Parting Shots

The ‘07 college football season is in the books and I’d be remiss if I didn’t leave you one more time with the Ocho vision. The Ocho is an eight-team playoff crowning a true national champion, generating more money and excitement than a University President could shake a gold-plated stick at, and eliminating the hazy cloud of the BCS as it hovers over the greatest sport on the planet. The playoff would leave the bowl system as it stands today nearly unchanged, only involving the BCS bowls and incorporating the playoff into those games. I know it’s too much to ask to go straight to a full-blown playoff, so I’m fine if we go to the “+1″ initially as an interim step. After all, baby steps are for babies and university presidents.

If there were a playoff, and I were the commish, this is how it would go down.

* Teams would be seeded like they are in college basketball- by a panel of experts, not solely by current rankings or conference champions or any garbage like that. The best eight teams are in. Then we can argue about # 9 or # 10 instead of # 3 and # 4 like we did this year. I don’t have any sympathy for the 9th best team in the country. The 3rd best team this year had a pretty good argument for why they belong in the NC.

* All other bowls remain. All of the tradition from the Papajohns.com Bowl or the Meineke Car Care Bowl will remain intact. The Ocho will be incorporated into the existing BCS structure. First round games are played at home of the higher seeded teams. The two semifinal games would make use of two existing BCS bowl games and then the Championship game would be used for….the Championship. The only change would be that there would need to be a two-week layoff between the semifinal and finals. The other two BCS games would stay intact and would field conference champions and others left out of the playoff.

* I repeat- first-round games are played at home of the higher-seeded team. This would actually add to the drama by providing home-field advantage for the higher seed and forcing some warm-weather teams to play games in (gasp!) cold-weather cities.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t fire one more blast toward Notre Dame as I close the book on 2007. As much heat as Charlie Weis took this year, it didn’t even approach the amount of heat he should have taken. Consider if you will the historic nature of this past Notre Dame season as pointed out by NBC Sports columnist John Walters:

* In Notre Dame’s finale against Stanford, Freshman Running Back Robert Hughes ripped off a 45-yard run. This was Notre Dame’s longest play from scrimmage all season long. 45 yards.

* The Irish gave up an NCAA record 56 sacks this season.

* Notre Dame’s leading rusher James Aldridge tallied 463 yards on the season which was the lowest rushing total by a Notre Dame running back in 21 years (406 yards by Mark Green in 1986).

* John Carlson finished the season as the team’s leading receiver with 40 receptions, the lowest total by a receiver in six years.

* The Irish finished the season with a win for just the second time in 14 years and finished the season with a two-game winning streak for the first time since 1992.

Finally, according to Joe at codevision.com, Notre Dame was the second worst performing team in the nation based on the talent they have, behind the University of Miami and ahead of Mississippi. Other teams in Notre Dame’s peer group of horrific underachievers include Syracuse, Duke, and Minnesota.

You’re welcome.