The Daily Dose/January 8, 2017
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Notes from around the Human Experience…
HUT, HUT HIKE: Last time out we chatted about an NCAA-sponsored major division football tournament replacing the current four-team College Football Playoff run by TeeVee. Today we are going to offer the first-round matchups for the 2017 NCAA Division I Football Championship. It features 32 teams, so there’s room for pretty much every deserving team and it can begin either the first weekend of December or Thanksgiving weekend. Either way, the national championship game will be played on New Year’s Day, the last day anyone really wants to think about college football.
This format includes all current major division conferences, both the big boys from the Power Five conferences and the smaller Group of Five conferences. Because we feel there should be some reward for winning your conference, conference champions are seeded first. Teams that don’t like this should win their conference.
The tournament can either be a bracket format or a everyone can re-seeded after each round. Both have merit.
Teams were generally seeded based their ranking in the final Associated Press poll, though we tinkered with that a bit, especially with Central Florida, which got the broom handle all season from pollsters.
Oh Yeah: After seeding all conference champions, deserving independents and all other ranked teams, there were still four open spots in the tournament so we invited Army, Iowa, Iowa State, with Fresno State snagging the 32nd spot.
Location, Location, Location: We gave some thought as to where to play the games. One was to have games played on campus. This is how the NCAA does it in the FCS and Divisions II and III, at least until the title game, which is always at a neutral site. Another idea is to have conference champions and top runners-up play at a neutral site for the first round, then move to on-campus facilities up to the championship game.
Both have merit. First round on-campus games mean only one set of fans has to fork over for travel. On the other hand, for an event of this magnitude, having a predetermined site for the first round would make it easier to plan for. If the decision was ours, we’d play the opening round on campus, with the proviso that some of the smaller conference champions have small stadiums that may necessitate moving to a neutral site.
Down To Business: Here are the first round matchups, according to the above criteria. Please note results from the recent bowl games aren’t counted:
Fresno State/Clemson; Iowa/Oklahoma; Iowa State/Georgia; Army/Ohio State; Mississippi State/Central Florida; South Florida/USC; Virginia Tech/Notre Dame; Washington State/Boise State; Northwestern/Florida Atlantic; Memphis/Toledo; Michigan State/Troy; Oklahoma State/Alabama; LSU/Wisconsin; Stanford/Auburn; TCU/Penn State; Washington/Miami.
16 games is a lot, and for this reason, we favor starting the tournament on Thanksgiving weekend, eight games Friday, eight games Saturday and whoa Nelly, if you don’t think this would make Thanksgiving weekend an instant classic you are high, legally in some states. Starting the tournmanet on Thanksgiving weekend would allow two weeks between the semifinals and championship game, which is probably better than one week, especially if one team has to cross the country for both games.
OTOH: Starting the following week would mean the season could start a week later.
Either way, an NCAA major division football playoff would become an American classic quicker than you can say “Nick Saban”. As we’ve said before, on January 2nd we would all be dumbstruck at how great the experience was and wondering why we haven’t had a playoff for decades.
ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE!: Francois Grimaldi, disguised as a monk seeking shelter, and some comrades overtake the fortress on the Rock of Monaco on this date in 1297. The Genoese he took it from would shoo him away four years later, thought the fortress was later recaptured by his cousin Ranier I, from whom the current Grimaldi’s are descended from.
The Grimaldi’s have been undisputed rulers of Monaco since 1419 when they purchased the rest of the country from the Crown of Aragon and despite the fact the country could probably be overrun by a particularly well-led troupe of Boy Scouts, the Grimaldi’s continue to rule the country.
“Shall From Time To TIme Give To The Congress Information On The State Of The Union:”: President George Washington gives the first State of the Union Address to Congress on this date in 1790. Speaking in the Senate Chamber of Federal Hall in New York City, Washington talked about peace, immigration and – important for a new country – weights and measures, plus the promotion of science and literature because:
Knowledge in every country is the surest basis of public happiness.
LOL: Reading the address, and considering the fiasco our government is today, it’s difficult to believe Washington is actually talking to an American Congress, with Washington advising the senators and representatives the coming session will:
…call for the cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness and wisdom.
Running The Numbers: Washington’s speech checked in at 1,089 words a bit longer than this column and still the shortest State of the Union address. Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of giving the address in person, and written messages were the rule until Woodrow Wilson resumed the practice of giving a speech, amid some controversy, in 1913
Full Speed Ahead, Goddammit: The USS San Francisco (SSN 711), a US Navy nuclear submarine, runs into an undersea mountain about 360 nautical miles southeast of Guam.
As usual, when a naval vessel hits something or runs aground, the Navy found that someone did not do what they were supposed to do, specifically that assorted navigational and voyage planning procedures weren’t used. For example, the undersea mountain was not shown on the charts in use at the time of the accident, though there were charts available that did show the area was of uncertain safety for an undersea voyage.
Quotebook: To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. – George Washington, State of the Union message, 1/7/1790
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The first championship held by the NCAA was the 1921 Track and Field Championships.
Today’s Stumper: Which president of the United States delivered the longest State of the Union message? – Answer next time!
