The Way College Football Should be ...Play Off Part 1 Nov. 29, 2011

The Way College Football Needs to be played:
By Zach Williams


If major college football had a play off system, this is how the play off brackets would look with one week left to go. The criteria that makes up the Zach Williams 16 team tournament goes as followed:

Every conference winner of the top 6 (SEC/BIG 10/BIG 12/PAC-12/ACC/BIG EAST) all get an automatic bid. The other 10 teams are based on the average of the USA/ESPN and AP rankings. The only conference leader that is not in the top 16 is West Virginia, which is currently ranked #22. This was bad news of the boys of Ann Arbor, Michigan since they were ranked 16th. By allowing 10 at large bids, this allows for Houston and Boise State who play in lower rung conferences to make a run at the national title. Also tournament could allow a team that dropped their first couple of games, to still have a chance. Besides LSU or Alabama does anyone want to play Georgia right now?

Some of the first round match-ups give us some early seasons rematches, coaches battling their former schools and smaller schools trying to defeat some of the elite programs in the country. A play off system would be much more fun than the curent system. Currently, only one game means anything, the National Championship game and the other 31 bowl games are nothing more than glorified exhibitions. At least the old bowl system, allowed for viewers to watch games that meant something. I would keep the 15 most popular bowls and use them to determine the champion on the field. The other 17 bowl games can still be played like they have for many years. This would allow for the college to earn money and the team would get experience for next season.

Bear Bryant Bracket

Alonso Stagg Bracket

(1) LSU

College Football Play Off System

(1) Alabama

(Winner of the SEC)

As of Nov. 28, 2011

(At Large)

Fiesta

Outback

(4) West VA

(4) Kansas State

(Winner of the Big East)

(At Large)

Meinecke

Cotton

(2) Oregon

(2) Houston

(Winner of the PAC-12)

(At Large

Liberty

Holiday

(3) Boise St

(3) Michigan St

(At-Large

(Winner of the Big 10)

Orange

Sugar

(2) Virginia Tech

(2) Arkansas

(Winner of the ACC)

(At Large)

Rose

Independence

Chick-Fil-A

(3) Oklahoma

(3) Georgia

(At Large)

Gator

Capital One

(At Large)

(1) Stanford

(1) Oklahoma St

(At Large)

(Winner of the Big 12)

Sun

Champs

(4) South Carolina

(4) Wisconsin

(At Large)

(At Large

Eddie Robinson Bracket

Bobby Bowden Bracket

Fake Injury Changed NFL History

On Monday Night Football this week, the New York Giants defense Deon Grant came up with a fake injury to stop the high-flying offense of Sam Bradford and the Rams. Not a big deal? It doesn't mean anything because it is part of the game. Really? With playoff teams sometimes seperated by one game or sometimes a tie-breaker any advantage is huge. A fake injury may have changed the course of history less than a decade ago..

Let's go back eight years to 2003 when the 9-2 New England Patriots came rolling into the RCA Dome to face the 9-2 Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots came out swinging against the Colts and built a 31-10 lead in the third quarter. The Colts responded with 21 unanswered points, 14 coming off two Tom Brady interceptions to tie the game at 31 in the fourth quarter.

With the Colts trailing 38-34, the Colts began to march down the field and had the Patriots on the ropes with their fast-paced no-huddle offense. The Colts hurried to the two-yard line with a first and 10 when Willie McGinest had a leg injury. This gave the Patriots a time out, of which they had none and it gave them time to huddle up and talk about how to stop the Colts. On the fourth and one play from the one -yard line, Willie McGinest busted through the Colts offensive line to stop Edgerin James at the one-yard line to perserve a four-point Patriots win. In celebration, Willie McGinest sprinted down the field faster than Ben Johnson and his steroids in the 1988 Olympics.

Not a big deal? The Patriots would go onto finish the year at 14-2 and the Colts would finish at 12-4. If the McGinest doesn't stop the clock and the Colts momentum with a fake injury, the Colts finish with an identical 13-3 record and would have had the AFC title game at the RCA Dome because they would have owned the tie-breaker over the Patriots. Would the Colts have beaten the Patriots in Indianapolis in the AFC Championship game and gone on to their first Super Bowl? Who knows, but the Patriots would've had to play Peyton Manning indoors instead in Foxbourgh. A fake injury gave the Patriots a very real Super Bowl win.

Zachetology Feb. 28-March 4, 2011: Number one and Done...(Again)

After the loss of the Kansas Jayhawks, the Duke Blue Devils accended from the fifth spot to the top of the polls last week. However, the number one and done trend continues with Duke's 64-60 road loss to Virginia Tech. The biggest winner of the weekend was BYU. #6 BYU knocked off #4 Sand Diego State for the second time this year and have moved into the last #1 seed in my rankings. If BYU or Duke stumble down the stretch, watch out for the surging Purdue Boilermakers to nab a #1 seed.

#1 Seeds
                                                       Previous
1. Ohio State-Beat Indiana                    1
2. Kansas-Beat Oklahoma                    4
3. Duke-Lost to Virgina Tech                 2
4. BYU-Beat #4 San Diego St               6

#2 Seeds
5. Pittsburgh-Lost to #16 Louisville         5
6. Purdue-Beat Michigan State              7
7. Notre Dame-Beat Seton Hall              8
8. Texas-Lost to Colorado                     3

#3 Seeds
9. San Diego St.-Lost to #6 BYU           9  
10. Wisconsin-Beat Northwestern         11
11. Louisville-Beat #4 Pittsburgh            --
12.Connecticut-Beat Cincinnati              --

#4 Seeds
13. Georgetown-Lost to #20 Syracuse    14
14. Florida-Lost to #22 Kentucky            --
15. Syracuse-Beat #11 Georgetown        16
16. St. John's-Beat #14 Villanova             --

Dropped out: Arizona and Missouri

Zachetology

As February is coming to close, the college basketball season is heating up. If you want to win your office pool take a look at Zach's Top 16 each week. Since the NCAA basketball tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, the #6 seeded Villanova Wildcats have been the lowest seed ever to capture the crown. Even though there is 68 teams in this year's March Madness edition, you really need to only look at these 16. The early round upsets make you look smart but getting but having all four teams left is where the money is won. Here is my rankings for the last week of February 2011.

        
              #1 Seeds
          1. Ohio State-Top Seed
          2. Duke
          3. Texas
          4. Kansas

              #2 Seeds
          5. Pittsburgh
          6. BYU
          7. Purdue
          8. Notre Dame

             #3 Seeds
          9. San Diego State
        10. Florida
        11. Wisconsin
        12. Arizona

            #4 Seeds
        13. Villanova
        14. Georgetown
        15. Missouri
        16. Syracuse