December is college football's loneliest month
If T.S. Eliot was right in his assertion that April is the cruelest month, he forgot to leave out the part about December being the loneliest (as far as college football goes). This is my least favorite sports time of the year, with the exception of the short period when there's only baseball to watch. Texas manhandled Colorado 70-3 in the Big XII Championship today to lay claim to the first 12-0 record in school history, plus a Rose Bowl berth. At the moment USC is taking care of business against UCLA, and later today the ACC and SEC championships ensue.
But that'll be the last game for these teams until January 4, a full four weeks later. Collegiate gridiron warriors traditionally get most of the holiday season off to "concentrate" on fall exams (which in Heisman finalist Matt Leinart's case is cramming for that single ballroom dancing class he's enrolled in with his girlfriend), and prep for the big bowl game. Some teams, like my Michigan Wolverines, will have more than month pass when they make their bowl appearance during the first week of January, having played their last game the final Saturday in November.
I can understand giving the teams a longer break than normal to watch tape, prepare and scheme to compete against teams they'd never normally see. And the extra time off certainly gives players suffering from minor injuries a better chance could come back and compete in a bowl game. But not longer than a week, though. The timespan between periods when players engage in full-speed, full-contact contests is too great. We need to tighten the schedule up.
In addition to my staunch belief that the NCAA needs to adopt a Division I championship tournament, I am steadfast in my support the notion of having the bowl games in December, at a maximum two weeks after the conference championship games. To just lollygag through the last month of the year doing nothing degrades the quality of play - and then ram eight non-BCS contests down our throats on New Year's Day at hyperspeed pace. You always hear commentators during bowl game broadcasts when play isn't immediately as crisp as it should be, "Well, Florida muffed that play, but they have been off the field for a month."
The NCAA schedules Division I basketball all through December - this year Detroit visits Louisville on Christmas Eve. So why not stagger the pigskin skeds? It would make the game so much better. We already have the Lions and Cowboys to look forward to every Thanksgiving and a marquee NBA game on Christmas...why not finish it up with a patterned bowl schedule, leading up to the national championship on New Year's?
But that'll be the last game for these teams until January 4, a full four weeks later. Collegiate gridiron warriors traditionally get most of the holiday season off to "concentrate" on fall exams (which in Heisman finalist Matt Leinart's case is cramming for that single ballroom dancing class he's enrolled in with his girlfriend), and prep for the big bowl game. Some teams, like my Michigan Wolverines, will have more than month pass when they make their bowl appearance during the first week of January, having played their last game the final Saturday in November.
I can understand giving the teams a longer break than normal to watch tape, prepare and scheme to compete against teams they'd never normally see. And the extra time off certainly gives players suffering from minor injuries a better chance could come back and compete in a bowl game. But not longer than a week, though. The timespan between periods when players engage in full-speed, full-contact contests is too great. We need to tighten the schedule up.
In addition to my staunch belief that the NCAA needs to adopt a Division I championship tournament, I am steadfast in my support the notion of having the bowl games in December, at a maximum two weeks after the conference championship games. To just lollygag through the last month of the year doing nothing degrades the quality of play - and then ram eight non-BCS contests down our throats on New Year's Day at hyperspeed pace. You always hear commentators during bowl game broadcasts when play isn't immediately as crisp as it should be, "Well, Florida muffed that play, but they have been off the field for a month."
The NCAA schedules Division I basketball all through December - this year Detroit visits Louisville on Christmas Eve. So why not stagger the pigskin skeds? It would make the game so much better. We already have the Lions and Cowboys to look forward to every Thanksgiving and a marquee NBA game on Christmas...why not finish it up with a patterned bowl schedule, leading up to the national championship on New Year's?
posted by Jason Salas @ 8:20 AM
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