09-11-2016, 10:06 PM
(09-11-2016, 09:42 PM)Boston Card link Wrote:It doesn't "need" to be anything.
Agreed. Why do we "need" to know who has the best football team in the country?
Call me old-fashioned, but I liked it when (a) kickoff was always at 12:30, (b) teams saved money by having only two sets of jerseys (home and away) © beating Cal was most important, and (d) the Rose Bowl was the ultimate prize. All this national attention is nice, but not at the expense of having to brave Thu and Fri night traffic, getting shut out of the Rose Bowl, or getting a last-minute over-priced holiday season airplane ticket to watch the team on Dec 31 or Jan 1 or Jan 2 or ???
Arguing about whether the polls were accurate back then is no different from arguing now about how teams were left out because of the 2- and now 4- team format. If we go to 8-team I'm sure we will still argue. And the national championship is fleeting... I couldn't name the #1 team from the last 10 seasons. But I can tell you what bowl games Stanford went to, and which years we beat Cal.
I wonder if the players care? It's ultimately for them, not us (or the TV networks).