[OutsiderFan]

I thought this article was good. 

https://www.realclearmarkets.com/article...40502.html

Not a whole lot of rigorous analysis as much as emotional opinionizing.

I realize you meant this is as a denigrating comment but it's very revealing.

For me, the emotional opinionizing is what's best about college football, and the rigorous analysis is what's worst.

The mega conferences are what you get when rigorous analysis beats out emotion. The BCS formula is what you get when rigorous analysis beats out emotion. Your side won! Enjoy the high quality matchups of the Big xx and the SEC! The Rose Bowl will surely feature more optimized matchups now!

Things always change. This notion we live in a static world or should, is just silly. We'd still be using stone tools and living in grass huts if we didn't progress.  

Sports is about crowning winners. College football isn't special because it was the only sport in the world that didn't crown a champion. It was just weird. We don't declare winners based on who we think is best, we have a competition to decide. Why should the 2007 Stanford game at USC have even been played with Stanford a 41 pt underdog? 

As it relates to the "professionalization of college sports" and football in particular, what we are seeing now is simply evolution at work. It's survival of the fittest. If Stanford and Cal want to mail in having a competitive football program, they will simply be passed by and left behind. That's just how life works. I hate conference championship games, but I also hate the Electoral College. I still watch the games because they are entertaining and I still vote because voting decides more than who the POTUS is. I'm older than you and I'm not yelling at anyone to get off my lawn :)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised this thread finally veered into values talk instead of just the mechanics and issues at hand with football media rights and school conference affiliations, but I'm impressed it lasted focused on that topic as long as it did!

[OutsiderFan]

I thought this article was good. 

https://www.realclearmarkets.com/article...40502.html

Not a whole lot of rigorous analysis as much as emotional opinionizing.

I realize you meant this is as a denigrating comment but it's very revealing.

For me, the emotional opinionizing is what's best about college football, and the rigorous analysis is what's worst.

The mega conferences are what you get when rigorous analysis beats out emotion. The BCS formula is what you get when rigorous analysis beats out emotion. Your side won! Enjoy the high quality matchups of the Big xx and the SEC! The Rose Bowl will surely feature more optimized matchups now!

Things always change. This notion we live in a static world or should, is just silly. We'd still be using stone tools and living in grass huts if we didn't progress.  

Sports is about crowning winners. College football isn't special because it was the only sport in the world that didn't crown a champion. It was just weird. We don't declare winners based on who we think is best, we have a competition to decide. Why should the 2007 Stanford game at USC have even been played with Stanford a 41 pt underdog? 

As it relates to the "professionalization of college sports" and football in particular, what we are seeing now is simply evolution at work. It's survival of the fittest. If Stanford and Cal want to mail in having a competitive football program, they will simply be passed by and left behind. That's just how life works. I hate conference championship games, but I also hate the Electoral College. I still watch the games because they are entertaining and I still vote because voting decides more than who the POTUS is. I'm older than you and I'm not yelling at anyone to get off my lawn :)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised this thread finally veered into values talk instead of just the mechanics and issues at hand with football media rights and school conference affiliations, but I'm impressed it lasted focused on that topic as long as it did!