Weekly Blabber 2/2/2009

Welcome to the first Weekly Blabber of February. As I have mentioned before, Weekly Blabber is an opinion post for each week. Weekly Blabber will usually be about the latest or hottest topic circling college football.

The Weekly Blabber for February 2, 2009, will be on the Mountain West Conference's recent push to get a BCS automatic bid. For those that are unfamiliar, the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) is made up of the six major football conferences: the ACC, the Big East, the Big Ten, the Big Twelve, the PAC Ten, and the SEC. Each conference has an automatic tie-in for each BCS Bowl: Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. For example, usually the ACC Champion will play the Big East Champion in the Orange Bowl, the PAC Ten Champion usually plays the Big Ten Champion in the Rose Bowl, and so on. With the BCS Bowls comes a hefty paycheck for the participating conferences.

This is the reason the Mountain West is lobbying for an automatic BCS Bowl tie-in... the big money. The Mountain West is a "mid-major" conference, which means it is considered to be a notch below the BCS conferences as far as national contention goes. The Mountain West Conference consists of Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, TCU, Utah, and Wyoming.
The Mountain West Conference brought up the argument of an automatic BCS Bowl tie-in mainly because of the strength of its team's recent BCS Bowl record and final poll records. In the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Utah defeated Pitt, and then defeated Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. Both seasons the Utes were unbeaten at 13-0, finishing fourth in 2005 and second in 2009 for the final poll. The Mountain West Conference teams finished the 2008 season ranked second (Utah), seventh (TCU), and 25th (BYU).

So, the question is..... Does the Mountain West Conference deserve an automatic BCS Bowl tie-in? My answer to that is...... not yet. The reason for my answer is that although the Mountain West teams have performed very well as of late, the conference is not strong enough from top to bottom. Utah, BYU, and TCU had great seasons in 2008, but UNLV, San Diego State, Wyoming, and New Mexico only had 15 wins combined. Another reason the conference will get friction for bowl tie-in consideration is the legal matters involved. There is a swarm of contracts that spans eleven conferences, two TV networks, and four bowls.

I think the best recipe for the Mountain West Conference is to keep doing what they are doing. The conference must do three things: continue getting impressive bowls wins, continue having three or more teams in final poll results, and improve the programs of Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, and Wyoming. The Mountain West is surely taking the correct strides towards becoming a BCS conference. But I believe it will be a few years down the road before they see the fruits of their labors.

Weekly Blabber 1/26/2009

It's that time of the week again.... the Weekly Blabber! This week's blabber will be about something that happened a few weeks ago, the firing of Boston College's Head Coach Jeff Jagodzinski. Let me lay down the basics of what happened in this situation.

Jeff Jagodzinski was fired as the Head Coach of Boston College on January 7, 2009, after interviewing for the head coaching vacancy at the New York Jets. Jagodzinski had completed only two years of his five year contract with the Eagles. According to Director of Athletics, Gene DeFillippo, Jagodzinski interviewed with the New York Jets without his knowledge. DeFillippo found out about the Jets interview the evening before the interview was to take place. DeFillippo informed Jagodzinski that if the interview took place that he would be terminated. Jagodzinski interviewed with Jets personnel anyway. So, after winning 20 games and two ACC Atlantic Division titles in two seasons, Jagodzinski was terminated by DeFillippo.

For me personally, this type of event is a double-edged sword. On one hand, I applaud Athletics Director, DeFillippo for not tolerating the constant "job jumping" that goes on in college football today (i.e.; Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino). DeFillippo wants a coach that is committed to the program and is in it for the long term. DeFillippo nurtures a college football program that has stability and continuity. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Those are the things that win games and championships. But loyalty is a fickle thing in college football now-a-days.

On the other hand, I feel like Jagodzinski got the short end of the stick. Jagodzinski was a long shot at getting the head coaching job at the Jets. I don't see any thing wrong with him wanting to test the waters elsewhere. Perhaps just to see where he stood in the eyes of an NFL organization. I mean DeFillippo doesn't expect a coach to stay his entire career at Boston College does he? Just about everyone at any job eyes a better position at a different company from time to time, right? I think it is very wise to always keep your options open. Would DeFillippo be any different? Is he THAT committed to permanently being the Director of Athletics for Boston College? What if, let's say, The University of Maryland had a University President vacancy and he was interested in becoming a university president. Becoming a university president has always been his dream job; it is what he has always aspired to be. Would he not at least check into it? Shouldn't he be excited at the possibility of getting a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity?

Jeff Jagodzinski is no different. Truthfully, Gene DeFillippo would be no different.

All in all, I feel that Jeff Jagodzinski's firing at Boston College came down to one thing.... E-G-O!

On January 13, 2009, Boston College hired long time Defensive Coordinator, Frank Spaziani, as the new Head Coach. Good luck to Coach Spaziani and the Eagles in 2009!



New Boston College Head Coach Frank Spaziani

Weekly Blabber 1/20/2009

I have started a new weekly post called Weekly Blabber. Weekly Blabber will be updated every week with news, information, ramblings and insights pertaining to what's going on in college football.

Today is President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. I think this is a great day for our country! So what does this have to do with college football?

The reason I brought this up is because of Obama's public statements saying there should be a playoff system in college football. I think there are many college football fans that agree with this sentiment. I know I do. There should be a playoff system in Division 1 football. But why hasn't one been implemented?

One word. Money! The current bowl committees are scared to death that rearranging the bowls to suite a playoff could kill the huge payouts by corporate sponsors. Bowls that are big on tradition, do not want to break tradition, such as the Rose Bowl Committee. The Rose Bowl wants a Big 10/PAC 10 matchup. At all costs. Money is probably the biggest reason that a playoff system has just been and will always be just talk.

Establishing a playoff system would be easy. Drop the regular season back to 10 games. Make all the BCS conferences either play a conference championship game or eliminate all conference championship games all together. I think it's really unfair that the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 teams must play a conference championship game, while the Big East, Big 10, and PAC 10 do not. It gives the latter teams/conferences a big advantage in the final rankings, in my opinion.

Next, take the top 8 teams in the final regular season BCS poll and play them in a playoff using the existing BCS bowls. For instance:

#1 vs. #8 = Sugar Bowl
#2 vs. #7 = Fiesta Bowl
#3 vs. #6 = Rose Bowl
#4 vs #5 = Orange Bowl

Then the winner of the Sugar Bowl plays the winner of the Fiesta Bowl, the winner of the Rose Bowl plays the winner of the Orange bowl. The winner of those two games then plays in the National Championship Game.

With this scenario, you end up with a true, undisputable champion. Also there are still only a total of 14 games for the national champion (the same amount that is currently scheduled, if the team plays a conference championship game). Plus, all this could be done with the current bowl schedule with the New Years Day bowls and the January 8th championship game. In other words, you will still have the same amount of games within the same time frame.

All other bowl games for those teams outside the top 8 would stay the same.


I'm sure there are probably a million different scenarios and system that would work in order to have a true playoff. The one I am suggesting is perhaps the simplest. Will it ever become reality?

Probably not.