BCS Playoff System

I hate (hate hate) the BCS college football system for choosing a national championship.  And I think a lot of other folks do to.  And in response, the BCS is talking about going to a limited BCS playoff system but it's still going to be based on BCS rankings which, frankly I don't understand (e.g., how can Boise State be undefeated yet not in contention for a national championship?).

So I'd like to see a full blown playoff.  There are eleven conferences in BCS football.  (I guess the independents would have to join a conference to participate, sorry BYU).  Take the winning team from each conference and the two highest BCS ranked teams that are not conference champions as "wildcards."  You now have 13 teams.  Give the #1 ranked team a bye, play six games, and you have six winners.  Play three games and you have three winners.  Plug in the #1 team (against the lowest ranked team still standing), and you have four teams.  Two more games and you have your BCS championship match.

That's twelve total games (and there's 35 bowl games right now).  If we can't fit 12 playoff games into 35 bowl games, we've got a problem.

This would make bowl games mean something other than bagging rights.  This would up the excitement level for BCS football.  This would make winning a conference more important than ever.  And this would mean a team like Boise State could prove themselves outside their weak conference.  The only downside is that could mean a lot of games for some teams, potentially four post-season games for a 16-game season which is a lot for college ball.

It also means we'll probably have to tighten up bowl eligibility beyond a .500 season.  Which isn't a bad thing.

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Alma Calihan on winning the quarterly book drawing at my website www.sevantownsend.com.  You, too, could win the paperback or eBook of your choice.  Sign up today.  Next drawing is in February.

Sunday Six: Undercover

Today's Sunday Six from Chapter Seven of Book of Death:

Unfortunately, one couldn't just hop in a car and drive to a city seventy-five miles away.  Maybe Romanians could but not foreigners.  The Romanian government had to be informed and permission obtained.  I wasn't too happy about informing the Romanian government that I was traveling to Pitesti.  But since I was officially a diplomat, an excuse had already been fabricated for me to go there.  Apparently I was to study the puppet theater at the County Theater for its cultural significance, and to determine if the performers could travel to the U.S. in a "cultural exchange." 

Review of Book of Death

Check out this great review of Book of Death at Beauty in Ruins blog!  An excerpt:

I was hoping for something different with Book of Death, and I'm pleased to say it delivered.

More MarbleCam Madness

My friend, Sare, introduced me through her blog to MarbleCam, an iPhone app (free) that manipulates photographs.  So she and I have been having fun texting each other our latest MarbleCam creations.  See if you can figure out what all of these are (they are all mine):

Ebook Giveaway

Sign up to win a free eBook copy of Book of Death at Literal Addiction.

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The Pac-12

When people talk about college football conferences, often they think of the Big-10 and the SEC.  But the Pac-12 (formerly known as the Pac-10) seems to labor on in obscurity caused by the Rocky Mountains or something (it's no secret, most of the U.S. media comes out of the East).  But right now fully 50% of the teams in the Pac-12 are BCS ranked, including #2 Oregon.  Even the vaunted SEC can't claim that (full disclosure: The SEC has six ranked teams, but that's out of 14 teams).

I just noticed that because I was checking the standings in the Pac-12 after the weekend's football games to see where my beloved University of Washington Huskies stood, and noticed the Huskies are now ranked (albeit at #25).  That means the Pac-12 North Division has four ranked teams (out of six).  Not too shabby.

I'm pretty confident that the Huskies or going to go 8-4 (two of their losses to teams ranked #2 and #3 when they played them).  They are currently bowl eligible at 6-4 after they beat Utah this weekend.  With Oregon probably going to the BCS, that means the Huskies could get a pretty good bowl slot, even though they are #4 in their very tough division (Pac-12 North).

And since they are a very young team, next year they should look even better.

P.S.: The sports/Huskies posts should end when the Huskies' season ends.  Just FYI.