Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 67

On the Honor Fest
I’m kicking myself for not attending the recent Glenn Beck festival in Washington. Sorry, but I had to match my socks. By the way, that was as much of a nonpolitical event as most other stuff in Washington.

By the way, has Minority Leader Boehner (R-OH) followed his own suggestion of putting grown-ups in charge by resigning? Just another example of his inability to practice what he preaches.

Columnist Maureen Dowd suggests using Kathleen Turner’s line from Body Heat to describe Mr. Boehner: You’re not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.

On Two Brilliant Columns
I cheered when reading this great column by Kathleen Parker. I especially love this line: Little else seems to be working lately as we sliver ourselves into a thousand shards of blithering self-interest.

Earlier I mentioned the Maureen Dowd’s column – here is another good one!

On Dimly Lit Paris
Paris Hilton cannot tell the difference between chewing gum and cocaine? And why is this person in the news?

On a Tea Party Win
With Senators Lisa Markowski and Ted Stevens out of the picture, can Tea Party favorite and Sarah Palin endorsed Joe Miller lead the charge in Alaska as their new King of Pork?

On Some College Football
I never thought of Boise State being one of the most hated teams in America. Check this out.

Although I shook my head at the announcement, here are two good articles about the situation from Michigan and Wisconsin.

On Tasty Recipes
Our dinner group had Hawaiian night a few weeks ago. My wife and I were responsible for appetizers, which were a big hit. Here are the recipes for pineapple salsa and Hawaiian chicken wings.

Another party host requested my chocolate wine cake. Yes, another hit, so here’s the recipe.

On a Holiday Weekend
For an end of summer bash, Cincinnati has a huge fireworks display on the river. Here’s a very short video of my favorite part – the fireworks waterfall from a bridge. Have a safe Labor Day holiday weekend.

On College Football Scheduling Trends

I started tracking out-of-conferences games of BCS conference teams five years ago when the NCAA expanded the regular season to 12 games. The statistics show the following:

• Number of games against BCS conference teams is relatively constant.
• Number of games played against nonD1 teams is increasing.
• Number of games played against D1 teams is decreasing.

The table below displays cumulative statistics, while the graph below illustrates percent games against nonD1 teams yearly by conferences. Note: In 2007, the Big 12 value is the same as the SEC (thus hidden).

On 2010 College Football OOC

Five years ago the college football regular season expanded to 12 games. Since then, I have monitored the out-of-conference games played by the BCS conference teams.

Some points about the study

• Only out-of-conference (OOC) games are counted
• It has nothing to do with determining “the better” conference nor designed to favor one conference over another
• I classify teams as Division 1 (D1) and nonD1
• D1 teams are subdivided into BCS and nonBSC
• Quality of teams is not a factor; thus playing Indiana counts the same as playing Ohio State; thus equally count as a Big 10 opponent
• The 2010 schedule has 259 OOC games

The Basic Facts
Fact 1: Of the 259 OOC games, better than one-fifth (22.4%) are against nonD1 opponents and slightly more than one-third (33.4%) are against BCS teams

Fact 2: 56 of 66 (84.8%) play at least one game against a nonD1 opponent, including two playing two games (Virginia and Arizona State).

Fact 3: 10 of 66 (15.2%) play a full D1 OOC: Cheers to Colorado, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Texas, UCLA, USC, Washington, and Vanderbilt (even though schedule quality is a different question)

Fact 4: Using the 2010 averages (orange) as a baseline, Big 12 clearly has the highest rating of D1 games and the ACC the lowest; the other conferences cluster around the average.

Fact 5: Six teams fail to play any BCS Conferences opponents in their OOC. Shame to Baylor, Indiana, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Texas Tech, and Va. Tech.

Below are the numbers for yourself. What about the five-year trends? Well, that’s tomorrow’s post. Stay tuned.

On Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 46

On Priorities of Politicians
The more I observe our political system at work, the more I realize what it’s all about. Although in the last presidential campaign John McCain used Country First, reality is that Country is way down the list with self, party, special interests, and contributors getting the highest priority. Moreover, people wonder what’s wrong in Washington and politicians wonder why many voters become disenchanted.

On Bank Loans
Amidst the growing list of banks repaying their government loans, where are the calls of Fascism? Oh, they are the ones crying wolf in another topic.

On a Recent 60 Minutes
The Dec 20th edition of 60 Minutes very interesting. The first segment was about the economic impact on Wilmington, Ohio due to the closing of a major employer. Since Wilmington less than an hour away and I know affected people, it found it humbling.

The second segment was about the Orthodox Church, whose main office is in Turkey with its Muslim population in the high 90%. The segment showed Turkey’s ancient ties to Christianity. Amazing – especially the information about Capadocia! To see the segment, forward the video to around the 15-minute mark. Otherwise, see images of Capadocia here.

On the Big Can’t Count
The 11-team Big 10 Conference is considering expansion. Interestingly, there’s a report out of Chicago stating the conference will examine expansion to 12, 14, or even 16. The demise of Big East football is getting closer.

On Bias in College Voting
Everyone knows that voters don’t show bias or favoritism in college polls and awards. Point in case. In the recent AP Coach of the Year balloting, the top 3 vote getters were Gary Patterson (TCU – 21 votes), Brian Kelly (Cincinnati – 19 votes), and Nick Sabin (Alabama – 14 votes).

Let me get this straight. Nick Sabin received 14 votes for leading a pre-season top-5 team to an undefeated season over Patterson, whose team pre-season ranking around 17; and Kelly, whose team was unranked.

Verdict – Guilty and case closed without appeal.

On a New Header Cometh
Following the swap I did last January, sometime on January 1st I plan to reveal a new header. Please stop by and give me your thoughts.

On College Football Problems

No doubt about it, college football is a great game. Yet, whether scheduling of out-of-conference games (OOC), bias in the polls, or no legitimate national champion, the game has its share of issues. Let us keep in mind that dollars are at the center of many debates. With this post, I’m taking an honest stand that will be unpopular with many fans – then again, that’s what I expect.

Let’s start is the ACC, Big 12, and SEC. These are the 12-team BCS conferences whose fans will be excited this weekend with their conference championship game. Wait a minute – why is there a conference championship game? Sure some fans will say because they have 2 divisions. I say what a bunch of crap! This extra game is all about revenue: revenue for the conference, revenue for the host city, revenue for the network, and possibly revenue for the participating schools. Why not play everyone and only 1 OOC game? Why have a conference if all teams don’t play each other? Oh, that’s right – revenue!

So how about the Big Can’t Count, most commonly known as the Big 10? Here’s a group of power elitists who not only forego a conference championship game by passing on a 12th team, each team doesn’t play 2 conference teams. Why not? Oh, that’s right. Playing more conference games would mean less home games – yep, less revenue.

Let us not forget about the BCS ugly stepsister, also known as the Big East. Given a 12-game schedule and an 8-team league, at least these schools play everyone in a season, but 5 OOC games is too many. Sure it is easy to say “expand by 2 teams” (and I wish they would), but pickings are slim (Temple, Army, and Navy) unless there was a major conference reshuffling – but that won’t happen because a conference would lose it’s title game.

So that leaves the PAC-10 – a 10-team conference without a conference title game, but where all teams face each other while playing 3 OOC games. (Interestingly, as a conference, they play the best OOC schedule). In my opinion, at least they serve as a model of what should be.

After next weekend’s games, the committees will announce pairings for all the bowls – and I can guarantee these things:

• Elitist fans will demean the existence of the nonBCS schools, and the Big East representative.
• Many fans will complain about the BCS format and call for a playoff.
• Fans will forget that the conference title game is one of the extra games working against a playoff.

I can also guarantee that money is the root of the entire situation – including the money made by the conference title game. Bowl committees pick (or don’t pick) teams based on a business decision. The BCS lock-in system exists as a business decision. Meanwhile, as the upper division of college football continues to be the only major sport enterprise without a true champion, my hope of a playoff format continues to be nowhere in sight.