Various Notes and Lessons

I have a Youth event this weekend, so this and the next quick blog are all you should expect from me this week. Preparing for this event is taking up more time than I thought. So here are a few quick things that would have gotten fuller treatment if I had the time.

If you want to keep a good opinion about our country and its vigilance to stay safe from enemies do not ever study Joseph McCarthy or the Red Scare of the 40’s and 50’s. I will probably post a fuller review of the new book Blacklisted by History about Senator Joseph McCarthy, but needless to say, it is a devastating look into how our country allowed communists to set our agenda for years. Disturbing to say the least.

College Football has been crazy this year. Lots of people are wondering why and what the meaning of it is. Sadly no one gets it quite right. The true point of this year’s fiasco that is college football is that the BCS system is fundamentally flawed and broken. The question and debate is not about whether or not Kansas belongs in the title game, but really the question is why is Hawaii just brushed aside. What this year has shown us is that BCS conferences are really not any better than any other conference that are not part of the BCS. Go back to the beginning of this year when Boise St. beat Oklahoma. The Big Ten this year has two losses against Division I –AA. Let us remember that Division I-AA teams play the BCS teams on the road. Yet, when the top I-AA teams get a shot at the big boys, they can win. North Dakota St beat Minnesota for the second year in a row. Appalachian St. beat Michigan. Northern Iowa beat Iowa State from the Big 12. Other power house I-AA teams like Montana did not get a shot at any BCS or Division I-A schools. In fact, when the USA Today did its conference power rankings, which are naturally weighted for the Division I schools the Southern Conference (I-AA), the Gateway (I-AA) and the Colonial (I-AA) all finished ahead of multiple Division I-A conferences.

The lesson from this football year is that the BCS is a power grab by conferences in order to not reveal how weak they can be. The lesson is that until a playoff system is instituted without polls and all conferences are created equal, no champion is a real champion in college football.