2001 Week 9
November 15, 2001
We're nearing the pinnacle of the college football season, with the conference championships being decided and the BS rankings being the primary topic of discussion.
Last year there was a lot of controversy about the BS rankings, as one highly-touted one-loss team was rated ahead of another one-loss team that had beaten them.
I'm speaking, of course, of last season's Miami controversy.
Miami was rated ahead of Washington, even though the Huskies had smacked the Canes around earlier in the season. As you can imagine, they were pretty upset in Spokane, and the people in Miami had to come up with excuses as to why head-to-head results weren't as important as strength of schedule and other considerations.
So the powers that be have changed the BS ratings system to try to prevent that travesty from repeating itself. From now on, schools lose points based on who they lost to. They also lose points if they have a bad mascot, or an empty stadium, or boosters with bad teeth. So the Canes look to be in trouble now, no matter how good their record is.
Last week featured some shockers. Florida State lost a home conference game for the first time since they joined the SEC. I saw that Arkansas pulled a shocker over Florida, 27-20. Coach Spurrier has got to be reeling after losing two tough ones like that.
One of the fans on my chat this week asked if college football should imitate baseball and "contract", that is, eliminate some teams.
I've often wondered whether we should go into another contraction era. There are over 100 teams playing major college football and many of them have consistently shown an inability to compete on the field or draw people to their home games.
For instance, a school like Temple is having great difficulty competing on the field, and their attendance has been horrible. The Big East should start looking for a replacement once the Temple franchise is eliminated. I think I have the answer, as Bob Davis has done a fine job of rejuvenating fan interest at Notre Dame, filling those stands the way Lou Holtz wasn't able to do in his final years.
Now if Temple is removed, there will be an opportunity for other schools to get some of their best players (if there are any) through a draft. Some of the best players in college football history changed schools due to a post-contraction draft, such as Troy Aikman, who went from Oklahoma to UCLA when the Sooners were temporarily contracted in the mid-80's.
Not only that, there are many fine professors and brilliant students, and the shutdown of Temple will allow other schools to draft those people as well. I'm sure a school like Penn State could use some new Political Science professors, and this will be just the perfect opportunity to pick up some good ones before Temple is closed by the NCAA.
The last major contraction era was immediately following World War II. There were too many college football teams, the quality of play and attendance was dropping, and some of the teams had to be removed, such as Iowa Pre-Flight University, Camp Grant College, and the Great Lakes Navel Institute.
There were some controversial team eliminations. The US Military Academy (Navy) and The Navel Academy (Army) were temporarily contracted as part of the disarmament process, but then the Korean War broke out and the Navy and Army were reopened and again fielded football teams.
The most famous contraction was the elimination of the University of Chicago. Chicago had had a fine program in the Big Ten, under Anus Alonzo Stagg. But the program and the school fell upon rough times during the war. They suffered severe financial losses and had to find new, secretive ways to raise money and make ends meet.
Once the public learned of the U-Chicago scheme, with its inherent danger to the public, not to mention the questionable individuals involved, attendance at U-Chicago football games collapsed. Soon after that, due to lack of interest, the program was contracted and the Big 10 became the Big 10/9 (as opposed to the current Big 10/11).
What was the scandal? U-Chicago rented out their football stadium to foreigners (named Formi and Feinstein) who were building nucular weapons underneath the stadium grandstand. Once that story broke, it was all she wrote for the University of Chicago, which is now a branch campus of the University of Illinois.
Well, I've got to go now. Famed director George Lucas just called. They're doing the early years episodes from the "Star Wars" series and they apparently want me to play the younger version of one of the beloved Star Wars characters. I'm hoping I get to be the young Han Solo, but I'll even settle for Yoda. I couldn't quite understand Mr. Lucas' message, he said something about meeting him at Pizza Hut.