Tank's Take January 5, 2004

A Sport In Shambles

The debate of who the National Champion in College Football is gathering all the attention as the debate over the failings of the Bowl Championship Series has been the hot topic for the last month. However, no matter if you believe USC or LSU should be number 1 the sport of College Football has many problems that must be addressed otherwise it is serious danger of becoming irrelevant.

The first problem that must be addressed by the NCAA is it's ungodly length of games. Every year it seems, as it takes longer for these games to be played. This is a problem for bowl games as well as games at the start of the season.

Quite often many games last up to four and half hours, and that is without overtime, which is an issue that I will be bringing up shortly. Major League Baseball has taken on the problem of game length and they have been fairly effective shortening the average length some 15 minutes in recent years just by enforcing some simple rules to keep the game flowing.

Time wise there is no difference between College Football and the NFL both play four 15-minute quarters. However the NFL game only last typical around 3 hours a manageable total that is only extend by commercials. However typical college football has less commercials but a game of 3 hours is unheard of.

The reason for the enormous difference in time is that the NFL keeps the clock moving. In the NFL a player goes out of bounds the clock moves until the final 5 minutes of each half while in the NCAA it stops until the ball is snapped again. In the NFL after a penalty except following an incomplete pass the clock starts when the officials put the ball in play. In college, once again it doses not start again until the ball is snapped.

In the end it don't matter all that much on those two situations its only a few seconds here and there, but after a while it adds up. However, the biggest problem and perhaps the biggest hold up is the rule in College Football where the clock is stopped after each first down to move the chains.

When you have the clock stopping after out of bounds plays, incomplete passes, penalties, and first downs, all of a sudden you are stopping the clock almost every play, and his does not include injury timeouts, regular time outs, and referee discussion time.

In all toll what is happening with the slow moving slow paced games is that quite often the games seem to get boring, and watching a full college game is almost a choir at times. Late in the 4th Quarter in a close game there is denying the excitement is still there, but in the 1st quarter the thrill is gone, and unless they make some changes to shorten games the ratings will continue to fall.

Close games are always exciting especially when they go into overtime. For years college football shunned any notion of playing behind 4 quarters, and games would end in a tie. However, the NCAA realized that ties were no good for they need a way to settle games.

The NCAA looked at the NFL overtime system and felt it was not fair, and chose to give both teams equal possession. Which is a good idea. However the system the NCAA came up with is a joke. Each team gets an equal amount of possessions and the overtime turns into baseball innings with the 2nd team to get the ball having so called last licks.

However, the problem comes with where the ball is placed. Starting just 25 yards from the endzone makes scoring too easy. Not to say they should kickoff and play regularly until there is a score. However perhaps they should place the ball at the 50 so getting into the endzone or just getting into FG range is more of a challenge.

With scoring coming so easily in overtime, often the games go well past 5 overtimes, and this makes games last longer then five hours. At that point injuries could begin to happen as players are over exhausted, and it sets up a dangerous situation with dehydration especially in the south during September when the weather is still a hot, and humid.

Making it harder to score will likely lead to shorter overtimes as one team will make it into FG range while the other get bogged down at the 50. However, 5 overtimes should be the limit in the regular season. There is nothing wrong with the occasional tie, here and there and if nobody can break the deadlock after 5 overtimes, then it's best to call it a draw.

Another problem the NCAA faces is with the scheduling of the BCS Bowls. As long as they are going to be stubborn and keep the bowl system they must make sure that interest does not wane before the Championship game.

Traditionally New Year's Day was the big day for the bowls, you sit around with your hangover and watch the best college teams play in the best bowls. However the BCS has changed that as they have spread the 4 biggest bowls over 3 days.

This is not a good idea. There were only 5 games on New Years Day and two of the games were blowouts, and by the time the Sugar Bowl kicked off Sunday Night, the NFL had four playoff games, and three days of USC celebrating its Rose Bowl win and share of the National Championship, eliminating allot of interest in the game, especially from the casual fans.

Loading all BCS games on New Years Day will be impossible since ABC owns the exclusive broadcast rights to all four. However, instead of spreading it out until January 3rd or 4th they should have one BCS game on New Year's Eve, and the Championship Game standing alone on the 2nd of January.

The college season should never go past January 2nd unless New Year's Day falls on a NFL playoff weekend. Had the NCAA done the formula correctly the Championship Game would have been played Friday Night and would have drawn much greater interest, instead of being buried at the end of a football filled weekend.

Another news item burying the Sugar Bowl is the confession of Pete Rose that he bet on baseball. Many have considered this a requirement for reinstating by Commissioner Bud Selig. Lets hope that it is and next year Pete Rose could take his rightful spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The confession will air on a special ABC Primetime interview Thursday Night the same day his book; "My Prison Without Bars" is released. Both the book and the interview should capture allot of interest as baseball's all-time hit leader comes clean.

It also comes on the heels of baseball's Hall of Fame class which will be announced Tuesday. Look for Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley to be the top vote getters among those in their first year of eligibility.

Molitor should be a lock to get in while Eckersley will be close. Hopefully players like Jim Rice, Don Mattingly, Bert Blyleven, Ryne Sandberg, and Tommy John will get more votes this year, as all are deserving of the Hall of Fame.

Heroes of the Week: Team USA Hockey who won the World Junior Hockey Championships in Helsinki, Finland. Though getting no coverage in the US, the WJHC is an annual tournament of the best hockey players under 20 in the world. Team USA rallied to beat Canada 4-3 by scoring 3 goals in the third period of Monday's Final, to win the WJHC gold for the first time ever. Earning MVP honors was Zach Pairse a New Jersey Devils prospect who led the tournament in scoring with 5 goals and 6 assists.

Geek of the Week: Matt Hasselbeck of the Seattle Seahawks who boasted we want the ball and we will score at the start of overtime in Sunday's NFC Wild Card Game at Green Bay against the Packers. Hasselbeck did in fact throw the pass that led to winning score. However, he must have flashed back to his days as a Packer backup as it was caught and returned 52 yards for a Touchdown by Al Harris as the Packers won 33-27 in this weekend's most exciting playoff game. The boast and interception spoiled what was a solid 305-yard effort by Hasselbeck who kept the Seahawks in the game all the way.

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