First off I must apologize to the Buckeye, and Illini, faithful as I said Ohio State lost to Wisconsin instead of Illinois.  Apparently I was thinking of my fallen Wolverines on the same weekend.

Anyway, hasn’t the BCS finally pointed out, once and for all, that it is a worthless championship system?  In this year of parity it has all come down to “What have you done for me lately?”  Any team that loses in November has a way less chance of making the championship than does a team that lost in mid September.

Who is the best team in college football today?  Is it Missouri?  West Virginia?  Ohio State?  Georgia?  LSU?  Virginia Tech?  USC?

 Depending on who you are a fan of and your location, it could be any of these teams.  Although LSU, Virginia Tech and USC might be playing the best now, they have no way of making the championship no matter what happens this weekend.

Is Big East West Virginia that good or is their strength of schedule that much below the SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten?

The only way to really know is to have a playoff.  I recommend eight teams.  Don’t tell me this is too many games.  If you have a regular season of 11 games, the most you could play, if you got to the championship game, is 14 games.  Guess what?  Missouri is going to play 14 games this year.  Twelve regular season, Big 12 Championship, and a bowl game.

Don’t tell me it’s too hard academically.  Division II and III teams have been doing this for years.  A good portion of the playoff time would be over winter break anyway.

A voting system is not fair when you’ve reached parity.  If there are not two outright best teams, then the championship is somewhat tainted.  Currently some conferences have championships and some do not.  Ohio State is always done the third weekend in November when they face Michigan.  If Missouri or West Virginia happens to lose this weekend, Ohio State will most likely be in the championship game on January 5.  Their last game was November 17.  What sense does this make?

I propose ending the regular season the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  No conference championship games.  Two weeks off for the eight teams that make the tournament.  Play the first two rounds then have two weeks off before the championship game, on New Years Day. 

Why has this not happened yet?  $$$$$$$$$$$  That’s right, it’s all about money.  None of the BCS bowls wants to be in the first round of the playoffs, lower revenue they figure.  This works for college basketball.  By the time you get down to the Sweet 16, those venues are generally sold out.  No reason football can’t do the same.  They can continue to rotate the bowls so that everyone get’s to host the National Championship Game.  They can also set up revenue sharing so when they host the first round games they aren’t hurt as much.  The NCAA can learn a lot from the NFL and their promotion of the Super Bowl.  College football could only benefit from having an undisputed national champion each year.

BMoney

What another wonderful weekend in college football.  Both the AP #1 and #2 teams fall AGAIN!!  It has been an incredible year. 

We have had five different #1’s this year and 8 different #2’s.  The preseason poll had USC #1 and LSU #2.  That lasted through week 5 when LSU leapfrogged USC even though USC didn’t lose.  They did the next week though and Cal replaced USC at #2.  That lasted for a week before both LSU and Cal lost allowing Ohio St. to take over the #1 spot and the highly overrated South Florida Bulls to become #2. 

The following week the Bulls were defeated and replaced at #2 by the BCU Eagles.  Rankings remained that way for two weeks when BCU lost and was replaced by LSU, back where they started the year.  The next week, Wisconsin takes OSU down and LSU moves up to #1 and Oregon jumps to #2.  They definitely looked like the best two teams at the time, but oooops, Dixon goes down for the Ducks and they fall being replaced by Kansas heading into this past weekends games.

Like a normal day at the DMV, it was hard work for these teams to get to the front of the line and then not much customer service once they were there.  Arkansas took down LSU 50-48 in a defensive struggle (not).  Also in the battle of the Big 12 North, Missouri beat down Kansas 36-28 to take over the #1 spot with the Mountaineers of West Virginia sneaking into the 2nd spot.

Now we come down to this.  The #1 Tigers will take on the Oklahoma Sooners for the Big 12 Championship.  Oklahoma is the only team to beat the Tigers as they did so 41-31 in Norman.  Both teams have greatly improved since that meeting.  I have to go with experience and history in this one and take the Sooners over the Tigers, again.

In the other matchup we see WVU hosting Pitt.  Should be a cake walk for the Mountaineers, right?  Normally I would agree, but in 13 weeks we’ve had 8 different #2’s.  I guess if either Missouri or WVU lose, we’ll most likely have our 9th.  I would like to think Coach Rodriguez can keep his Mountaineers focused, but this is a prime opportunity for an upset.  It’s still one week too early to be ranked #1 or #2.  I’ll take the Panthers.

So, if both these upsets happen, then what?  Well, #’s 3 and 4 in the BCS are Ohio State and Georgia.  Both are idle until their bowl game so you would have to imagine they would both move up unless Virginia Tech put a huge beat down on Boston College or LSU throttles Tennessee. 

Watch the action Saturday and we’ll see how the dice roll, I know the Buckeyes and Bulldogs will be.

 BMoney

 

Rapid City Stevens shrugged off an 0-2 start to undefeated Pierre, then won three straight games to earn their first state Class AA volleyball championship since 1992 Saturday night at the Sioux Falls Arena.

The scores were 24-26, 14-25, 25-13, 25-15, 16-14.

Senior Brooke Warne and junior Kelly Herrmann scored the last two points in the fifth game to halt a 5-0 Pierre run.

Stevens was at match point leading 14-9 before the Lady Gov’s charged back 

The Raiders finish at 29-11 for first year coach Josh Lien.

Pierre suffers its first loss in 25 games dating back to the first round of last year’s State AA tournament. The Lady Gov’s end the season at 23-1.  

Harrisburg came from behind to take Game 5, 15-12 against St. Thomas More to take third-place in the Class A Girls Volleyball tournament in Sioux Falls Saturday morning.

 

Harrisburg sent the third-place A match into a fifth game with a 25-15 win in Game 4. The game is just underway at the Sioux Falls arena. With a break in the action, St. Thomas More leads 12-10 in the final game.

St. Thomas More is in game 4 of its match with Harrisburg at the Sioux Falls Arena. Harrisburg took the first game 25-11. St. Thomas More battled back to take games 2 and 3 with scores of 25-18 and 25-17. Harrisburg leads 5-4 in game 4. The two teams are playing for third place in Class A.

 

Rapid City Stevens and Pierre will play for the State AA Volleyball championship Saturday in Sioux Falls. The Raiders and Lady Govs advanced in action Friday. Stevens downed Washington 3-0. It took Pierre five games to get past Roosevelt.

 

With a trip the to Class “A” championship game on the line, St. Thomas More couldn’t gain an edge on Number 1 ranked Milbank.

The top-ranked Bulldogs showed why they’re the defending Class A champions by sweeping St. Thomas More 25-17, 25-18, 25-16 in the championship semifinals Friday night at the Sioux Falls Arena.

Philip finally got their “A” game clicking to resurrect 7th place in the state Class B volleyball tournament with a 3-1 win over Woonsocket Friday afternoon at the Sioux Falls Arena.  Also winning seventh place trophies were Yankton over Huron (AA) and Sisseton over Platte-Geddes (A). 

In the Class B consolation semifinal round Harding County took a 3-0 win over Philip in their match Friday morning at the Sioux Falls Arena. The Ranchers advanced to Saturday’s consolation championship with a 25-21, 25-21, 26-25 sweep of the Scotties.