The Daily Dose/December 9, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
In The News
As we point out from time to time, a 32-team NCAA Division I football playoff could have begun this year on December 1 and have the national championship game – the national championship game! – on New Year’s Day the last day, let’s be honest, anyone really cares about college football.
At first glance, it might seem that with a 12-game season, a bye week and conference championship games the season would have to start on the 4th of July, but some research shows this is hardly the case.
With a December 1 start date, the regular season would have to end on November 17, with conference championship games on November 24. With twelve games and a bye week, teams would have been obliged to kick off their seasons no later than August 25, only four days earlier than when the season actually started, which is not unreasonable.
There is no argument against an NCAA sanctioned playoff except greed, which is funny because a 32-team NCAA Division I Football Playoff would be a license to print money, don’t kid yourself. Had this system been in place this year, we would all be looking forward to this weekend’s national quarterfinals, instead of the five bowl games scheduled, each of which is a meaningless exhibition.
The NCAA can sort out the details of the tournament: qualifiers, sites and whatnot. They do this well, including football, where they run three tournaments for smaller schools. Despite the fact the NCAA is sometimes pimp, whore and john, usually at the same time, they do a very good job of putting on championships.
A 32-team tournament ends all arguments. Is there a reason Ohio State, Central Florida and Washington should not have competed for the national title? Of course there isn’t, they’re fine teams. Should the champions of the smaller Division I conferences have a chance? Indeed they should.
Your aunt in Leadville knows an NCAA sanctioned major division football playoff will become an American classic quicker than you can say “strength of schedule” and we’ll all be scratching our heads wondering why we tolerated the Bluebonnet and Boca Raton bowls for so many years. But we will keep getting the four-team Nick Saban Invitational until we start demanding better.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow conducts his first sock audit with his new colored socks, and it’s the Hotel C Christmas party at a pretty fancy place downtown.
Recall yesterday we chatted about me witlessly trying to coordinate socks that didn’t match, so today, with laundry freshly done, I made an effort to find all four pairs of colored socks I own
On This Date
In 1960 – Coronation Street debuts on British television. It is still on the air, over 9,600 episodes later, the longest running soap opera in television history. It currently airs six episodes per week, two each on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and averages about 8 million viewers per episode. One actor, William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow, has been on the show since the beginning.
In 1935 – The Heisman Trophy – then known as the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy – is awarded for the first time, to Jay Berwanger, a halfback with the University of Chicago, then a major college program and a member of the Big Ten Conference. Berwanger could not agree on a contract with the Chicago Bears and never played professional football, and his Heisman Trophy is on display at the University of Chicago Athletic Hall of Fame.
In 1989 – Billy Joel is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with We Didn’t Start the Fire. The song would spend two weeks at #1 and was Joel’s third and final #1 song on the Hot 100. Joel wrote the song and co-produced it with Foreigner founder Mick Jones. The album Storm Front also went to #1 on Billboard’s album chart.
Quotebook
Action must be guided by both intellect and experience. We learn…but we must also test what we learn in the world. It is not enough to simply meditate.
Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The Mount Union Purple Raiders are the defending NCAA Division III football champions.
Today’s Stumper
Besides the University of Chicago, what other schools that no longer play major division college football have produced Heisman Trophy winners? –Answer next time!
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