College English Prof Blasts the BCS

[MrMustang1965]

from The Navasota Examiner:

As just about every college football fan knows, there is no reason why an actual NCAA National Champion football team cannot be determined through a playoff system.

Navasota author and Sam Houston State University English teacher David Gaines knows it too, and he's taken off the kid gloves in examining the elitist narrowmindedness of the Bowl Championship Series moguls in his new book Paper Champions: The BCS on Trial.

Gaines points out early on in his book that the National Collegiate Athletic Association still does not name a national football champion in Division I-A. While the BCS claims it determines an undisputed national college champ, the NCAA doesn't recognize any team as its champion in Division I.

Writing under the pseudonym of Coll Flemming, Gaines methodically shoots down all the arguments put forth against a Division I playoff system and has a good time doing it.

“There's nothing in there,” said Gaines, nodding at a copy of his book, “that every football fan hasn't thought of. The only thing I've done is found a guy to be our spokesman and kind of compiled all our ideas in one place.”

The “guy” Gaines refers to is Flemming, who he says is his alter ego. “Kind of like Bruce Wayne's Batman. He has some qualifications I don't have and he's younger.”

Gaines is not anti-college football. Far from it. “I love the big game, the pageantry, the bands - all of it.” Gaines just wants a champion determined on the field, and he's even put together a playoff system bracket to show it will work.

“I think it would be unbelievable fun, and more profitable than the bowl system. Even with the playoffs, bowls could still exist. In basketball, we have the NCAA tournament and the NIT tournament and they both seem to be respected. Players enjoy them and the schools seem to take pride in both. I don't see anywhere the argument that playoffs are going to denigrate college football.”

The way BCS determines its “undisputed national champion” is through a polling process. Coaches vote and sports writers vote and this determines the mythical champion.

“Voting, for better or worse is opinion, politics and a popularity contest. Voting is never objective.”

As Gaines points out in his book, all the NCAA football teams except Division I have a playoff system, as does the National Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Most of the playoff games are finished and a national champion crowned before the majority of the BCS bowl games are played.

The author will be at the Navasota Public Library Monday, June 26 from 4 - 7 p.m. to autograph copies of his book and talk with visitors. “Maybe we can raise a little money for the library,” he said.

Gaines was formerly a Navasota Municipal Judge, magazine publisher and sportswriter. The 228 pages of Paper Champions is an interesting and humorous read that makes a drop-dead serious point.

http://www.navasotaexaminer.com/article ... orts01.txt

[FroggieFever]

Good.