 1) computers deciding the best team in the land when a playoff system would be much better and 2) a hugely successful corporation (NCAA D-1 Football) rejecting the chance for the football equivalent of March Madness and seemingly rejecting a chance for more money.

But I will stop being an apologist for the BCS and Jim Delany for just one moment. If Jim Delany and others stood up at press conferences and said "We are making money and you get to see great matchups," I would feel better about things. But periodically, they will jump in and offer these rationalizations:

• The BCS has done a wonderful job picking the championship match ups.
• Adding more games would upset the players lifestyles and their academic schedules.

These half hearted "BCS Support" statements annoy me to no end. Why?

1. It never fails that every year, 1 or 2 teams who feel they deserve to be in the national championship will end up complaining and complaining about their exclusion; and they end up turning a joyous season (not Christmas, Bowl season) into a time for wining. Do you hear UNC and UCLA whining about not having a chance to play in the NCAA Basketball final this year? No...you never will.
2. To hear Athletic Commissioners whine about one extra game in January to protect an academic schedule makes me think out loud: "Aren't you the same commissioners who now allow a normal D-1 team to play 13-15 total games?"
   

Enough BCS for the night, lets enjoy and applaud John Cooper's admission into the College Football Hall of Fame. Much, much applause from the State of Michigan...oh would you look at that, the entire state is on their feet for this man. Wow - this man is truly revered in the State of Michigan. No idea why (check out the 5th paragraph).

Welcome. Jim Delany sucks.

I'd intended to write a fine introduction for this effort, and yet I already find myself swept into the rapid of current events.

This afternoon, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany did his best to play the part of sorry scapegoat at the annual meeting for the BCS apologists.  "Ask others how strongly they feel for a call for change," said Delany in response to the much lauded "Plus 1" effort,  "I don't see it."

"Does the sports world really need another blog, another bleeding ventricle of spirit, frustration, and irrationality?  Absolutely"

Delany of course is talking about a new proposal, heralded by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, that would restructure the bowl process to better match two candidates for a championship matchup.  Rather than "separating the men from the boys" (to borrow an obviously gender-sensitive phrase) in December, the proposal would let January performance decide January play.

But Delany doesn't buy it.  Why?  Because it detracts from the majesty of the Grandaddy-of-all-Bowls, the Rose Bowl (presented by Citi -- or whoever else antes up) that each year pits a one-loss loser in the Big Ten (the winner, naturally is playing for the title) against USC.  Not surprisingly, the Trojans -- who suffered an upset loss the previous September -- grind ax.  And Nielsen ratings fall to FOX reality levels by the third quarter.

This, incidentally is the same guy who gave us The Big Ten Network -- a fine amalgamation of college-station graphics with prime time programming (Northwestern tennis anyone?).  A channel that incidentally, I can't get -- despite the fact that I live three-quarters of a mile from The Ohio State University.  

Does the sports world really need another blog, another bleeding ventricle of spirit, frustration, and irrationality?

Absolutely.  And we've created a concept certain to stretch the chains.  The amici wars.  Two law students.  One a life-long Buckeye.  The other, a Wolverine.  Ready to take things to the courts, or at least the point of ridiculousness, to liberate the Big Ten from Jim Delany and 1975. 

Jim, you've given us Penn State, seven bowls, instant replay, and CBS coverage of Indiana losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but it's time you go back to North Carolina.  (The ACC could certainly use your help).  

Six commissioners might not be ready, but the college sports world demands a Plus 1 format. Even Congress is considering using it's Article 1, § 8 power (or at least the Sherman Antitrust Act) to regulate the BCS.  

But why am I, the two-time empty-handed Buckeye an advocate for this kind of change?  It's simple, really.  Show me a season in which we don't have a shot of making the top-10. 

Seriously.