Fostering chaos for the Way forward

Did you miss any of the games in the football playoffs over the week end? There were some blow outs- one brackets #1 seeded team beat the #16 seed 48-7 and another won 41-0; but one #16 beat a #1 16-0. Although there were no overtime games in these brackets, there were plenty of close games: 13-7, 13-7, 14-7, 14-7, as well as 14-7. The second round will bring a #12 v -#13 game, a #14 v #6, and a #16- v #9.

Which football playoffs? It was the first round of the Illinois State High School football playoffs: eight different classes with 32 teams each. Like the NCAA basketball tournament - or, indeed, any NCAA sport except Division I Football, which has no playoff - there is a lot of cross mingling of teams that normally wouldn’t play each other in the regular season facing off in the post season. And this for the rite to go on challenge another strange team in the next round. The delicious aspect of the unknown beckons @ each new level of the playoffs- unless there is a rematch of a regular season game. The excitement of a rematch between two foes can be great. And sometimes a game can be between two area teams that normally do not play because they are in different leagues. I want the same sense of excitement the Illinois playoffs

I bring all this up because of my deep hatred of the NCAA’s cheap ass system of bowl games that farcicates (I know, language polizi- I apologize) ruins the end of each beautiful division I system. The stupid system where numbers are fed through computers to come up with a #1- v #2 end of the season match has worked a few times in the past few years, but has also led to some laughable - and often deeply unfair- matchups in the past. Later in the season I will proffer my idea for a playoff - but one of my arguments will enshrine what I have written about in the first two paragraphs above.

In my campaign to destroy the bowl system root and stem and branch, I will be presenting arguments from time to time against this foul and dirty system. As it is now, There are five unbeaten Div. I teams left: #1 Ohio State, #2 Boston College, #7 Arizona State, #12 Kansas, and #16 Hawaii. #’s 3-6 teams LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon, and West Virginia all have one loss. All of these teams are still seemingly in the hunt for a the BCS #1 v #2 matchup, and to varying degrees I hope all of them lose or otherwise make the annual farce that is the Title game selection impossible not to be shown to be deeply arbitrary and unfair. Now, do not get me wrong- there have been good and correct matchups in the BCS title games of the past- but usually one or more teams are screwed each year.

This week we can fuck up one of the above teams fer sure; #5 Oregon(7-1) plays #7 Arizona State (7-0). And in all other games, lets get some more great upsets. The more misery @ the top, the better the for righteousness to grab its riteful place. Lets go Wisconsin and GASP!: am I rooting for Florida Sate v. Boston College?

This week, why yes.