COACHES HOT SEAT BLOG

Last week in San Francisco a good friend of ours that has worked in Washington DC on Capitol Hill for 20 plus years and who a few of us here at Coaches Hot Seat worked with when all of us started together on Capitol Hill told us over dinner that things have “never been worse” in Washington DC and that OUR “Elected Leaders” are borderline mentally ill and are just unable to deal with the biggest problems now facing the American Republic because to do so would put their re-election chances at great risk.

With that in mind it was rather enjoyable to take a break from work on Wednesday afternoon and see that the 11 conference commissioners and the Notre Dame AD were able to bridge a lot of differences over the past 6 months to come up with a consensus model for a 4-Team Postseason Playoff for Major College Football.

What these 11 conference commissioner and the Notre Dame AD have proved is that….

Americans can still get difficult things done

….and last night after dinner the phone rang at one of our houses and it was our good friend from Washington DC on the line who sounded typically and exhausted and what do you think he said?

Good Friend From DC:  “Well…what about that announcement this afternoon?”

CHS:  “Yes, that was something alright.”

Good Friend From DC:  “My boss and I discussed the commissioners’ announcement late today and he was impressed with what they got done.”

CHS:  “Hey, the descendents of Revolutionaries should be able to get difficult things done.”

Good Friend From DC:  “Tell me about it!”

CHS:  “Is it hot as Hell there?”

Good Friend From DC:  “Hotter than Hell! Hell, the Devil doesn’t like it this hot!”

CHS:  “Well, working in the Devil’s Workshop you should know!”

Good Friend From DC:  “Now come on…why would you go and insult the Devil like that by comparing Capitol Hill to Hell? The Devil has nothing on these Bastards!”

CHS:  “Just for informational purposes it’s in the low 80s here with low humidity.”

Good Friend From DC: “Well, at least I can take comfort that you boys will be in Tampa for the Republican Convention in August and that isn’t going to be a bed of roses.”

CHS:  “Is it hot in Tampa in August?”

Good Friend in DC:  “Well not in the Convention Center….everywhere else….Hotter than Hell!”

CHS:  “Well, we got the Berlin Wall down, the Bogus BCS is about to be tossed onto the dustbin of history with Socialism, Communism and the Pet Rock which only leaves getting the Bastards in your city straightened out!”

Good Friend in DC:  “Believe me, in private these folks wonder aloud about the American People being just over the hill with pitchforks and torches in hand and they wonder just what the Hell they are going to do when the whole things comes crashing down.”

CHS:  “They better have good criminal attorneys because the pitchfork and torch folks are already pretty pissed off and a few of them know how to seat a federal grand jury, issue subpoenas, take depositions and get people indicted!”

Good Friend in DC:  “Now I know why I never let you guys meet me here in the office when you come to town!”

CHS:  “Hey, maybe we can send Delany, Slive, Scott, Swofford and company to Washington to get those Bastards straightened out?”

Good Friend in DC:  “Yes….that was impressive and no doubt our old….”

CHS:  “….boss would be proud.”

Good Friend in DC:   “Yes…..Talk to you soon.”

CHS:  “Yes and tell those Bastards the People are coming with or without the pitchforks and torches and if they hear the Battle Hymn of the Republic they should begin to become afraid….very Damn afraid!”

Good Friend in DC:  “Oh, that will scare the Hell out of them!”

CHS:  “See you here on the 4 th.”

Good Friend in DC:  “You got it.”

Yes, the 11 conference commissioners and Notre Dame AD coming together to create a new 4-Team Postseason Playoff system starting after the 2014 season is great news for college football fans everywhere and now that you have that reality in your head do you think that for a moment you will care one iota less about the college football regular season?

Please, the regular season just became MORE important with this new 4-Team Postseason Playoff and hopefully “strength of schedule” will be factored in to who gets into the 4-Team Playoff because right now there are just way too many teams in I-A college football playing way too many cupcakes and please don’t say that the SEC is tough so SEC teams need their cupcakes because that is the BIG BS!

Dennis Dodd has an interesting take on the deal that was announced yesterday…

Playoff is here, BCS is dead, and SEC still runs the show, Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports

“A month ago, in the midst of the playoff discussions, the SEC consolidated its power by partnering with the Big 12 in the Champions Bowl. Wednesday’s “win” seemed like another national championship … because it opened the door to future national championships.

The four-team model awaits BCS Presidential Oversight Committee approval which could come as soon as next week in Washington, D.C. But the commissioners didn’t come this far without communicating to those presidents exactly where this was headed. Expect that CEO rubber stamp because the commissioners accomplished much of what they set out to do:

Provide access for the have-nots. The next Boise awaits with an actual chance to play for a national championship. (See Utah example). Who knows, it might actually be … Boise.

Provide fairness. Take 2011. In the proposed system, No. 5 Oregon probably would have been voted in ahead of No. 4 Stanford. The Ducks won the Pac-12. The Cardinal, which lost to Oregon, didn’t.

Turn down the volume on the most contentious offseason since Princeton and Rutgers squawked about a rematch in 1869.

A playoff is all but here. The BCS is dead. The rest of college football remains in that SEC stranglehold.”

…and we agree mostly with Dennis Dodd on his point, but we do not agree that the SEC will always remain on top of college football and mainly because this new 4-Team Postseason Playoff will make the SEC EARN it’s way into the National Championship Game each year instead of the current situation where the SEC almost has an automatic bid out of the SEC Championship Game each year.

The thing that most human beings don’t recognize because it usually happens so slowly is that….

“The only constant in life is……change”  Heraclitus (475 BC – 534 BC)

….our lives are constantly changing and something like the balance of power in Major College Football can change very quickly and just as the SEC put a stranglehold on the game over the past 6 years there are conferences and teams ready to step-up and take on the challenge of the playing against and beating the SEC and now with this new 4-Team Playoff the SEC will have to prove itself twice in the postseason and that can only be a good thing for college football going forward.

As for the issue of the Rose Bowl and trying to keep the best Pac-12 and Big Ten teams playing against each other every year if they are not in the 4-Team Playoff we can say that we have been going to Rose Bowl games for over 30 years now and currently we have around 40 tickets to the Rose Bowl each year among our CHS membership and frankly the Rose Bowl featuring teams from other conferences every once in awhile would be one of the best things that could happen for Los Angeles and the Pasadena area would be for some new, different and unique match-ups every once in awhile in the Granddaddy of them All!

Bravo to the 11 conference commissioners and the Notre Dame AD for coming up with and recommending to the college presidents a…

4-Team Postseason Playoff

…chosen by….

A Selection Committee

…which should provide for some great fun and intrigue as the regular season and conference championship games are winding down each year and the jockeying for which 4 teams will have a chance to play for a National Championship on the Field of Play all of which WILL fundamentally CHANGE the game of Major College Football for the better.

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