The People's Voice, BCS edition
Ever get 1,200 emails in a single day?
If not then take it from me: It is quite a thing - humbling, overwhelming and a bit frightening.
But I guess it is bound to happen when you choose sides in the Sugar Bowl debate. In the aftermath of my column on Saturday night advocating for USC and LSU to go to the Sugar Bowl ahead of Oklahoma I heard from darn near every town in Oklahoma (not pleased), plenty of SoCal folks (complimentary) and hundreds of neutral college football fans who are just plain fed up.
I scanned or read all 1,200 emails, and they ranged from hysterical to preposterous to wonderfully thought out. Sorry I can't answer or print them all, especially the many detailed solutions to the BCS controversy. But I appreciate them very much.
If we could ever get a playoff, things would be so much better. But that would require the six BCS conferences sharing power, and there is no interest in doing that. So we are stuck with this mess. And one very, very busy email day.
Once again, keep them (all of them) coming, And make it brief, interesting and include a full name and hometown. My comments appear in italics.
And thanks, very much, again.
Without further ado, on to the People's Voice ...
THE BCS
(Dec. 7: "Oklahoma-LSU wouldn't be right")
Mr. Wetzel,
You sir, are an idiot. Don't even trash OU again. I am Sooner born, Sooner bred and when I die I'll be Sooner dead.
- Fred Lincoln
Midwest City, Okla.
Thank you for the article. College football is my favorite sport, I live for it, but the way the powers that be treat the players and fans disgusts me. We have deserved a playoff for decades. I wish anyone cared.
- Mike McClatchey
Richmond, Va.
I do not follow all of the college games because of the rural area we live in and my work schedule never lets me watch to many games.But I feel you are 100 percent right.
I feel that the whole bowl system is and has gotten clear out of hand. It is really no longer any fun for me and my family to watch any of the bowl games as they are all pretty much set up for money standards as you have stated rather than for good teams against good teams. Get rid of the BCS and go back to the way it was when you could watch a bowl game and enjoy it for the sport and teams playing at the time. Thanks for a good article.
- Pete Weimer
Monroe, Utah
Amen on your article about the BCS being a joke.
I am a pissed off 'SC alum and am ready to turn my back on the BCS and would be more than happy to win an independent Rose Bowl than play in what is supposed to be a national championship.
- Naveen Jethwani
La Jolla, Calif.
College Football needs radical surgery.End conference championship games ... shorten the season to 11 games ... say aloha to the current bowl system.Inaugurate a 16-team playoff like every other division. Give home field to highest ranked teams ... let uninvited teams play a bowl game for a reward.
Share the money fairly.
- Alan Hawkins
This is the solution I favor also.
I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. I hate the BCS. Trojans could school any team in the nation. Period. I HATE THE BCS!
- Paul Cosaro
Los Angeles, Calif.
Oklahoma doesn't deserve to play in the Sugar Bowl you say. I suspect you came to this conclusion because USC is ranked No. 1 in both polls. Isn't this what the BCS system is for, to add some objectivity to the process?
- Mark W. Cotton
Lawton, Okla.
I agree with your assessment of the BCS. I think that USC and LSU should play in the sugar and let OU come to the Rose Bowl to be trounced by U of M.
- Dan Long
Livonia, Mich.
Nice story, but does it matter to you that your [beloved] USC doesn't have to play a conference championship game. WAS their schedule tougher than OU's Schedule? We, the Sooners have ONE terrible game and BOOM, automatically we should not be in the SUGAR! How many "half-a-hundreds" did the Sooners score this season? I am just glad you are "just" a sportswriter. Big deal about your opinion.
- Mike Wilson
Vinita, Okla.
Since its inception and certainly for the last now three years, we have said the BCS is a FRAUD. I know it, you know it and worst, THEY know it. It's about power, money and control, and we the college football fan gets screwed.
What do we DO about this fraud we're being handed every year?
Any ideas? I'm deadly serious about this!!! Please help! What can we do to get the ball rolling and dump this system? Right now I'm a victim. I'd rather not be!
- John Poggendorf
Prescott, Ariz.
I am completely disgusted with the BCS. The system is a total fraud. I doubt that mere mortals like us can change the BCS, but if you think [we could] to whom would the average college football fan write to express our displeasure? I'm interested in having the public weigh in on this.
- Mark E. Graham
Davis, Calif.
Turning off the TV wouldn't matter, unless you are a Neilsen home. I would write the commissioners of the six BCS leagues. They haven't demonstrated much concern about the fans, but you never know. Contacting your U.S. Senator – where an investigation into the BCS is under way – couldn't hurt.
Where do you live? [The] West Coast?
- Al O'Dowd
Houston, Texas
Typical East Coast bias.
- Carroll Fraser
Oklahoma City, Okla.
This is just another example of the liberal Northeast media.
Paige Lawrence
- Ft. Smith, Ark.
You must be from Texas.
- J.S. Duffner
Norman, Okla.
I get real tired of hearing about you Eastern and Western sportscasters.
- Floyd Belcher
Well I read your article and find you are about as smart as a turnip on a truck headed to market.
- Ro Kline
You're a genius man. Genius.
- Mike Miller
Anaheim, Calif.
Are you a commie or something?
- John Lewis
You must be an Ivy League Fan.
- Jerry Thompson
People always say the problem with having a college football playoff is that it would add too many games to the season, increasing injury risk and distracting student-athletes from their studies.
A college football playoff of the top four teams would add one game to the season. ONE GAME! How many random bowl games have been added in the past 15 years? Have Oklahoma play LSU (Sugar Bowl) and have USC play Michigan (Rose Bowl). Then have the winners play off for the national championship.
- Dan Mueller
New York, N.Y.
I am an OU grad and fan, and I couldn't agree more. OU really stunk up the place against K-State and they don't deserve to go to the BCS Championship game. I believe K-State deserves better. OU would be a perfect fit for the Humility Bowl.
- Michael Lewis
Houston, Texas
As a true fan who (naturally) despises the BCS and wishes it dead, I would like to thank the Kansas State Wildcats for causing chaos and hurting the reputation of the BCS. These conference commissioners are ruining the greatest sport of them all. Screw them.
- Jimmy Brown
Ft. Myers, Fla.
Your article is right on. The BCS ranking system is a complete joke. Hopefully this year's BCS mess will be the impetus for change. Imagine if we had a championship playoff system. This would be one of the most exciting college football seasons in recent memory.
Let's hope for a split championship this season so that the spotlight will be where it truly belongs - on the intellectually corrupt BCS system that needs to be dispensed with in favor of a four-team championship playoff. Keep up the good writing.
- Vince McLaughlin
Davis, Calif.
You're right on the money about USC being forced to bite the big one. Frankly, neither LSU or Oklahoma belongs on the same field with Pete Carroll's boys. Think about this: LSU plays mudders like Louisiana Tech, Western Illinois and Louisiana Monroe. Strength of schedule? PLEASE! Here's to a playoff system in I-A ball. All America knows the national championship game will be played in the Rose Bowl between USC and Michigan.
- Sam Zavala
Riverside, Calif.
For the past four months I have been here in Iraq, working for a military contractor, and have been reading all your words on the college season. Since I have no TV over here, Yahoo! Sports is the only way I can get the games and commentaries. I get the 60 sec. updates, kind of like the old radio days. Ha.
But I am a true American, retired from the Army [after] 20 years of faithful service, and now I have to hear you talk bad about Texas, Oklahoma, and all the Big 12. Why? You have done an impressive job. Until now. Let the bowls be played out the way the coaches elected to when they voted the BCS in. They know what is best for their young men on their teams. Not you. You and your family have a great Holiday season.
God Speed,
- Keith. E. Dixon
I'd just like you to know that the entire state of Oklahoma now hates your guts.
- Dean Dakota
Norman, Okla.
I bet they like me in Stillwater.
How can a team (Oklahoma) play for the title after getting blown out in their conference championship? That is beyond me! I guess it has to do with name not competing on the
field. Also a I-A playoff would settle everything but it will not happen due to bowl special interest (a.k.a. certain press people and computer nerds).
- Blaine Whorton
Bastrop, La.
No need for a playoff. To qualify for the championship game, require the school to be conference champion.
- Ernie Fong
San Francisco, Calif.
Remember who USC lost to, unranked Berkley, or can you only remember the present. OU lost to a ranked opponent in a championship game, not to an unranked team. So to say that OU doesn't deserve to be in the Championship team is idiotic. And LSU lost to Florida so they deserve it, but to say the OU loosing to a ranked team, and USC loosing to an unranked team and deserving it is stupid.
- Ty Creek
San Antonio, Texas
I am stationed onboard a United States war ship. I absolutely LOVE college football. It's not too often that I nor any other sailor I know get to watch more than three games of an entire college football season, due to the fact that we spend 185 days a year out on the ocean.
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for your article about the B.S. BCS and how Oklahoma is in and USC out. You are right in every sense of the word. I know I am not alone in feeling the disappointment from seeing a team such as USC get overlooked like it did. Like you said, how does a team that is supposedly untouchable get beat by four touchdowns - and still get the glory of going to the big game? Good Luck LSU, bring Oklahoma's head out of the sky.
- Michael N. Lybarger
Damage Controlman 2nd Class
USCGC Morgenthau
RED SOX-YANKEES
(Dec. 1: "Where the action is")
The evil empire may strike back but we know how that trilogy turns out! The good guys win! Then we will get all new episodes. God I love Baseball! And there is nothing better than New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox.
- Rick Tellier
Great article. Being a Red Sox fan for over 40 years I share the feelings of many New Englanders for the Red Sox. I have often said that I want to the Sox to win just one World Series in my lifetime, and I know they have to go through NY to do it. I have a 15-year-old son who has now (after this year's loss to the Yankees) been baptized a true Red Sox fan.
- Steve Massarone
You claim the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is the best in sports. For there to be a rivalry, the two teams must be striving to reach or obtain something that only one can possess. I was born in 1954. Since then the Yankees have won 10 World Series Championships, nine American League pennants, two American League East titles and were the AL Wild Card entry once. In the same period, the Red Sox have won zero World Series Championships, three American League pennants, three American League East titles and were the AL Wild Card entry three times.
Tell me, in the scheme of this so-called rivalry, what is it exactly that the Yankees are striving to reach that the Red Sox possess?
- Bob Ostrove
As I mentioned in the article, Boston and New York defy the adage that there is no rivalry between the hammer and the nail. I think it is undeniable that the Yankees, despite their complete dominance, feel the rivalry, perhaps because they can sense Boston coming.
MLB has got to get its house in order and mirror that of the NFL. They must get serious about salaries and parity issues. Does it ever dawn on the idiots of the world that there are 30-plus other teams in the league? It is a league and by virtue of that title, each franchise should have an equal chance at competing. Obviously, that is not the case and hasn't been for some time now.
In short, the game is being weakened and eventually fans outside of New York, Boston, Los Angeles etc. are going to come to the conclusion that their teams have no shot by May of each year, so the hell with attending games or watching their 'heroes' on the boob tube.
Either the powers that be within the players union and Selig and his entourage collectively get their heads out of their asses or the whole rotten structure may come tumbling down. Then again, perhaps that wouldn't be such a bad thing after all!
- Charlie Neilson
Toronto, Ont.
