I Waited A Year For This?

By JOE R. BOWLING, JR.
Special to the NEWS

I had a chance to sit back and watch my favorite college football team in action tonight and all I can really say is that this month of waiting just didn’t get it.

There have been a lot of writers that have spent good time and money talking about why college football needs a playoff system and I really wasn’t going to go down that road. Yet, as I watched this game it just plain and simple aggravated me that something isn’t done.

I mean the excitement that was the college football season was at a fever pitch for me as I watched back to back weeks in which the Tigers were in the mix with Oklahoma and Nebraska. Heck I was even there at the tube when they fell to Texas Tech and was thrilled when the local coverage pulled in their games in the next few weeks to round out the season.

Then, the wait from Nov. 27 until Dec. 28 … nothing, no games, no hype, just wait.

I am no different than hundreds of thousands of other fans that went on a thrill ride through the regular season for their favorite team and then had to sit around on ice for over a month until they played again in a coveted Bowl game which, with exception to the game on Jan. 7, will really have no bearing whatsoever on the season as a whole. Even that game has its fans waiting from Dec. 4 to Jan. 7, which is more than a month. Win or lose, those fans would love to have been able to watch their team play in playoff games for four weeks straight instead of waiting around with nothing.

“Come on, man” is one of my favorite segments on the major sports networks and this is one that should be there. Hey college football “Come on, man!” Get it right.

Give us a playoff that takes those conference champs and the runners-up. Sprinkle in a few at large teams and let’s move this month to a new level. Take the other teams and let them have bowl after bowl if you need some more revenue but let’s decide this thing once and for all with a system that works fine in every other venue.

As I start the new year, I am rooting for Mark Cuban and his movement to get this done. It’s about money and he’s got it and is talking to the right people. I sure hope that next year we are talking about the success of his actions.

On a footnote to Mr. Cuban – Want to make some money in a sporting venue that would have fans packed in as much or more than arena football? Drop goals down to nine feet, bring in the top women basketball players in the country and watch them play in a league above the rim! People would get excited with women dunking on each other. I mean they already posses such skills at shooting and other aspects of the game below the rim. So now showcase them above it!

That’s another column…

Happy New Year everyone!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2010/12/30/i-waited-a-year-for-this/

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