Sunday, December 18, 2011

Highs and Lows

Kid Cudi wrote a whole song detailing a series of highs and lows. The Bobcats football team wrote a whole season's worth of them, punctuated with Saturday's highest moment.


I said recently it would be difficult to get excited about the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, called it a forgettable exhibition.


I was wrong- and I could not be more glad. 


Maybe the bowl game in Boise didn't mean anything in the grander scheme of college football but it certainly did in the faces of the seniors and coach Frank Solich, through the tweets and texts from Bobcats around the great states. 


And heck, there's nothing forgettable about Tyler Tettleton's game-winning dash to the corner of the end zone with 13 seconds left. 


The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is anything but grandiose. It's played on blue turf, has a mascot called Spuddy Buddy and literally gives its winner a bowl of potatoes. It's way more after school special than Allstate BCS Championship. 


But none of that matters in the microcosm of what the Bobcats accomplished on the field Saturday night. It was the highest high in a season full of ups and downs. 


There was the high of the Marshall game, jacked up in all black and trouncing the Herd to reclaim the Bell.


There was the low of the two-game losing streak in winnable games that dropped the Bobcats to 4-3 and made you really wonder if they were for real or just setting up another disappointment. 


There was the high of the Temple win, a final minutes game-winning drive led by Tettleton, on ESPN in a blacked out Peden, and then the MAC East clinching win at Bowling Green.


It was so good that 'MAC East Champs' was trending worldwide on Twitter. 


Except that string of highs again all crashed down three Friday nights ago in Detroit. In fact, high and low were both encapsulated in the string of those 60 minutes of the MAC Championship, all the way from a 20-0 halftime lead to second half meltdown and 23-20 loss. 


A disappointment is an understatement in describing that loss. Debilitating, disheartening, debacle are better adjectives. Again, the Bobcats fell short in the MAC Championship game, which meant a not-so-anticipated trip to Boise. 


But that cold smurf turf was the spot of the season's greatest high, redemption for the Motor City Meltdown. More importantly it was a high that capped off a season framed by a low transcending the on field action.


It was last spring that the Bobcat family was shaken by the loss of defensive lineman Marcellis Williamson. A different defensive player donned Williamson's #62 in his honor each game. Saturday no one wore it but the #62 jersey was on the sideline as the 12th man.


'Forever relentless' became the slogan inspired by Williamson. The Bobcats were all that and more in beating Utah State, this time surmounting a fourth quarter deficit rather than blowing a lead. Ohio channeled Williamson, brought his spirit to the field in pulling out victory. 


Shortly before his death Marcellis posted on his Facebook, "enjoy today because tomorrow isn't guaranteed." That's perspective enough and advice Bobcat nation should surely heed following the bowl win. 

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Who's excited for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl?!

A couple weeks ago Ohio punter Paul Hershey got blasted when he tweeted the following: 
"Idaho?? Who the (expletive) wants to play there in December??" 
Hershey had to close his Twiter account and took a lot of heat for a 'stupid' comment. But in all honesty, Hershey was speaking the truth. 

The Bobcats take on Utah State Saturday in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, in case you forgot. It really wouldn't be all that shocking.


It's one of the first bowl games of the season, it's WAC vs. MAC, and even though Tyler Tettleton has the same initials as a certain Denver quarterback,that's not making ESPN give the game any kind of promotion.

Frank Solich said it best today when he said "bowl games are kind of like the first game of the season." It's a game so absolutely useless that you can barely help but care. The Motor City Meltdown two Fridays ago doesn't help either. 


Hershey's comment may have been out of line for a student athlete representing a program but he's right. A bowl is supposed to be a reward for players. When you play for a MAC school, the locale certainly isn't. It's (most likely) Boise, Detroit or Mobile. 


So that leaves what probably amounts to the best part for the athletes involved: the gifts. SPJ recently published the gift list for this year's bowl games and it's pretty legit. 


Ohio and Utah State players and coaches will receive a North End winter coat, Kombi gloves, Nike beanie, Ogio Fugitive backpack, Big Game souvenir football along with a gift suite which is described by ESPN as:
...private events in which game participants, and often bowl VIPs, are given an order form and allowed to select a gift, or gifts, up to a value that is predetermined by each specific bowl, not to exceed the NCAA limit of $550 per person.
Forget the trip to Boise, that's a nice holiday haul- and it doesn't even compare to Toledo players getting a Kindle Fire  and iPod nano as Military Bowl participants. 


That's at least something exciting for players. For Ohio fans...too far to have a school-sponsored trip, non-appealing matchup, disappointment following the MAC Championship collapse. It's absurd for anyone to try to convince a Bobcat fan to be excited for Saturday's game. 


As I said about the MAC Championship game, I'll watch this bowl game and root for the Bobcats being a fan who has watched their journey but the fundamental shortcomings in college football's postseason make this an exhibition that will be forgettable a few years down the line. 


ESPN is broadcasting games like the New Mexico Bowl and Potato Bowl yet analyzing Tim Tebow's QBR for the fifth straight day takes precedence. 


Hershey may not have been tactful in his tweet but he was certainly onto something.


Count me as more excited for Ohio basketball's upcoming regular season matchup with Northern Iowa than this bowl game. That game means something in the bigger picture, can get Ohio mentioned in Bracketology and improve its RPI for a potential at-large tournament bid.


What can the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl provide?  


30 seconds on SportsCenter and a two paragraph AP story.


Woohoo. 

Monday, December 12, 2011

Tebow takes pressure off Rodgers and Packers

When you wake up on Monday morning, the lead on sports shows, the talk of the town is Tim Tebow. It's an improbable story, fascinating, mystifying and utterly interesting. There's lovers and haters, sides as deeply divided as lawmakers on Capitol Hill. It's frankly a good conversation topic. 

Then you have Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, so good that they're almost, dare I say it, boring. Rodgers looks superhuman, the Packers score 30 plus and the undefeated streak continues. Ho-hum. 

Really though it's not ho-hum. What the Packers are on the way to accomplishing isn't shockingly scintillating or reaching the level of Tebow dramatics. 

It is downright impressive and historic. 

With yesterday's win, a simple 46-16 stomping of the Raiders, the Packers became just the second defending Super Bowl champion to start the next season 13-0. Their 19-game winning streak is the second longest in NFL history. Stats like these are not some to just be buried in the background of sports chatter. 

But they are.

McCarthy's Packers put together a magical run from wild card to Super Bowl champion last year, an underdog story with a hook. Now, they're a known quantity. We may have become a bit numb to the high quality at which they're playing. 

On the other hand, you have Tebow and the Broncos, a team not many expected to finish far from the AFC West cellar, left for dead after a 1-4 start and resurrected with Tebow taking over as starter. 

You couldn't have more polar opposites. Tebow and the Broncos win in compelling fashion coming back from seemingly impossible deficits. 


Rodgers and the Packers just score, usually putting teams away with a perfectly placed laser from the arm of number 12. 

When they did face adversity last week against the Giants with the game tied at 35 in the closing stages of regulation, Rodgers moved the offense methodically down the field to set up a game-winning field goal.

There are no recovered onside kicks, improbable scrambles out of the pocket or unbelievable circumstances that lead up to Packers victories. It's methodical. It's almost becoming expected. 

No one expected the Broncos' 7-1 record with Tebow under center. While the Broncos garner the media spotlight, the Monday morning quarterbacking, a little of the pressure rolls of the Packers' backs. The scrutiny will surely increase as 16-0 draws closer, then the potential possibility of 19-0 if it carries into the playoffs. 

For now though Tim Tebow is the best thing that could have happened to the footballers on the frozen tundra. Heck, there was more talk this week about Green Bay selling stocks of ownership for the team than if the Packers could continue the undefeated roll. 

Come week 17 a lot of attention could be on the quest to finish off a perfect regular season but you can bet that if Tebow and company are on the playoffs' doorstep there will be a little less limelight on Lambeau.
 

Friday, December 9, 2011

No winners in Paul trade fiasco

It took less than a month following the NBA lockout for all hell to break loose.

With David Stern’s vetoing of the blockbuster trade that would have sent Chris Paul to Los Angeles, Pau Gasol to Houston and Lamar Odom and other assets to New Orleans, we see that the agreement between players and owners that will give us a season did nothing to fix the league’s fundamental problems.

Though the NBA has a salary cap, it is becoming more and more like MLB. 

Superstars are dictating where they want to play and small market teams are left with the painful decision of getting compensation for them or watching them walk for nothing when their contract expires.

LeBron James, ‘The Decision’ and the Cavs getting nothing out of James but a bad record the following season has left owners weary of banking on a star to resign with their original team when free agency comes calling their name.

One of the owners’ lockout gripes was that the players have gained too much control. 

There’s no denying that is indeed correct. 

Carmelo Anthony wanted to go to New York, everyone knew it, including Denver, so he was traded to the Big Apple for a solid package of young players.

Yes, Anthony essentially dictated the trade but he was leaving anyway and the concept of free agency gives players the individual freedom to sign where they want so long as the team can afford them. Most of the time that’s a big market where more advertisement dollars are up for grabs. Small market teams are naïve to wait for the offseason and hope their stars will return.

It’s difficult to pick a side between the owners and players. You do feel for small market owners who are continually ditched by players who grow with their original franchise then bolt for the bright lights and big market stage after their first contract.

At the same time, should we expect anything less? 

This isn’t the days of the reserve clause that once bound baseball players to teams and allowed no flexibility. That was abolished for good reason. Right now it seems that’s the only way to appease some of the NBA’s unhappy owners.

It’s natural in many realms and careers for small markets to be launching pads for moves to larger markets. It happens in TV when an anchor starts out in a small market and works their way up the ladder, the smaller stations left to start with young talent again.

What David Stern did in vetoing the trade was a big blunder. It makes him appear an authoritarian and sets a dangerous precedent for future trades of this nature.

But it’s also understandable why he did it. He’s trying to change a league dynamic that defies competitive balance. Every league wants to be the NFL.

None succeed.

Stern tried to assert his power but slapping a small band-aid on a massive, bleeding wound won’t suppress it.

The lockout didn’t fix it. Stern holding Paul hostage in New Orleans for 66 games doesn’t either.

Los Angeles, New Orleans and Houston all lost in the short-term. Long-term, fans will continue to lose as a product continues to spiral out of control further away from any semblance of competitive balance.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Sorry system sours Bobcats football success

There's no denying that it has been a very good season for the Ohio Bobcats football team. 

Nine wins, a MAC East title, and a shot at winning its first ever MAC Championship game.

There’s no taking away from those already achieved accomplishments and the possibility of an 11-win season. 

The players should be excited and proud of what they have done on the field.

But that doesn’t mean fans should also be blindly excited or thrilled with the lackluster end point of an otherwise excellent season.

Ohio will be heading to a bowl game no matter the result against Northern Illinois. A win and it’s off to Mobile, Alabama for the GMAC Bowl. A loss and it’s a trip to Boise and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

Yes, seriously. One of the program’s best seasons ever is going to culminate with a date against the winner of the Sun Belt or 6-5 Utah State.

Even more idiotic is that two of the MAC’s three automatic bowl tie-ins are nowhere close to the conference’s footprint. Trips to Idaho or Alabama are not realistic for MAC fans or students. It doesn’t make sense for bowls trying to sell tickets or fans that want to support their team.

Instead of being all mushy gushy about the potential of these wonderful firsts, a season like no other, let’s realize the plight of being a nobody in college football.

If you don’t reside in a BCS automatic qualifying conference you are a nobody in college football. You’re not even allowed to step foot on Wall Street, let alone be a part of it.

The bowl system is in essence a caste system. The supposed low of the low are matched up with each other with no opportunity to prove that a 9 or 10-victory Ohio team is better than 6-win Ohio State. One chosen one gets lucky enough to be anointed the best of the lesser powers and play in a BCS game. That’s it. We’re supposed to be happy with that and move on. 

It shouldn’t be that way. No fan should be told to revel in a team they root for, who may win its conference championship, going to a glorified exhibition thousands of miles away against another mid-major.

Even the worst conference winner in college basketball, from the lowliest conference, gets a chance to prove itself, to have a moment to shine and be a lovable David slaying a Goliath.

Nobody vs. nobody equals no fun. Because at least playing a BCS program, even a bottom of the barrel one, earns some respect.

Winning six games, going .500, is not much of an accomplishment, BCS conference or not. So my proposition is if you win six games and still want to go to a bowl game you don’t get to play another big name from a BCS conference on New Year’s Day (as Florida and Ohio State are projected to in the Gator Bowl).

You play a top team from a non-BCS conference. Florida goes to Mobile and can battle with the Sun Belt champion Arkansas State. Ohio State can head to Detroit and face the MAC champion. That would be fair. 

But fair doesn’t happen in this sport. Instead UCLA, which just lost by 50 and fired its head coach, will take the spot of one of the pushed around nobodies, a seven or eight win team from the MAC, MWC or Sun Belt.

I’ll be happy if Ohio wins its first conference title since 1968 tomorrow night. I’ll root for them in whatever bowl game they end up playing.

But I will not pretend that settling for and enjoying the spoils of inferiority in a flawed system is acceptable.