Sports

It’s finally college football season and it’s time to pick the upcoming SEC games of the opening weekend.

Every Wednesday during the college football season, Josh Kirschner, Grace Olson and myself will pick every game on the SEC schedule. Following the picks, all three of us take an in-depth look at the Games of the Week, which feature the LSU-Oregon and Georgia-Boise State matchups this week.

Here are the week 1 picks:

Read here for an in-depth look at the LSU-Oregon and Georgia-Boise State games

ATHENS — Georgia will open the 2011 season this Saturday against the Boise State Broncos in the Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game in the Georgia Dome. Below is the depth chart for the Bulldogs.

In a time where college football is more popular and profitable than ever before and most Universities are facing budget shortfalls; school presidents, athletic directors, conference commissioners and the NCAA are missing out on a huge source of revenue and excitement.

It is a college football playoff. An eight-team, three week adventure that would capture the attention of tens of millions of college football fans and bring in millions of more dollars to college football programs.

Today begins a series, where the idea of a college football playoff will be discussed in great detail, and once finished, the myths used to defend the reasons why there isn’t one won’t make any sense and the need for a college football playoff will be more clear than ever before.

In the first couple parts of this series, the common myths of why there can’t and shouldn’t be a college football playoff will be debunked, brutalized and mocked.

The myths include:

1) There can’t be a playoff because it would take place during final exams
2) It would take away from the most exciting regular season in all of sports
3) Fan’s wouldn’t travel to the playoff games
4) It won’t create more revenue than the current bowl system
5) There would be too many games for the players

Following the myths of why there shouldn’t be a college football playoff, the idea of what playoff system should be used will also be discussed in great detail.

Myth #2: A college football playoff would take away from the most exciting regular seasons in all of sports

Another common myth used to explain the reason why there is not a college football playoff is the notion that it would take away from the most exciting regular seasons there is in sports today.

READ MORE on SportswithMike.com

ATHENS — The Georgia football team took the practice field Monday afternoon, here is a photo gallery of the Bulldogs in action

In a time where college football is more popular and profitable than ever before and most Universities are facing budget shortfalls; school presidents, athletic directors, conference commissioners and the NCAA are missing out on a huge source of revenue and excitement.

It is a college football playoff. An eight-team, three week adventure that would capture the attention of tens of millions of college football fans and bring in millions of more dollars to college football programs.

Today begins a series, where the idea of a college football playoff will be discussed in great detail, and once finished, the myths used to defend the reasons why there isn’t one won’t make any sense and the need for a college football playoff will be more clear than ever before.

In the first couple parts of this series, the common myths of why there can’t and shouldn’t be a college football playoff will be debunked, brutalized and mocked.

The myths include:

1) There can’t be a playoff because it would take place during final exams
2) It would take away from the most exciting regular season in all of sports
3) There would be too many games for the players
4) It won’t create more revenue than the current bowl system
5) Fan’s wouldn’t travel to the playoff games.

Following the myths of why there shouldn’t be a college football playoff, the idea of what playoff system should be used will also be discussed in great detail.

Quick reference notes:
FBS is short for Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A), and it is the major college football division.
FCS is short for Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), and it is the secondary college football division
Divisison II and III are the the next level of football divisions run by the NCAA.

Myth #1: Major college football can’t have a playoff because it would take place during final exams

The FBS season starts around the first weekend of September and ends the first weekend of December. After a couple of off weeks, the bowls start around Dec. 17-20.

Under the current schedule, it would appear that there are no college football games between the first weekend of December and mid-December — but that isn’t the case at all.

Other than the FBS, the NCAA also runs Division I-AA (FCS), Division II and Division III levels of football competition.

And guess what, all three of those divisions have a playoff to decide the champion. FCS uses a 20-team playoff (4 play-in games), Division II uses a 24-team playoff (8 play-in games), and Division III uses a 32-team playoff.

So there’s reason number one for a college football playoff: Every other football division has one, along with every other sport and level of competition that the NCAA runs.

But for some reason, Division I football does not have a playoff. Before I get started, here is a link to the playoff brackets from 2010: FCS (Division I-AA), Division II, Division III

The in-depth focus will be on the FCS, because that level of competition is the most similar to FBS football.

The final four rounds of the FCS tournament from 2010 (NCAA.com)

The FCS playoff format is a 20-team tournament with four play-in games. Every team plays 10 regular season games, with a maximum of 15 games (Note: This would assume that one of the four play-in game winers would reach the championship, other than that, the max for any team would be 14 games).

There are five rounds of the tournament including the championship game and the first four rounds are played at the home site of the higher seeded team.

So, when are these five rounds played. The first and second round take place during the last two weeks of the FBS season, so no difference there. The third and fourth rounds take place during the next two weeks in December. In 2010, those weeks included the Saturday’s of Dec. 11 and Dec. 18.

Eastern Washington, the team that eventually won the FCS Championship, held Final Exams from Dec. 6 to Dec. 9 according to their academic website.

Eastern Washington's Academic Schedule 2010 (EWU.edu)

In the case of Eastern Washington, final exams were taken by the players the week before Eastern Washington defeated Southeast Missouri State on Dec. 4, and after they defeated North Dakota State on Dec. 11.

Now, although the final exam schedule is different for everyone, most final exams at Universities around the country take place during the first couple weeks of December.

Also, EWU began Winter 2011 classes on Jan. 3, the Monday before they played Delaware in the FCS Championship on Jan. 7.

Cliff notes: The FCS, along with Division II and III, hold playoffs during the weeks of final exams

Okay, whatever, what does that mean?

Basically, the NCAA allows the FCS to play in playoff games during the final exam period, but it is not okay for major college football to hold a playoff during those same weeks.

Makes a lot of sense right?

The NCAA refers to college football players as “student-athletes” and their commercials always say, “most of our student-athletes will go pro in something other than sports”.

First, if that was the case, then why would the FCS schedule a playoff during final exams?

Side note: Wouldn’t it be reasonable to say that the education would matter more to an FCS player than an FBS player because the chances of an FCS player actually going pro in football are less than that of an FBS player.

Also, why is the idea that the FBS can’t hold a playoff because it would take place during final exams a reason for them to not to have a playoff when the FCS, Division II and Division III all hold playoff games during those weeks.

Can someone please tell me the answer?

Face it, there is no answer to that question.

So far, the only statements from school presidents, athletic directors and the NCAA have been that the FBS can’t have a playoff because of final exams, but that is where those comments stop. There is no follow up to that statement, no facts to back it up.

It is an absolute myth that major college football can’t hold a playoff because the games would take place during final exams. My reason, as stated before: The other divisions that have a college football playoff, have games during those weeks.

Another reason to debunk this myth, well, here it is

The final point, and this makes the whole argument above completely pointless, is that there can be a college football playoff WITHOUT games being played during final exams.

For the 2011 season, the bowl season starts Dec. 17 with the New Mexico Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl and New Orleans Bowl, and runs through Jan. 9 with the BCS National Championship Game.

That is 24 days, or a three and a half week period where bowl games are being played.

Guess what, it only takes 15 days to complete an eight-team college football playoff. (Note: Although a playoff take be three weekends, the first round would be played on day one, the second round could be played on day eight, and the championship round could be held on day 15)

Yet another reason and example that completely debunks this myth of not having a college football playoff.

In conclusion, I will give the NCAA and school presidents credit on one thing, they know how to create good P.R., because with the whole “you can’t play FBS playoff games during final exams” excuse, they make it appear like they care about the academic standing of their athletes.

However, the bottom line is that this reason is a complete lie, and although it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out, apparently the NCAA hasn’t.

With the recent Yahoo! Sports article all but destroying the Miami Hurricane football program, it is again time to look at the inept body that runs college football.

The NCAA. An organization that says all the right things that give people the illusion that it’s doing the world a great thing, but doesn’t know what’s actually happening in the world of college football.

I could spend weeks and weeks discussing the problems with the NCAA, but the main one I want to focus on is the absurd notion that major college football and basketball players are student-athletes.

Much like the whole “level-playing field” that is mentioned with recruiting, the student-athlete name is nothing other than an illusion.

According to ESPN in 2008, “The SEC signed a 15-year deal with ESPN reportedly worth more than $2 billion to televise sporting events, including football and men’s and women’s basketball.”

Also is 2008, CBS and the SEC reached a 15-year deal, where CBS will pay $50-65 million dollars every year to televise football and basketball.

Recently, the Texas Longhorns reached a 20 year, $300 million dollar deal with ESPN.

According to Kristi Dosh of BusinessofCollege Sports.com, from the 2008-2009 school year, the University of Texas football program brought in revenues of $93.94 million dollars, expenses were $25.1 million, which lead to a profit margin of $68.8 million.

Georgia finished second on this list bringing in profits of $70.8 million, expenses of $18.3 million, which lead to profits of $52.5 million.

I could go on and on with these numbers, it really doesn’t end.

Yes, I know that most of this money goes to fund the other sports at the respected Universities to comply with Title IX, but there is nothing “amateur” about these numbers.

The student-athlete name along with the NCAA rulebook allows for professional sports team to be run, administrators and athletic directors to make millions and millions of dollars, while saying, “We give the student athlete a free education and that’s enough.”

It’s a lie. It’s an absolute joke

College football is a game that is more popular and more profitable than ever, and in this day and age of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, the NCAA is still gathering around the radio to get there news.

The college rulebook rivals that of the length of the IRS tax codes, but it contains useless information, like this next proposal.

I say the rulebook is huge, but apparently it isn’t as big as I thought. Among items to be voted on for the first time next January is Proposal 2011-78, which will, “Permit an institution to provide spreads (e.g butter, peanut butter, jelly, cream cheese) with the bagels it provides”

In the words of Seth Meyers of SNL, “Really, NCAA, Really?”

I aplaud you for really getting down to the bottom of what is wrong with college athletics. What a joke.

While I will never say that college football players should be paid, they should be able to market themselves and make money off of their ability — just like any other person in America can do.

If you have a talent, and other people want to see you perform that talent, the fact that you are a collegiate football players shouldn’t change that fact.

If a player wants to go to a book store and sign autographs for an hour and get paid for it, he should be able to.

If a player wants to sell his jersey or championship rings or game worn equipment, he should be able to.

There are so many things wrong, I could go on for days, but here is where you start to solve the problem.

The fundamental problem with what’s going on is that the NCAA is completely blind and inconsistent with things once they do see them.

Regardless of how screwed up the college football world is, led by the NCAA, it doesn’t change the great entertainment and passion that happens on a Saturday in the fall.

College football starts two weeks from today, and none of this nonsense will make me pay attention to college football any less.

It is just so frustrating to see something so great, run so poorly.

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Follow me on Twitter @Mike_Reiter and check out my website SportswithMike.com

It’s football season, and today continues a series where I preview the Georgia Bulldogs position by position. Today’s section focuses on the defensive backs.

Inconsistent and young a year ago, the defensive backs enter the 2011 season as one of the most experienced units on the Georgia Bulldogs roster.

CLICK HERE to read

It’s football season, and today continues a series where I preview the Georgia Bulldogs position by position. Today’s section focuses on the linebackers.

The 3-4 defense is designed for the defensive line to take up double teams and blocks, while leaving the linebackers free to roam and make plays.

With an improved defensive line, and a linebacker group that is very talented, the Bulldog’s have some playmakers in Christian Robinson and Alec Ogletree at ILB and Jarvis Jones and Cornelius Washington at OLB.

CLICK HERE to read

It’s football season, and today continues a series where I preview the Georgia Bulldogs position by position. Today’s section focuses on the defensive line.

Just like the key on the offensive side of the ball will be the offensive line, the key for the defense will be the defensive line, and if the Bulldogs want to succeed in 2011, the defense must play better in year two of the 3-4 scheme under defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.

CLICK HERE to read

It’s football season, and today continues a series where I preview the Georgia Bulldogs position by position. Today’s section focuses on the offensive line.

Much of the attention during the 2011 offseason has been focused on the running backs and wide receivers, but it will be the offensive line that will be the key for the 2011 season.

Click here to read the rest of the offensive line preview