No playoff of any kind should match the best two teams in the virtual first round. By record and by talent, those teams this year were Oregon and Ohio State, respectively, though OSU choked twice while the Ducks kept clean. Being the one and only unbeaten and the unanimous No. 1, Oregon deserved far better than an opening rematch against the perennial leader in recruiting ratings that the Ducks already beat in conference play and saw gag badly against its own archrival.
Next best were Notre Dame, Penn State, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and James Madison West, nee James West. The ponies, dabs, dust devils and little boy blues were not worthy, mere products of playoff inflation, and forget about those four-time flops from Tuscaloser. Their coach retired. The program followed.
As stated elsewhere, any once-beaten team from the Big Ten certainly belongs in the nation’s top eight, despite outcry by fans whose own team answered 66 points with 67 yards. We have zero room to talk this year, although we can always point to all the P’s on the Bucket chain and note there’s a lot more where those came from, 77-43-6 in all. Talk about a blowout. Plus, it’s fitting to yank the chain of any supporter of the losingest program in NCAA history whose schedule boasted the two all-time worst programs by percentage. That’s downright smelly.
Shoot-can any comparisons to basketball, where high school kids can play two tournament games a day. AAU plays even more, and NCAA conferences set up potential five-game weeks. Football at any level demands a week of recovery and preparation, or else injuries are compounded and play suffers. Plus, colleges can’t string things out until spring training like the NFL does. Students have more to do.
We are still talking about college students, right? Athletes who need good starts in their loaded spring semesters after easy falls? Or have they all turned pro, skipping classes like they skip schools? Me-first mercenaries opting out of reality like their rules-makers. Transcripts? Transcripts? We don’t need no stinking transcripts. We’re playground pickup teams but want pay like stars and might quit, anyway.
