The BCS is BS. Here's How to Fix It.

So me and a couple of the fellas at work were discussing the merits of the BCS and why college football needs a playoff. If there's one year where a playoff is desperately needed it's this one. Here are the current BCS Standings:

1. Alabama 12-0

2. Oklahoma 11-1

3. Texas 11-1

4. Florida 11-1

5. USC 10-1

6. Utah 12-0

7. Texas Tech 11-1

8. Penn State 11-1

9. Boise State 12-0

10. Ohio State 10-2

With six one loss teams currently in the top 10 who's to say one deserves a shot at the title more than the other. Even if Florida wins the SEC Championship does that make them a better team than USC? Texas Tech? Penn State? I say no and that's where the BCS has major problems.So that got us talking at the job. College football needs a playoff. Craig, Dan, and I have three different playoff proposals. I'll list them all here and you tell me which is the best and why.

Kyle's Proposal

I suggest a 16 team playoff. Take the top two teams from each BCS conference and four at large teams and let them play it out. That way you get the cream of the crop and you give some of the smaller schools a chance to square off the big boys. Under this plan the eight BCS conference schools would be: Oklahoma, Texas, Penn St., Ohio St., Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Alabama, Florida, USC, Oregon St., Boston College, and Virginia Tech. The four at large teams would be Texas Tech, Utah, Boise St, and Ball St. That's the best of the best and would eliminate a lot of arguments.

Craig's Proposal
My proposal for a BCS playoff is to have the top eight teams in the BCS rankings make the playoffs. I believe with an eight team playoff it allows you to have the best eight teams in the country play for a title. With my system a non-BCS school still has the chance to play for the title. Utah is currently ranked six in the BCS and they would get its shot at a title. Now with my system it currently leaves Boise State and Ball State out. But Boise State still has a chance with a loss by someone playing in a conference championship to crack the top eight. In this system the current eight teams would be Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, USC, Utah, Texas Tech, and Penn State.

Now there would be no representative from the Big East or ACC but I believe the best eight teams in the country are in the playoff and have a shot for the title. No Big East or ACC team has less than two losses so I have no problem with the fact that they would not have a team in the playoffs. Now I will admit that Boise State has a strong argument to be in the title picture but I have a hard time saying they are better than any of the eight teams in front of them. With this eight team playoff I feel we would finally have a true champion. The BCS rankings have been tweaked through the years and are a good judgment of who teams have played and is a good judgment of who the top eight teams in the country are. With my system the regular season still matters. An ACC or Big East school can get in if they win in the regular season and not lose more than one game like all of its teams did this year. This system would be easy to put in place and would work.

Dan's Proposal

You guys keep debating ways to tweak the current obviously week system. (Notice not one of us want to keep what we have.) Craig’s system allows him to keep his SEC bias alive and well and Kyle’s got teams playing 18 games and trashes the Bowl system. If we’re gonna get this thing fixed, why not fix it all the way and in a way which addresses all the concerns of the play-off haters.

I'd mandate, force, impose, the Big 10, Big East and Pac 10 expand to 12 teams divided into 2 6 team divisions like the existing 12 team conferences. Then both division winners in the 6 BCS conferences play a defacto play-off game at their conf. championship. Take those 6 teams and add two at-large selections (smaller conf. champs or teams such as this year's Texas Tech/Oklahoma/Texas that lose their division, but still deserve a shot).

If you do not win your 6 team division, you can not complain that you do not qualify for the tourney even if you had a great year, win on your schedule and you are in. No more "polls are biased towards that conference" (that’s right I’m talkin’ bout you SEC); if you play in a BCS conference and win you will have a chance.

This is all very confusing, I admit, here’s how it would play out this season:

Week of Dec. 5-6. Conference Championships

Big 10 (12): Penn St.(EAST) v. Michigan State (WEST) (assumes PSU and OSU in same Div. of Big 10(12) (Pitt added)

Big 12: Oklahoma (SOUTH) v. Missouri (NORTH) Big East: Cincinnati (NORTH) v. E. Carolina (SOUTH) (Pitt out, ECU, UCF, Marshall, Notre Dame and Memphis added)

ACC: Florida St. (ATLANTIC) v. Georgia Tech (COASTAL)

SEC: Florida (EAST) v. Alabama (WEST)

Pac 10(12): Utah (NORTH) v. USC (SOUTH) (Utah and BYU added)

Week of Dec. 27 1st Round:
Capital One Bowl: #1 Alabama (SEC)v. Florida St. (ACC)

Fiesta Bowl: #3 Oklahoma (Big 12)v. Cincinnati (Big East)

Cotton Bowl: #5 USC (Pac 10) v. Texas Tech (At large)

Orange Bowl: #6 Penn St. (Big 10) v. Boise St. (At large)

*Texas and Ball State are left out. Texas can't gripe as they had their chance. They lost South Div. tie-breaker AND head-to-head with T. Tech. I like a system where an unbeaten mid-major could play in a conf. title game. Say Ball St. replaces ECU in Big East game and UC declared Big East champs. I am OK with leaving Ball St. out though as MAC needs more history.)

Week of New Years Semi-finals and other bowls:
Sugar Bowl: #1 Alabama v. #6 Penn St.

Rose Bowl: #3 Oklahoma v. #5 USC

Outback Bowl: Ohio St. v. Georgia

Holiday Bowl: Texas v. Oregon St.

Gator Bowl: Utah v. Florida

Peach Bowl: Ole Miss v. Ball St.
etc. etc.

As you can see, the second tier bowl games will actually get better teams as Missouri, all other ACC teams, 9-4 Northwestern, etc. have not even been accounted for yet.

Week of Jan. 5:
Nat'l Champ Game in Miami: Alabama v. Oklahoma.

My system keeps the importance of the regular season. It makes conference play of utmost importance which should lead to more compelling out of conference games as teams do not have to keep the losses to a minimum. It makes all bowls more interesting. It takes care of the BCS schools and their powerful presidents. It keeps the schedule roughly the same length for all but 2 teams. Basically I win.

Cards and Cats Have a Lot of Room For Improvement

After watching a weekend full of college basketball games there's only one thing I can say about where the Cards and Cats stand: they both have a lot of room for improvement.


Let's start with Louisville, which was ranked third in the country going into Sunday's game against Western Kentucky University. But the Cards didn't look like one of the top teams in the country. The Toppers controlled the tempo, out hustled the higher ranked team, and flat out wanted it more winning 68-54. The Toppers exposed the Cards biggest weakness early in the season: shooting. Louisville shot just 27 percent from the field and made only 6 of 30 three pointers. They also had no answer for A.J. Slaughter who finished with a career high 25 points. Losing to WKU early won't spoil the rest of the season. But it's not the kind of outing the Cards want to have at any point in the season. Here are the areas Louisville needs to improve in if they're going to make a deep run in March.

• Offensive flow. Too many times the Cards offense bogged down and resulted in a missed three pointer. They need to get more movement on the offensive end.


• Earl Clark needs to be more of a factor on both ends. He has the talent to take over games when the Cards offense becomes stagnant but early on he doesn't seem comfortable out on the floor.


• Defensively they need to create more turnovers. WKU only committed 13 for the game even though they're a little inexperienced at the point guard position.
  

The Cats have rebounded nicely from losing their first two games to win three in a row. Their latest two wins over Kansas St. and West Virginia are nothing to write home about, but the Cats need wins anyway they can get them. The fact they were able to beat the Mountaineers, despite scoring only 16 points in the first half, shows resiliency. Jodie Meeks has been sensational offensively averaging better than 25 points a game but as a team Kentucky needs to value the ball more. They're averaging 23 turnovers a game and Meeks is leading the way with more than five a game. Against top 25 teams Kentucky will not be able to get away with that.

They also need to get Patrick Patterson more touches. While Meeks has been scoring a lot he still takes way too many shots. He's taken an astounding 104 shots in six games. That's nearly double what Patterson, who's second on the team, has taken. Meeks needs to play under control and within the system if the Cats are going to be contenders come March.

Their point guard play will need to improve as well. Michael Porter is good in spot duty but he can't be your primary ball-handler. Deandre Liggins played well against West Virginia, but as a freshman he's prone to inconsistency. In the previous game against Kansas St. he refused to go in during the second half. Instead of punishing him with playing time, coach Billy Gillispie used him 27 minutes against the Mountaineers. That shows how desperate the Cats are at point. They need to have him as the first option at the one spot.

At 4-2 the Cats are still a long way from beating a really good team. It was just a handful of games ago they lost to VMI.

Support For My Man Donovan

I got a message from my boy Donovan who is a sports reporter/anchor down at WSVN in Miami. He's taking part in the Bachelor of the Month contest for radio station Hot 105 FM in Miami. Show him so love and vote for him at Bachelor of the Month. I know it's crazy, but he deserves it. Plus he's getting up there in age so anything to make him feel young again will help.

Another Game Another Loss For The Cards

The Louisville football team is starting to resemble a broken record. Play hard for a half, make some dumb mistakes, get behind big and then lose. The latest debacle occurred Saturday against the West Virginia Mountaineers. A game they lost 35-21, giving them four straight L's.

Sitting at 5-5 all the Cards needed to do was win this game to become bowl eligible. Send the seniors out in their last home game with a win. Instead they resemble your local top 40 radio station playing the same song several times an hour. How many times are we going to see the Cards commit stupid penalties like the unsportsman like conduct flag against Chris Vaughn late in the third quarter. That 15 yarder took away any momentum Louisville had and turned a 22-yard gain into a 7-yard gain.

How many times are we going to see the Cards turn the ball over in crucial times. A Vaughn fumble in the third quarter led to a West Virginia touchdown. And Hunter Cantwell's three interceptions sure didn't help. Quarterback was supposed to be the one position the Cards were set at going into the season. Instead Cantwell has just as many interceptions as he does touchdowns, 15. Saturday against the Mountaineers he threw an unforgivable pick, going deep over the middle into double coverage.

The same mistakes Louisville made in the season opener, they're making in week 11. To me that sounds like the players are not responding to the coaches. Either they're not smart football players or they lack focus. You can't blame all the mistakes on a lack of talent. Coach Steve Kragthorpe doesn't seem to be going anywhere soon. Athletic Director Tom Jurich told me earlier in the week he plans on keeping Kragthorpe around for another season. But like I said in an earlier post; Jurich needs to keep a close eye on the start of next season. If the Cardinals get off to another slow start and find themselves with a losing record early Jurich may have to consider making a change.

One thing I can say about the team however is they have not given up. Watching them against the Mountaineers they were still playing hard. They were still trying, so they haven't tuned out the coach. But they need to stay focused and play 60 minutes of football if they want to have any shot of beating Rutgers a week from Thursday and becoming bowl eligible.

Troubling Signs For The Cards

UPDATE:I had a chance to talk to Athletic Director Tom Jurich this afternoon about the state of the football program. Some tough questions were asked. Here in a nutshell is what Jurich had to say.

• Coach Kragthorpe will return as head coach next season no matter how the team finishes this year. He says as long as Kragthorpe wants to return next season, the job is his.
• He wants fans to have patience. The program is in rebuilding mode right now. The talent level is not where it's been in the past but he's confident coach Kragthorpe can turn it around. He says the Cards numbers are down and that's just a matter of fact. He said roughly eight walk-ons have seen extended minutes this season.
• He doesn't want to use the Orange Bowl as a bench mark for the program. He desperately wants to get back to a bowl game, no matter which one it is.
• He says he and his family are outsiders in Louisville. He says since they are not from Louisville, they feel like outsiders but his family is doing fine during this critical period. He has no plans of leaving the city of Louisville, but he stopped short of saying he would never leave the Ville. He says he wants to see the turnaround of the football program through.

In his second season as Louisville's head football coach Steve Kragthorpe hasn't done much to quell the calls for his firing. Friday night the Cards lost their third straight game, falling to 22nd ranked Cincinnati 28-20. Losing that one game is nothing to be ashamed about. The Cards were underdogs. But it's hard to ignore the fact, streaks the Cards had going into to Coach Kragthorpe's tenure are now coming to an end.

Before Friday night the last time Louisville lost three straight games was 1997. They had beaten Cincinnati five straight times and 9 out of the last 10. Before Bobby Petrino left Louisville was riding a streak of 9 straight bowl appearances. Under Steve Kragthorpe that streak came to an end and now they're in danger of missing out on a bowl game for two straight seasons. Before Kragthorpe arrived the Cards had won four straight versus rival Kentucky. With Kragthorpe on board they've now lost two straight to the Cats.

The administration and some on the coaching staff will have you believe they needed to get rid of some bad apples, and that depleted the talent level. They'll also tell you Petrino left the cupboard bare. He knew the talent level would drop off that's why he bolted for the Atlanta Falcons. I say "yeah right". While this year's team may be short on talent, compared to some of the previous UofL teams, it still does not explain back to back losses to Syracuse, a three game losing streak, and going 6-6 coming of an Orange Bowl winning season. The Cards had enough talent last year to go bowling but instead they were left on the outside looking in.

I'm not saying Coach Kragthorpe needs to be fired right now or after this season, but Athletic Director Tom Jurich better be keeping a close eye on the state of the program. If the Cards finish the season with five straight losses, and then struggle at the start of next season Jurich will have enough ammunition to make a coaching change.

93.9 The Ticket Switching Formats

The future of local sports talk radio in Louisville took a major hit Tuesday afternoon when it was announced 93.9 the ticket is switching to a classic rock channel. That means the end of shows like "Dave and Scott in the Morning", and "The Front Row Ticket with Rick Bozich and Big EZ ". General Manager Dugan Ryan tells me John "The Freak" Renshaw's show and possibly the "Bob and Will" show will move to 1450am. That station will be the new home to ESPN Radio.

This is most likely a cost cutting move by Cumulus Media which is based out of Atlanta. Now the question is can local sports talk radio survive in Louisville? You would think with the passion UK, IU and UofL fans show for their teams the river city would be a perfect market for sports talk radio. But the higher ups at Cumulus must not agree. While ESPN Radio is moving to 1450 there's no questioning the programming will suffer. 1450's signal is not nearly as strong as 93.9 and if suits at Cumulus thought ratings suffered now, they'll be non-existent over at 1450.

Let me know what you think.

Notes From Coach Kragthorpe's Press Conference

Monday University of Louisville football coach Steve Kragthorpe met with the media to discuss the Cards 41-7 beat down at the hands of Pitt and the upcoming game against Cincinnati. Here are a few of the key points he talked about.

1. Hunter Cantwell will remain the starter at quarterback. Despite Matt Simms getting in a few series against Pittsburgh, Kragthorpe thinks Cantwell still gives the Cards the best shot at winning.

2. While the goal of winning the Big East has evaporated Kragthorpe still thinks there's a lot to play for. He wants to go to a bowl game and win these last three games.

3. He believes the players have not given up on the season. He says he still saw the fight in his player's eyes on the sidelines of Saturday's game.

4. He thinks Cantwell, just like all other quarterbacks, is getting too much of the blame when things go bad. He says quarterbacks usually get too much credit when things are going good and too much blame when things are bad. He believes Hunter is playing hard every time he takes the field, and he's confident he'll finish the season strong.

Let me know what you think.

Randall Cobb Should See All The Snaps At QB

If Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks had any thought of using Mike Hartline for a series or two at quarterback he should fuggettaboutit. Freshman Randall Cobb proved he's the man to lead the Cats offense. Saturday against Georgia Cobb rushed for more than a hundreds yards and threw for more than a hundred. Even though the Cats lost, the fact the offense put up 38 points is reason enough to be encouraged. Cobb engineered six scoring drives, the most since they had six against Western Kentucky in September.

Cobb's numbers aren't off the charts, he was only 12-20 for 105 yards. But he did run for 102 yards and he gives Kentucky hope. Not saying Mike Hartline is terrible, but the duel threat Cobb brings to the game is to valuable not to have on the field every offensive play. After the Georgia game Rich brooks said he planned to use Hartline a little bit, but Cobb was in such a good rhythm he didn't want to mess it up. My advice to coach? Don't mess it up the rest of the season. Stick with the freshman. He gives you the best chance at winning.