Playbook: Odds & Ends for May 19
By Kyle Kensing
Thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Oklahoma’s Austin Box.
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Cody Brunner, one of my best friends and a Yahoo! sports editor, wrote this outstanding feature. Check it out.
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For those who grew up on 1990s college football, Tommie Frazier’s run is a moment as iconic as any in the sport’s history. His going Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson on the Florida defense was a fitting cap to an incredible individual season, as well as the exclamation mark for arguably one of the best teams all-time. Frazier’s 1995 is about as successful a campaign as any dual threat quarterback, on par with Vince Young’s 2005. Yet 31 cumulative touchdowns (17 passing, 14 rushing) to lead the nation’s top team wasn’t enough to win the Heisman Trophy. Eddie George earned that honor. George won again with his induction to the College Football Hall of Fame, while Frazier was left out.
Now, HOF debates are some of the lowest hanging fruit on the sportswriting tree. Mentions of Bert Blyleven, Jeff Bagwell, and Craig Biggio are enough to send perfectly rational men into frothy-mouthed tirades manifested via writing that could land one on an FBI watch list. Typically, I’ll leave HOF discussion to the knee-jerk types except in particularly egregious cases. This is one such case.
Cooperstown has always been the pinnacle of Halls of Fame, so while I adamantly believe Ron Santo should have been inducted in his lifetime, his exclusion can be justified. College Football Hall of Fame induction is a far less renowned honor. Why, just this week an ESPN.com headline wrongly designated it as Canton, Ohio. No one would ever make such an error with the Baseball Hall. That lack of luster makes Frazier’s exclusion in this voting cycle more perplexing.
Frazier, along with 2010 inductee Desmond Howard, is the name I most closely associate with 1990s college football. Captaining those unstoppable Nebraska teams, he set the bar any option quarterback is currently held to. It’s as if his ’95 Heisman slight is a double-dip snub; considering George, who like Frazier had two great college seasons was a first ballot induction, it can be inferred a bronze statue would have landed Frazier in South Bend.
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You Can’t Spell Brigham Young University Without “BIG EAST”?
Our Attention Deficit Disorder culture has rendered two days the past equivalent of two months. That there is no reputable confirmation on BYU’s rumored Big East invite in the two days of existence might be sign no such thing existed. Nevertheless with almost four months until kickoff, the possibility this maybe, at one time, possibly, could have existed opens a fun debate.
Would Cougar football be better off in the Big East than going independent?
On its surface, the answer is an emphatic yes. BCS credibly is what BYU football wants. As a non-automatic qualifying conference partner, BYU fielded one-loss teams arguably worthy of an at-large BCS bowl invitation, but were hamstrung. Thus perpetuated a cycle of playing in the Las Vegas Bowl for most of the Bush presidency. Going independent does nothing to help that, as BYU won’t be held to the Notre Dame standard but rather the Army-Navy standard. Mediocre Connecticut and Pittsburgh teams have proven the Big East’s standard for AQ status is far more attainable.
That $17 million BCS paycheck is awfully tantilizing, especially when contrasted with the sub-million dollars an Armed Forces Bowl appearance garners. But with independence BYU is in a unique position. The obligatory preface here is BYU’s ESPN contract is a far cry from Notre Dame on NBC, and anyone who tries to make the comparison is weighing apples to unsold copies of “E.T.” for the Atari. With that out of the way, BYU does get a substantial chunk of revenue to be shared with no one. The current Big East deal is a little over $200 million, split among the member universities.
BYU has also been aggressive in its pursuit of marquee games. The Cougars face Texas, TCU and Ole Miss this season, a trio of great games that offset a bevy of WAC opponents BYU was forced to schedule in its abrupt scramble. The athletic department is in talks with Penn State as College Football Examiner’s Kevin McGuire reports. Should BYU establish an annual slate as impressive as Notre Dame’s, it would propel the program into college football’s elite, without having to take on the inevitable clunkers being in a conference results in.
For the time being, this remains a hypothetical debate, but BYU brass appears to think long run over quick fix.
The College Football NIT
Mark Emmert addressed the Dept. of Justice BCS inquiry predictably. As published here on SaturdayBlitz.com when that die was cast, the antitrust allegation is one that currently seems lacking in merit. Sentiment among the playoff banner carriers seems to be that the movement is back at Square One, which prompted The Deseret (Utah) News columnist Doug Robinson to propose a non-BCS conference tournament. Robinson may have been deadpanning in a manner that would make Norm MacDonald proud, but if not football blogosphere maven Michael Felder had a great take at In The Bleachers.
NCAA Division I football already has two champions; the BCS is commissioned to crown one champion, while the NCAA directly oversees the crowning of another in FCS. The Robinson proposal would create a third title, which would essentially boil down to being essentially a football NIT. That isn’t a bad thing. The NIT champion generally ends the basketball season in the Top 25, and it’s an opportunity to extend the season. Of course, the NIT isn’t March Madness, and March Madness is the benchmark by which many a playoff touter holds college football. Furthermore, this would be a tremendous step backward in the non-AQ fight to have equal stake in the national championship. The Boise States, Utahs and TCUs who have had cracks at Oklahoma, Alabama and Wisconsin in recent years would have instead been playing Tulsas, Fresno States, and UCFs. There’s no question which moves the needle more.