BLSays: Playoffs... Payoffs... and other Lost Causes

Playoffs… Payoffs… and Other Lost Causes

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“… I shall fight no more forever.”

Chief Joseph of The Nez Perce – 1877

My decision to formally end two long-standing personal crusades is not quite on the level of Chief Joseph’s surrender in 1877.

Did Chief Joseph really say his “…. fight no more forever” line? Did Dean Smith really immortalize 9,000,000,000 Chinese? Did Charles Shackleford really say “…. amphibious”?

These two BobLee Crusades being deep-sixed today are … (1) Keep the college football playoffs to four teams … & (2) Should “student-athletes” be paid?

NOTE #1: Philosophically, I still do NOT believe “student-athletes” should be paid in $$$. Bartering a LEGITIMATE College Education for their athletic prowess is a square deal.

But the number of legitimate “student-athletes” in FB / MBB in Power5 World is now fewer than the number of AMC Pacers still operating across The Fruited Plain.

The other 97+% of participants in Big Time College FB / MBB are trading their “sweat acumen”‘ in exchange for (1) showcasing their talents on a high profile stage and… (2) enjoying the carnal pleasures of being “campus gods”. Not to belittle the values of either benefit.

Sham “Eligibility Majors” have zero intellectual nutritional value. If THAT is all an athlete receives for his labour, he IS being cheated by “The System”..

For me to pursue either doomed crusade is to become King Canute standing on the shore and demanding the tide roll back. It ain’t agonna happen…

College Football Playoffs… My albeit shallow reasoning for ever believing “four is enough” was based on the silly reason that expanding any playoff system would interfere with academic calendars. Most colleges have Fall Semester exams in early/mid December. Even typing that out in 2018 is laughable.

It’s 2018. Academics & Athletics are mutually exclusive concepts. Every bit as terminally disconnected as “onions and ice cream”.

Fewer and fewer legitimate students are even attending games these days and alumni / WalMart fans certainly don’t care about any “academic conflict”. As far as the faux-student “players”, they certainly don’t care.

Whens the last time you read about any FB/ MBB player being “academically-ineligible”? Not recently. What “teaching assistant has the courage to keep “a campus god” out of a game? … Coaches don’t care… more games = more “bonuses” for them.

Expanding to Eight is probably the perfect number… which means “16” or “32” is inevitable.

Each “Eight” to include one “Cinderella” … or maybe not. Always having “a UCF” to whine and complain about being excluded is “Soooo New Millenium America”.

High Schools playoffs currently extend the winning schools’ seasons to 15-16 games. Colleges’ Who Cares Divisions also play 3-4-5 level playoffs which only effect schools like Mount Union and Wheaton and Multi-directional colleges in Idaho, Montana and New Mexico.

If Alabama, Clemson et al play 16-17 games, it’s not like anyone involved in those programs have any higher priority to be concerned with.

Details like the future of conference championship games (The Swoffy Bowl etc) and when/where early rounds will be played can be resolved in a ten-minute conference call among Power5 Suits… and subsequently debated to a fare-thee-well by board monkeys and ESPN screamers.

ERGO… Expand The Big Time College Football Playoffs to Eight teams effective next season. Yes… “They” can do it that easily.

… and then let the Expand to 16 Debate begin… sigh.

Pay Big Time College FB / MBB Players… this issue DOES get the attention of more folks than “expand the playoffs” does. But fewer and fewer of such dissenters are people whose opinions matter. College FB / MBB will be “paid” eventually and the resultant “hues and cries” will last about 2-3 weeks at most.

TV executives don’t care… and 99% of current / potential TV sports viewers don’t care “how much the athletes get paid” or “where the $$$ comes from to pay them”.

So long as the TV $$$ are distributed equally to all member institutions, the schools that hardly ever win and play to lots of empty seats don’t care either.

Silly questions about Title IX and “should a transgender fencer be paid as much as a 2nd string deep-snapper” make fascinating board monkey cud to chew on; but will be resolved almost as quickly as The UNC BOG rejected “Folt’s Folly” about The Silent Sam Mausoleum & Oyster Bar. FYI: The record time for that unanimous rejection was 32 seconds.

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SURPRISE SURPRISE: I have an incredibly simple plan for “Paying Big Time College FB / MBB Players”. As simple as My Plan for Silent Sam. Having incredibly simple resolutions to faux-complex issues is how Legends become Legends.

Each incoming BTColl FB / MBB youngster declares if he wants to be… “Just an athlete” or “a Student-Athlete”. He can change his designation at any time but will be either one or the other.

“Student-Athletes” will receive what they currently are supposed to receive. IOW… “a legitimate (?) college education experience” in exchange for their athletic services…. tuition, room, board, fees, et al. Youngsters choosing this option will value “a college education” and pursue a curriculum with a perceived post-graduate / post-athletics market value.

A “Just an Athlete” will be PAID agreed upon $$$ and will forego the hassles of “going to class” and “studying anything other than a playbook”.

“Just an Athlete” and “Student-Athletes” WILL both be permitted to roam freely about campus trolling for winsome coeds with overly curious ethno-erotic fantasies.

The $$$ amount “Just an Athlete” receives must be an across-the-board amount… NOT based on a school’s tuition costs. Otherwise a “Just an Athlete” choosing not to be a real-student at Duke, Stanford, etc. would receive considerably more $$$ than an in-state athlete choosing to be “Just an Athlete” at State, UNC, etc.

I propose a $30-40,000 set-amount but I don’t really care what the amount is… and neither do you.

Fans in the stands / watching on TV don’t care if the youngsters wearing their school’s uniforms are “Student Athletes” or “Just Athletes” or have outstanding warrants or…

Alls they care about if that whoever is in their school’s uniform beat the crap outta the other team so they can brag about it.

If teams switched uniforms at half-time … would YOU even notice the difference? You are cheering for a piece of cloth on their back.

The Boosters Clubs staffs don’t care. They will send $$$ to the school’s business office OR to the “Just Athlete”. Makes no matter to them.

Any other “BobLee, BobLee What About…” that you can bring up about “paying college athletes”… I can solve in less than 100 words. Try me.

If you didn’t see the petition / letter whatever that “a bunch of former UNC athletes” signed about Silent Sam, you really should read it regardless of your level of interest in SSam.

Former UNC (AfAm) Athletes on Silent Sam PLUS … LINK …

ANYTHING that includes the name of UNC’s infamous Makhtar N’Diaye is Yeee Haa-worthy. Right?

I didn’t find PJ Hairston’s name or “the youngster who was selling dope while living in Roy’s house” or “Rashad'”; but maybe I missed’em.

Sounds like “they” finally figured out my Gladiators versus Spectators analogy. DUH…

Note: A line I heard some years ago about The Lower Level FatCats in Dean’s Dome. They only had two requests from Dean (and/or Roy)…

(1) Beat Duke most of the time … (2) Keep your boys away from my wife / daughters / granddaughters. … UH OH.

Every time the camera pans “the Lower Level” I think about that second request and laugh… Diversity – UNCCH (and Duke)-style.

Their petition / letter sorta kinda threatens some sort of aggressive action against UNCCH for its decades of mistreatment (??) of UNCCH’s African-Americans especially AfAm athletes. It sounds eerily like what happened at Univ Missouri several years ago. THAT was and still is a total trainwreck for everyone involved.

IF that sort of OMG happens at UNC (and it easily could)… I won’t have to worry about what to write about for several months.

Who would stop a Black Lives Matter Mob from “taking over” UNCCH? Chancellor Chihuahua and her clueless Trustees? LOLOLOLOL….

Probably the most worthwhile 18 minutes of your day. If you don’t agree, we probably don’t agree on other stuff either. NOTE: Watch on as large a screen as possible… NOT on a phone screen…