Power Football

Here is something that was entirely predictable regarding the politics of the new College Football Playoff, which has swept away the old BCS computer-generated formula of the recent past.

As bad as the computer championship was, the new process ups the ante of wretchedness twofold or more.

Dice it any way you choose, but the championship will not be determined by the play of the best teams on the field in a meaningful playoff, but rather by the strongest personalities among a committee of 12, which was to be 13 until old Archie Manning dropped out for health reasons.

Thus, the personalities of the committee members, among them the horrid Condi Rice, have now become the lead story in a narrative of power politics only tangentially related to the actual games.

Ultimately, the committee's power usurps the majority of teams' and student-athletes' say in the matter from a tower of perceived exclusivity.

Come on down Marshall University, everybody is saying you're nobody (so it must be true).

The real game features oligarchy vs. democracy, with the media (read ESPN) playing the role of PR hacks.

Call it the dictatorship of the football proletariat, or simply a sign of the times.


TS