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So much talk about the Indianapolis Colts and what they should do.  Whether it’s lose their last game intentionally to whether or not they should trade Peyton Manning and draft Andrew Luck.

In my next life,  I would want to be a NFL general manager.  Hell,  if I weren’t running up on 40,  I would make a run at that career right now. I guess I need someone to encourage me to go after it anyway despite my advancing years.  However,  I digress.

In Peyton Manning,  the Colts have a proven winner, hard worker,  team motivator, etc.  It would be ludicrous to part ways with Manning in favor of an unproven rookie no matter what you feel his potential may be.  I don’t even believe that the Colts should draft Luck and have him sit behind Manning until Manning retires or proves that he can no longer get it done.  After all,  we have no idea when that might be.  Also,  if Luck is all that people believe that he will be then he probably needs to be on the field sooner rather than later ala Matthew Stafford.

So what should the Indianapolis Colts do with their #1 draft pick.  The Colts should use that pick to either pick the best player in the draft that is not a quarterback or trade that pick away to earn several more picks and put the best possible team around the quarterback position.  Why should they do this?  Well,  one day,  Peyton Manning will no longer be wearing a Colts uniform.   It is in the best interest of the Colts to create a situation where the next quarterback coming in does not have to be Superman or even Andrew Luck at first for the team to be successful.  Draft a Hall of Fame type running back (Trent Richardson).  Acquire a dominant left tackle.  Get a big time wide receiver.  Have an awesome defense.  Set all that up now in preparation for “The End of Days.”   Why ignore the other needs of your team while trying to replace the best player on the team and in the franchise’s history in it’s modern era?  That’s like getting up to replace the oven gold Turkey on your plate when you know the potato salad is spoiled, the rice is overcooked and the macaroni tastes like a glass of milk.

General

Attention Division I, I-AA and even division II programs. If you are looking for a talented, athletic, physically gifted DE/LB type to fill out your 2012 class then we have one for you. Tristan Humbles (Notre Dame, Chicago, IL)  is new to the organized football game but you wouldn’t entirely know that watching him on film. Humbles is well put together and that’s obvious when you look at the video. He also knows how to get after the quarterback, be relentless and put the pressure on the person assigned to block him play after play. One of the best attributes a defender can bring to the table is a great motor. As Ray Lewis is often quoted as saying before his unit takes to the field “let’s go hunt!”. Humbles goes hunting on Friday Nights and there’s no doubt that his hunting should continue on Saturday for an upper echelon college football program. The tape doesn’t lie on this prospect. View Tristan Humbles 2011 senior year highlight video.

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High School Football

Combine season is fast approaching and there will be athletic testing popping up on every open stretch of grass in the major cities across the country.  With so many combines to choose from,  how do you determine which ones are a worthy endeavor and which ones are a waste of time and hamstring energy.  One major aspect that can separate the real from the unreal is the presence of standardized testing at the combine event.  By standardized I mean digital time of the 40 yard dash and other agility drills.  It’s the best way to legitimately gauge one athlete against another either at the local combine or another combine taking place at another location.  I see the implementation of standardized testing being the wave of the future on the high school level if no other reason other than the fact that so many athletes participate in these combines annually.   Zybek Sports out of Boulder, Colorado is taking a leadership role in bringing standardized athletic testing to the high school level.  Here is a recent article written by them on the importance of standardized testing at combine events.

IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDIZED COMBINE TESTING
By: Michael Weinstein – Zybek Sports
email: mike@zybeksports.com 

With fractions of an inch and two decimal places separating the top players on most teams, it is important to ensure an athlete’s data is uniform and accurate.   Colleges and Pro teams need to ensure that the athletes they are considering are being measured consistently and accurately.  The use of Fully Automated Timing (FAT) systems, where the time is started by the athlete and stopped by the athlete, are the first important step in ensuring that athletes are being compare fairly.  Other important steps include: ensuring the system is setup in exactly the distance specified; providing a certificate of timer equipment accuracy, and documentation of the test conditions, including running surface type, weather conditions, etc.  Not following these guidelines will always call into question the accuracy of the claimed time.

 

Zybek Sport’s timing system provides a traceable F.A.T platform.  Wires are used to connect the timer display unit to the remote sensors.  Although wires may seem old-fashion, marks on the wires are placed exactly at the 10 / 20 / 40 yard positions, thus ensuring exact placement of the timing points.  Also, the use of wires precludes any timing interferences / delays in wireless communications with the timing box.  Another issue that needs to be considered when setting up a verified, traceable timing system is ensuring the system is configured properly.  ZAP has designed the basic F.A.T. systems to be extremely simple.  Whereas some timing systems have software and remote communications links, ZAP’s system has two switches:  one on / off and one reset.  This makes operation easy and leaves little room for setup error.

 

Vertical Jump.  
To reduce testing time, many coaches have opted to use devices to measure “hang-time”.  The “hang time” is then used to calculate the vertical jump.  Although this method may be reasonable from a classic physics perspective and is fast, it often does not translate into an accurate actual vertical jump.  The classic vertical flag stack measurement is what the NFL uses and most colleges.  Vertec was the first to pioneer the vertical jump measurement system.  The flag system was and continues to be the most accurate means of measuring the vertical jump.  The use of a Vertec can often be time consuming, however.  For example, some coaches, often a use a piece of tape placed on the pole marking the athletes reach height.  After the athlete jumps, a tape measure is used to determine the distance between the tape mark and the bottom flag.  Accurate, but slow.

 

A new system by ZAP has made the testing very fast with no math.  The reach height is set by adjusting the mask to the height reach height.  The jump height is then simply read from the flag.  Although amazingly simple, this method of determining the vertical jump is very fast, easy and intuitive.  When maximal jump height is needed, the mask is set at a scribed mark and the height is simply read.  This is both fast and accurate.

Providing an accurate, standardized and documented method of physical combine testing is important to the athletes.  Athletes need to be very careful when selecting a testing institution for providing their numbers.  As mentioned, it is obvious that using a hang-time measurement is not an accurate method of reporting the vertical jump measurement.  The NFL uses a series of mechanical flags to measure vertical jump.  The testing company reporting the athlete’s score should use the same system.  The timing system differences, however, are a little more subtle and need to be investigated before accepting times from a combine company as real.  The most important requirement for any testing company is the use of a Fully Automated Timing system.  As seen in most programs, the difference in times between the top athletes is so minor, that any error introduced by a hand start makes the difference between the athletes statistically the same.   Even giving experience coaches the benefit of repeatable hand-eye coordination, it is nearly impossible for the eye to view the start; the brain to process; and the hand to mechanically ‘push the start button’ with 100% repeatability.  At the 2011 NFL combine, the best time in the 40 was 4.28 seconds.  The next nine times ranged from 4.34 to 4.40.  If you had the 4.31 second time, wouldn’t you be questioning the consistency of a hand started time?  Especially because some combine events span multiple days, the starter’s actual reaction time can be influenced by fatigue and ambient conditions that far exceed a few hundredths of a second.  So, ensuring the combine testing company has a repeatable, verifiable; F.A.T. system is of paramount importance to the numbers.  Also, it appears the laser-style start sensor system, is a reliable start method for a F.A.T. system.  Other systems, using a touch pad, can alter the preferred starting position of the athlete and be one additional mental distraction (e.g., am I pressing hard enough? Will I slip on the pad if my back foot contacts the pad, etc.)  that has nothing to do with running the fastest time possible.  Laser start systems measure and test the athlete’s performance.  Additional human errors are eliminated.

General 40 time, 40 yard dash, combine

An entire season comes down to this as West Pines and Pasadena are the two teams left standing in the 120 lb. division of the American Youth Football Playoffs.  The season has been both exciting and intense as many teams entered the playoffs with a legitimate shot at winning the big trophy.  West Pines earned their way to the dance by knocking off Cooper City for the second time this season 29-6 at PPO on Saturday.  Pasadena busted their way into the Super Bowl in grand fashion as they thrashed defending champion Weston 34-6 in Ft. Lauderdale.

When you look at this matchup,  there really isn’t any way that you can go against the Pasadena Panthers in this one.  I have picked against Pasadena the past two weeks feeling that they had two match ups that worked against them.  However,  the hard nosed Panthers answered the challenges and polished off two great opponents and did it handily.  Pasadena has earned my respect and enter into this game with a great deal of momentum behind them.  Rumor has it that my predictions against them were a great motivating factor and if that is so, then I am sorry to take away that aspect of their preparation.  However,  I don’t feel they need it.  As I explained last week,  Pasadena has a group full of gritty players that punch the clock and put in work for a full 40 minutes.  I would expect nothing different here and their lunch pail attitude will be too much for West Pines.

The Wildcats looked shaky in week one of the playoffs as they stumbled through their game with Sunrise.  Last week, they rose to a challenge against a solid Cooper City team looking for revenge.  West Pines’ ground game set the tone early with Jalin Thomas leading the way.   Thomas and a strong West Pines ground attack has been the tool for success this season and the Wildcats sharpened that tool against Cooper City.  Pasadena will have their hands full with West Pines’ ground game but the Panthers are built to deal with it.  In the first meeting this season during week six,  both teams had the ground games working and West Pines was able to come away with the narrow victory 16-14.  This time,  I think Pasadena’s emotional group uses their thirst for payback and triumphs over a West Pines team making their third straight trip to the Super Bowl.  I think a trophy escapes the Wildcats for a third straight time Buffalo Bills style in perhaps the greatest game of the day.

Pasadena 14  West Pines 12

Youth Football

It’s that time again.  Predictions for the games in the most exciting division of the American Youth Football League in Broward County, Florida.  It seems my prediction riled up some folks last week and may have fired up a few others.  What can I say?  They’re just predictions folks.  Certainly nothing personal as I have a connection with almost every team in the playoff picture.  Unfortunately,  no one wants to see me predict a tie for no other reason other than the fact that ties can’t happen!  Just my opinion and in this division,  a prediction is more about a team being really good than the other team being bad.  So, no offense should be taken.  With that being said,  I predicted three out of the four games in this division right last week.  Only Pasadena beating PPO kept me away from perfection.  There were no upsets which is not usual.  Things get hot and heavy this week with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line so here’s how I see it.

(#1 ) Weston 16   (#4)  Pasadena 6

Oh sure I could go wild here and pick Weston to lose but why?  The Warriors line up every week looking like a team that should and could be beat but for 38 out of 39 weeks that has not been the case.  Weston has perfected the little things and have allowed the big things to take care of themselves.  Running, blocking and tackling are their specialty and they do it at a level higher than anyone else.  Pasadena may be the most gritty, hard nosed team in this division and if I ever needed to go collect some money,  I would take these guys with me.  However,  we are talking football and you can’t argue with Weston’s history and ability to win the big game.

(#3)  Cooper City  20  (#2)  West Pines 14

These two teams met in week eight of the regular season with West Pines winning in overtime when an extra point attempt by Cooper City hit the uprights and fell into the end zone.  West Pines also withstood an opening drive by Cooper City that died inside the 10 yard line.   Since that game,  West Pines has not really been the same.  They struggled the next week against a bad Northeast team,  lost to Weston two weeks later and had all kinds of problems against Sunrise last week.  Cooper City will be well motivated for the rematch and with two teams so evenly matched,  I like the loser of the first matchup to get their revenge.

………… ………. ……….. ……….. ……….

Let the insults reign!  I love the passion of youth football in South Florida!

Youth Football american youth football league, ayfl, cooper city cowboys, pasadena panthers, west pines wildcats, weston warriors

This is perhaps the most competitive division this year in the American Youth Football League in Broward County, Florida.  You have a division where as many as five teams have an equal chance of standing on top of the mountain at end of the season.  Here is how I think things will shake out in week one of the 120 lb. playoffs.

#1  Weston – 18   #8  Plantation – 0

Plantation was dominated in the first meeting in week 5.  Weston has continued to get better as the season has gone on.  They also rebounded well from having a 38 game win streak snapped by PPO two weeks ago.

#2 West Pines – 30  #7 Sunrise – 12

Sunrise is the most unpredictable team in the post season.  One week they will blowout an opponent.  The next week they will get blown out.  West Pines should be motivated after loss to Weston last week

#3  Cooper City – 20  #6  Ft. Lauderdale – 0

Cooper City will control the tempo and the clock in this one.  Ft. Lauderdale is on the edge of greatness but not quite there yet.

#5  Pembroke Pines – 12  #4  Pasadena – 6

This is a tough draw for the Panthers. Pasadena won a tough battle in the first meeting over a month ago.  Teams usually learn their lesson in the rematch.  PPO without one of their top players leaves Pasadena in a quandary as to how PPO will attack.  A good game here that PPO wins with a late touchdown.

 

Youth Football ayfl, cooper city optimist, ft. lauderdale jaguars, pembroke pines optimist, plantation optimist, sunrise optimist, west pines optimist, weston warriors

There’s nothing more exciting than a football player taking a football and weaving through defenders to go the length of the field.  In celebration of that and to give a shameless plus for an awesome Dri-Fit T-shirt,  I am going to be holding the weekly/monthly “Bomb ‘ Em for 90″ segment on Gridironstuds.com.  This week we are going to take a look at two plays from the NFL yesterday and both were accomplished by players from the NFC North Division.

First up was Green Bay’s Jordy Nelson.  The much maligned receiver operating in the finest receiving corps in the league hauled in a slant and go (slugo) route from Aaron Rogers and raced 93 yards to the end zone vs. St. Louis yesterday.  It was just another big play for this offense enroute to another victory to move them to 6-0 on the season.   Here’s a view of that exciting play:

Next up, we have a man who is no stranger to the end zone and to traveling the length of the field at high speeds.  You may have missed it last night and who could blame you as the Bears were busying beating Minnesota’s back out in a snoozer.  With the Bears up 26-10,  the Vikings just scored a touchdown and came up with the brilliant idea of kicking the ball to Devin Hester.   You can only guess what happened next.  Hester tap danced on the Vikings’ beard and their hopes as he ripped it down the sidelines for a 98 yard kickoff return.  Now the Bomb ‘Em for 90 Committee usually reserves the highlights for touchdown passes of 90 yards or more but we will make occasional exceptions for extraordinary plays and players.  Hester and his deed falls under those categories.  Check out his dazzling return and entry into the Bomb ‘Em for 90 Hall of Fame:

From the high school edition,  which is what I really want this to be,  you have to take a look at the man who coined the phrase,  taking a kickoff back 90 yards for a touchdown earlier this season versus Goose Creek High School and that’s University School’s MacGarrett Kings.  Take a look:

Get Your Bomb ‘Em for 90 Dri-Fit T-Shirt

Here’s a shirt that every wide receiver, quarterback, running back, kick returner or offensive player should own.  It’s the ultra comfortable,  highly sporty,  make a statement, Gridironstuds.com “Bomb ‘Em for 90″ Dri-Fit T-shirt.  If you are electric and you know it,  sport one of these and let everyone know.  Wear it to practice,  wear it on game day, wear it under your pads,  wear it to camp, to the combine, to the park,  wear it in the dark and let ‘em all know,  that at any moment you could “Bomb ‘Em for 90″  Only $25..   Send email to: cwilson@gridironstuds.com now

Did you Bomb someone for 90?  If you had a touchdown play for 90 yards or more and have the video,  let us know.  Send an email now with the description and link to the video to: cwilson@gridironstuds.com.

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Bomb 'Em for 90, General

There are good games and there are games like the one freshman QB Tucker Israel had on Thursday Night.  The signal caller surpassed the Florida state record of eight touchdown passes in a game when he went out and rained down 10 TD passes on Celebration High School in a 68-10 win for Lake Nona.  If you are looking at those numbers and thinking it was bombs away,   you would be disappointed.  Eight of Israel’s 10 touchdowns traveled less than 20 yards in the air.  Israel hit Ryan Sousa on a pair of skinny slant pass patterns and that was as deep as it got.  The rest of Israel’s TD passes came from a combination of jet sweeps in which he chucked the ball one yard ahead to a player in motion and screen pass type dump offs to a back standing at the line of scrimmage.  Regardless of this fact,  it worked for Lake Nona as they had a 54-10 halftime lead on the well whipped Celebration team.  Israel fell short by one of the national record of 11 TD passes thrown in a game.  On the season,  Israel has 24 TD passes and only four interceptions with an eye popping 1808 yards to boot.  Lake Nona has won five straight since losing their opener to Orlando University High School.  It’s gonna be a great year and a great career for this freshman.  If he stays healthy he will likely own all of the state passing records by the time he dons his cap and gown.

Here’s a link to a full story and video of this performance:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/os-hs-celebration-lake-nona-20111013,0,7844775.story

High School Football high school quarterback, lake nona, tucker israel

What a sneaky title this is.  While the main premise of this article is to propose a more logical realignment of the current college football conferences,  it is also a sneaky way to slip in yet another Division I playoff format.  This way we can do something logical in this sport like crown a champion by what happens on the field.

My conference realignments serves to group college football programs into regional areas (another thing that makes sense but isn’t done).  It also serves to include all college football teams in the quest for the championship and not eliminate programs by lumping all the 2nd tier schools into one conference.

With 120 Division I-A teams,  this is the perfect time and perfect number for something like this to be done.  With 120 teams,  it is now possible to have 10 college conference consisting of 12 teams.   This allows every conference to have a championship game.  Just the very thought of that should excite every college football fan as well as the teams, players and coaches.

Grouping the teams by region creates awesome rivalries that will mean something.  Of course some previous conference rivalries will be lost but provisions can be made for every program’s biggest rivalry to remain in tact.  Also the regional conference groupings set up a great situation for a playoff system that makes sense.

My proposal calls for a West Region and an East Region with five conferences in each region.  Each conference will have six teams on one side and six on the other.  Initially,  the split can be done to have balance of program strength between each side.  A realignment of the conference splits can be done every three to four years to maintain the balance between both sides of each conference.  The realignment will be based by the performance of each team over the previous three to four years.

So before I dive headlong into the intricacies of this realignment along with offering rebuttals to arguments people may have,  allow me to reveal to you the proposed conferences and their teams.   Of course,  the names of the conferences can be tinkered with but I went with made most sense at the time I put them together.

I placed teams in each sides of the conference based on my recollection of their recent historical performance in college football.  I will continue this article after the tables showing the realigned conferences with the meat and potatoes of how this proposal will improve college football to levels never before seen.

Here they are:

East Region			West Region
Southern Conference			Southwest Conference
Miami	Alabama		LSU	Tex A&M
FSU	Florida		TCU	Texas
Georgia Tech	Georgia		Baylor	Houston
FAU	USF		Louisiana Tech	SMU
UCF	Troy St.		Rice	N. Texas
FIU	UAB		ULL	Arkansas St.
Southeast Conference			Mid-American Conference
Auburn	South Carolina		Iowa	Pittsburgh
Tennessee	Clemson		Purdue	Illinois
Miss. St.	Ole Miss.		Notre Dame	Missouri
Memphis	Vanderbilt		Iowa St.	Indiana
S. Miss.	Tulane		Ball St.	Miami Ohio
Mid. Ten. St.	Lou. Monroe		Bowling Green	Marshall
Northeastern Conference			Midwestern Conference
Penn St.	Ohio St.		Oklahoma	Nebraska
Boston College	U.Conn		Oklahoma St.	Arkansas
Syracuse	Cincinnati		Colorado	Kansas
Navy	Rutgers		Colorado St.	Kansas St.
Army	Temple		Tulsa	Wyoming
Buffalo	Kent. St.		Air Force	Idaho
Mideastern Conference			Mountain West Conference
Virginia Tech	North Carolina		Texas Tech	Boise St.
Virginia	Wake Forest		Arizona	BYU
West Virginia	NC State		Arizona St.	Utah
Louisville	Maryland		UNLV	Nevada
Kentucky	East Carolina		New Mexico	Utah St.
W. Kentucky	Duke		New Mexico St.	Utep
Northern Lakes Conference			Western Conference
Wiconsin	Michigan		Oregon	California
Minnesota	Michigan St.		Oregon St.	Stanford
Toledo	Northwestern		Washington	USC
W. Michigan	Eastern Michigan		Washington St.	UCLA
C. Michigan	N. Illinois		San Jose St.	Hawaii
Akron	Ohio		Fresno St.	San Diego St.

Now let’s talk about the realignments, scheduling, competition and the all important playoff system.

No more independents

Enough with the flying solo.  The NCAA puts their foot down on a lot of things when it comes to college football but continue to get pushed around on other very important things.  Tell Notre Dame the gig is up and that if you want any shot at playing for a national title,  you have to take your conference assignment.  Yes,  I propose that the NCAA become Nazis with regard to this.  They also need to say the same to Army and Navy.  Everyone’s in a conference.  That’s as fair as fair can get.

Conference strengths

There’s no way to make every conference have equal strength but this is as close as you can get.  At first glance it looks like Wisconsin would have an easy path to the conference title game each year but who knows if one or more of the other teams in their conference don’t improve dramatically when the prize of a national title becomes real.  There is no more MAC conference or Conference USA or WAC where we lump in all of the weaker programs and have the king of that conference crying about how they don’t have a chance for a title.  Those smaller programs are spread throughout the conferences.   I am sure someone will come with the argument that putting those programs in with bigger programs will keep them away from ever winning a conference title.  My reply is that these teams are winning conference titles now and the ones who are winning titles should welcome the chance to step it up against the big boys.  In looking at the alignments,  there is a tremendous amount of balance between them.

Regional Bragging Rights

Setting these conferences up soley by geographical location sets up a situation where each region can develop a sense of pride about the way they play football. Also a  program can take pride in knowing that they reign supreme over a conference that is comprised entirely of teams within a small radius of their location.  No more Lousiana Tech battling Hawaii in a Western Athletic Conference game.

But What About the Loss of Conference Rivalries?

What about it?  When college football programs bolt from one conference to another in search of better television deals or revenue sharing,  no one seems to care about destruction of conference rivalries.  I was watching the 30 for 30 special on ESPN about “The Death of SMU” and remembered that there was once a conference called the SWAC. There was also a Metro-Conference.  Conferences come and go and new rivalries get formed.  I think rivalries are more powerful when they occur between teams in close proximity to each other.  There’s the chance that every week will be emotional in these conferences.

Scheduling

With six teams on each side of each conference,  every team will have five conference division games.  I am then proposing that we take a page out of the NFL book and make the out of conference games pit one conference against another.  So, for instance,  Florida St. would play conference division members Miami, Georgia Tech, FAU, UCF and FIU equaling five games and then have another six games against the members of one side of the Southwest Conference.   So for example they would play Texas A&M, Texas, Houston, SMU, N. Texas and Arkansas St..  That would give them 11 and everyone else 11 games.  Every program will also have a 12th game which would be used for rivalry games, historical games, interesting matchups etc.   So for example,  Texas Tech,  who is no longer in a conference with Texas can have their last game be against Texas if the two schools want to preserve some type of rivalry.

Now the Playoffs

To have a playoff system under this alignment,  we would need either 14 or 16 teams from each region to enter the playoffs.  I am proposing 14 teams from each region and issue bye weeks in the first round to a team from each region.  Before we get to the playoffs though,  every conference would have their championship game.  The winner of each division within a conference would meet at the end of the year to determine a champion.   Once that has been done we then issue a first round bye in the East Region to the highest ranked conference champion and then also do the same for the highest ranked conference champion in the West Region.   We would then also have the need to select two wild card playoff participants from each region.  I propose that the two highest ranking conference runner ups from each region be selected as playoff wildcards.  So you now see two ways in which the ranking system remains relevant in how we arrive at a champion.  After the teams with byes,  the next two highest ranked conference champs would face the two wild cards.  The other game would pit a conference champ against another conference champ.  So let’s see what that would look like.  I am going to use the 2010 season as an example and make some hypothetical assumptions about who would win the conference title games:

Conference Title games:

East Region

Southern Conference: #16 Alabama defeats #23 Florida St.
Southeast Conference: #1 Auburn defeats #20 South Carolina
Northeast Conference: #6 Ohio St. defeats Boston College
Mideastern Conference: #11 Virginia Tech defeats North Carolina
Northern Lakes Conference: #4 Wisconsin defeats #7 Michigan St.

West Region

Southwest Conference: #3 TCU defeats #18 Texas A&M
Mid-American Conference: #14 Missouri defeats Iowa
Midwestern Conference: #8 Oklahoma defeats #9 Arkanasas
Mountain West Conference: #10 Boise St. defeats Arizona
Western Conference: #2 Oregon defeats #4 Stanford

So here’s what the playoff brackets would look like.  Some quick notes, in seeding the regions for playoffs,  the two top teams would be split between the upper and lower part of the regional brackets.  The rest will be paired high rank vs low rank.  So highest ranking team will play lowest ranked team, etc.  EXCEPT in cases in which the pairing would result in an immediate rematch of a conference title game.

Here’s what the playoff bracket would look like based on my hypothetical conference championship winners:

	Eastern Region
	Auburn		Auburn
	Bye			Auburn
			vs
	Alabama		Michigan St.
wc	Michigan St.					Auburn
	Ohio St.		Ohio St..	vs
	Virginia Tech			Wisconsin
			vs
	Wisconsin		Wisconsin
wc	South Carolina
	Western Region
	Oregon		Oregon
	Bye			Oregon
			vs
	Boise St.		Stanford
wc	Stanford					Oregon
	TCU		TCU	vs
wc	Missouri			Oklahoma
			vs
	Oklahoma		Oklahoma
	Arkansas

wc stands for wildcard…

Before anyone says anything like,  after all that we still have the same two teams playing for the championship.  Well,  that only happened because I did the simple thing of having the higher ranked team win each matchup so of course we would end up with the same matchup the BCS has produced.  However,  I think we all know that there would undoubtedly be upsets especially with the potential of a lower ranked team being better than a higher ranked team with the faulty measures used to do rankings.

But What About the Bowls?

The Bowls still remain and there would be a ton of good matchups amongst bowl eligible teams that did not make the playoffs.  For instance:  Miami v. LSU or Oklahoma St. v BYU or Michigan v. Texas Tech and many more.  The bowl committees can set up parameters centered around what conference seed would face what other conference seed in the bowls.  Plenty of awesome matchups would still be available.

A Playoff Would Make the Regular Season Irrelevant

Don’t need to spend much time on this.  Under a system like this,  that would be false.  Each game in each conference has meaning as there is a division and conference race going on every week.  Also,  the rankings have a meaning so teams must play at a high level every week in and week out.

The Perks of this System

Personally,  I would be glued to my television set each week if a system like this were in place.  I would be able to see the playoff and national title picture unfold on the field and not necessarily have to just wait till Sunday evening to see where we are at.  The playoffs would also be riveting.  Every other level of football has playoffs (pop warner, high school and pro football).   This set up is much like the NFL’s which is the best run sport in this country.

What could also happen under this realignment is under performing programs of the past who have wallowed in mediocrity in conferences full of other mediocre teams may now feel the pressure to improve and stay relevant.  This could lend itself to more parity as programs try to avoid embarrassment.

Feedback

I would love to hear from those of you who love college football and have read this proposal.  What could go wrong?  Where would we have a problem with this?  What do you like about it?  Comment away.  I want to hear from you.

General auburn, bcs, college bowls, college conferences, college football, lsu, miami, Notre Dame football, ohio st., oklahoma, oregon, usc

We all see him on Sunday’s giving the other team fits and making opposing fans say words they should not be saying on Sunday.  However,  Desean Jackson is not new to this.  Jackson was a phenom in high school playing for popular California High School Long Beach Poly.  Jackson was groomed for greatness… literally.   Jackson was trained by older brother and friends to be a playmaking machine.  Young Jackson took the training and ran with it.  It’s always good to look back and see what a guy used to be especially when he’s now a pro getting it done.  Max Preps takes a look at Desean Jackson’s playmaking high school days in their segment called “Way Back When”  

High School Football desean jackson, long beach poly