The most exciting sport in the country ends its season over the
weekend. But college football doesn’t end ’til January
you say? And college basketball doesn’t start ’til
November?
Major League Baseball’s 162-game action-packed season is
much more exciting than any college sport for many reasons.
In baseball, there are no polls, no selection committees, no
computer rankings, and there isn’t a BCS. Teams qualify for
the playoffs strictly on their win-loss record.
As simple as it may seem, this isn’t the case in college
sports. Last year, Butler went 25-5; only eight out of 316 Division
I teams can say they had a better record. Still, in a 65-team
tournament, Butler didn’t get in.
The NCAA selection committee would probably say this is because
the Bulldogs had a weak strength of schedule or a very low Ratings
Percentage Index, or they didn’t win their mid-major
conference tournament.
Conference tournaments are another big problem I have with
college basketball. Basically, a team can go 0-27, win its
conference tournament, and make the postseason, leaving a team like
Butler out. Conference tournaments make the season useless.
Also, in major conferences, teams can be rewarded for playing
mediocre basketball and still qualify for the postseason like
Missouri (9-7 in the Big 12).
In college football, half of the teams are eliminated before the
season even starts.
The way the BCS is set up, the 57 of 117 teams not in the six
BCS conferences will never qualify for the national championship
game. Just look at Brigham Young last year. With two weeks left in
the season, they were 11-0 but ranked No. 12 in the BCS. The
Cougars’ conference, the Mountain West, isn’t that bad
and was rated seventh out of the 11 conferences last year, only
slightly behind the Big East in some publications. Still, BYU got
no respect.
Even for the teams that have a chance to win the national
championship, two losses and they are eliminated. No team has ever
lost two games and won the national championship. Halfway through
the season, only a handful out of 117 teams will still have a
chance for the national championship.
In baseball, half of the teams in the league can have hopes of
going to the playoffs for most of the season. Not all of them like
in college basketball, and not just a few like in college
football.
As late as mid-August, 11 of the 16 National League teams were
within six games of the playoffs. This in a sport where teams have
to earn their playoff berths, as only eight of 30 teams make it to
the playoffs.
Baseball even has parity now. The Minnesota Twins and Oakland
Athletics are third to last and fourth to last in payroll in the
major leagues. Statistically speaking, the Expos, second to last in
payroll, were still contenders in August.
Lastly and more importantly, baseball playoff races are on
display daily. Teams play 162 games in 179 days, and momentum can
switch daily.
…
Why is Bob Toledo trying to be like me all of a sudden? Does he
not know I am the real Stat Geek?
For the first seven minutes of his press conference on Monday,
Toledo rambled on and on, repeating stat after stat. He mentioned
everything from the abnormality of the number of Colorado plays per
drive (13 instead of 11). Then he rattled off stats like the Bruins
gained 2.7 yards on second down; 73 percent of the time the
Buffaloes rushed, they gained at least four yards; and the Bruins
had seven penalties to Colorado’s four.
Some of the stats Toledo forgot to mention were the Bruins lost
to an unranked team by fourteen points, and Colorado had 325
rushing yards. Those need to be fixed first.