“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” – Samuel Johnson
Posts tagged College Football
Thoughts from the Copy Desk: Disappointment
Jan 4th
So far this year, the best thing I’ve gotten to do was layout Kobe’s triumphant victory over the Magic in the NBA Finals.
That was a lot of fun. Putting together a page with an athlete I admire and seeing him at the highest point of his season.
But with great victory comes great disappointment.
Enter today’s Fiesta Bowl.
I’m a TCU fan. Make no questions about it. There isn’t much more I can say. I’ve been a fan since Dennis Franchione and LaDainian Tomlinson. I rooted for them in college, in fact when I got my free pack of Mountain West Conference helmets, I only kept one — my TCU helmet that to this day sits on my desk at work.
Yes. I didn’t bother with the UNLV helmet because I loved TCU football so much. I have no ties other than my friend, who I haven’t met in person, Tim Bella, a graduate of TCU. I just liked the program. I liked the team and I LOVED the mascot.
So naturally, when over the last two seasons, fans have been going crazy over Texas Christian University and their potential to burst into the BCS picture, I was in it to. From riding high after last year’s crushing victory over BYU to the pain of Ross Evans missed field goals to this year’s great march to the BCS.
I was there all the way, riding the highs and lows of the team.
So along comes Monday, I’m riding high in my spiffy purple shirt with black Dickies on.
Me in purple. Go Frogs!
I’m hyped for this game like no other.
When the game ends, and TCU is on the losing end, it hurts. Hurts as much as it should — fan rooting for his team. I wasn’t really in the mood to hear crap for about 10 minutes (the NCAA mandate for after the game.) But now I’m over it and have to accept that the season was good, but not great enough. To go 12-1 is a good season, but the disappointment I’m feeling. It’s easy to say there’s always next year, and odds are they’ll be playing in a bowl game then. Even so, we’re in the now and I’ll look back at the season and say it was fun.
I guess, my revenge was taken when my Road to Glory athlete in NCAA 2010 rushed for 325 yards against Boise in the exact same bowl game.
However, I still had a job to do and that was to finish the page and how it looked. All hatred aside, I put the best photos and gave a good layout for Boise State, as I would have for the Frogs.
It comes with the territory. When you’re going to layout a big game with your team involved, be prepared to do so if they lose.
So here’s the design for you non-St.George Folk.
The page finished.
Nature of the industry. You win some and lose some. But the sun still comes up tomorrow.
College Football Misery
May 1st
The powers that be who control college football seem to lack any sort of common sense. Recently, Southeastern Conference commish Mike Slive proposed the concept of a mini-playoff if you will. The idea that college football would adopt a system where the top four teams in the BCS standings would play a three-game playoff. It was called a “Plus-One” system.
Naturally, the idea seemed too “good” to be true for even the most jaded of college football fans. Could it be possible that the BCS might actually have a much needed system to make sure a true national champion is crowned?
Sadly, no. It didn’t even get an opportunity to be voted on. It was just another proposal killed by a group of men who continue to deprive fans of a real national champion.
The ACC and SEC wanted to at least talk about it, but for some reason, the other BCS conferences didn’t want anything to do with it.
Can anyone give ma a really good reason why not? *Crickets Chirp and Snores are heard.*
It’s an abomination that fans aren’t allowed to see the best team, and that we have to sit through computers doing the work that a playoff would do. There’s a reason why it’s called a “Mythical National Championship.” It’s never played in a true championship format. No argument can be made to justify the need for this stupid computer system.
There are years that they get it right. Of course, always has been and always will be, and it can be argued that human vote composes most of it, but it’s still not right. It was the AP and Coaches polls that put Louisiana State and Ohio State in the top two slots for the national title. The computer just added the final factors to make it official.
The arguments that the other conferences make are a joke and are easily disputed by what others have been saying for a while now.
Argument #1: They don’t want to lose the do or die effect of the regular season.
Well, in case you didn’t think of this before but it still would be a do-or-die scenario. You need to be undefeated to get a solid seeding and home field advantage in the first round if there was such a thing. It is a do-or-die scenario because to get an automatic bid you have to win your conference, and prove your worth. Every game in college football will still matter. And it’s not fair that a team like Ohio State can die against Illinois and back into a national title game.
Argument #2: They don’t want to get rid of the bowl tradition
You can keep the bowls. All 30 of them. They can stay. The teams need something to do and limiting postseason play to just 8 teams is not fair. So fans, breath easier, the argument that the bowls would disappear is not an issue. Surely, you really do care about the PapaJohns.com Bowl right?
Argument #3: They don’t want football to fall into a two semesters.
Here’s a general idea, cut the season shorter. They don’t need to play 13 games in the regular season. 10 will be just fine plus conferences that have conference championships can have an 11th. But really 13 games? Basketball falls into three seasons if you think about. Why not football?
It’s just a sad day when the conferences don’t even want to talk about changing the format, and I know I’m just one of many who feel the same way.