MY CONFERENCE COULD WHIP YOUR CONFERENCE WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND ITS BACK

NCAA football from Wikimedia

When we sit down to watch a sporting event, unless we have a rooting interest in one team, we hope for a close, exciting game.

Of course the truth is, sometimes when one team plays another, one team is clearly better and opens a can of whoop ass on the other, beating it soundly. I know, I'm a New England Patriots fan. Zing! Bet you didn't see that coming.

That brings us to the college football playoffs. For years, Division 1 college football decided its championship in a quaint way. Teams played a regular season, then the best teams played  bowl games, then some media folks voted on who would be awarded the national championship, or in today's parlance, the "natty." I really, really hate today's parlance. Since rarely did the number one team play the number two team, this system allowed as many as three or four schools and their fans to proclaim each year that they were the rightful champions.

So the powers that be, seeing the inefficiency of this system, as well as its failure to milk every last dollar out of the fans, TV networks and anyone else involved, came up with a new, improved system. A four team playoff. One plays four, two plays three and the two winners square off. Finally, an undisputed national champion. Would that be an "undi natty?" The new system would use existing bowl games as playoff games. What could go wrong? Glad you asked. Three playoff games and approximately 97 bowl games no one gives a damn about any longer. Nine bowl games drew under 20,000 people last year.

Only four teams, you ask. How are we going to decide which four? Easy. Computerized sorcery, combined with TV network and conference politics. This is gonna be easy. We'll take the three undefeated major conference champions, and.....what? Sorry, we'll take two of the three undefeated major conference champions, plus Alabama and Texas. 13-0 Florida State, sorry, maybe next year. But why?

Because the SEC and its legion of obnoxious fans fancies themselves the home office of college football. Why, we're the conference of Alabama, Georgia, Home Depot, Sonic and Fansville, for God's sake. You can't leave us out! The ACC? A bunch of Dukes.

So the powers that be, seeing the problems with this system and blind to the problems of any system they could possibly dream up, came up with a new one. 12 teams! All the major champions get in. Look, Clemson is in from the ACC. Sorry, Florida State, can you forgive us? Arizona State is in. I think they were the Big East champ, hard to keep track. Boise State, in. Hey, Indiana, great season, come on down. SMU, the Southwest Conference champ (or not.) OK, is there anyone who could possibly have a gripe about this? Wait, who's that spraying Dr. Pepper all over the bracket? How dare you leave out fourth place Alabama from the SEC? We beat all kinds of good teams, plus Mercer and Western Kentucky. This is an outrage! Next year? The top 11, plus the entire SEC.

Then, they played the games. See second paragraph. Tennessee got waxed by Ohio State, but bragged about how many fans they had at the Shoe. (See, SEC and legion of fans above.) Indiana tripped on the glass slipper and fell into a snowbank.

Cue sports media, led by an impassioned Kirk Herbstreit rant about how the selection committee blew it by allowing the likes of Indiana and Tennessee in. I like Herbstreit. I think he made one of the greatest athlete to broadcaster transitions of all time. Problem is, he, like everyone in major TV sports, works for a network that is involved in business transactions with the teams and leagues they cover. When a commentator's opinions align with what's in the best business interests of his employer, one must wonder.

Here's my radical suggestion. Let me say in advance I know all the things that are wrong with it, but hear me out.

Since conference alignments mean less than they ever have, blow them up. Let whatever experts are up to the task come up with four 13-team leagues. The top 52 in the country. Try to balance those leagues so they would be of roughly equal strength. 

Each team plays each team in its league once. This takes strength of schedule off the table. Everyone plays a schedule of about equal strength. The top three in each league go into the tournament. A 12 team tournament. Twos play threes, ones get a bye. Determine a formula of which league faces which, so seeding is not an issue.

Include soccer-style relegation every year, two years, whatever. Mississippi State 2-10, you're out next year, Army is in.

Of course, none of this matters, because North Carolina is going all the way next year. Light blue hoodies will be all the rage.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON SUPER WILD CARD WEEKEND

Photo courtesy of piviso.com

 

I'm glad it was Super Wild Card weekend. If it were ordinary Wild Card weekend, I might not have watched.

There are 11 defensive players. There are a maximum of five eligible receivers. With 2.2 defensive players for every receiver, why is at least one receiver running wide open on every play?

Why is that receiver very often a guy who had 192 catches for 3,000 yards for the year?

Was there a pass play in any of the three games yesterday on which pass interference did not occur, more often than not on the part of both the defender and the receiver?

When you keep nobody in to help the offensive line on a pass play, it only takes one guy to miss his block for the play to blow up. 

If you're a defender looking into the backfield trying to guess where the QB is going to throw the ball, the answer is always "to the guy you just let run 20 yards behind you."

When I was 12 and playing in the backyard and a fast kid beat me for a TD, never once did I say I was expecting safety help over the top.

Also, never once did I hurtle out of bounds at the three, tap the point of the football on the pylon and declare "TOUCHDOWN!" Of course, the pylon was a tree. It might have been dangerous.

Call me crazy, but Cover Zero doesn't sound like a very good way to stop a team from passing. I would cover at least one.

End the "coach running off the field at halftime" interviews forever. "What are you going to tell the team at halftime, coach? "I'm going to tell them I would have been there 30 seconds earlier if I didn't have to stop and talk to you."

"What are you going to do to stop the turnovers, coach?" "Well, because we play 17 games, my $20 million starting QB is hurt. I'm playing my backup and his backup was a FedEx driver last week, so not much."

End the post-game sideline reporter interviews. You've had three hours to come up with a question or two and it's "how does it feel?" or "what does this mean to you guys?" "It feels great and it means we get to play next week."

Coming to NBC Thursday, Chicago Rock, Paper and Scissors.

I'm going to buy a pickup truck. The next time I go to Wegmans to get chips, dip and beer, if the Wegmans is on top of a mountain with unpaved roads covered in two feet of snow, I'll be good to go. I can even pull my house there if I want.

Admit it, you've always wanted to take your hands off the wheel and clap to "We Will Rock You" while your truck is passing another vehicle.

Think we might have seen the last of the "reach out with the ball and try to break the plane" play?

Give Trevor Lawrence some credit. His big playoff debut, he's absolutely sucking, he gets his thumb stepped on, they duct tape it back on and he just keeps on coming back for more. Then he went to Waffle House with his wife after the game. Seriously, he did.

Why all the Kirk Cousins hate? He completed 79% of his passes for two TDs and no turnovers, while a certain local "elite" QB turned it over three times and cost his team 18 points. Also, in the five years they've been in the league together, Cousins has had a better passer rating than Elite Hero three times.

Is anyone actually going on the "Jesus gets us" website?

Do I really need to set up a retirement plan to go kayaking?

Before you criticize your team's play caller, give it a try. The play ends. In 40 seconds, you have to identify down and distance, the other team's personnel, get your personnel into the game, noting anyone who just got banged up and can't go, pick a play and radio it into your QB with 70,000 people screaming. All while covering your mouth in case the other team hired Marlee Matlin as an assistant coach.

Coach Harbaugh, we desperately need to score, time is running out and we have two timeouts left. Shouldn't we take one? Nope, we're good. Oh, the clock stopped. Now we'll take one.

On the other hand, I forget which game it was, but a trailing coach took a timeout while on defense with about 3:30 left in the game. Good clock management.

Don't blame the refs on roughing the QB. They're only calling the rule the way the league tells them to.

Does Fox think its NFL viewers are all 11 years old?

The play clock is running down, can they get the play off? 3,2,1,0, -1, -2, -3. I guess they can.

Don't go for two before the fourth quarter. There's too much football left to be played and those points you don't get can make a big difference at crunch time.

Any player making the first down sign or a "where's the flag" sign should be penalized. However, choreographed TD celebrations are cool.

Is there a correlation between a DB doing the "not in my house" thing and that same DB giving up an 82 yard bomb a few minutes later?

Let the kickoff go into the end zone, get the ball at the 25. Try to run it out of the end zone, get tackled at the 12 and look really stupid. Just saying.

If you weighed 265 pounds and just ran 98 yards, you'd be looking for the oxygen mask, too.

I can't wait for that new movie, the one with the explosions and car crashes. Or maybe that was NCIS: Everywhere.

Is a flag football Pro Bowl dumb? No dumber than the way they've been doing it.

Young Rock?

If this is Super Wild Card Weekend, are we going to have Super Super Bowl Week?

Game on.

 

A CHANGE I'M 9/10 SURE IS NEEDED

Image from Rawpixel

 

Those of us of a certain age can remember when scoreboard clocks did not register tenths of a second.

They counted down in minutes and whole seconds. If I remember correctly those clocks "ticked" every half second, which meant when the clock showed two seconds left, it might be two full seconds or it might only be one and a half. Basketball teams had to take that into account when drawing up a final play. Today, most clocks are set to count down the final seconds of each period in tenths.

That takes us to last night's Southern Cayuga-Weedsport boys game in the first night of the Cayuga County Holiday Tournament at Spartan Hall at Cayuga Community College. While scoreboards register tenths of a second, human reflexes do not. 

Weedsport trailed 55-54 with 3.1 seconds left in the game. Southern Cayuga missed the front of a one-and-one and the rebound was tied up for a held ball with 0.1 second remaining. The arrow pointed to Weedsport, but with one tenth of a second remaining, the game was essentially over. Not quite. One of the officials instructed the clock operator to reset the clock to 0.9 second.

Weedsport would need to inbound from under their own basket and try to get a shot off or draw a Southern Cayuga foul to have a chance. The rules say the clock operator should start the clock when the ball is touched inbounds by an offensive or defensive player and should stop on an official's whistle. 

You can see the problem here. We have a clock counting off tenths, but it's manually started and stopped by one human being following the command of another. 

Weedsport's inbounds pass was deflected out of bounds near half court by a Southern Cayuga defender. The clock stopped at 0.1 second remaining. Not enough time for Weedsport to inbound again and get a shot off. Game over. Nope. One of the officials instructed the clock operator to reset to 0.8 second. 

The final inbounds pass was stolen by Southern Cayuga, and this time, the clock went to zero and the game was over. 

It turned out the clock machinations had no real effect on the result, other than to replace a fantastic finish with a series of conferences and delays. The first reset from 0.1 to 0.9 after the rebound scramble was pure guesswork on the part of the official. The second actually makes good sense. The ball tipped off one hand of the defender and went immediately out of bounds. The official ruled wisely that that play should take the minimum amount of time possible, one tenth of a second. 

We also learned that the minimum amount of time between "clock operator sees ball touched and starts clock" to "ref blows whistle" to "clock operator hears whistle and stops clock" is almost a full second.

The tenths of a second scoreboard clock is simply incompatible with the limitations of the humans who have to administer the system. Get rid of it.

HOBART LACROSSE PODCAST 49

In this episode, I talk to Coach Greg Raymond about the new schedule, staying prepared over Christmas break, the number sponsorship program and more.

39 days to first scrimmage!

MARCUS WHITMAN VOTERS SPLIT ON CAPITAL PROJECTS

Photo from Marcus Whitman School District website

 

Voters in the Marcus Whitman School District approved one capital project Tuesday, but rejected another. 

Voters approved spending up to $36 million on infrastructure at the district's three school buildings and transportation building, including roof repairs, HVAC and electrical work, as well as parking lot reconstruction. 

51% of the project cost will be paid with state building aid. $2,682,664 will be taken from capital reserves. 

The design phase of the project will begin next year, with construction taking place in 2025 and 2026.

Voters rejected by an almost two to one margin, a second proposition for athletic facility upgrades. The project would have included a new turf field at the main athletic stadium, as well as artificial turf infields for the baseball field at the Gorham Elementary School and for the softball field at Valley Elementary.

District officials said the turf fields would mean fewer postponed events and lower field maintenance costs.

LAKERS BLANK MAROONS TO TAKE ROUND ONE IN THE ROUTE 20 RIVALRY

Photo from Facebook

 

In high school hockey, the Skaneateles Lakers blanked the Auburn Maroons Tuesday night 3-0 in this season's first installment of the so-called Route 20 rivalry.

The Lakers got a pair of goals from Carter Corbett, including an empty-netter to seal it in the final minute.

Michael Blowers started the scoring for Skaneateles in the first period, steering home the rebound of a Jack Bobbett shot for a 1-0 Lakers lead. 

Skaneateles made it 2-0 in the second when Henry Major circled the Auburn net from right to left and backhanded a pass to Corbett, who deposited it behind Maroons goalie Mason Jones. Jones had a stellar night, stopping 35 shots. Skaneateles outshot Auburn 38-13.

Auburn drops to 0-5 and hosts Oswego at Casey Park rink Thursday in a game that can be heard on WAUB.

With the win, Skaneateles goes to 4-2. Goalie Chad Lowe, who entered the game with a 1.38 goals against average and .935 save percentage, posted his third shutout of the year and second in a row. The Lakers are at New Hartford Friday.

You can listen to the WAUB broadcast of Tuesday's game below.

HOBART FOOTBALL PODCAST 23

 

Photo: Kevin Colton, HWS

In this episode, we talk with Coach Kevin DeWall about the season-ending 35-18 loss to Washington & Jefferson in the Asa S. Bushnell Bowl game in Pennsylvania.

We also discussed the of-season routine, recruiting and the process of putting together the 129th Hobart football team for the 2023 season.

Thanks to coach for the great conversations this year, and to all of you for listening. See you next year.

 

You can subscribe to my podcasts on Anchor and Spotify.

HOBART FOOTBALL PODCAST 22

Photo: Kevin Colton, HWS

In our weekly visit with Coach Kevin DeWall, we talked about the 27-7 Centennial Cup win over the University of Rochester on Senior Day.

We talked about the return of full health of Rayshawn Boswell and Tim Denham, Jr. and looked ahead to the Asa S. Bushnell Bowl game tomorrow at Washington & Lee. The last time the teams met was 1942.

The Presidents are a balanced team offensively. The Hobart D will have to contain a passing attack that averages 275 yards per game. Defensively, they have a great defensive line, featuring over 40 tackles for loss and over 20 sacks. The offensive line will have to protect David Krewson.

We will do a 2022 season recap sometime next week. Our normal Thursday recording day is Thanksgiving, so coach and I will check our schedules.   

 

You can subscribe to my podcasts on Anchor and Spotify.

HOBART LACROSSE PODCAST 48

Photo:Kevin Colton, HWS

In this episode, I talked to Coach Greg Raymond about the fall scrimmages. We also discussed winter conditioning and getting ready for the season, the Mustache November fundraiser for Headstrong and the number sponsorship program, which encourages players to connect with former players who wore their numbers. Less than a hundred days to the start of the season. 

You can subscribe to my podcasts on Anchor and Spotify.

HOBART FOOTBALL PODCAST 21

Photo: Kevin Colton, HWS

In this week's episode, I talked with Coach Kevin DeWall about the 63-7 win at Buffalo State, powered by three defensive TDs. 

We talked about David Krewson's climb up the all-time Hobart passing leader board, improved run blocking by the offensive line, the defensive play of Mekhi Rodgers, a strong game by the defensive line and first career receptions for Benjamin Farrell and Kevin Christ, both of whom began their Hobart careers at other positions.

We looked ahead to the Centennial Cup game with the University of Rochester Saturday and the possibility of an ECAC bowl game if they win.

 

You can subscribe to my podcasts on Anchor and Spotify.