Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington Make Playoffs

It is finally over. As predicted a while ago the four selections for the 2016 season's playoffs are in and everyone is happy except for those who are not. Only one Big Ten team made it but it was not a team that won its division let alone the league title. No one is unhappy with Alabama and Clemson but the selections of OSU and Washington are the more controversial. Penn State beat OSU, won their division and won the conference title and, while happy with the Rose Bowl berth, have to be disappointed that they are on the outside looking in. Michigan is pissed too but they did not have enough good wins. As for the Washington Huskies they are being hammered for their out-of-conference schedule but that just kept others in the running because they are champs of the second or third best conference and only had one loss. They also pass the dreaded eye test as they excel in each facet of the game. Without specific rules this type of controversy will continue to flourish. I am okay with the four teams selected, although would have been okay with PSU getting OSU's spot, and am hoping for some good playoff football.

Sadness at West Point

I had intended to write a post celebrating the fantastic start enjoyed by the Cadets of West Point, who are 2-0 for the first time in 20 years. Instead I write with the news that sophomore starting cornerback Brandon Jackson, an up-and-coming player for Army from queens, NY, died yesterday in a single-car accident. He was 20 years old. "Words cannot describe the grief that our team is feeling over the loss of our brother and friend, Brandon" said head coach Jeff Monken. "He was a beloved teammate and our hearts are with his family at this time of tragedy."

Gutting of Baylor Roster Continues

The long-term prognosis for the Baylor football program continues to weaken as an 11th recruit to be released from his national letter of intent, highly-recruited DE Brandon Bowen, jumped to TCU and, most importantly, talented soph QB Jarrett Stidham announced that he will transfer. Assuming that the current upperclassmen rally around the situation, Baylor should have a solid season in 2016 under acting head coach Jim Grobe. The future? There is no way they will not slip and we still have not learned about any possible NCAA sanctions. The situation is murky and not getting any better.

Ohio State to Honor 1916 Team With Throwback Jerseys

Although we still await official confirmation, Ohio State has picked a replica of the school's 1916 jersey, complete with vertical gray stripes, as their alternate for this year. The game in which they will be worn has not been named. Coach John Wilce led that squad to a 7-0 record and Western Conference championship, riding star back Chic Harley. Ohio State football would look very different without the success that team had as Harley a local athlete, became hugely popular. The three time All American led the Buckeyes to the first-ever win over Michigan (they did not play annually back then) and when he left, having lost only his final game, the Buckeyes were so popular that Ohio Stadium was built and dedicated to him. Harley's story is an important one to always remember as soon after he graduated he began dealing with mental illness. Harley, and it is not known definitively today whether his illness was as a result of a sports wound, war injury or genetic, would spend the rest of his 50+ years suffering from the debilitating effects of mental illness. He died in 1974 and some members of the contemporary Buckeyes squad, including Archie Griffin, were pallbearers.

Baylor fires Art Briles

Baylor has fired head coach Art Briles as the investigation by an outside agency has gathered together facts concerning the allegations that several Baylor players not only committed sexual assaults against fellow students but were allowed to continue playing football and remaining on campus while their alleged victims received no help. While I am unsure whether the suddenness of Briles's canning is due to bad publicity or additional revelations, the reality is that the original allegations were deserving of this result. Briles deserved to be fired and while Baylor football fans may well be worried about the program's future the reality is that does not outweigh justice for the victims of assault, especially in light of the role the program played in the situation (recruiting players accused of assault prior to arriving in Waco and not investigating or punishing those players accused of assault on the Baylor campus who then continued to victimize other students. The firing of Briles came as Baylor will begin play in a new, expensive stadium that now has a bit of a taint along with its new paint.

Baylor President Ken Starr Removed From Post

As Ken Starr knows all too well, when a scandal reaches the courts it becomes too big to cover up. Lawsuits against Baylor University's handling of accusations by students of sexual assaults committed by other students, including members of the football team, are now bringing what were at times whispered accusations to the light of day. Starr, who himself first became nationally famous for his independent counsel investigation of President Bill Clinton that eventually led to Clinton's impeachment, is the first Baylor figure to fall and as the president he was the man in charge. Others should follow as it is clear that many people knew about the charges of rape and did nothing about them. It is especially awful to hear that football coach Art Briles knew about accusations against his players and did not act to remove these guys from the campus--many guys continued to play as if nothing was going on. One former player can only be described as a serial rapist and to allow him to not only continue to play football but to do so on a campus with thousands of potential victims is unconscionable. Briles, who seems to have followed a blueprint of building his team by adding players with character concerns, needs to go soon. With a new $300 million stadium to fill, however, it remains to be seen if that will happen.

Satellite Camps

Have you seen Jim Harbaugh's schedule of summer camps? Who are the poor people coordinating this craziness? The Wolverines will hold 26 camps throughout the country in June, beginning June 2nd in Atlanta. On June 8th alone they have camps taking place in Mississippi, Ohio and New Jersey (right here in Paramus). The Paramus Catholic location is extra special--and I am not counting my sister being part of their sports hall of fame--as Harbaugh is even scheduled to be the school's commencement speaker at this year's graduation on June 9. Too much? Probably. There are only so many recruits Michigan can get and without doing these camps they would be unhappy with any ranking outside the nation's top ten. So this will marginally improve on that. Meanwhile Harbaugh's competition is busy trying to negate some of that new-found advantage. Ohio State, for example, just agreed to come to Jersey too on the same day the Michigan camp is in Paramus to run their own camp in conjunction with Temple and Rutgers. So now think of our favorite rivalries as 365-day realities. Wait, we did already.

NCAA Bans Creation of New Bowls Until 2019

Finally. The embarrassment of having three programs with 5-7 records make bowl games last year finally slapped some sense into the NCAA. Unfortunately they are not proposing to dump a few of the current games which means the image of teams with losing records making post-season appearances remains possible. But at least the hemorrhaging has been addressed. Having 41 bowl games diluted a great product and the number of games needs to be reduced. Now let's move the national semi final games off of New Year's Eve.

Steve Elmer Leaves Football for Better Opportunity

Notre Dame starting guard Steve Elmer is moving on with one year of eligibility remaining to pursue a job he could not pass up in Washington DC. This will occur after graduation this May. Elmer is typical of the special kind of student athlete produced today, who, well, has other options beyond the gridiron. He has experienced a great deal on the football field and will now move on with his life. Too much has been focused on the negative side of the sport but there are plenty of Elmers around who do not "need" football to get ahead but enjoy playing and enjoy the benefits that come along while putting in the extra work. He will bring discipline, hard work and a team approach to Washington--attributes greatly needed in these times.

Return of James Conner

Superstar back James Conner has returned to the Pittsburgh team after a nightmarish fall of 2015. After rushing for 1,765y and a whopping 26 TDs in 2014 (and beating out Jameis Winston for ACC player of the year), Conner entered camp last summer as one of the very best running backs in the country. But a torn MCL in week one knocked Conner out for the season and then in December he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. Conner was not afraid of work and rehabbed the knee while battling the lymphoma to the point that Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi announced that not only was his star returning to the team but that he would play in 2016. It is easy rooting for this kid.

NFL's Gambling Hypocrisy

So I would love to bet on football in my lovely state of New Jersey. I can already bet on horseracing here and we have had casinos in AC for most of my life, but no sports gambling. The story is that if we could bet on sports then shady guys would appear--imagine cigar smoke swirling for atmosphere--with bags of money and these lowlifes would buy players thus making sports less legitimate than they already are now. Oh my god, not fixing games. Of course, players have been bought in every time zone of the country and as the current tennis scandal proves anyone can be bought, if willing,anywhere in the world. the sports entity that has been the loudest against sports betting in Jersey, with the NBA becoming more vocal in recent years, has been the NFL. The same NFL which has not said a word publicly about the Raiders recent interest in Las Vegas. The city that invented the sports book in this country will soon have a shiny and expensive football stadium and the NFL loves shiny and expensive toys. As for the cigar-smoking gamblers who may be tempted to buy some NFL players--you know the ones who will now live down the block from the athletes--well, we no longer have to worry about them. Everything is on the up and up in Las Vegas.

Michigan Recruiting Update

The controversy swirling around the Michigan football program is fascinating for a number of reasons. To update you, Michigan locked up a bunch of solid prospects awhile ago--at least one was even signed by the previous staff years--and is now pulling those scholarship offers from some players (eight at my last count) to give them to higher-ranked guys. This has been unfolding for a few weeks as the Wolverines continue to attract top talent. There is nothing technically illegal here as nothing is binding until an official letter is signed and the players are free to jump programs themselves. In fact this behavior has been going on for years with some schools not even pulling the scholarships until signing day or, in some awful instances, in the summer (or they will take the scholarship from an older sub if too many players remain on the roster by August). What is fascinating is that the players can now go on twitter and complain about the situation and Michigan immediately gets bad publicity. Let's be frank here. There is nothing positive for the kid to have his offer pulled this late in the game. Sure, most land on their feet but at situations that may not be as positive for them as it would have with the time to fully seek offers. Others get screwed totally. So twitter giving these kids one recourse for some sort of justice is compelling but I also find it interesting that head coach Jim Harbaugh did this at Stanford but received little bad press for it as Stanford receives very little of the coverage that Michigan gets and he could hide there behind Stanford's more rigid acceptance standards (of course he pulled a scholarship from at least one player who could have gotten in without football but I digress). What is also funny is that when this type of behavior happened elsewhere, especially in the SEC, some Michigan fans were incensed. Now that their coach is doing it? They have become the biggest apologists. Do whatever it takes to win. It is the attitude that has dragged college football through the mud for years.

Alabama Does it Again

Congratulations are in store for the Tide, who have now won four national titles in seven years. The game was exciting, if not always fundamentally sound (but we cannot have it all). Clemson had a great year and should be able to hold their heads up. And props to Nick Saban for another fine coaching effort, although pretending that this team was able to overcome adversary like they were some underdog team was a bit much.

Title Game Pick

Going with Clemson tonight. Watson is the difference maker although I do not trust Dabo.

2016 College Football Hall of Fame Class Announced

As always an excellent group of former college football stars has been elected to the college football hall of fame, with the announcement today from Arizona. Stars like Derrick Brooks of Florida State and Rod Woodson of Purdue finally received the call while there was plenty of representation for schools outside the spotlight as Randall Cunningham became UNLV's first enshrinee and highly-effective running back Troy Davis added to Iowa State's list. Also earning the nod were QB Marlin Briscoe of Nebraska Omaha, who was briefly a trendsetter as a QB for Denver before they moved him to receiver, Tom Cousineau, the linebacker and one of Woody Hayes's last great layers at OSU, William Fuller, who dominated as a defensive linemen for some loaded UNC teams in the early 80s, Bert Jones, the LSU QB who helped knock off my Irish when I was 8, Tim Krumrie, one of my favorite Badgers as a monstrous DT 35 years ago, Pat McInally, who may be the last Harvard guy to get in, Herb Orvis, the ferocious Buffs DE, Bill Royce, a backer for Ashland, Ohio, Mike Utley, who needs to be remembered for his play at guard at WSU and Scott Woerner, the ball-hawking DB for Georgia who will prove to be a popular enshrinee for the now Atlanta-based museum. Also making the cut were coaches Bill Bowes of New Hampshire and Frank Girardi of Lycomming, Penn.

2015-16 Bowl Season

I have enjoyed attending and viewing bowl games for years. This year, not so much. The bowl match-ups were dreadful. Game after game were clunkers and the few competitive games played turned out that way due to atrocious defense. I enjoyed taking my family to see Duke edge Indiana in the Bronx but I certainly would not watch the tape of that game if I wanted to learn football. Obviously there were too many games but we need a bowl selection process that will ensure better games to help the sport continue to grow. Hopefully the title game will help wipe out the memory of this dreadful bowl season.