1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but …
Since we’re a reactionary world and this is a reactionary moment, it’s time to let loose with a cannon of common sense that might just change the way we look at college football.
It’s time for a college football commissioner.
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As much as it pains me to admit this perfectly imperfect sport must move closer to the look and feel of the cold, antiseptic NFL, it’s the only way to save it from itself.
“Getting everyone on the same page for anything isn’t exactly the easiest thing,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “In that sense, maybe we should be more like (the NFL).”
Or at the very least, a sport with a centralized, one-voice decision maker.
Two incidents this past weekend moved the issue of a commissioner, a position that would rule without input or pressure from the 10 FBS conferences but in conjunction with the NCAA’s mission statement, front and center. Two wildly controversial incidents sure to provoke heated discourse and discussion, but two that no longer can avoid the disciplined and designed hand of leadership: player behavior and instant replay.
No matter what you think of how the Miami-Duke game ended; no matter how you feel about the way Ohio State coach Urban Meyer handled punishment for star quarterback JT Barrett drinking and driving, the reality that we currently live in a college football world where there are 11 different FBS opinions (including Notre Dame) that matter is utterly preposterous.
“And every one of those (opinions),” one Power 5 athletic director told me this week, “wants to be heard.”
Look, if we’re at the point where the NCAA has given its blessing (by threat, no less) to Power 5 conferences governing themselves, certainly those intelligent, insightful commissioners leading those conferences can see its in the best interest of everyone involved that every single team be governed by the same rules regarding the two biggest issues facing the sport on the field (instant replay) and off it (player behavior).
Come up with a centralized replay system, one that has a group of national officials who aren’t tied to conferences and are governed and graded by one director who reports to the CFB commissioner. Have a specific list of what is reviewable and what isn’t, and make sure every coach is clear on all ground rules.
Finally, have a command center where, in case of extreme emergency, the head of officials can be on the phone with the replay official and make the correct call.
“If we have the technology,” says Duke coach David Cutcliffe, “I can’t understand why we don’t use it.”
Once the play on the field is clear and concise, we’ll move to the more pressing issue off the field. Dealing with player behavior isn’t splitting atoms; it’s no different than raising children.
If you do X, then Y happens. There are choices, and everyone will deal with the consequences of those choices.
The new commissioner, in conjunction with the 10 FBS commissioners, will build a system of appropriate responses for player behavior, setting specific ground rules — and specific punishment for breaking those rules — so there’s no gray area when meting out discipline. The idea, more than anything, is to make the playing field as even as possible — with everyone dealing with the same rules and same consequences of breaking those rules.
So when JT Barrett is drinking and driving, Urban Meyer isn’t pulling a scholarship for a specific time period — and hinting that Barrett can earn back the scholarship, anyway. So when Jeremy Hill punches someone in the head outside a Baton Rouge bar, Les Miles doesn’t decide that his team will vote on discipline.
Any extenuating circumstance goes to the commissioner’s office. The 10 FBS conference commissioners and the Notre Dame athletic director select (or retain) a commissioner every four years.
If these brilliant conference commissioners and university presidents can figure out how to negotiate billion dollar television deals; if they can figure out how to share the money with players without going to court every other year, surely they can get together to hash out something as critical as saving the game from itself.
2. Lord of the idiots
That’s right, I said Georgia Tech would be a sleeper pick for the College Football Playoff.
I’m your man in Vegas, baby.
3. Double the good
As good as Leonard Fournette has been this fall, his performance on the field has done something few could have imagined of it.
LSU’s sophomore tailback has all but eliminated any conversation about the greatest individual award in all of sports.
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For two months there has been no debate about the Heisman Trophy race, no early or midseason drama. All that can end with one game, one mega SEC matchup of two top four teams in the first College Football Playoff poll — and two players who can change the way Heisman voters think about the award over the final month of the season.
What could be worse than a loss to Alabama for LSU? Fournette losing his lock on the Heisman to Tide tailback Derrick Henry.
The numbers are close between Fournette (1,352 yards, 15 TDs) and Henry (1,044 yards, 14 TDs), as is their critical importance since both were woefully underused in 2014. The workload increase this fall is eerily similar.
Fournette went from 14 carries a game in 2014 to 25 carries a game this season (+11), and already has more yards and touchdowns with as many as seven games remaining.
Henry went from 12 carries a game to 23 (+11), already has more yards and touchdowns than 2014 with as many as seven games remaining.
4. November to Remember
The man who cost the Big 12 a spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff might just be the same guy who guarantees a spot this time around.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, whose refusal to name a conference champion at the end of last season allowed the CFP to jump Ohio State ahead of both Baylor and TCU, responded with a genius plan this offseason to make it all right again.
BENDER: 25 best games in November
Because the Big 12 doesn’t play a conference championship game and doesn’t get the benefits of winning a big game on the last weekend of the season, Bowlsby decided the entire last month of the season would showcase the league in 2015. As fate would have it, the Big 12 enters November with three unbeaten teams (Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State) and four teams (including Oklahoma) with legitimate CFP hopes.
Over the next three weeks, the Big 12 has six mega games that begin Saturday with TCU playing at Oklahoma State, and finish Thanksgiving weekend with Baylor at TCU and Oklahoma at Oklahoma State. If any of the three unbeatens win out, they’re a lock for the CFP.
Oklahoma will need this best-case scenario: Oklahoma State beats TCU, OU beats Baylor, OU beats TCU, Oklahoma State beats Baylor, OU beats unbeaten Oklahoma State.
Then again, they could all cancel out each other and Bowlsby would have another spectacular mess on his hands.
5. The Weekly Five
Five responses to the officiating debacle in the Miami-Duke game that the ACC debated but eventually discarded:
1. Give Duke one of Georgia Tech’s wins. The Yellow Jackets haven’t cared since January, anyway.
2. Hire a plane to fly over Sun Life Stadium: “Al Golden is more competent than our officials.”
3. Throw another flag on Miami for pass interference in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl.
4. Free tickets to any Wake Forest home game for each Duke player and 100 of his closest friends. For life.
5. Three words: Atlantic Krzyzewski Conference.
6. Who do you love?
Ohio State was No. 16 in the first ever CFP poll, and by the first week of December, had moved all the way to No. 4 with the opportunity to play big, bad Alabama in a national semifinal.
Take heart, Florida State, this year’s No. 16. There is hope. How those in the double digits reach one of the coveted four spots by December:
ANALYSIS: The undefeated teams | The one-loss teams
No. 10 Florida
Remaining games: Vanderbilt, at South Carolina, FAU, Florida State, SEC Championship Game.
The Road to 4: Win out, and they’re in – without help from anyone. The Gators would be the highest-rated one-loss team.
Odds of making it: 30-1.
No. 11 Stanford
Remaining games: at Colorado, Oregon, California, Notre Dame, Pac-12 Championship.
The Road to 4: Potholes everywhere. The last three games will be brutal — and all losable. Even if the Cardinal win out, they’re not jumping Florida if it wins out — especially if the Gators beat unbeaten LSU or one-loss Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.
Odds of making it: 50-1.
No. 12 Utah
Remaining games: at Washington, at Arizona, UCLA, Colorado.
The Road to 4: If the Utes can beat suddenly hot Washington on Saturday, the rest of the regular season is manageable. The next step: playing one-loss Stanford in the Pac-12 Championship Game and winning convincingly. Even then, they’ll need implosion in the Big Ten, SEC or Big 12 to get there.
Odds of making it: 75-1.
No. 13 Memphis
Remaining games: Navy, at Houston, at Temple, SMU.
The Road to 4: Complete anarchy and destruction (see: 2007), AND Ole Miss wins the SEC.
Odds of making it: 500-1.
No. 14 Oklahoma State
Remaining games: TCU, at Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma.
The Road to 4: Win out and the Cowboys are in. Anything else, and forget it. Have a fun month, Cowboys season ticket holders.
Odds of making it: 40-1.
No. 15 Oklahoma
Remaining games: Iowa State, at Baylor, TCU, at Oklahoma State.
The Road to 4: There’s a way if it all plays out just right, and there are two or less unbeatens. Of course, that scenario includes winning three big games — and OU hasn’t won one yet this fall.
Odds of making it: 60-1.
No. 16 FSU
The Road to 4: Not as tough as you’d think. A win over No. 1 Clemson this week vaults the ‘Noles to the top one-loss team (especially considering the fluke loss to Georgia Tech). Another win over one-loss Florida and in the ACC Championship Game (one-loss UNC?) gets FSU there as long as there are two or less unbeatens.
7. Finding a home
By the end of November, by the time Justin Fuente has Memphis on the cusp of the CFP, he’ll have his choice of prime coaching jobs. The only question: where does he go?
An industry source said earlier this week that the looming fight for Fuente reminds him of the mid-2000s, when “everyone wanted a hot coach named Meyer.”
A look at the possibilities:
— If they’re open (ranked best to last)
Texas (if Charlie Strong leaves for Miami), Notre Dame (if Brian Kelly leaves for the NFL), Georgia (if Mark Richt retires).
— Open now (ranked best to last)
USC (best job available), Virginia Tech (recruiting footprint, ability to win immediately), South Carolina (money, support, infrastructure in place to win).
Any other job — of the current openings — isn’t appealing enough to leave Memphis.
8. Power Hawk
Ladies and gentlemen, yet another way the CFP is just like the BCS: the curious case of Iowa.
The first CFP poll comes out, and a team that has an unbeaten record against seven teams with a combined record of 29-28 (their eight win is vs. an FCS team) is your No. 9 team in the nation.
Why, you ask? Because voters — that’s right, even CFP selection committee voters — love the unbeaten. No matter how worthy.
Iowa doesn’t play Ohio State. Iowa doesn’t play Michigan State. Or Michigan, or Penn State.
Yet there are the unbeaten Hawkeyes, with a rout of Northwestern as their shining example of all things CFP-worthy, sitting at No. 9 in the only poll that matters and waiting for everyone in front of them to play significant games that will dictate a season.
While they play at Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue, at Nebraska — and their 13-20 combined record — to finish the month of November.
Iowa could win out, beat the Big Ten East Division champion (Ohio State, Michigan State or Michigan) and still not be worthy of a CFP spot.
9. Overlooked but not forgotten
We were inundated this summer about the talk of Will Muschamp and John Chavis, two elite defensive coordinators who would spark change in two desperate SEC programs.
Meanwhile, we all overlooked the one critical defensive coordinator hire than saved a coach’s job (Larry Fedora, UNC), and might be the perfect springboard for Gene Chizik to return to the SEC as a head coach.
A year ago, North Carolina was 120th out of 128 teams in total defense (497 yards per game); this fall, the Tar Heels are 43rd (358 ypg.).
A year ago, North Carolina was 119th in scoring defense (39 points per game); this fall, the Tar Heels are 16th (17 ppg.).
A year ago, North Carolina was even in turnover ratio; this fall, the Tar Heels are plus-5.
Now, the payoff: Chizik, a fantastic recruiter while at Auburn (where, in case you forgot, he won a national title), is high on the list of candidates for the South Carolina job, and there are big-money boosters at UCF who will make a play to bring him back to Central Florida, where he was an assistant from 1998-2001.
Chizik, who was out of coaching before agreeing last offseason to coach the defense for Fedora, is reminding those in the industry why he was such a hot candidate in the early 2000s as DC at Auburn and Texas.
“Somehow in this business, you are remembered for the bad more than the good,” said one Power 5 athletic director. “You’ve got a guy in his early 50s who knows how to reach and recruit young men. And the guy won the big one. What’s not to like?”
10. Kelly’s awkward moment
If there were a CFB commissioner, Brian Kelly’s excuse of, “I backed him up out of the way” wouldn’t hold water.
Just like it wouldn’t have if Notre Dame had lost to Temple.
Winning, everyone, soothes all.