College football

We need a leader to bring us playoff

SHELTON E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published December 28, 2002

A new president has been hired at Florida State University, and the old one at South Florida has received a raise that qualifies as "big, stinking," and I'm certain your first question is pretty much the same as mine.

Why, exactly, wasn't Shelton considered for either of these jobs?

I am kidding, of course, because except for shaking hands and shaking down alumni, I have no earthly idea what a university president's job is. I suspect the FSU search committee was kind of fuzzy on the particulars, too.

The job, I suspect, has something to do with tweed and textbooks, perhaps tweed textbooks. There should be one rule for running a university: Do not, under any circumstances, be Dean Wormer. In FSU's case, there is also a 27-year contract extension to be negotiated with Bobby Bowden, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why else I wouldn't be free for lunch on Tuesday.

This question remains. If no one knows just what the job is, how on earth did FSU's committee conclude T.K. Wetherell is the guy to do it? Except for checking with Bobby on how that lunch went, of course.

Here's an idea. I prop up Wetherell on Renegade, the big white horse who serves as a mascot. I hand him a flaming spear.

Then I point him toward the BCS.

This is important, because if you've been paying attention, it supposedly is the presidents who stand in the way of a college football playoff system. Mention missing class time for a playoff game to a president, and you can watch the blood drain from his face so fast his feet turn red.

What this nation needs is a college president you can chuck on the shoulder. You know, the kind of person who retreats to the office, locks the door and does what the rest of us are doing. That's right, someone who looks at the AP rankings and tries to figure out how a playoff would look.

Everyone who isn't a college president, it seems, wants a playoff. There isn't a counter-argument. It's like yelling at your kid to clean his room. You're right, of course. But no one seems to hear.

Yet, again we sit, pondering the polls, disgusted with the computers, annoyed at the self-serving nature of the bowls.

What we need here, then, is a voice. We need a college president to call malarkey on the whole defense of the status quo. We need someone to adopt this as a personal windmill.

In politics, pet projects happen all the time. One guy wants computerized maps, another wants to invade Canada. But no one has adopted the noble cause of bashing the BCS, perhaps because they're too busy making those silly 25 bushels of apples vs. 50 gallons of cider wagers over the Heartworm Bowl.

We need someone who will hold up this week's polls and say "Come on, guys. Look! You're talking about an opening round game between Miami and Oklahoma. Wouldn't that be cool?"

We need someone who will look at the cameras and raise his voice. "Look at this," he would say. "You've got Ohio State-Washington State, Iowa-Kansas State and Georgia-Southern Cal in the other first-rounders. If the higher-ranked teams win, you'd have Miami-Georgia and Ohio State-Iowa next week in the semis."

Then we need him to sigh heavily, shake his head and, in a softer voice, say this. "Now, tell me again how terrible this is for college football."

Oh, the president would be blasted by phrases both familiar and feeble. He'd hear how much precious class time would be missed. He'd hear how it would hurt the sanctity of the Pig's Knuckle Bowl and the Burnt Toast Classic. He'd hear how these games have been (repeat after me), good ... for ... college ... football.

In response, the president would nod, ponder thoughtfully for a moment, and offer this measured rebuttal:

"Bullfeathers."

Class time? Of course he's worried about class time, the president would say. But, hey, it doesn't appear to be that big a problem in every other NCAA sport. If the polls are so great, should the NCAA cancel all those championships, too.

The bowls? Hey, if the bowls are about what's good for college football, he would point out, then why is FSU going to a better bowl than Notre Dame? Hey, we're all tired of watching Rudy, but why punish these players? (Also, why is USF sitting out the bowls?)

The system? A president might wonder how much schooling you need before you can see this doesn't work. Frankly, the BCS hasn't worked as well as the old system of arguing the loudest. Every year, it seems, someone gets hosed. Last year, it was Oregon State. The year before, it was Miami. Before that, it was Ohio State.

After a while, I suspect, the president was going to get a little frustrated that his flawless logic is as useful as talking to a pine tree. The rest of us certainly have.

Perhaps the president will suspect all this talk about missing classes and bowls are just smokescreens. Maybe he will suspect that this is merely a matter of the big conferences protecting their pocketbooks. Maybe he'll think it's about (gulp) money.

He'll look at the bowls as they exist. He'll note that the SEC always splits the booty from seven or eight bowls, and the Big Ten divvies up about seven bags of cash, and the Big 12 gets about seven, and on and on. In all, the major six conferences walk away with about 90 percent of the total bowl payouts.

Gee, the president might wonder. How much might that have to do with keeping things the way they are?

Yep, we need this guy. We need someone to carry the flag and sound the bugle. We need the rage, the rhetoric.

We need Wetherell to make this argument. Or, for that matter, Judy Genshaft.

Frankly, the rest of us are a little weary of it.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright