Dave from Carter-Finley

The Wiz of Odds is currently running a series on bowl expense reports.  There’s a lot of interesting info there so if you have some free time head over there and check it out.  This isn’t the first time the corrupt bowl system has come under fire.  The book Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series by Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter, and Jeff Passan (a must read for all college football fans) has a lot of the same and even more incriminating info on the BCS.  Everybody, except the people that make the decisions, agree that the BCS sucks so can we get a playoff already?

Today the expense reports from the Champs Sports Bowl were released.  Here’s NC State’s:

What sticks out there is only 247 total absorbed tickets (out of a 15,500 allotment) at a cost of $4,014.  That’s pretty darn good!  Compare that to West Virginia with 7,800 total absorbed tickets (out of a 12,500 allotment) at a cost of $507,000.  Damn!  And that doesn’t even put West Virginia in the top 5 for highest absorbed ticket costs of all 2010-2011 bowl teams (see the chart below courtesy of The Wiz of Odds).  What a traveshamockery!

Of course none of this really matters because we’re stuck with the BCS for better or for worse … definitely for worse.  The bowl committees never want things to change because they are absolutely rolling in the money (see John Junker and the Fiesta Bowl).  As for University Presidents and Athletic Directors, with the way the economy is in the shitter you would think they would finally stand up and say enough is enough.  You would think.  It might take politicians getting involved for common sense to take charge.  What a scary thought.

The Wolfpack’s bowl destination has been made official.  We will be taking on the #22 West Virginia Mountaineers in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando Florida on December 28th at 6:30 p.m.  The Mountaineers were arguably the Big East’s best team this year.  They didn’t get the Big East’s BCS bid because they finished in a tie with UConn and the Huskies beat them so they won the tiebreaker.

Bowl games are always hard to predict because you never know who is motivated to play a good game and who is just there to celebrate a good season.  Both the Pack and the Mountaineers are coming into this game with a lot of disappointment, with the Pack losing to Maryland thus not making the ACC Championship Game and the Mountaineers not making a BCS Bowl, so it will be very interesting to see how each team responds.  I expect a very tough game from the Mountaineers and their #2 ranked scoring defense.  I haven’t seen a Vegas line anywhere yet, but I expect us to be an underdog in the 3-7 point range.  [Edit: The line opened at WVU -2 and has already moved up to 2.5 at several books.  I would guess that it'll jump around a little over the next 3 weeks, but barring any injuries will close around WVU -4.] If nothing else I know a lot of Mountaineer fans, including my next door neighbor, so this will be a fun match-up.  I may have to make a few friendly wagers.  We shall see.

I’ll take a closer look at the Mountaineers and the NC State-West Virginia series as we get closer to the game so continue to check back.  Also, I’m gonna try to put together some other fun bowl stuff (e.g. bowl itinerary, bowl swag, past bowl trip stories, bowl predictions, etc.).  All I know is it sure feels better this year planning for a bowl trip than last year when we spent the Bowl Season at home.  There really is no reason why we shouldn’t be in a bowl almost every year so hopefully this becomes the norm.

March Madness starts tomorrow and all I can think about is why can’t we have this same excitement about college football?  Well it’s because … the BCS = Epic Fail.  I’m not really down with all the internet lingo, but I think that’s how the kids are saying it these days.  Actually I think it’s way more cool to say … the BCS “pwns” the NCAA.  That one still seems really lame to me and, for all you normal people out there, that is not a typo (although it started out that way and became its own word).  Anyway, I digress.  The point is the BCS system is a sucky way to determine the national champion.

The opinions of how to change it are like … uhm, let’s go with belly buttons … everybody’s got one.  You have the BCS plus-one format, another tier-based BCS plus-one, a 12-team playoff, a 16-team playoff called the Wetzel Plan (similar to Joe Rozsa’s plan), a 24-team playoff, and on and on and on.  Even our country’s fearless leader has an 8-team playoff in mind even though he hasn’t really given us any details about it.  Shocking, I know!

So now it comes to me.  I’m not a college football expert by any means, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  That was not funny at all and I’m not even getting paid for that plug.  Oh well, moving on.  I’ve read most of the proposals out there and I’ve thought about this a lot “dating back” (ding … inside joke) to 2002 when NC State was ranked 10th in the AP poll and 9th in the BCS standings.  Not that I think NC State can ever realistically win a national championship, but under the current BCS system we will never even get that chance.  I did a presentation on this very topic in my Public Speaking class back in 2002 during the week leading up to the Georgia Tech game.  Sorry!  Don’t blame me!

Because the BCS is so skewed towards the big name programs, even if NC State had remained unbeaten in 2002 we would not have played for the national championship.  Looking at some of those big programs; Ohio State, Texas, Southern Cal, LSU, Florida, Miami, Oklahoma, and Florida State have all appeared in multiple BCS title games and comprise 20 of the 24 total spots in the twelve year history of the game.  That would be like skipping the whole March Madness Tournament and making the Final Four consist of some grouping of Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, Michigan St., UCLA, and UConn every year.  Blasphemy, I say!

Ok, I’ve rambled on enough already so … drum roll please!  I humbly present the DFCF Plan:

• Conference Alignment – All the big six (a.k.a. BCS) conferences should expand to at least 12 teams.  I don’t know or ultimately care who the Big Ten, Pac-10, or Big East would want, although it seems like we could be finding out soon what the Big Ten and Pac-10 have in mind.  Both have begun exploring their expansion opportunities.  I do have my dream conference alignments, but that’s for another post … maybe later this week.
• Schedule – The regular season schedule should be cut back to 11 games consisting of 8 conference and 3 non conference games with no games against D1AA teams allowed (with this plan the terms FBS and FCS would thankfully become obsolete).  I’m pretty sure that huge cheer you just heard was coming from Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Other than that, who’s really going to miss Florida vs. Charleston Southern or Alabama vs. UT-Chattanooga (both actual matchups from this past season)?  I would, however, be fine with one preseason exhibition game against a D1AA team that didn’t count towards records or player eligibility ala the NFL.  Just a thought.
• Conference Championships – Let me be the first to say that I hate conference divisions.  It seems like more times than not the best two (or even three) teams are from the same division so the conference divisions should be scraped.  The conference schedules should have two common opponents and rotate the other six games with the best two teams meeting in the conference championship game period.
• Non Big Six Conferences – I haven’t forgot about you guys.  The best two teams from all the non big six conferences should meet in a pseudo “Little Guys” Championship game.
• Playoff Bracket – The playoff should consist of eight teams: the six conference champs, the little guys champ, and one at large team that cannot be a championship game loser.  How about a game between the next best “big boys” team and the next best “little guys” team.  What, no convoluted formula or biased committee to determine that last spot?  Actually deciding it on the field?  What nerve I have!  Okay, I guess you would need a formula or committee to determine playoff seeding, but as long as the champ is decided on the field I don’t think seeding matters that much.
• Playoff Schedule – The conference championship games would remain where they are now … the first weekend of December.  The following weekend would be an off weekend.  Then the playoffs would begin with the first round being played on the third weekend of December and the second round on the fourth weekend.  Then the championship would take place a week and half later in the same Thursday night prime time spot that the BCS championship game has held for the past few years.  All playoff games would be played at neutral sites … preferably a rotation between the current Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta Bowl venues.
• Bowls – For this plan to really work some of the bowls would have to be kept, just not all of them.  Let’s say 12-14 bowls were kept and all played on or right around New Year’s Day.  It would keep the New Year’s Day bowl tradition going, reward the teams that had very good seasons, give us some exciting football to watch, and fill in the break between the semifinals and the championship game.

I’m sure my plan isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty damn close, right?  All I did was try to make it exciting and fair for everybody.  I’m pretty sure that I at least accomplished that.  I might have missed addressing a few of the common reasons we hear for not having a playoff, but I didn’t miss these …  This plan does keep importance on the regular season and it does include the non big six conference teams.  It also does not lengthen the schedule too much (one extra game for the championship game participants than under the current system).  Most importantly, it will determine a true champion.

Feel free to comment on how awesome this plan is or ways you would tweak it.

March Madness is in full effect right now.  I’ve never been real good at filling out brackets, but I still fill out way too many every year.  The best thing about this year is my brackets won’t be ruined by giving Carolina a first round exit.  Love it!  If you don’t have a pool to join or you want to join another one that’s totally free check out my good buddies over at Frumpzilla.  Tell them DFCF sent ya.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t get too into college basketball.  It’s just not good for the ticker, however, I will say that March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year.  Last year I was out in Vegas for the first and second rounds and it was absolutely crazy.  Not going this year, but hopefully when I’m out there again next year the Wolfpack will be back in the Big Dance.

The reason that March Madness is so great is because it allows college basketball to determine its champion on the court.  Maybe it has something to do with the excitement and drama that takes place too.  Leave it up to the NCAA, though, to screw it up as they’re talking about expanding the field to 96 teams.  If this is all about making more money then why do we still have the idiotic BCS system for college football?  I would argue that a college football playoff would be much more exciting and would make the NCAA a lot more money than March Madness.  Check back Wednesday as I will unveil my plan for a college football playoff.

Now I’m off to fill out some more brackets.  Good luck everybody!

I’m one of those people that just gets enamored with the Olympics.  It doesn’t matter if it is the Summer or Winter games, I just can’t get enough.  Stuff that I would normally find painfully boring to watch … like Nordic combined … I am glued to the TV and rooting for my fellow countrymen.  Speaking of Nordic combined, big congrats to Bill Demong and Johnny Spillane for bringing the USA our first ever Olympic medals in this sport.  Stuff like that is what the Olympics are all about.

Back in the fall me and my little brother (I know proper grammar is “my little brother and I”, but that has always sounded stupid to me so I don’t talk that way … turn me into the Internet Grammar Police) were planning a trip to Vancouver.  We were looking at flights, hotels, and rental cars.  My brother even got his passport and we talked to our grandma about using part of her timeshare.  Some stuff came up and our plans just never materialized.

As I was watching the Olympics come to a close yesterday I was a little sad that we didn’t make it up there for a couple of reasons.  First, it would have been a damn good time.  Don’t worry Mrs. DFCF, I promise I would have stayed away from the Olympic Village.  It just seemed like one huge rockin’ party that I hate I missed out on.  Second, it would have allowed me to cross something off my personal bucket list.  That got me thinking … what would DFCF’s bucket list look like?

I know the suspense and anticipation is killing you, so without further ado here is DFCF’s bucket list (in no particular order):

1. Be Mr. Wuf for a half.
2. Watch a game at Carter-Finley from a suite in Vaughn Towers.
3. Tailgate in the Carter-Finley RV lot with my tailgate crew for a whole weekend.
4. Take a “behind the scenes” tour of everything that goes into Gameday at Carter-Finley … especially the jumbotron.  (I’m a technology guy.)
5. Perform the coin toss for a game at Carter-Finley.
6. Get to follow along on a recruit’s official visit
7. Visit the Press Box at Carter-Finley during a game.
8. Help the grounds crew paint the field at Carter-Finley before a game.
9. Attend a BCS bowl game that the Wolfpack is playing in.
10. ******** ** ***** ***** ** *** 50 yard line ** ******-******.  (Edited to keep this blog rated PG.)

That’s the list for now.  I reserve the right to add more stuff to it later, but I’m pretty sure this list will be tough enough to complete as is.  I’ll come back and revisit this whenever I can cross something off.  For now I need to start working on how I can make some of this stuff happen.  If you, or anybody you know, can assist me in completing one (or more) of these things please drop me a line (dfcf99 at gmail dot come).  Thanks!

It’s been a depressing bowl season in the DFCF household with the Pack not participating.  Watching also-ran teams like Temple and East Carolina playing for a chance at a 10 win season, something the Pack has only done once in the history of our program (thank you Philip).  Both Temple and ECU ultimately fell short, but it was still a kick in the gut watching them play for that distinction.

Then Virginia Tech, a program that was an equally mediocre football program as the Pack as recent as the early ’90s, completed their sixth consecutive 10 win season with a spanking of Tennessee.  The only team with a longer active streak is Texas with nine.  Congrats to the Hokies!  They have proved that it can be done … take notes Lee Fowler.

My breaking point came on Monday night watching the Fiesta Bowl.  Yes Boise State plays in the weakest conference in the country, but even still they have done an outstanding job of putting together a very very good football program.  Sorry, that is as far as I’m willing to go in my praise of the Broncos.  I don’t know, maybe if they change their home turf color to green I’ll be able to take them serious.  Just seems too self-righteous and gimmicky to me.  Anyway, let me get back on topic.  With Boise State’s win in the Fiesta Bowl it gave them their second BCS win … let me repeat that … their second BCS win … in the last four years.  That is two more BCS wins than State has winning seasons in the same time frame.

I’m not some insane lunatic that thinks NC State football should be a top 10 team every year.  More like top 5, right?  So maybe I am an insane lunatic, but with our football facilities, die-hard fan base, fine academic university, and desirable location there is no excuse why we shouldn’t at least be playing in a bowl every year.  Is that too much to ask?

Somehow the refs missed this call

It still baffles me how the SEC officiating crew missed this facemask.  The whole stadium saw it.  I mean Rashard got pulled parallel to the ground and was violently flipped around 180 degrees.  Absolutely brutal.  And why the hell does the visiting team’s conference supply the refs?  Aside from the BCS, that’s the dumbest thing going in college football.

I think it’s an understatement to say that opening weekend was not very kind to the ACC.  Duke and Virginia losing to FCS teams, Wake losing at home to a bottom rung Big 12 team in Baylor, Maryland getting punked by Cal, and Virginia Tech looking very average against Bama in the Saturday prime time spot.  The best non conference win was against Middle Tennessee St.  By comparison our loss to South Carolina doesn’t look so bad now.  The ACC is still very weak and we have a team that’s still capable of competing for a spot in the ACC title game.

The Miami-FSU game Monday night saved the ACC from totally being the laughing stock of the country.  What a game.  Still early in the year, but both teams looked in mid season form.  At least offensively they did.  If either team can find some defense then watch out.  I was hoping for a Miami wide right, but it wasn’t meant to be.  Even though I hate Miami, this gives FSU a conference loss so it was the best outcome for the Pack.  That raises the stakes on our game in Tallahassee.  Should be fun.  Look for me there …. I’ll be the guy in red.