PonyFans.com

He's not wrong.

blackoutpony wrote:He's not wrong.

When ESPN (who was writing the big check to televise the game) started having talking heads on ESPN Radio and TV speak up for "Big State School," I knew Baylor and TCU were both doomed. If Texas had been in the same place, there is ZERO chance they get left out. None Nada Zip.

Ratings should not determine who plays in the big game.

Why not? It's a business.

There will always be 6 conferences left out of the playoff and one of them a "power conference". If the Big 12 got one of the 2 teams in, then Big Ten would have cried foul.

whitwiki wrote:Why not? It's a business.

Because it is allegedly a championship, not just a made for ESPN event like the X Games.

whitwiki wrote:Why not? It's a business.

Determining a national champion is actually not a business. Broadcasting sports events as entertainment is a business but the two, while in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship, are separate issues. Besides the obvious antitrust issues they "have's" would encounter if they ever explicitly linked the 2, the entertainment value of the the supposed champion will drop further and further if it ever become an explicit professional minor league (which it is coming dangerously close to).

I think it got there years ago, we just refuse to admit it.

Pony_Law wrote:

whitwiki wrote:Why not? It's a business.

Determining a national champion is actually not a business. Broadcasting sports events as entertainment is a business but the two, while in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship, are separate issues. Besides the obvious antitrust issues they "have's" would encounter if they ever explicitly linked the 2, the entertainment value of the the supposed champion will drop further and further if it ever become an explicit professional minor league (which it is coming dangerously close to).

I see what looks like an antitrust issue here but it may not technically fall within that category. My Republican friends here may correctly point out that we don't need more laws, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if Congress got involved in this in favor of competition deciding the champion instead of tv ratings. Would it really be so bad if the football postseason resembled the basketball post season just a little bit? Some of the most attractive BB tournament games involve David vs. Goliath stories.

Take his statements and the AAC issues the last 2 seasons in basketball with the selection committee snubbing SMU and Temple and you can see how the business of getting that money for the conferences can seemingly trump the job of putting the proper selection of the correct teams first when you get into these committee situations. Well, Utah went big and with that went any hope for anyone who desired a congressional play regarding NCAA integrity in rankings, since Hatch was the only one to really put force behind his words in past battles with the NCAA where their status was brought into the room.