Dance Party Fridays: Bring Da Ruckus

Okay, I admit, I mostly chose this video as an excuse to get some Wu Tang clan all up in this mutha. Since none of the official Wu Tang videos feature dancing worthy of DPF enshrinement, I had to look deeper. The moves here, while dangerous to execute, will most definitely impress on 90% of all dance floors. As an added bonus, no one will ever fuck with you again. Wu Tang clan ain't nuthin' to fuck with indeed. I leave you in the hands of the RZA, the GZA, Ghostface Killah, Masta Killah, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, Ol' Dirty, Raekwon and U-God (that was totally from memory, by the way).

Talking College Football Playoff Blues

As is traditional this time of year, much of the internet chatter has moved from post-spring analysis to that endless debate of how best to crown college football's national champion. I might as well throw my hat in the ring since, after all, I don't have anything better to write about. Plus, I happen to fall into that increasingly small set of fans* who oppose a playoff in college football, particularly a large scale, 12-16 team tourney.

*Although I don't know that the majority is as large as is generally assumed; ESPN.com polls that take no account of sample size and the opinions of message board junkies is hardly proof of anything, especially since I'd bet good money that the majority of sports fans over the age of 25 spend as little time on internet message boards as possible. That being said, it's probably safe to assume that at least 50-60% of college football fans favor a playoff.

My reasons for this include most of the typical ones: tradition, exciting regular season, the payoff provided by even the lowest of bowl games. I also think it's pretty presumptuous of the playoff crowd to assume that playoff revenue would equal the current revenue generated by the bowl system (not saying it wouldn't, just saying there's no way to know). Certainly the teams participating in the tourney would likely make more money than they currently would in a BCS system (although remember BCS games pay out to the entire conference as well as the participants). But would, over the course of an entire season, the revenue at least equal out? I'm not so sure. I guarantee you the ratings wouldn't have been nearly as good for the Pitt-WVU game last year had WVU not been playing for a national championship bid. They would have already clinched the Big East spot at that point, and the game wouldn't have mattered. There's a lot of revenue in major regular season games that would need to be made up in a Playoff system. Yes, the Red River Rivalry, Georgia-Florida and Michigan-Ohio State would still draw ratings, but not to the extent they do now. While there will always be national interest in these major rivalry games, limiting their impact to league championship implications instead of BSC/national title implications lessens their intrigue. And while you can scoff at money as a reason, remember that football is the bell cow at most universities, even those that aren't terribly good at it. A big reason for this is the integrity of the regular season, which provides conferences with much larger TV contracts than they generally get with other sports, even College basketball. The bowl game payout also helps. If you take that money away, you have to make it up somewhere or a lot of smaller athletic departments are going to struggle. Again, I'm not saying this money couldn't be made up, but I've seen little concern for this issue among those clamoring for a playoff.

But none of this talk really gets to the point I think most people are missing; the BCS, though it needs some major tweaking, is a better way to crown a champion than a playoff. Let me explain. The current BCS formula is, at best, convoluted. Computer polls are one thing; computer polls that are required to discount margin of victory, as all computer polls in the BCS formula are, is another. The BCS added this criteria to keep teams from running up the score, which is nice, but it doesn't really make for fair assessments. On top of that, you have the polls, which are full of problems, not the least of which is that they generally come out before a single game has been played.

In fact, the polls are generally the biggest problem. Polls are political. They have inherent bias's built into them by their nature. When USC was poised to play OSU in the National Championship game two years ago, Michigan was ranked higher than Florida because it wasn't supposed to really matter and they had just played OSU very close. When USC lost, the two switched positions. The problem I have is not that the two teams switched (which clearly created the right match-up), but that their play on the field had nothing to do with the switch. And this is the problem with polls. They guess at rankings, and then make moves based on how those teams do. There is a sort of reflexive logic to polls; Michigan didn't drop far enough because they lost to the #1 team, even though that team turned out not to be the best. So an embarrassing episode of politicking ensued in which Florida was propelled into the number two spot in the polls simply to avoid a repeat match-up, and as a result the correct team got the national title.

All of this could have been avoided by simply taking the polls out of the equation. Ivan Maisel proposes a committee like the one that sets the NCAA bracket in Basketball. That sounds like a pretty good way to do it, although there could be others. The important thing is to not make any decision on who may or may not play in the game until after the conference championship games have been played, and to have the decision placed in the hands of someone with no vested interest one way or another (meaning no TV personal hungering after higher ratings, no coaches wanting the best for their team, no media members who want to be able to write about an exciting match up, et cetra). This way, you, as much as it's possible to do, take away pre-season bias, and can base you're decision entirely on body of work. Most of the complaints against the BCS are centered around the polls anyway, so why not remove them?

Of course, this leads me to the other major overhaul that needs to be enacted, which is a definitive conference format. Every league needs to play the same kind of schedule, whether that means conference championship or not. League's should have to expand or shrink accordingly. This would help immensely in determining which two teams should play in the NC game because every team will have played the same number of games. And, if every league adopts a championship game, which I think is the way to go, this adds an extra game that could eliminate potential candidates. Would USC have won a Pac 10 championship game in 2003? Who knows. The point is they didn't have to play in one, which is why I still have no problem with Oklahoma and LSU getting the nod; they played more games than USC.

Ultimately, if these criteria are met, I think the BCS would do a much better job of deciding a champion than a playoff would for the simple fact that any champion would have to survive an entire season, not simply get a hot hand around playoff time. Cinderella stories are nice, but they're just that; stories. George Mason was not a better team than many of those they vanquished, they just played well at the right time. They were not a championship caliber team. The Giants this last year is another example. They held the worst regular season record of all playoff teams, but managed to put together their best string of games at the right time and are now the champions of their sport. I'm not trying to take away from what they accomplished, I'm simply pointing out why I don't consider the Giants to be a more legit champ than, say, Florida 2006 (2007 is a bit of an odd year and I hesitate to use it as an example because, let's face it, we probably won't see anything that crazy again). The Giants won on the field but I don't feel they were a better team than the Pats, the Colts, the Cowboys, or the Chargers. Hell, I probably wouldn't even put them above the Packers. They just got the ball to bounce their way at the right times and rode that momentum all the way to the Superbowl. Fucking lame, if you ask me.

Anyway, that's my long, rambling, poorly assembled argument against a playoff and for the BCS. If anyone wants to argue, feel free to post something in the comments. I understand I'm probably in the minority.

Holy Fucksticks!

There's good high school running backs, and there's great high school running backs. Then there's sophomore's who make your head explode. I give you Lache Seastrunk, who already wins for greatest name, ever. Looks like he'll do a fair bit of winning on the football field, too. He's got Nebraska on his list of schools of interest, but don't get your hopes up. It's looking like Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, and Miami right now. Of course, there's still two years before his letter of intent can be signed, so anything is possible.

For Reals, People

All of this spygate nonsense needs to stop. This article lays it out very well. And in regards to the Rams walkthrough, you might read this. Sen. Arnold Specter needs to admit he's just a bitter Eagles fan and step down.

The worst is I keep finding myself having to act as a Patriots apologist. To counter act this, let me just say: Fuck the New England Patriots who, regardless of whether or not they cheated, are one of the biggest piece of shit franchises in the NFL (even if they do have Randy Moss). Get a decent fucking color scheme at least, douchebags. I'm down with red, white, and blue, even if it is overdone. But that shiny silver glitter helmet? Doesn't work for Ohio State either, and at least they don't have a retarded fucking logo plastered across the side.

/end rant.

UPDATE: New video information reveals that the Patriots cheating operations may have been more involved than was originally thought.

Dance Party Fridays: Barry Sanders Edition

More credit to Justin*. These really are the best dance moves ever.

Chatastic

2:01pmJustin

your friend [Pete Carroll] also is involved in a terrible scandal!!!!!!!!!!

2:02pmCarlin

True

but he'll overcome that

although he declined my graduation party invite

2:02pmJustin

probably because you only matter

if you declare for the draft early

2:04pmCarlin

right

2:05pmJustin

i dont mean to offend

2:05pmCarlin

well, I'm sorry I ran a poor forty at the combine

2:05pmJustin

you can always use the jerry rice defense

4.7 40

2:06pmCarlin

true

but I also suck at football

2:07pmJustin

i suppose that might factor in somewhere

2:08pmCarlin

if you're being picky, I guess

Recruiting 09: An Early Look Part 2

There are two highly rated Running backs who seem most likely to wind up in Husker red. Both are quicker, elusive backs which would seem to fit our needs (of the freshman backs coming in this year, Collins Okafor is a bigger north/south type runner and Lester Ward has the frame at 6' 3" to grow into a similar role).

David Oku: This smallish prospect from Texas is a top 100 player regardless of position according to Rivals.com, and I'm not sure I could disagree. He's fast and elusive, great in the open field, with enough strength to slip a tackle or two. Seems to be more of an open space guy. You don't see him take it up the middle between the tackles much (does "take it up the middle between the tackles" sound like a euphemism to anyone else?), which is cause for concern, but that doesn't mean he can't. He's got great quickness, can cut on a dime, and while not quite as Barry Sanders-like as almost-Husker LaMichael James was coming out last year, there is a hint of the former OSU Cowboy in his start-and-stop style. He liked the Huskers early, but interest fell off after the coaching change when an offer didn't come. Turns out this was a simple miscommunication, and he's actually had an offer for a while now. We're on his short list, and I have to think some good production from our running backs will do wonders for our chances.



Brandon Wegher: Although under 6', it would be tough to classify Wegher as particularly small. He's not a big back, by any means, but coming in a 195 lbs. at only 5' 10" is hardly diminutive. He's got a faster forty time than Oku (by about .07 seconds), but generally looks to have greater breakaway speed on film. His cuts aren't as devastating, but don't let that fool you. He can definitely make people miss. Looks a little bit tougher as a runner, occasionally attacking would be tacklers instead of trying to go around them, but mostly he slips through tackles in a way that's reminiscent of one time Husker commit Jonas Gray (who wound up signing with the sinking ship that is Notre Dame football). In other words, he's deceptively shifty, often making slight adjustments to body lean and direction at just the right time to get defenders out of position. This allows him to maintain good speed since he doesn't have the ability to start and stop that Oku does. He plays weaker competition, but his productions is far better (2334 to 1628 yards last year). He plays for Souix Falls and grew up watching the Huskers, so chances aren't bad.



As with the QB's I highlighted last time, you can't really go wrong with either of these guys. If I had to pick, I'd take Wegher, if only because he seems a little smoother, makes it look a little more effortless, and that usually translates well at the next level.