A fun week for rank hypocrisy, conspiracy and stupidity in college football. You had Bob Stoops ruminating about an ESPN/SEC Conspiracy of talking heads. Bob Stoops, the Oklahoma head coach. The coach of a team who’s entire year has been the subject of an ongoing ESPN.com special series “The Program.” You then had the college coaches decide that their poll votes that helps determine the rankings should remain a secret. This led to this commentary by Pat Forde.
Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops (12) has no such excuse for his ruminations this week about ESPN analysts pumping up Auburn as perhaps a more worthy Orange Bowl prospect than his squad. (The SEC has a contract with ESPN, the Big 12 does not. Neither, for that matter, does the Pac-10 and USC.)
“All people ought to be aware who their contracts are with and what some of their agendas may be,” Stoops said.
Right. And if Stoops thinks ESPN is predisposed to favoring the Tigers over the Sooners, he’s invited to peruse this web site in search of the weekly “Auburn: The Program” material.
In light of all this suspicion, it is doubly discouraging that the American Football Coaches Association has voted to keep coaches’ Top 25 ballots secret. Coaches are accusing referees and television networks of playing dirty politics, but won’t make their votes — which are vital to the outcome of the BCS system — public? Sounds like a double standard to The Dash.
Oh, then there is yet another blast against the lie by college presidents about not wanting a Div. I-A playoff.
The No. 1 argument against a playoff has to do with the integrity of the academic calendar. Presidents do not want to extend the football season into the second semester. Institutions of higher education should first and foremost be about academics, but the campus honchos are disingenuous — not to mention inconsistent — in throwing around the academic card so freely when it comes to Division I-A football.
If the integrity of the academic calendar is so vital, then explain why the Big Ten is pushing a proposal to extend the college baseball season until July? Or why spring sports like baseball, tennis, softball and track and field already run beyond the end of the semester?
Nobody utters a peep when a freshman at a school operating under the quarter calendar, like UCLA, where classes begin in late September, can possibly play four games before hitting his first college book. And nobody jumps on a soapbox about the NCAA tournament overlapping final exams at schools on the quarter system. Or acknowledges the multitude of college sports that wrap around semesters or quarters.
And if these college presidents are so ethically high-minded, why do they sit in stone silence while the college football schedule — specifically rivalry games like USC-UCLA, the conference championship games, and the 20 days allotted for bowl game practice — runs up against final exams in December? It’s about money and perception. The campus CEOs will grab every green dollar so long as they come up short of appearing to be in the business of turning the college game into the NFL, and yet the sad truth is the college game is every bit as commercialized.
Not that this is all anything new, but this sort of thing should be repeated every now and again to keep building more pressure. Expect a lot more of it should USC, Oklahoma and Auburn end undefeated.
