Gang, excellent week and thanks for the high quality and quantity interaction.
From the "Talks too much" studios, in America seeing is believing. In Mexico, is believing si-ing? Discuss.
From Stewwie
Jay, in honor of "Dumb and Dumber To" coming out tomorrow, let's see your Rushmore of "Dumb and Dumber" quotes for the mailbag. Lots of good ones to choose from.
AND
Why does the NCAA not have any official part in the FBS national championship? Jay, for the bag, can you give us some history behind that?
Lloyd and Harry in Dumb or Dumber ToStewwie -
You got the rare mailbag doubleplay because, well, those are two pretty good questions.
First, in honor of "Dumb and Dumber To" there are a few things to kick around.
We are interested in your Rushmore of comedy sequels. Sure, Empire Strikes Back and Godfather II are easily two of the best sequels out there, but a comedy sequel seems to be much tougher to pull off.
We believe Fletch 2 is a contender. What else is out there?
As for the quotes, well, considering the family-oriented nature of the 5-at-10, there are a couple of dandies that have been eliminated. And gang, please feel free to add your fav D-and-D-er quotes (there is a chance this may come up on Press Row today, you know). Here's out Rushmore:
• So you're telling me there's a chance.
• Mmmmmm. That sounds good. I'll have that.
• WE LANDED ON THE MOON.
And those are pretty common quotes among a gaggle of us, and then a hidden gem that we have quoted forever...
• Yeah I called her up and she gave me a bunch of crap about not listening to her or something. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention.
Side note: Did you know that Dumb and Dumber is 20 years old. Yep, released in 1994, which was a awesome year for movies, by the way. Shawshank, Dumb and Dumber, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump and Lion King. That's a strong start and each of those contends for the Rushmore of its genre.
As for the college football postseason, the NCAA has no part of the "College Football Playoff," which is kind of surprising because "College Football Playoff" is the type of dumb or dumber name that the NCAA (or the Big Ten - Hello Legends and Leaders) would invent.
The NCAA made its bed with bowl games a long time ago, and that agreement was sleazy and under-the-table.
Like someone said, when the schools sued to have the right to negotiate their own postseason dates, the NCAA kind of shrugged and let that slip away. At that time, there was interest in bowl games but it was no where near the monolith that college football of today has become. So when the conferences came with their hands out, the bowl games started dealing with them rather than the NCAA.
Then the real divide came when Roy Kramer organized conference title games and the conferences realized just how much money was at stake for these broadcasts. From there, they looked at bowl ties and the payout to each team skyrocketed.
As the prices went up, the NCAA was sitting on the sideline. And since each school - or each conference in some cases - now had the right to arrange their bowl trips, the NCAA had zero role. And we all know how anti-sharing the power conferences can be when it comes to green backs.
In truth, the reason the power conferences know they have power over the NCAA is that the checks from football can sustain the power five with or without the NCAA. The NCAA, however, gets more than 95 percent of its revenue from the NCAA basketball tournament, and if the Big Five defect, well, the NCAA tournament will be the NIT in a decade.
So, not unlike a lot of industries, the NCAA had a model that was printing money, but the circumstances changed and left the NCAA in a tenuous spot.
Heck, the NCAA is scared of the Power 5 now. How else do you explain the hubbub at Southern Miss about some Prop 48 kid getting some extra benefits and the silence from Chapel Hill where UNC had two decades of academic corruption that effected roughly 1,500 "student"-athletes?
The NCAA knows it's the Blockbuster Video of sports governing bodies.
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SEC
Southeastern ConferenceFrom Jomo
Jay- question for mailbag. Don't you think this 4-team playoff hurts the SEC? So far it looks like the SEC is rarely, if ever going to get 2 teams in. In the old BSC teams like Alabama could get in final game even without winning the SEC title. The Old BSC was based on formulas that took polls in to consideration that could be shaped by "the message" that the SEC was clearly the best. Now you have a committee that appears to be not influenced by polls and media and seems to give other conference champions a leg up. In the old BSC the SEC could use its influence in all the bowls to get favorable match-ups because of their power of buying tickets, etc. Now the end all be all is the 4-team playoff where anything can happen and you don't have to just win one game. As we sit today the national perception is that TCU is as good, if not better than the SEC 2nd place team. That would have been unheard of in the BSC era. Now that the SEC has all this money, every school has 80,000 + stadiums and the finest practice and training facilities money can buy. So with the present "salary cap" of 85 scholarships certain SEC schools don't have the advantages they used to have over other SEC schools. Parity in the SEC is going to get even greater. The only advantage is tradition and with 17 -18 year old recruits tradition is what have you done in the last 3 years. So at the end of the day, having only one team in the 4 team playoff every year is going to give the other conferences a better national perception that their conference is just as good. And with 4 team playoff being the new standard for success a conference with parity like the SEC is going to produce more and more very good teams with 2 and 3 losses, whereas the other conferences can produce undefeated teams and 1 loss teams. And with less non-conference match-ups, quantifying what conference is better to THAT COMMITTEE will be harder and harder. Also I think the committee is not going to care how your conference did in the bowl season, they are not going to care if your conference went 7-1 in bowl games. In fact its going to be interesting to see if anyone is going to care about bowl games but the school that is playing in that game . . . food for thought
Jomo -
Great question. Are you feeling OK, there was no "Butch to Michigan" or Chas Bono references in that post? B-i-B, will you check on Jomo to make sure all is well.
We can see your theory, but we need to address some statements in your query:
First, there was only once that Alabama got in without winning the SEC. It also happened with Nebraska if memory serves. So that was a true anomaly, and in the current playoff format, it's going to take some strange happenings - inside a conference and outside - for any league to get two teams in the Final Four.
SEC schools still have a slew of advantages. Location. Passion. Facilities. Image. All of those play to the recruits and recruiting is the name of the game in college football.
Warner Bros. PicturesHarry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his cohorts deal with puberty and evil spirits in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
You could be Harry Potter of play calls but without some skill, that's just hocus pocus. And the SEC's investment and prestige and interest will continue to draw the top coaches and the top recruits. Period. Look at the recruiting rankings. Auburn is No. 11 in the country and No. 7 in the SEC. That's not a coincidence and it happens every year.
The committee is going to do what it will do. We believe the current set-up will be shorter lived than even we thought. We think the outrage next month will be loud and political. We believe Nos. 5 and 6 are going to bang the drum of change, especially when one of them - Baylor or even Ohio State - will be a Power 5 conference champ.
And if the SEC gets left out? Sweet buckets.
So the move to eight is coming, and it will be here sooner rather than later. Each conference champ from the Power 5 and three at-large bids. It's coming. And any hardships the SEC has about beating each other up trying to get to a four-team bracket will be rewarded in an eight-team field.
As for your question, we can see that view, but the SEC also gets some benefit of the doubt for playing in the best conference in the country. Heck, a two-loss Auburn is in front of several one-loss teams. That's not an accident.
From JMC
Mailbag: If the Mocs finish strong and given our facility and Southside goodness, what are the odds of them hosting a playoff and people (aka "locals") actually attending?
Great question.
We believe UTC is a dunk to host a game. The Mocs are ranked high enough to contend for a bye, which would make hosting a certainty. Plus, the Mocs have the facilities and the support to offer a competitive bid if they play in the first round.
We would bet just about anything that there will be at least one more UTC football game at Finley this year.
That said, it will be especially interesting to see how many folks show. We were underwhelmed by the 9,600 or so that showed up last Saturday considering that A) it was a perfect day; B) it was for all the marbles and to end a 30-year postseason drought; and C) UT was off and Alabama was at night.
The staggering number we heard was less than 300 students were at the game, and that's eye-popping.
As for a playoff game, well, the city does love an event, especially if they think it's cool, and what's cooler than playoff football.
That said, we don't see there being much more than the number that showed up last week, considering a first-round game would be the Satuday after Thanksgiving - a monster day in the SEC by the way. If the Mocs get a bye, the second round is the Saturday of conference championship games, and with the intense interest and the ripple effects for the playoff committee, that will be a crazy day, too.
And maybe Jomo's right in saying Chattanooga's a bad sports town. We don't think that's the case, but getting only 9,600 with those stakes on the line is disappointing. That said, by comparison if Butch Jones said they were going to play the Orange and White game in Finley next April, they'd sell it out before the end of business Monday.
And this was for the whole shebang, which contradicts the age-old lament that "if you win people will show." The Mocs are winning. Big. There's just not that much support sadly.
From Ted
Man I wanted to email you and tell you I love your radio show. You guys are the best.
I loved (Thursday's) Rushmore. How did you not put Dirty Dozen on there?
I have a question for you that you can answer in your column -- what do you think will happen this year college basketball?
Thanks for the 5-at-10 and go Big Blue.
Ted -
Thanks for the kind words and for playing along.
Quickly because we are crunched for time, here are five predictions for the college hoops season, which starts tonight:
1) UK wins it all, and it won't be that close. The other dancers in the Final Four will be fellow top-seeds Arizona and Duke as well as Louisville. UK then has six or seven first-round picks in the NBA draft next June.
2) UTC wins the SoCon title and goes dancing. Will Wade's name becomes familiar in athletic departments around the country.
3) UT struggles. Badly. We thought the Vols and Donnie Knoxville would have a chance to surprise some folks, but this is starting to feel like there could be some trouble. (That said, Donnie Knoxville will get some reprieve because the Vols will be in a bowl game and the excitement of signing day and heading into spring drills will keep Johnny Vols Fans smiling.)
4) What will not have Johnny Vols Fans smiling is that Bruce Pearl is going to get Auburn in the tournament.
5) Amid the scandals and the unrest, Roy Williams announces this will be his final season.
Whatcha' got?