Mark Gilroy

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Note to College Football: Get Rid of the Bowls and Improve the Playoff Model

It's time for college football to kill the bowls and improve the playoff model.

I have always loved the traditions of college football, but many, including the bowl system, are dead anyway!

Note to college football: it is time to get rid of the bowls and improve the playoff model.

My first memory of watching an entire college football game was January 1, 1969, when Rex Kern and a group of “Super Sophs” led the Ohio State Buckeyes to a 27-16 win over the USC Trojans and their Heisman star, O.J. Simpson.

The Rose Bowl was the epitome of tradition. A great parade, followed by a matchup between the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions. Sure, there was 1942, when the game was moved to the campus of Duke University due to fears of a Japanese West Coast invasion (or terrorist attack) during World War II. But for more than half a century it was synonymous with the Big Ten and Pac-10. That ship sailed a long time ago with the coming of the BCS Era. I’ve gotten over it.

When it comes to college football I’ve been a traditionalist and have dragged my feet on most changes, including the BCS and the rampant conference realignments. In terms of declaring a national champion, I’ve never felt like we had to have a perfect system, free from any controversy. It never bothered me that many years there were multiple champions crowned. It was never more than two and it wasn’t like boxing where there might be three welterweight champions at one time. But now that we’ve made the first move to a four-team playoff  for the NCAA Division I Bowl Subdivision – the only division in college football without a playoff – I want to finish the transition.

Here is how I would to it: [Read more…]

How to Make March Madness Even Madder

a fun play-in tournament to make march madness even madder

On “Selection Sunday” each year, a committee appointed by the NCAA selects and seeds the top 64 Division I men’s basketball programs to play in their championship tournament. Oh, in case you missed it, there is an Opening Round that started in 2001 where two teams played for the final spot in the tournament. Starting in 2010 there were four play-in games, so 68 teams get selected for the tournament. The winner of each play-in game would go to one of the four regions, except this year, when two went to one region. Go figure.

What most of us think of as the first round is actually the second round. But on to my point of how to make March Madness even madder.

Even with 68 teams making the tournament, there is angst and gnashing of teeth and cries of “no fair” for those “bubble teams” that don’t make the tournament. No matter where you draw the line this would be the case, of course. (Note: Just because the top four NCAA DI college football teams play a mini tournament starting this year, don’t believe for a second that there won’t be impassioned cries of “unfair” from the next few teams in the final BCS rankings or whatever rankings they use.)

Why not let more teams in? I counted 160 teams with winning records this year. If each region gets a play-in team, that would be 96 teams playing tournaments in four regions – four 24 team tournaments.

Wouldn’t that take forever? Not necessarily. Pick four venues where you can have multiple courts, probably domed stadiums or convention centers. Monday afternoon would be the four games that got the tourney to a sweet 16. That evening – eight games on four courts. And yes, four teams would play two games the first day. That’s half a typical summer day for most players and less than they played in a day growing up on AAU tournaments.

Tuesday morning would be the four Elite 8 games. Tuesday evening would be the Final 4. Wednesday morning or afternoon would be the “championship” game in each region. The winning team would get on an airplane or a bus and head for their first round NCAA game. Nice guy that I am, I suggest giving them Thursday off and scheduling them for the Friday game.

Would anyone show up? You bet. I lived in Kansas City for years and would spend at least one day at Kemper Arena (“the hump in the dump”) to watch three or four NAIA games pitting small colleges in tournament action, many that I had never heard of. The games were great. (And yes, being Kansas City, barbecue was involved.)

Keep the tickets reasonably priced and give basketball junkies a chance to watch a couple games of basketball.

Would this hurt the NIT Tournament? (The what?) Probably. But playing for a chance to compete in the NCAAs actually makes it a much more meaningful tournament.

Incidentally, no #16 seed has beat a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament – though top seeds have fallen to low seeds – Weber State beat North Carolina, George Mason beat Connecticut, and a host of other powerhouses like Indiana, Arizona, UCLA, Syracuse, and others have lost first round games to low seeds.

Sound crazy? Undoubtedly it is. Maybe that’s why it would work so well with March Madness.

The First Super Bowl: 6 Fun Trivia Facts

6 fun trivia facts from Super Bowl I
The Chief’s’ Willie Mitchell tackles the Packers’ Carroll Dale.

The first Super Bowls was held January 15, 1967, pitting the Green Bay Packers of the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL. The two competing leagues had just merged, so there was even more animosity tied to the game than usual. The Green Bay Packers from the more established NFL won, as expected, 35-10.

To football fanatics the basic facts stated above are common knowledge. But here are six fun trivia facts you might not know.

  1. The first Super Bowl actually wasn’t called the Super Bowl. It was first touted as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game.  The game was such a big hit by the second year that it was felt the game needed a catchier name. Commissioner Peter Rozelle suggested “The Big One.” The founder of the AFL, Lamar Hunt, who was the longtime owner of the Chiefs, was the man who suggested the name Super Bowl – based on a toy his daughter liked to play with, the Wham-O Super Ball. He said it could be a temporary name until they came up with something better. It was first used for Super Bowl III in 1969, the legendary game when Joe Namath predicted victory for his New York Jets.
  2. It was the only Super Bowl, (even though it wasn’t yet the Super Bowl), to not have a sellout crowd on hand in the stadium.
  3. It was the only Super Bowl to be broadcast on two domestic television networks. CBS had rights to the NFL and NBC had rights to the AFL. The game was a simulcast. Even the post game presentation of the trophy included two networks. Pat Summerall of CBS and George Ratterman of NBC shared duties.
  4. Both NBC and CBS recorded over the game film to save costs. The only two plays from the game that were shown for years were touchdowns by Max McGee and Jim Taylor of the Packers. In 2011 a CBS recording was found in an attic in Pennsylvania. Halftime and most of the third quarter were missing, but most of the game has now been rebroadcast.
  5. Two different brands of footballs were used throughout the game. The Chiefs used the official AFL Spalding football when on offense; the Packers switched to the official NFL Wilson football when they were on offense.
  6. Since NFL and AFL refs wore different uniforms during the season, a new uniform was designed that was only worn for Super Bowls I and II.