Category: History and More

With a new college football season having a soft launch this weekend and the NFL just around the corner, there are some people who will abandon the second half of the Canadian Football league season.

I will not be one of those people.

As I’ve said many times, I love the CFL, and it’s not a part-time relationship.

Just because traditional American football is cranking up doesn’t mean I have to abandon the brand played north of the border.

In fact, one of the reasons I subscribe to ESPN + is so I can watch any CFL game I want. Now it’ll just be a matter of prioritizing.

And since this is the first year since 1986 that I’ve been able to be a legitimate fan instead of someone who writes about games on deadline, I plan to make the most of it.

But how do you juggle it all?

In the interest of full disclosure, there are four football teams who are the primary objects of my affection. They are – listed in rooting order – UAB, the New York Jets, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

I’m a UAB alumni and contributed seed money so their gridiron program could restart for the 2017 season. Aside from having a diploma, I also have financial skin in the game, so that makes the Blazers my top priority.

I started rooting for the Jets when they were in the American Football League (I’m showing my age here), and they’ve remained my favorite pro football team since I was a kid.

Roman Gabriel helped make the Rams my favorite NFL team, but when the franchise moved to St. Louis, I lost interest (and they were replaced by the Atlanta Falcons). But now that they’re back in L.A., they’re back in my favor as I’ve started pining for childhood memories, so I’ll root for them against any team not named the Jets.

As for Hamilton, I just liked their black and gold unis, and picked them as my favorite CFL team back in the 1970s. And except for that brain fart involving the Art Briles hire (and the brief tenure of the Birmingham Barracudas in 1995), they’ve been my No. 1 CFL club for 40-plus years.

The odd thing, though, is that I like CFL rules better than American football rules, and I like pro football much better than college football.

That makes my rooting preferences out of whack, but that’s just the way it is and I’m not going to overthink it.

Anyway, there will be some programming decisions I’ll have to make between now and December, but fortunately things break pretty favorably for me.

Tonight when Hamilton takes on Edmonton, it’ll be the only game in town. Cleveland does play Philadelphia in an NFL preseason game, but I’d never watch an exhibition over a CFL regular season game.

The Tiger-Cats’ next game is Monday, Sept. 3, against the Toronto Argonauts. That’s the same night of the Virginia Tech vs. Florida State and Alcorn State vs. Georgia Tech games take place.

I’ll be watching Hamilton.

And a quick glance at the schedule reveals that the Ti-Cats have no regular season Sunday games going forward, meaning there will be no conflicts with the Jets or Rams.

Thing is, though, I like the CFL in general. So there will be times when I might have a choice between a Football Bowl Subdivision game and a CFL matchup on Saturday, and I can tell you right now the Canadians will win more than they lose in that competition.

So to make a short story long, no, I don’t give up on the CFL just because the field gets crowded. It’s a great league with great players, and I’m glad there’s still plenty more games to watch.

By all indications, Bill Hancock is a really nice man.

Every interaction I ever had with him was pleasant, and I’ve never heard anyone say a bad thing about him. He seems like a good dude in a world that has far too many bad dudes.

But, holy schnikes, it’s hard to believe the executive director of the College Football Playoff actually believes what he says when he talks about the CFP and bowl system.

With football media days kicking off last week, Hancock was in Atlanta to lift the lid on the SEC portion of the annual press fest. As expected, he raved about the Football Bowl Subdivision’s playoff system, which will crown its fifth champion Jan. 7, 2019, in Santa Clara, California.

“By every measure, the College Football Playoff has been highly successful,” Hancock said. “Fans love the CFP. It has provided a memorable experience for students, for players, for spirit squads, band members and all of their families in addition to millions of football fans, and we are bringing new fans into the game of college football into our sphere, showing them the wonders of this game that we all do love so much because of the College Football Playoff.”

Of course after Central Florida was the only unbeaten team in the FBS a year ago and locked out of the playoffs, there were (and are) those who think the tournament should be expanded to eight teams.

Not Hancock.

He suggests that the four-team CFP format is damn near perfect.

“The CFP works,” Hancock said. “It works well. Four teams keeps the focus on this wonderful regular season, the most meaningful and compelling in all of sports; four lets us keep the bowl experience for thousands of student-athletes; four keeps college football within the framework of higher education.”

Obviously, I wouldn’t expect him to say anything else. I mean, this is his job. If all 129 FBS teams were required to have green and magenta feathers sprouting from the top of their helmets, he’d be talking about how the green and magenta feathers add to the pageantry of Saturdays in the fall.

But remember, Hancock used to be head of the now defunct Bowl Championship Series – and fiercely opposed any kind of playoff system for what was once known as Division 1-A.

Here’s what he said during a radio interview with WDAE in Tampa back in 2011:

“The reason that the presidents and the coaches and ADs support what we have is two things. First of all, we have the best regular season in sports in large part because there’s no playoff at the end. We have three months of frenzy rather than three weeks of frenzy at the end of the season. Our folks feel strongly that’s in the best interest of the game. The second one is the bowl system, the bowl tradition, the bowl experience for the student athletes is so wonderful and worth keeping. No one has come up with any kind of a playoff that will keep that same bowl experience where the athletes get to go spend a week in a different culture and they’re the talk of the town.”

So there was a time not so long ago that Hancock thought a playoff would cheapen the regular season and bowls, and he believed that right up to the point when he decided a playoff would, in fact, be great for the regular season and bowls (which I’m sure coincided with being named ED of the CFP).

However, it’s a different gridiron world now, and I think this whole notion of “bowl tradition” is extremely overrated.

Yeah, it was cool back in the day – but back in the day there were only a handful of postseason “classics.”

I’m sure it was thrill for Michigan Wolverines tackle Johnny Plowboy from Hog Taint, Indiana, to board the train and head out to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to play Southern Cal’s Trojans in a battle of unbeatens. It was his first time to go clear across the country on a big ol’ iron horse, and he got to gawk at sights ma and pa never dreamed of while they toiled away raising boll weevils in their backyard.

Today, players on teams with .500 records fly to Mobile, Alabama, and get swag bags from Dollar General.

And that’s fine, but let’s not pretend the modern bowl system is designed with tradition in mind.

And let’s not pretend the CFP is open to all, although Hancock tells you otherwise.

He’s trying to sell the CFP as something that’s good for the FBS as a whole, when in reality it’s good only for select members of the Power 5 conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 10, and SEC).

“For the College Football Playoff, things are simple: Play a good schedule, win your games, and you’re going to be in the hunt,” Hancock said. “That holds true for UCF and Houston and Northern Illinois, as well as Alabama and Ohio State and Texas and Washington.”

I call B.S. on that.

There’s no way UCF, Houston or Northern Illinois is going to earn one of four playoff spots; there’s not even enough room for all the Power 5 schools.

The CFP website perpetuates the myth in its overview section where it states, “The College Football Playoff preserves the excitement and significance of college football’s unique regular season where every game counts.”

Really?

Because Auburn beat Alabama in the final week of the 2017 regular season, denying the Crimson Tide the SEC West title and a spot in the SEC Championship Game.

Still, Bama was invited to the CFP and went on to beat Georgia to claim the crown.

You’ll have a hard time convincing me the Iron Bowl counted to the CFP committee members. In terms of postseason pairings, one of the most meaningful rivalries in all of sports was meaningless.

And as long as only four teams are invited, schools from Group of 5 conferences (American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt) have zero chance of making the field.

Perhaps that’ll change one day, because with the money the CFP generates you have to figure the field will expand to eight teams in the foreseeable future.

Some will think that’s terrific, while others will lament the expansion.

But if Hancock is still the executive director then, I’ll bet he’ll say it’s the greatest thing to ever happen to the game.

 

 

There were plenty of times during my newspaper career that I wished I had gone into marketing.

Aside from making a lot more money, it seemed like it would’ve been a cool job that allowed for a great deal of outside-the-box thinking and creativity.

But I didn’t go into marketing so, really, I can’t speak intelligently about it.

Not being able to speak intelligently has never stopped me before, though. Therefore, it won’t stop me from trying to make sense of the marketing strategy of the fledgling Alliance of American Football, which begins play in February.

Now in terms of the rollout, it was great.

League officials had a mission and a message, and it was all packaged with some solid branding and a terrific league logo.

And you couldn’t ask for a better opening salvo – introducing Steve Spurrier as the head coach of the flagship franchise in Orlando.

But as of Wednesday the league has finalized its eight-team lineup for 2019. Cities represented will be Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and San Diego.

Notice anything strange about the franchise placement?

I did.

There’s not a single team in the northeast, northwest or breadbasket of the United States. And even though the league already has a primary TV contract with the CBS Sports Network (the opener and championship game will be shown on CBS), it has only one city in the country’s top 10 media markets – Atlanta.

That’s puzzling.

As a Birmingham native and an aficionado of off-brand pro football, I couldn’t care less; as long as the games are entertaining, I’ll watch no matter where the teams call home.

But why would a casual fan in New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia tune in?

What kind of overnight Nielson ratings will a game between the Birmingham Battalion and Memphis Bluesmen pull? (And before you start Googling, no, those aren’t the team’s actual nicknames. Yet).

I just assumed the Alliance’s first eight teams would be scattered throughout the country, not mostly across the southern part of the map.

But, a friend of mine has a theory.

AAF founder Charlie Ebersol is the son of Dick Ebersol, who is BFF with Vince McMahon. McMahon, of course, is reviving the XFL, which is set to return in 2020.

Ron Montgomery, a buddy, CFL bon viveur and, like me, fan of fledgling leagues, thinks that perhaps the XFL and Alliance could eventually merge, suggesting it could be part of McMahon’s “master plan.”

As soon as the AAF was announced, he mentioned the ties between the Ebersol family and McMahon, and opined that maybe – just maybe – this is a first-phase launch.

In other words, McMahon will have a chance to see what goes right and wrong with his “competitor” in 2019, make adjustments to the XFL, and perhaps (I can’t resist this) form an alliance with the Alliance.

If this is part of the master plan, as Ron suggests, I think we’ll find out when McMahon (or newly-named XFL CEO Oliver Luck) reveals the circuit’s eight franchises.

If you see, say, New York, Norfolk, Spokane and Chicago among the teams, then that might explain why the Alliance is so south-heavy.

Admittedly, this is all just a case of thinking out loud.

It could be that the Alliance brain trust is already looking ahead, and has plans for a four-team expansion to the northeast in 2020 in hopes of beating the XFL, not joining it.

Still, it’s taking a gamble with being what amounts to a glorified “regional” league in its first season.

If the TV ratings tank, CBS will waste no time cutting ties.

The original XFL had a contract with NBC in 2001, but when people stopped watching the network pulled out, and the league folded after one season.

I hope that’s not the case with the AAF.

My wish is that the rules will be so compelling (no kickoffs, 2-point conversions only, 30-second play clock) and the players good enough that football fans – regardless of where they live – will tune in.

If so, then the XFL will have to up its one-upmanship game in 2020, setting the stage for a spring league rivalry (if not possible merger down the road).

And if I was in marketing and the Alliance of American Football and XFL eventually combined, I’d call the new organization “Alliance X.”