Visit America’s Funniest Guy on Facebook!
The silliness of the College Football Playoff
The Daily Dose/December 7, 2016
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
HUT, HUT HIKE: Good gravy this was silly, even by current American major college football standards. After three months of deciding things on the field, a group of humans – a group which includes a chick for some reason – voted on the four teams to be invited to participate in the College Football Playoff.
Good News: All four teams are deserving of the opportunity to play for the national title.
Bad News: Several other teams were, too. The champions of the Big Ten and Big 12 conferences were not invited, though Ohio State, a fine team who nonetheless didn’t qualify for the Big Ten title game much less play in it or win it, was invited.
Fly In The Ointment: We don’t understand this at all. The CFP selection committee thinks Ohio State is better than Penn State, but we know this isn’t true because Penn State beat Ohio State.
Now, we realize there are assorted variables in college football. Penn State had early season losses to Pitt and an ugly, blowout loss to Michigan, but they’ve won nine straight and won the Big Ten. Call us crazy, but we would’ve invited Penn State instead of Ohio State.
Roll Call: Penn State, USC, Oklahoma, Western Michigan, among others, all should’ve had an opportunity to compete for the national championship.
Dry, Technical Matter: Why the NCAA never got around to holding to holding a football playoff is not entirely known. The NCAA was formed in 1906 and conducted its first championship in 1915 (track and field), so there was certainly precedent. Up until the past generation or so college football was always a very regional sport and back then no one was really clamoring for a championship playoff. The AP began selecting national champions in 1935 and UPI began their poll in 1950 and by then there were enough bowl games entrenched so that the NCAA really couldn’t start one even if they wanted to.
Please Pass The Dry, Technical Matter: The NCAA divided into University and College divisions in 1956 and Divisions I, II and III in 1973, when it held its first football playoffs for their lower divisions.
WE THE PEOPLE: Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution on this date in 1787. The Constitution had been approved in Philadelphia by the Constitutional Convention in September to replace the Articles of Confederation. The new constitution would go into effect in 1789.
Get Out Your Conspiracy Theories: Japan attacks the United States naval installation at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii on this date in 1941. 2,400 Americans died in the attach, which led to America entering World War II a couple of days later.
FunFact: The attack yielded one Japanese prisoner, a naval officer named Kazuo Sakamaki. Ensign Sakamaki was assigned to small submarine that was part of the attack. His submarine was armed with a couple of torpedoes but assorted errors led to Sakamaki’s submarine running aground. The self-destruct charges didn’t work. Four other crew members died and Sakamaki ended up unconscious on the beach, where he was taken prisoner and shipped to the mainland where he was held prisoner.
3..2…1…Blastoff: Apollo 17, man’s final voyage to the moon, lifts off on this date in 1972. It would land on the moon on December 10 and Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt would conduct three moon walks over the course of three days. Apollo 17 would return to Earth on December 19.
Great Moments In Lethal Injection: Charles Brooks, Jr becomes the first American to be executed using lethal injection on this date in 1984. Brooks, who was black, and his accomplice Woody Loudres, who is white, had been convicted of murdering a car salesman.
FunFact: Loudres served eleven years of a 40-year sentence before being released on parole.
Thought For The Day: We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. – Albert Einstein
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Mount Union has won the most NCAA football playoff national championships, with 12.
Today’s Stumper: What was the first collegiate sporting event in the United States? – Answer next time!
