Layout Change

Hey Folks! Decided to try a different background and new layout. If you enjoy or have any comments, leave one below!

The Big Ten and Their Committees

The Big Ten wrapped up their meetings in Chicago today and proposed their solutions to the BCS mess. Most of the solutions were echoing their previous stances but the biggest reaction was their proposal for a selection committee for the BCS Final Four.

A selection committee is used for the field of 68 in the NCAA Tournament and always has people upset about who the 69th team was. It's not a full proof solution but many people accept it for what it is. Any time a team from a conference is discussed, the conference representative must leave the room. This helps prevent a conference from lobbying for their team and making deals (even though these deals are genrally made ahead of time.)  Each year's selection committee varies it's standards for what makes a team tournament worthy. Road victories may be a deciding factor one year while out of conference scheduling plays a part in the decision the next. Would we really want the BCS Selection Committee having standards that change from year to year? While a basketball selection is a decent solution for that sports, a football selection committee is a bad, bad idea.

A football selection committee has too much possibility for back room deals and conference bias. You would need to have at least 3 people on the committee and make sure that it has an odd number of committee members for breaking ties. You'll need to have a variety of conferences on the committee but it would be rife with conflict after all of the expansions. If the committee was determined before the season and a member of the committee had a school from their conference on the block, would he or she be able to vote on the team? Would you really want 3 or 5 people deciding on the fate of the BCS Final Four? As much complaining as we get about the computer rankings imagine the outrage if the polls had Oregon at #4 and the committee decides to jump #6 Texas over them.

In my opinion, the best way to do it would be to use the current method of two human polls and the BCS Computers. The formulas would have to be on display and show what they factor in. There would still be the human element by including the Coaches' Poll and the Harris Poll and there would be the 7 computers ranking the teams as well. The current BCS model throws out the highest and lowest rank of the computer formulas to determine the average position. I see no reason why if they are made open, that this shouldn't continue.

There is no sure fire method to please everyone in the College Football Universe with a BCS Final Four Selection Method but the best one is being used right now. We just need more transparency from the BCS on what constitutes the formula and what teams need to do to finish in the top four. We can never fully develop a perfect system but we can come very close to it by opening up everything for the schools and fans to see.

$EC Meeting Notes

Today the SEC announced that they will be dividing up $241.5 million dollars between the 12 member schools. (Texas A&M and Missouri don't officially join the SEC until July 1st.) That's $20 million per school. Is there any doubt as to why the SEC is leading the nation in revenue?

Last year the SEC made a paltry $219.9 million. The revenues for the SEC went up 9% this year. The breakdown of the money looks like this:

• $116.6 million from their football television deal. 
• $34.2 million from the bowls
• $15.3 million from the SEC Football Championship
• $31.2 million from their basketball television deal
• $4.9 million from the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament
• $24.9 million from the NCAA Championships
• $14.4 million from supplemental distribution

Notice where most of the money comes from in this deal. Football. Is there any question as to why their is such a big scramble for conference realignment? The money is in football right now. A product that only puts out 12 guaranteed games a year per school. Also notice that the SEC pulled in $34.2 million dollars from bowl games. This amount of money is the reason why so many schools want to keep the bowls in place and not go to a full fledged playoff system. If there is only a playoff system in place, that leaves hundreds of millions of dollars out of the pockets of various conferences. The bowl system is going to stay in place because of how much money it brings in.

The 6-1-1 format schedule will be in place for a while when it comes to football. That means 6 divisional games, 1 rotating opponent, and 1 permanent cross division opponent. It's going to keep the Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia rivalries in place for a couple of more years. The other permanent cross divisional rivalries are LSU-Florida, Arkansas-Missouri, Kentucky-Mississippi State, Ole Miss-Vanderbilt and South Carolina-Texas A&M.

Ole Miss Chancellor Dr. Dan Jones will be leading a group to help study the effects of sports related concussions in the SEC member schools. Florida President Dr. Bernie Machen announced that this group will be consisting of Dr. Jones, a physician, two specialists who are experts in head trauma from SEC medical schools, two team doctors from SEC schools, and two athletic trainers from SEC schools. Now other sports do have athletes that get concussions but a majority of the concussions in the SEC come from football. As we see from above, football is the cash cow of the conference and nobody wants to see the cash cow get slaughtered. The SEC is going to do their best to put forth a CYA policy that will prevent them from civil action down the road.

Outside of the concussion survey, the other big announcement was a unanimous decision was reached in support of a four team playoff that consisted of the top four teams in the nation and not conference champions. The SEC and Big XII agree on this issue and the Big Ten, Pac 12, and ACC all say that they want only conference champions. This is going to lead to a very interesting showdown at the BCS meetings in the upcoming few weeks. Look for the SEC and Big XII to try and get the smaller conferences who are a part of the BCS to form a cohesive bloc of voting.

SEC Men's Basketball Scheduling will involve 18 conference games with one permanent opponent and 12 rotating opponents. The permanent rivalries are Alabama-Auburn, Ole Miss-Mississippi State, Arkansas-Missouri, Georgia-South Carolina, Kentucky-Florida, Tennessee-Vanderbilt, and LSU-Texas A&M.The SEC Basketball Tournament will be adding an extra day of hoops.

• Day 1: 11 vs. 14 and 12 vs. 13
• Day 2: 8 vs. 9, 12/13 winner vs. 5, 7 vs. 10, 11/14 winner vs. 6
• Day 3: 1 vs. 8/9 winner, 4 vs. 5/12/13 winner, 2 vs. 7/10 winner, 3 vs 6/11/14 winner
• Day 4: Semifinals
• Day 5: Championship