Instant Messaging and the Birth of the "As Needed Bowl" | by Dylan

[09:43] Dylan: Jay, I’m not sure it's a totally fair charge. NCAA hypocrisy, that is

[09:43] Jay: what you thinking

[09:44] Dylan: I'm not sure that the 12th game is necessarily hypocritical. I mean, there's plenty to bitch about, but I'm not sure that it's hypocritical to want another sanctioned game but not a playoff

[09:44] Jay: don't get me wrong, I like the 12th game, although you have to make a different argument than the one the NCAA keeps citing about infringing on academics. I mean, that was the whole given reason

[09:46] Dylan: I actually buy that argument. I think that the last three weeks of December are the wrong time to be playing football. And I don't like the crazy bowl season either

[09:48] Jay: it's only 8 teams, not the whole of college football

[09:48] Dylan: well, not really. The bowl season isn't going to go away. If you could get the conferences to give up their championship games, you could, conceivably, get a small playoff in before finals season

[09:49] Jay: I’ve seen some scenarios where an 8-team playoff fits right in

[09:50] Dylan: does it involve playing in the second and third weeks in December? cuz that's a bad idea

[09:50] Jay: one game after the bowls, one game before Christmas, shift the schedule back. I mean hell they're talking about a 12th game already. Where's that going to fit in?

[09:51] Dylan: one of the two bye weeks that we schedule

[09:51] Jay: theoretically I guess the first playoff round would take the place of that 12th game, shifting schedules around naturally, where the last playoff round, i.e. the final game happens one week after the bowls

[09:52] Dylan: the problem is the SEC and Big 12 playoffs. it just makes a playoff schedule unworkable, because you can't know the participants until, possibly, Dec 6 or 7. You'd have to start immediately and go for three weeks. The kids who get to the championship would be forced to travel through finals. No college Prez is going to go for that.

[09:54] Jay: bottom line is that a true championship game isn't a priority. What about the extra two rounds (that is 3 games) AFTER the bowls Jan 1, final four a week later, NC the following week

[09:54] Dylan: in addition to all the other bowls?

[09:55] Jay: use the bowls as round 1

[09:55] Dylan: so the winner of the Orange Bowl goes to a playoff?

[09:55] Jay: you're not buying it

[09:55] Dylan: What if the winner of the Orange Bowl is 10-2 Texas and they have just beaten 11-0 Notre Dame?

[09:56] Jay: it's a playoff

[09:56] Dylan: I would love an "As Needed" bowl

[09:56] Jay: lol

[09:56] Dylan: Seriously

[09:57] Dylan: Auburn v SC one week after the BCS

[09:57] Jay: for all the marbles...hmm....but only "as needed." You know they would find a way to have that "as needed" bowl every single year.

[09:58] Dylan: it wouldn't be any harder to put together than a playoff after the conference championship games, and think of the hype

[09:58] Jay: huge

[09:58] Dylan: Like a potential Triple Crown winner in the Belmont. No one cares about the Belmont without that potential.

[10:01] Jay: I think the overarching point still stands. In general, the NCAA isn't opposed to extending the season. they've seen what a Big 12 championship and SEC champ. can generate. Ironically it's the Big 12 leading the charge on this.

[10:01] Dylan: the NCAA is hypocritical w/r/t money

[10:02] Jay: I haven't read anywhere the kinds of things the PSU prez was talking about. I think the general principle seems to be: it's bad if only some of us share in it, it's good if everyone does. Maybe I’m extrapolating too much

[10:04] Dylan: the thing about the Tulane example is that they wouldn't have gotten into an 8 team playoff. The whole thing's a freakin rat's nest

[10:04] Jay: absolutely

[10:05] Dylan: they should go back to AP and UPI. blow it up

[10:05] Jay: lots of teams bitching about how they didn't make the cut. It'd be way worse than hoops. The bitching is already ear-piercing for March madness for teams that didn't make it. With a field of 8, it's just magnified

[10:06] Dylan: It's not like the BCS conferences wouldn’t pull the same crap with a playoff

[10:06] Jay: stacking the field you mean

[10:06] Dylan: the same masters would be served. You think that a down Big 12 wouldn't get a team in? The Big 10? It's exactly the same number of teams as the current BCS. In that sense the playoff fixes nothing in terms of access to the field

[10:08] Jay: it crowns a champ, which is really its chief goal

[10:08] Dylan: which we were doing pretty well before the bowl alliance

[10:08] Jay: the split champ stuff is bull. That's the ultimate source of all this, but maybe that's the way it should be

[10:09] Dylan: hence the As Needed Bowl. Catchy name, don’t you think?