Dear College Football Playoff Selection Committee: Contrary to what the media talking heads would have you believe, you have a relatively easy decision to make this afternoon. Let’s think about what kind of team you are looking for to round out your playoff foursome. First off, is beating a team by 60 points a qualification? I’ve played or followed sports my whole life and I’ve never understood the point of the game to be ‘beat the other team by as many points as possible.’ Matter of fact, that’s always been considered poor sportsmanship to try and humiliate your opponent. Seems like Gary Patterson never learned this lesson. The only team I’ve seen that pulls starters late in blowouts and takes a knee late in games to avoid running up the score is Art Briles’s Baylor Bears. They did that last night, content with an 11 point win over a Top 10 opponent. A win is a win. Which is why reigning National Champions and undefeated Florida State should be the number one team in the country. When did we switch to a system in which you need to win by a certain margin for it to count? Style-points? I’m not familiar with that term. And as a father of two boys who are starting to play sports, I really don’t care for the message we are sending to our young athletes that sportsmanship doesn’t matter. The goal of any athletic endeavor is to win. Secondarily, it’s about the athletes having fun, entertaining the fans, and walking away with everyone’s dignity intact. Does an 82-27 score allow the loser to feel good about themselves? The day I hear my 3 year old son’s soccer coach talking about needing to score more “style points” when up handily late in a game is the day I pull him off the team. That’s not a lesson I’m teaching my children. Back to the committee. The answer is in the quality wins. Is there a team out there that has beaten a Top 5, Top 10, and Top 25 team this season? Yes, there is one team that can make that claim. Baylor. That same team is leading the country in offense (both yards and points.) Ohio State had a very impressive win last night against a good Wisconsin team. However, it still just counts as one win. A very quality win, but a 14-13 win counts the same as a 59-0 win in the standings. They are both worth one win. Baylor beat a better team than Ohio State. Baylor beat the 9th ranked team whereas Ohio State beat the 13th ranked team. This really isn’t a hard call at all. Baylor Athletics has the win-loss record. They won their conference. They’ve beaten a more impressive list of opponents, being the only one of these candidates to beat a top 5 team. A more impressive resume than Ohio State. A head-to-head win over TCU. And they play the game the right way. Do the right thing, CFP committee. Don’t be spellbound by huge margins of victory. A bid to Ohio State or TCU this afternoon will be sending a damaging message to our young athletes about sportsmanship, dignity, and self-respect. And I fear this could be a trend for sports in this country that will be hard to reverse. #baylorfootball #collegefootballplayoff
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 15:33:54 +0000
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