This issue might be belated as it has been over a month since it first surfaced on this blog but it’s been in the back of my mind annoying me like a nagging cough that robs a person of a good night sleep. I’ve seen it in the media, I’ve seen it on T.V., I’ve seen it glamorized by documentaries, and I’ve even heard it brought up around the water cooler at work. But when this topic appeared on CBACSMACK so quickly while our blog was still in its infancy, I knew I had to draw the line and put an end to this silly riff raff. I am referring to the issue of calling the World Series of Poker a sporting event.
Webster defines the noun, sport, as “a physical activity engaged in for pleasure”. That is a very basic description with a shadow big enough to cover a wide variety of activities. Yet, even as open as this definition is, poker cannot fall within its reach.
You see, a card game cannot be anything else but a card game not matter how much a network tries to glamorize it. Add all the airtime, water bottles, “eyeball” sunglasses, bracelets, and bleachers you want. It’s still a card game. Adding in the title of World Series was a clever trick to make people subconsciously link it to other sporting events that have a world series but don’t be fooled. I have the WSOOM (World Series of Old Maid) at my house ever other month but I still can’t get FSN out here to film us. Maybe someday soon.
I will admit that Texas Hold’em is great fun and requires a lot of skill to play. But this is not the 19th century, and we’re not on a riverboat floating down the Mississippi so quit force-feeding us with it on ESPN. If I wanted to watch overweight losers try to win big, I’d go sit and watch the slot machines in Wendover. To me, there has got to be something better to put on an Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN). Put surfing, or scuba diving, or freestyle walking. I’d even be happy if you put Man vs. Wild on ESPN. I would actually rather watch high-definition grass grow than watch anything that has to do with this hogwash.
Card games are not sports and sports are not card games. I am “all in” with that opinion and I will take it to my grave. I’ve said my peace on the matter now “Shuffle-up‘n-deal” out your comments.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
My Two Cents
Tis the season
As we rapidly approach Christmas our minds become attuned to one thing . . . no, I know what you are thinking and no, that’s not it. This is a sports blog and I’m not thinking about what to get my friends and family for Christmas. I’m thinking, NFL Playoffs. What a great time of year. We’ve started preparing for this late in the summer as we set up our fantasy football leagues and researched countless hours of data in order to draft the ultimate team. We’ve sat in front of our televisions every Sunday for more hours than most people spend in the church of choice. We’ve followed our team as well as those players who happen to be on our fantasy team this year and we’ve even found ourselves cheering for hated franchises such as the Denver Broncos because Jay Cutler or Brandon Marshall happen to headline your team this year.
I look forward to the kickoff of the NFL every year. I read blogs and articles all through the off-season about this fact and that news story as it relates to the NFL. Then the playoffs come and what you’ve hung on for all season long finally arrives and brings with it a renewed dedication to the sport we all love.
Why can’t college football see the bigger picture? The BCS pundits claim that longer seasons would risk injuring players, ruin the need of the regular season, blah blah blah. The reality is that the lower division teams (high school as well) can play as many as 18 games in a season by playing all the way through the championship game. The NFL plays more. The reality is that a playoff system, similar to what lower division NCAA leagues play in would enhance the need for the regular season.
There have been many playoff formats that have been proposed for college football but I think the one I like most is a 16-team playoff. 16 teams allows for each conference (11) that competes in D-I football to field its champion in the playoff. The remaining five can be “at-large” selected by a committee as is currently done in the basketball community so that good teams, such as Texas Christian, Ohio State, and the runners-up in the SEC, Big 12, and Pac-10 conferences this year could also be rewarded for very good seasons.
To ensure the regular season continues to maintain its level of importance, the first three rounds could be played on the home field of the higher seeded team, thus rankings such as the AP, USAToday, and the BCS would maintain their validity in ranking the teams. Only the final championship game would be played on a neutral site, rotating year after year to a different site much like the Super Bowl does now. Revenues would be returned to the universities, to the NCAA; tradition and passion would return to the stadiums across the country instead of shipping teams half way across the country to a neutral stadium where most fans are not fans of the teams playing. And we all know that followers of this blog are known for their passion for sports, so this would be a welcome change to be able to see the Utes this year hosting a team of Ohio States history and caliber come to Rice-Eccles.
It is time for college football to wake up and smell the bigger picture. Most years a higher seeded team would win against a lower seeded team at home but there are years you would also see a Boise State upset an Oklahoma. Fans would tune in to watch the potential for the big upset. It is documented that viewership of the college football “postseason” increased with the introduction of the BCS model and it would increase even more with a playoff system in place.
As we rapidly approach Christmas our minds become attuned to one thing . . . no, I know what you are thinking and no, that’s not it. This is a sports blog and I’m not thinking about what to get my friends and family for Christmas. I’m thinking, NFL Playoffs. What a great time of year. We’ve started preparing for this late in the summer as we set up our fantasy football leagues and researched countless hours of data in order to draft the ultimate team. We’ve sat in front of our televisions every Sunday for more hours than most people spend in the church of choice. We’ve followed our team as well as those players who happen to be on our fantasy team this year and we’ve even found ourselves cheering for hated franchises such as the Denver Broncos because Jay Cutler or Brandon Marshall happen to headline your team this year.
I look forward to the kickoff of the NFL every year. I read blogs and articles all through the off-season about this fact and that news story as it relates to the NFL. Then the playoffs come and what you’ve hung on for all season long finally arrives and brings with it a renewed dedication to the sport we all love.
Why can’t college football see the bigger picture? The BCS pundits claim that longer seasons would risk injuring players, ruin the need of the regular season, blah blah blah. The reality is that the lower division teams (high school as well) can play as many as 18 games in a season by playing all the way through the championship game. The NFL plays more. The reality is that a playoff system, similar to what lower division NCAA leagues play in would enhance the need for the regular season.
There have been many playoff formats that have been proposed for college football but I think the one I like most is a 16-team playoff. 16 teams allows for each conference (11) that competes in D-I football to field its champion in the playoff. The remaining five can be “at-large” selected by a committee as is currently done in the basketball community so that good teams, such as Texas Christian, Ohio State, and the runners-up in the SEC, Big 12, and Pac-10 conferences this year could also be rewarded for very good seasons.
To ensure the regular season continues to maintain its level of importance, the first three rounds could be played on the home field of the higher seeded team, thus rankings such as the AP, USAToday, and the BCS would maintain their validity in ranking the teams. Only the final championship game would be played on a neutral site, rotating year after year to a different site much like the Super Bowl does now. Revenues would be returned to the universities, to the NCAA; tradition and passion would return to the stadiums across the country instead of shipping teams half way across the country to a neutral stadium where most fans are not fans of the teams playing. And we all know that followers of this blog are known for their passion for sports, so this would be a welcome change to be able to see the Utes this year hosting a team of Ohio States history and caliber come to Rice-Eccles.
It is time for college football to wake up and smell the bigger picture. Most years a higher seeded team would win against a lower seeded team at home but there are years you would also see a Boise State upset an Oklahoma. Fans would tune in to watch the potential for the big upset. It is documented that viewership of the college football “postseason” increased with the introduction of the BCS model and it would increase even more with a playoff system in place.
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