Football Challenge SHARE SALE!

For the 1st time ever, we are having a share sale on the Football Challenge. For only $250 you can buy a share of Football Challenge Stock and be a part owner in the franchise. You will have the ability to attend annual shareholder meetings and have a say in the future of the Football Challenge. What better time to get in than now when the Football Challenge is successful and growing?!? Send your money to me...these shares will go fast!


Yeah, if the morons to the East can do it, why can't I? I think this is a great plan for anyone who needs to raise some funds in a hurry. Sell off legitimate but kind of fictional "shares" of your franchise and rake in the dollars. So you're giving them $250 to get a piece of paper with your name on it, and for that you get the right to go to a meeting? And how about his caveat to it all, as a "owner" you are no longer allowed to wager on sports any more...if the NFL catches you doing that you can be fined $5K-$10K! The Packer front office is obviously a lot smarter than the rest of that state because this is the best scam you can come up with. People are banging your door down to give you money to spend on your franchise for a piece of paper that gives them the right to attend a meeting. Brilliant. So, it's x-mas time and the kids need presents...send me your check for a share of the Football Challenge as soon as you can. They are avaialable now.

So obviously the BCS is the hot topic once again with the "controversy" surrounding the rematch between LSU and ALABAMA. I've got a lot of thoughts on this...

1. People point to the myth that "ALA already had their chance, give OKST a try." This logic is stupid. I understand the frustration for the 2011 NCAA Football Average Fan who wants to see a new game with points rather than another 9-6 defensive battle, but that's not what drives the BCS. The BCS is designed to put the 2 best teams in the country together to play for the title, and in this case it worked. Some may think OKST is actually better than ALA...

2. ALABAMA is better than OKST. Right now, ALA and LSU would be at least a 7 point favorite over any other team in the nation on a neutral field. That includes OKST. ALA lost to the best team in the country in a nail-biter. OKST lost to a average Iowa State club...see the difference? A team that plays in the BCS Title game can never have anything resmebling "lost to Iowa State" on their resume. If you are the best, you do not lose football games to teams like that, so anyone with a loss like that should be instantly eliminated from consideration. I almost think STAN, even though they were crushed by ORE, has more of a claim to a spot than OKST.

3. Some may argue that OKST needs a break because they lost the night after the women's basketball team had a plane crash. Tragic...yes. Excuse to lose a game...no. I'm sorry, it's just not a valid arguement that could catapault a team into the title game in a situation like this. You could make up excuses for a lot of the losses that every team has each year, but to excuse a loss in Ames for this is not going to work.

4. I do have some thoughts the other way, in OKST's favor, as well. Clearly, I have established that I agree with the ALA-LSU matchup and I think the right team was chosen, but I don't agree with how we got there. Case in point, the Coaches Poll. So this is a major component of the BCS formula but the AP Poll is not. I guess the logic was that the BCS viewed the Coaches poll as unbiased and more true as a ranking system than the AP. The truth is that most of these coaches don't even fill it out because they don't get a chance to watch any other football games besides their own. They can read boxscores, but you and I both know that scores can be very decieving. So the poll loses legitimacy there already. Couple that with the fact that in this final poll each coach basically only holds loyalty to their school and their conference because when their school and their conference do well then they are compensated. That brings us to this sketchy situation, where Nick Saban votes OKST 4th in his poll and Gary Pinkel of MIZZ (who is leaving the B12 for the SEC) votes OKST out of the top 3 as well. It's their right, but it's complete BS because they knew it would be close and come down to % points, so they tried to skew the system to favor their team or their conference and increase their payday. Hopefully, this will force the BCS to realize that this should be nowhere near the final formula for ranking these teams and it gets changed for next season.

The old playoff arguement will go on forever, and I'm not expecting to see it actually happen anytime soon. But for the hell of it, I'll tell you about the system I favor and what that would have produced. I like an 8 teamer that gives the 6 BCS conference champs a bid and then takes the highest non-BCS conference team and 1 wildcard (highest ranked team left based on a BCS formula). Once we have our 8 teams, we use the BCS formula to rank them, which would produce this:

1.LSU vs. 8.WV
4.ORE vs. 5.BOISE
2.ALA vs. 7.CLEM
3.OKST vs. 6.WIS

Who wouldn't want to watch these games next weekend? Start it with 4 crazy good games on the 23rd and 24th (FRI/SAT). Play round 2 on DEC 31, and make the BCS Title Game on Jan 9th like it is right now. Biggest TV deals ever.

Now it's my opinion that even through this process we'd probably get to the same result and have LSU-ALA on 1/9, but it would be fun to watch and we'd have a true OKST-ALA game to make sure we had the right team. How about an LSU-ORE rematch followed by OKST-ALA on New Year's Eve?!?!!? I guess this just makes too much sense. Everyone has a chance, you can play the games in the big Bowls just like now, but make them actually mean something instead of only 1 game mattering on 1/9.

Even a +1 system would be better. Matchup up LSU-ORE and ALA-OKST in the bowl games and a Final 4 type atmosphere, then have the winners play on Jan 9th.

Alright, next.

I'd like to congratulate the Innaugural B12 Title Game champs, The Sconny Vagers. If you missed Brew and his comedy throughout this game, you may not get another chance. I almost pissed myself when he was questioning the Vagers 2pt call and saying it was a "calculated mistake", what does that even mean? Brew mocking Bielema on a 2pt call...awesome. Then he brings out his "pound the rock" mantra that was used here in 2008 and showed up again in early 2010 before his departure. But his last quote just topped it all off...thanks for the memories TE Timmy, I'm sure this will be your last run on the sidelines because you've proven you can't even do that right.

One final point before we go...my miscalculated JAGS picks on MNF this week. So here's my logic, fired coach = team will get a short burst of energy and beat a poor trending Charger team that looks like it's all but finished. Where did I go wrong? Well, unlike NCAA Football, firing a coach during the season in the NFL is a rare thing and the impact appears to in fact be detrimental to the team. The Jags got their doors blown off and didn't have a pulse in the 2nd half. Firing a coach mid-season with a group of 20 year old's can provide motivation and they typically rise up and play better, at least for a week or 2, before their season ends. In the NFL, with 25-30 year old professionals, firing a coach at mid-season says..."we suck, we're throwing in the towel on this year, nobody will care about the rest of these games, you'll all still be getting paid." So while I believe the old mantra about NFL guys don't ever quit because they are professionals, they still have an emotional level that we need to consider. Canning the coach during the year signifies the end of the season and that has to drop the emotional level of the team.

My mistake, all the numbers pointed to SD, but I incorrectly evaluated the emotional state of Team Jaguar...and for that I am sorry.

Well, that's about 10,000 words so I should probably quit.