1-AA playoff called "punishment for players" by SEC representative

[Carl Spackler]

John L. Smith: from SEC land meetings.

@dennisdoddcbs: John L Smith calls the I-AA playoff "punishment" for the players. ‪#secspringmeetings


There are what 121 divison 1-AA (FCS) programs, 8,000 or so scholarships and increasing, coaching staffs, athletic departments out there....

I wonder how they feel about that punishment every year.

 

[Adios]

In the next episode of, "As the Football Spins"...

 

[Carl Spackler]

You know what's funny, the 1-A conference commissioners and Swarbrick have no idea what kind of hurdle they crossed this year, and the threat it brought to their power structure. Everybody thinks I'm nuts, and that's ok around here, maybe it's intentional....maybe it's not....but I've said time and again, that if the Ivy's make the unbelievable change when it comes to football, the balance of power in this country nationally when it comes to college football, will very quickly return to the Northeast, and that's good for UConn, b/c we'll be right in the middle of it.

And then on top of opening the gates to true post season competition for a national title, Slive and Neinas with that championship game, basically laying the road map for first round of championship games.......completely unintended of course, what they did by establishing that game, which is the really funny part....

REad this piece below out of Lehigh from last year at this time.

The NCAA lax tournament, just finished for 2012, congrats to Loyola.......and occured at the same time that student-athletes in the spring semester (as oposed to the fall) are supposed to be taking those exams........


Nothing makes football (and basketball people for that matter) people at those schools in the Ancient 8 more crazy and animated, about the state of intercollegiate athletic world.....those football coaches and administrators, and teachers.... that care a hell of a lot about competition, and education, and don't give a rat's a@@ or need the money that 1-A football brings...than to talk about how their respective Yale, or Princeton lax teams did in the post season, after their own Ivy tourney......then going to the NCAA lax tournament for a national championship in May, while football sat home in December, and the basketball teams finished with just their league record and no league tourney....but they at least get to go to the NCAA tourney - IF selected - no auto bid.

Read this and you'll udnerstand why. It's been 67 years and counting. Every year, though, the Ivy's get a little bit closer to two things.....division 1-A - AGAIN....and post season football...again...and that agreement made in 1945 about the state of corruption in the college football post season. You get a guy like this SEC football head coach, spouting off the corruption, and false elitism.....and that 1945 decision and document.......gets a little bit more outdated and restrictive.

Sooner or later, that Ivy league tipping point is going to be reached. And comments like this - and the discussion they bring, if the right people start talking about them.....are just the kind of things to do it.

Thanks John L. Nice comment.


http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2011/05/ivy-football-postseason-ban-not-what.html

 

[businesslawyer]

You know what's funny, the 1-A conference commissioners and Swarbrick have no idea what kind of hurdle they crossed this year, and the threat it brought to their power structure. Everybody thinks I'm nuts, and that's ok around here, maybe it's intentional....maybe it's not....but I've said time and again, that if the Ivy's make the unbelievable change when it comes to football, the balance of power in this country nationally when it comes to college football, will very quickly return to the Northeast, and that's good for UConn, b/c we'll be right in the middle of it.

And then on top of opening the gates to true post season competition for a national title, Slive and Neinas with that championship game, basically laying the road map for first round of championship games.......completely unintended of course, what they did by establishing that game, which is the really funny part....

REad this piece below out of Lehigh from last year at this time.

The NCAA lax tournament, just finished for 2012, congrats to Loyola.......and occured at the same time that student-athletes in the spring semester (as oposed to the fall) are supposed to be taking those exams........


Nothing makes football (and basketball people for that matter) people at those schools in the Ancient 8 more crazy and animated, about the state of intercollegiate athletic world.....those football coaches and administrators, and teachers.... that care a hell of a lot about competition, and education, and don't give a rat's a@@ or need the money that 1-A football brings...than to talk about how their respective Yale, or Princeton lax teams did in the post season, after their own Ivy tourney......then going to the NCAA lax tournament for a national championship in May, while football sat home in December, and the basketball teams finished with just their league record and no league tourney....but they at least get to go to the NCAA tourney - IF selected - no auto bid.

Read this and you'll udnerstand why. It's been 67 years and counting. Every year, though, the Ivy's get a little bit closer to two things.....division 1-A - AGAIN....and post season football...again...and that agreement made in 1945 about the state of corruption in the college football post season. You get a guy like this SEC football head coach, spouting off the corruption, and false elitism.....and that 1945 decision and document.......gets a little bit more outdated and restrictive.

Sooner or later, that Ivy league tipping point is going to be reached. And comments like this - and the discussion they bring, if the right people start talking about them.....are just the kind of things to do it.

Thanks John L. Nice comment.


http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2011/05/ivy-football-postseason-ban-not-what.html

With all due respect -- and I say that not facetiously but because I honestly believe you are a good man that cares deeply about UConn football -- you are absolutely certifiably insane.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Just read the article BL. Keep in mind it's from LAST year.......

 

[businesslawyer]

Just read the article BL. Keep in mind it's from LAST year.......

I read the article. A Lehigh fan who works in IT posted his theory. Big whoop.

Is it impossible to think that one day the Ivies will participate in the I-AA playoffs? No, it's not because the only reason they backed out of bowl games was to differentiate their institutions from football factories. But assume they play in the I-AA playoffs down the road -- so what.

 

[CTMike]

Having attended Lehigh for the first two years of my college career, it amazes me that there is a blog with the title "Lehigh Football Nation". The only things that mattered were 1) tailgating for Lehigh-Lafayette, and 2) Beating Lafayette.

To sum up the article (as a public service to the BY) - Ivy League's post-season "ban" is largely artificial and could probably stand to change at some point. Protests about it interfering with exams are BS in the face of Lax championships that the Ivy League stood to profit from.

So... not a lot new there about those opinions. As much as Lehigh would like to think it's next in line for an Ivy League invite... who is to say how much that blog represents the Ivy League's thoughts. Regardless... it is a stretch to think that the Ivies will have any sort of impact on college football in the near to medium term (to be kind).

Same logic regarding a real D1 championship. The ban is artificial. We all know it. It's extremely easy to see through the argument that a playoff is "punishment" for students.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Shame on you BL. I took you for a typical Connecticut liberal....no offense. Must have been wrong. I'm as conservative as they come in these parts, but I know my history and I grew up learning to respect people.

There were many reasons why the Ivy league discontinued post season play. One of the biggest was dealing with competition and rules about who can be on the fields...and had to do with how a guy like Levi Jackson, from Hillhouse HS in New Haven, was treated by the football playing college institutions and their followings in 1946, and was able to be the captain of the football team in 1950, while a guy like John Mitchell doesn't wear an Alabama Crimson Tide uniform until almost 30 years later in 1971, and was nervous as hell about doing it.

The post season ban, is long overdue to be scrapped.

None of this really has anything to do with UConn football, and it's the offseason.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Having attended Lehigh for the first two years of my college career, it amazes me that there is a blog with the title "Lehigh Football Nation". The only things that mattered were 1) tailgating for Lehigh-Lafayette, and 2) Beating Lafayette.

Sounds familiar. In the early 80's the only (football) things that mattered at UConn were 1) tailgating for UConn-Yale, and 2) beating Yale. #2 being a distant second, as at least half the tailgate crowd never ventured into the Yale Bowl.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Sounds familiar. In the early 80's the only (football) things that mattered at UConn were 1) tailgating for UConn-Yale, and 2) beating Yale. #2 being a distant second, as at least half the tailgate crowd never ventured into the Yale Bowl.

Yup. But it's 2012 now, and guess what - the Patriot league in the 12 months since that article was written, has scrapped the Ivy League model, and will begin 60+ scholarship football per year again. That includes Lehigh, if I'm not mistaken. Where will Lehigh be in 20 years? who knows nationally, but they'll have a football team that draws again, and drives the athletic department revenue engine again.

But that what you wrote there basketball man Husky Hawk, is a pretty big reason, for me personally at least, to want to get that rivalry back, and see Yale use that 67 year old agreement as cat litter box lining and join us at 1-A, just like they joined us at 1-AA in 1982,.....the view is much better from here.

 

[Carl Spackler]

BL : Maybe referecning some blogger wasn't a good idea.

HEre's an article from the NY Times in 2006. This includes from actual people involved........

Now - you'll just have to take my word for it, that the annual discussions referenced here, are only getting more and more animated, and the progression seems to be curvilinear, not linear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/sports/ncaafootball/17ivy.html?pagewanted=all

 

[whaler11]

This is absurd. If anyone is going to stop playing football over head injuries its the kids smart enough for an Ivy.

There is no way for the Ivies to find enough kids who can do the work to compete. Jesus, LSU sends out kids who are first round picks who score 4 on the Wonderlic.

There is no way to get enough southern and western kids to travel to the Northeast to freeze their asses off in dumps like Providence.

90% of the kids you need to truly compete nationally are in school to major in football - so unless Yale is going to treat academics like UNC-CH can you please stop?

 

[Carl Spackler]

nope, I won't stop. Not until I see how you've managed to overcome both the classical laws of thermodynamics, and newtonian physics, and have an intact piece of turf from memorial stadium field hanging vertically on your wall for 10 years and it hasn't crumbled into a pile of dirt leaking through the frame onto your floor.


Once you show me that, I'll be gone forever, because I'll have figured out a way to make more money than Gates, and probably solve the problems of space travel too, so who knows where I'll be.

 

[businesslawyer]

BL : Maybe referecning some blogger wasn't a good idea.

HEre's an article from the NY Times in 2006. This includes from actual people involved........

Now - you'll just have to take my word for it, that the annual discussions referenced here, are only getting more and more animated, and the progression seems to be curvilinear, not linear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/sports/ncaafootball/17ivy.html?pagewanted=all

I was in law school at Yale in the fall of '81. That season was great.

I promise you that Michigan and Penn State aren't staying up late at night worrying about this.

 

[Nostical]

....at least half the tailgate crowd never ventured into the Yale Bowl.

Sounds like fans at The Rent before kickoff.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Sounds like fans at The Rent before kickoff.

I mean never....no attendance to the game at all.