ABC Rose Bowl Coverage

Although I didn't particularly care which team won the Rose Bowl, I was rooting for Penn State yesterday for a couple of reasons.

1. JoPa is quite a character and I really want to see him beat out Bowden for most career wins.

2. I don't like Pete Carroll

But, the main reason I wanted to see Penn State win was to make Brent Musburger SHUT UP! The constant blubbering in the promos making the Rose Bowl the most important bowl game of them all, and determining the National Champion year after year after year... OH PLEASE!!! I would not be at all surporised if good 'ol Brent came out of the closet and announced that he and Pete are Brokeback buddies. I can understand how a team covering a game for the national media can let their personal biases show through, but yesterday's broakcast was simply ridiculous. And then there was good 'ol Kirk Herbstreit saying how he wants five BCS bowls of the 10 top teams and then have the computers and polls sort out #1 vs #2 and have one more game. Of course, we all know good 'ol Kirk is a major proponent of "style points." Yep, you've got it there Herbie, that's the wa to determine a National Champion. GIVE ME A BREAK!

I loved it how eveyr time Musburger opened his mouth about how USC has the greatest defense to ever take the field, that Penn State would break a huge play. I'm not saying USC is not a good team, but I am saying they are not the greatest team of all time.

Yes they have won the PAC10 seven straight years, but
- Where's the conference championship game?
- Look at the overall rankings, and in particular the defensive rankings of their regular season opponents.

Yes they have won the last 3 straight Rose Bowl games, but
- Two of them haven't even been against the Big10(11) champion
- The Big10 has not exactly been a power house conference the last 3 years.

But guess what? Pete Carroll now wants a playoff. He is finally in the position the SEC has been in for so many years, kept out of the top 2 positions in the polls and not getting the automatic bid to the Mythical National Championship. Well, Pete, the school presidents in the PAC10 are a major reason we don't have a playoff. Football is supposed to be about the tradition of the bowls and not determining it on the field. You can't have it both ways pal.

Pete and Brent want one more game - against the winner of Florida / Oklahoma next week. Uh, gee, shouldn't Texas have a say here? How about Texas Tech if they win against 'Ol Miss today. How about Utah?

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Somebody is going to declare one team or another as the National Champion. In 1969 it was President Nixon. Traditionally it has been the written media. Now ESPN / ABC is trying to take over and proclaim USC to be at least a co-champion via the AP. Only one problem, that's why the BCS was created. If it is broken (and it is) FIX IT. The time for change is now. President-Elect Obama wants it to happen. It's not rocket science. The paradigm exists in every other sport and every other division of college - it's called a playoff. It's not going to deplete the importance of the regular season, it is going to make them even more important. You have to win to get into the playoff. It doesn't prohibit continuing all the existing bowl games, heck, you can even add more if you want. Give everybody a participating ribbon. But since there is going to be a declared National Champion anyway, let's decide it the right way - on the field - not by tradition, "storied programs" history, biased media, "style points" or other such nonsense. A playoff is the only fair, democratic, American way to do it.

IT IS TIME FOR A PLAYOFF - Chapter 1A - Background, Part 2

I didn't know this... but, does it ever fit right into all the reason's why we need a playoff.

The president-elect has already called for a college football playoff. Now he should go one better and simply declare a champion of this broken system. That’s what happened in 1969.

By William R. Mattox Jr.

I don't know whether our president-elect has a Machiavellian streak. But Barack Obama certainly endeared himself to millions of college football fans (like me) when he recently declared his enthusiastic support for an eight-team postseason playoff to decide the national championship.

(Dec. 6, 1969: President Nixon, second from left, attends “The Big Shootout” football game between Texas and Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. At right is Rep. George H.W. Bush, R-Texas / AP file photo)

And the best way I know for our emperor-in-waiting to expose the naked truth about the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) would be for Obama to present a National Championship plaque to the winner of Thursday's Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, Calif.

Now, I'm sure that probably sounds crazy to folks who believe that this season's "real" championship will be played Jan. 8 in Miami. But there's actually a precedent for the championship to be determined by presidential decree. And by honoring the winner of the Rose Bowl between Penn State and Southern California, Obama might even be able to right a wrong committed by a not-so-Galloping Ghost of College Football Past.

Nixon's Southern (football) Strategy

On Dec. 6, 1969, the Texas Longhorns and Arkansas Razorbacks squared off in a gridiron battle that some observers called "The Game of the Century" because it matched two unbeaten teams in the final regular season game of college football's centennial year.

The game, which Texas rallied to win 15-14, garnered an incredible rating of 50 share, meaning half the TV sets in the USA were tuned in to ABC's coverage. It also attracted the attention of President Nixon, who not only attended the game but also fulfilled a promise to present a plaque proclaiming the winning team the "National Champions."

Nixon's audacious plaque presentation might have been about more than just football: Texas and Arkansas were electoral "swing" states in presidential elections back then. Whatever its purpose, Nixon's decree certainly annoyed Penn State head coach (and lifelong Republican) Joe Paterno, whose team finished the season undefeated — for the second straight year!

After hearing numerous complaints, Nixon tried to make amends by offering to give Penn State a plaque for having college football's longest active winning streak. But this conciliatory gesture didn't go over very well. When told of Nixon's offer, Paterno said, "Tell the president to take that trophy and shove it." Several years later, in a commencement speech, Paterno asked, "How could Nixon know so much about college football in 1969 and so little about Watergate in 1973?"

The obvious moral to this story is that college football championships should be decided on the field — not by presidential decree or by having a beauty-pageant-like panel of judges pick from among the contestants.

Yet, four decades after Nixon's announcement, the "system" for determining the major college champion is still a political football. The problem, in most years, is that more than two teams can make a compelling case for being included in the BCS title game.

William R. Mattox Jr. is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

Posted at 12:17 AM/ET, December 31, 2008 Link to complete article.

IT IS TIME FOR A PLAYOFF - List of Articles (with links)

Chapter 1 - Background
Chapter 1A - Background, Part 2
Chapter 2 - Example of Problem
Chapter 3 - Jim Ruppert’s Bowl Schedule
Chapter 4 - Another Point of View
Chapter 5 - Case Against 8 or 16 teams
Chapter 6 - Congress Gets Involved
Chapter 7 - Alternative 16 Team Plan
Chapter 8 - And More…
Chapter 9 - As I See It