Who's Beeper Keep Beepin' and Beepin'

I would like to try something new to hopefully get some input from those of you following the blog. Let's try to make this the most interactive post yet. Today is rant day and rant day is where I sound off on items that, as Peter Griffin would put it, "really grinds my gears". Let me know what grinds your gears and if I'm grinding yours.

The BCS
Most of you already know where I stand on this topic. I think it's dumb and let me tell you why. First of all, rankings are determined in the pre-season regardless of any performance.
This year West Virginia, Auburn, LSU, and Clemson were all ranked in the Top 10.

Of those 4, only West Virginia received votes in the latest poll. They didn't even make the Top 25.

Why does this even matter. Especially early in the year many of the voters find it hard to move a team down in the rankings after a win. This allows teams like the four I mentioned to stay up in the rankings for a while. Then those teams lose to good or average teams who get the benefit of beating a "Top 25" team for later in the year. This improves the BCS standings of a team so they move up higher.

But that is a minor topic compared to the bigger issue of needing a playoff. This year there are atleast 5 teams (probably closer to 8) deserving to at least have a chance of reaching the national championship game. Oklahoma and Texas is the biggest issue. Texas, even though they beat Oklahoma on a neutral field and only lost to a top 10 team on the road, lost out on a chance to play in the Big XII championship because of the BCS standings.

Because of the limited number of games and large variations in the strength of conferences, there should be a playoff. If a team is more likely to go undefeated by playing cupcakes in before conference play, why shouldn't they.

I can't think of a college football fan that would not LOVE to see a playoff. Imagine having USC, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, Penn State and a wild card like Utah in an 8 team playoff to determine national champion. You could still have the other bowl games mixed in during the weekdays around those rounds. That would be awesome.

If Texas and say Alabama play in a BCS game (assuming they are #3 and #4 behind OU and Florida) what would happen if Texas blows them away and Florida squeaks by Alabama in the SEC championship and OU in the National Championship? There could be a lot of arguing they should be #1. And it could happen, while the coaches have to vote with the BCS for #1, the AP poll does not. I almost hope that happens just so the folks at the BCS get put on the spot and has to come up with a lame excuse.

Notre Dame
They are on the TV all the time, even when they are bad. You don't see the any of the Big XII North teams getting lots of press for losing.
Notre Dame just finished 6-6 this year, kept their coach and still has a contract with NBC to show all of their games. I'm not blaming Notre Dame for this. Any school would take a contract from a major television partner. I just think the media pumps this school into our heads all the time a large portion of the public does not care.
I think at this point in time more people would like to hear stories about Ball State or Utah than Notre Dame. Utah will likely go to a BCS bowl game and both teams finished the regular season undefeated (as did Boise State). This just adds to my frustration with College football as a whole. Some one needs to step in and make it matter. (See: Playoff!)

***New Feature in this Post***
Song of the Day: just a way to let everyone know what I am listening to, or give a shout out to bands/artists that I think are great and need more pub. And, yes, I realize less than 10 people currently read this blog, but maybe, just maybe, one day this will be huge and everyone in America will read this. You can't blame me for trying.

Today's Song of the Day: "Live your Life" by T.I.

Former Athletes/Coaches who are Color Analysts on Broadcasts
This is one thing that drives me absolutely berserk. I understand that many players love the game so much that they pursue careers in broadcasting after their playing days are over. However, just because these guys played the game and may or may not have been a great player, does not mean they know how to pass on their insight into the game on to the general public.
Statements like, "To win the game you need to score more points than the other team" does not help. I think that 99.9% of the people tuning to watch the game realize that. If you had told me that same quote followed by something like, "and this team has struggled on offense this year" maybe I could actually think you were getting paid for something other than filling the air with nonsense, sitting in a luxury box and wearing a shirt that you think is a dress shirt that any normal sized man would think is a beach shirt. I will write down quotes from announcers (football announcers are the worst) that drive me up a wall as a fan. Stay tuned for that.

The Big 10 (I mean 11, I mean 10, but we have 11 teams)
What is that? Some body actually got paid to come up with a logo for the Big Ten conference that they magically squeezed the #11 into.
Change your name.
Start a new tradition.
This is the conference's chance to be creative.

List #6
Suggestions for new names for the Big Ten:
1. The Great Lakes Conference (courtesy of Mark, my twin brother, who unfortunately is a Kansas State fan)
2. The Boring Basketball Conference
3. Mid East Eleven Conference
4. MIMOMPINIP (Mich, Iowa, Minn, OSU, Mich St, Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern, Illinois, Penn State) This one is multi functional in the fact that you can change out letters!

IMMONMIPPI
PIPINIMOMM

This is my personal favorite, you can throw a conference or something on the start or end too.

The MIMOMPINIP conference championship!

5. North Central United States Conference
6. The North Huron/Erie Windy League
7. The North Plains Championship Conference

I know I have more rants, but I have no more time. I will have to continue this discussion later. Comment Please. It adds to the humor and overall awesomeness of the column.

DDSF

PS. We need to come up with a cool name for the Mrs. I think that Mrs. DDSF is not cool enough. Sports Guy has the Sports Gal and Dr. Z had the flaming Redhead. Help with this one please!