College Football 2010

I am a casual college football fan, and when I use the word casual I mean it to the utmost. Unless the University of Michigan is playing, I rarely watch a game, and this year I had a hard time watching Michigan, because after their hot start they fizzled. A game I used to never miss, against Ohio State, I saw only about a quarter of this year, turning it off when it became plain that the Wolverines had no chance. So consider what follows to be the blathering of a nonexpert.

But if I don't watch games I still follow the sport, knowing who's good and who's not, without much of the details. For instance, of the two teams that are thought to be headed to the national championship game, Auburn and Oregon, I can name only one player on each side, mainly because they are two of the prime candidates for the Heisman trophy. I have not seen either team play a down all season. But I think the match-up between the two bodes well for the game.

Neither team has ever been in the usual suspects of championship contenders; Auburn last won one in 1957, Oregon never. When I was a kid, and I knew a lot more about college football than I do now, Oregon was one of the weak sisters of the Pac-8 (now 10). Auburn, while always seeming to have a good team, was the inevitable bridesmaid in the Southeastern Conference, whether it be to Alabama or, more lately, LSU or Florida.

So a game between two usual also-rans is a good thing, except the system never quite works out. There is another team, Texas Christian (TCU), that is also undefeated. They play in a conference that is not as esteemed as the Pac-10 or Southeastern, and thus has the game a bit rigged against them. People say that they don't have as difficult a schedule, which is true, but you can only play the teams that are on your schedule. If Oregon or Auburn lose their last game (Oregon plays interstate rival Oregon State, while Auburn has South Carolina in the conference championship), TCU will likely move up and get in the championship game, but if not, they are out of luck.

All this occurs because Division I football, alone among NCAA sports, does not have a playoff system, a bit of barbarism that exposes the sport for its cravenness--everything is about money. The bowl system, which decided championships for a century, is so lucrative for schools that it couldn't be retired; the Bowl Championship Series, which was instituted about ten years ago, incorporates the bowl game in a system to crown a champion, using a sophisticated computer program to determine the top two teams.

But it still only determines two teams, and if there are more than two that are undefeated, that means somebody gets screwed. All of the other NCAA sports, including Division II and III football, use a playoff system, in which a group of teams, ranging from eight to 68, play it out to see who is the best, without the use of computers or agenda-driven voters.

It is unlikely that this will ever change, given the stranglehold that money has on the sport. In many ways, college football seems so tainted by corruption that cynicism boils over. For instance, the Auburn quarterback, Cam Newton, who is the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy, is under a cloud of suspicion following accusations that his father and agent were involved in soliciting money for his enrollment at certain schools. After Reggie Bush gave back his Heisman because he was declared ineligible post-facto, many have looked at Newton with a gimlet eye, with some saying they won't vote for him for the trophy because of it. That, to me, is a misuse of the voting privilege, and judging someone before the facts are in.

Yet, it was determined that Newton's father did ask for money from Mississippi State in exchange for Newton's enrollment, a violation of NCAA rules. Auburn was ready to suspend him for the South Carolina game, which would have severely limited their chances of winning. The NCAA, however, cleared him, and he can play in the game.

Conspiracy theorists smell blood. They say that the NCAA does not want Auburn to lose, and thus have TCU in the title game. Others scoff. I'm not so sure, and wouldn't put it past the NCAA to consider the bottom line above everything else.