Category: History and More

It’s Rivalry Week in college football, meaning it’s time for pundits and fans alike to argue about which one is the biggest, fiercest and meanest in the land.

In my 30 years as a paid sportswriter, I covered several Alabama-Auburn games, quite a few Clemson-South Carolina games, and a handful of Georgia-Georgia Tech games.

So which is the biggest?

Now that I’m an unpaid sportswriter, I can honestly tell you that they are all equally important.

I can also honestly tell you they are equally unimportant – if you don’t have any skin in the game.

Fact is, if it’s the rivalry involving your team, that makes it the biggest rivalry going.

The first 20 years of my career were spent in Alabama, and during that time I sat in the press box for 16 Iron Bowls – including the first one ever played at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn and the inaugural Alabama-Auburn game staged at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.

Having grown up among Crimson Tide and Tiger fans, I was conditioned to believe that their rivalry was not only the biggest, but the only one that mattered.

I didn’t bother to get the thoughts of those who had a stake in games such as Michigan-Ohio State, Texas-Texas A&M or Army-Navy – people who might have a wildly different opinion.

Then over the last 10 years I got to witness first-hand the rivalry between Clemson and South Carolina, and quickly realized their fan bases were just as rabid as the ones in my home state.

A decade of the Palmetto Bowl has shown me that to those schools’ faithful, the rivalry is every bit as intense as that of the Iron Bowl.

I will say, as both a live observer and one who followed the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry for a few years while serving as a beat writer for the Bulldogs, it has a really odd dynamic.

Georgia-Florida and Georgia-Auburn are traditionally much bigger games for the guys in red hats and silver britches. And while the Dawgs and Yellow Jackets bill their annual showdown as “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate,” it simply doesn’t have the same pop as many state rivalries.

That being said, Georgia is Georgia Tech’s biggest rival.

So there’s that.

From a national stakes standpoint this weekend, though, the Alabama-Auburn game is the top rivalry showdown on the schedule. The winner finishes atop the SEC West and gets a berth in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, and if that team happens to be Alabama, it almost assures the Tide a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Why?

Ranked No. 1 and one of only three undefeated teams left among Power 5 programs (Miami and Wisconsin are the others), even a loss to Georgia in Mercedes-Benz Stadium would likely drop Nick Saban’s top-ranked team no lower than No. 4 in the CFP poll, especially if it’s close.

But if Auburn knocks off Alabama and whips the Bulldogs in the league title game (its second win over Georgia in three weeks), suddenly the two-loss Tigers might be invited to the playoff thanks to winning the SEC title.

Meanwhile, at Bobby Dodd Stadium …

A Bulldog win over the Jackets, coupled with a victory over the Tide or Tigers a week later, negates their regular season loss to Auburn and puts Kirby Smart’s team in the playoffs.

And if that win is over Bama, you can probably count on the SEC taking up two spots in the CFP – a decision that’s going to enrage those who don’t swear eternal loyalty to the Southeastern Conference.

As for the Palmetto Bowl, South Carolina is playing for a chance to derail Clemson’s hopes for a second consecutive national championship and upgrade its own postseason position.

If the Tigers enter the ACC Championship Game with two losses, even a win over Miami might not be enough to secure a spot in the semifinals (although ultimately that’ll be for the CFP selection committee to decide, of course).

However, if Dabo Swinney’s charges take care of business against the Gamecocks and Hurricanes, they’ll be ensconced in one of the four available playoff positions.

Yet before jumping ahead to the postseason, it’s all about the rivalries this holiday weekend – and all are pretty significant.

So if you happen to think the braggin’ rights battle you care about most is the biggest in college football, you’re absolutely right.

Just know that fans elsewhere disagree – and they’re absolutely right, too.

Dating back to my love affair with the World Football League (1974-75), I’ve had an affinity for little leagues that thought they could but, ultimately, couldn’t.

It’s nothing personal against the National Football League – if you want to watch professional football featuring the largest number of talented players on the field at one time, the NFL is your one-stop shop.

Still, American outdoor football leagues that give players a chance to make a buck outside “The League” are near and dear to my heart.

I loved the United States Football League, which had at least one team (Philadelphia/Baltimore) that could’ve been competitive in the organization that annually plays for the Lombardi Trophy. In fact, no “rival” league in the last 30 years has been as good.

The USFL might still be around had it stuck to a spring/summer schedule.

The World League of American Football, which became NFL Europe, which became NFL Europa, which became extinct, was a decent brand of Double A minor league ball.

I even gave the XFL a shot, although the early games I saw were boring and sloppy and I quit it long before Vince McMahon did.

There was also the United Football League; I might be the only person who ever watched it on TV. I actually enjoyed it, but most sports entities require more than one fan to be viable.

The most recent was the Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL), which was a bust.

Yet, any time I hear a new league announced, I get excited because I’m going to get to see new uniforms and new logos – even though I have no illusions that the upstart league will last.

But there’s a pro league set to start next summer, and it might have a real shot.

Why?

Because it’s not competing with the NFL – it’s competing with the NCAA.

Under the principles section of the Pacific Pro Football website, there’s this:

“Pac Pro will be the first league to professionalize players who are less than 4 years removed from their high school graduation. Players will receive a salary, benefits, and even paid tuition and books for one year at community college. Players also will be able to market themselves for compensation, and begin creating a financial retirement plan if they so choose.”

Translation: Kids who graduate high school and want to play football won’t have to do it at a college. Plus, they’ll get paid – over the table, without a booster in sight.

Various interviews with the movers and shakers involved with Pac Pro suggest players will make approximately $50,000 per season.

That’s not bad, especially considering the inaugural campaign will feature four teams (all based in Southern California) playing an 8-game schedule in July and August.

Certainly, there will be blowback from both the NFL (at first) and big-time college football (for as long as Pac Pro lasts).

The Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision serve as pretty good minor leagues to the NFL, and the big league won’t want to damage that relationship by cozying up to an insurgent circuit.

But if Pac Pro can survive growing pains and expand – and convince more and more hot-shot prep stars that they can major in football for pay without pretending to major in something else for a scholarship – it could dramatically change the landscape.

Sure, there are a lot of great football players who want a college education, but there are probably a lot more who’d just as soon go to work in a football factory right out of high school.

Just as minor league baseball teams often convince top prospects to forego college, so might Pac Pro.

And there are some smart football people involved, including former NFL coach Mike Shanahan and former NFL vice president of officiating, Mike Pereira.

As with any fledgling league, the chances of survival are iffy.

Regardless of Pac Pro’s potential, people still have to pay to watch and advertisers have to make sure there are enough people willing to watch on TV (or whatever platform is used to spread the Pac Pro gospel).

Yet I have to give the new kids credit – of all the leagues that have come and gone, this one has a business model that actually makes sense.

If I’m a player who made good grades in high school and wants to get an engineering degree as well as play football, college is the best path.

But if I struggled in the classroom and have a chance to make an actual living playing football as an 18-year old, the decision is pretty easy.

Starting next summer, we’ll start to find out how many players are willing to make that decision.

 

 

With each passing Tuesday, the College Football Playoff picture moves closer to being fully drawn.

I still think there should be a much bigger canvas.

While the Bowl Alliance was an improvement over the Bowl Coalition, and the Bowl Championship Series was better than both, the CFP is supposed to cure all of the Football Bowl Subdivision’s ills because it’s a PLAYOFF!

The party line can be found on the CFP website: “The College Football Playoff preserves the excitement and significance of college football’s unique regular season where every game counts.”

Actually, every game already counts, otherwise scores would not be kept and leagues wouldn’t have standings.

But yes, it is fun to have semifinals and a championship. If the season ended today, Alabama and Miami would meet in the Sugar Bowl and Clemson would play Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl, with the winners tangling in Atlanta in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Jan. 8.

However, that’s more like an invitational than a playoff.

If you want a real postseason tournament, you need to have all the FBS conference champions represented.

And before you argue that an expanded playoff would be too much for the student-athletes, please tell that to the Football Championship Subdivision, which has already seen its tourney grow from 16 teams to 24.

NCAA Division II actually has a 28-team field, and Division III features 32 schools.

But I won’t be greedy: I’ll go with a 16-team FBS field, which I think would work out fine.

There are 10 conferences, so the champions of those leagues would automatically earn a bid. The other six teams would receive at-large berths, which would be up to the playoff committee to decide.

This tournament would put an end to the Power 5 and Group of 5 dynamic, which – in reality – only creates two divisions within the FBS. Because let’s be honest: the College Football Playoff was designed solely for the blue blood leagues, despite what can be found on the CFP website:

“Every FBS team has equal access to the College Football Playoff based on its performance. No team automatically qualifies.”

You can change “FBS” to just “BS” in the first sentence.

The odds against a Group of 5 team making a four-team playoff are astronomical, so the best a “mid-major” can hope for is making a New Year’s 6 bowl.

What concessions would have to be made to accommodate an expanded postseason?

Only one, really.

The 12-game schedule teams currently play would need to be trimmed back to 11. That way, the schools that advance to the national championship game will play 16 games.

That’s a lot, but only one more than the current CFP finalists participate in.

Also, this would preserve the conference championship games in all leagues, which would serve as play-in contests for the tourney.

So, using the current standings in the 10 conferences as a guideline to populate our automatic qualifiers, the field would feature Miami (ACC), UCF (American Athletic), Oklahoma (Big 12), Wisconsin (Big Ten), Florida Atlantic (Conference USA), Toledo (Mid-American), Boise State (Mountain West), Washington State (Pac-12), Alabama (SEC), and Troy (Sun Belt).

That leaves six wildcard spots to fill, and the selection committee would figure out who those teams were, along with seeding the 16-team bracket.*

* Don’t get your drawers in a bunch if I didn’t list your team as a potential league champion. Again, just guidelines based on current records. I still haven’t found enough plutonium to generate the 1.21 gigawatts needed to power my DeLorean into the future, therefore I don’t know all 10 of the 2017 titlists.

And for those who think it’s ridiculous to put, say, the Sun Belt champion in the playoff, why?

One of the beauties of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is seeing the little guys go dancing, even if most of them don’t get to dance for very long. Plus, upsets can and will happen.

The first round would see No. 1 vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, etc., and be played at the site of the higher seed. That format would also be used in the quarterfinals, but then the semis could be set up as they are now – played in existing bowls around New Year’s Day.

But what about the other bowls?

You can still have them.

With 16 teams out of 130 making the playoffs, that still leaves plenty of room for classics such as the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and Dollar General Bowl.

Those who think bowl tradition is still a thing can still have their thing, while a more legitimate national championship tournament would bring the FBS in line with the rest of NCAA football.

Will a 16-team tournament ever happen?

I hope so.

CFP officials won’t admit it, but they’re already chomping at the bit to expand the field to eight teams. If and when they do, they’ll tell you a quarterfinal-semifinal-final format is the best way to determine a champion in big-time college football.

Yet once they realize how much more money 16 teams can put in their coffers, they’ll claim a four-round tourney is the greatest thing since the forward pass.

Just wait and see.