Playooooffs??? You Talkin About Playooooffs???

-Are you excited? Yeah, me neither to be honest...-

DennyP!

Guest Columnist

So it was a lazy, rainy Saturday afternoon here at the home base for SSFA! Normally things are very exciting around here: yelling at cats, drinking beers on the couch, playing darts for hours at a time because no one can close out on bullseye. Today I needed a rest from such 'excitement', so I just sat and watched some good old-fashioned college football.

It was the matchup of all matchups! #1 Florida versus #2 Alabama squaring off for the SEC Championship. Only the 4th time in college football history #1 has faced #2 in a non-bowl game. Sixty-nine year old Verne Lundquist was as giddy as a school boy to broadcast this game. But hey, i guess he is a young school boy compared to broadcaster Vin Scully.

Watching this game, I felt obligated to raise the issue of whether college football should have a playoff to decide the National Championship. Now normally I do not get too excited about playoffs in general because often the 'best' team does not win:

• The NBA playoffs are dreadful because the style of the game changes compared to the regular season. Its much more physical, teams can't fastbreak if they want to, and the refs call the fouls differently. Just ask the up-tempo Pheonix Suns every year or especially the 2007 Dallas Mavericks who were an NBA best 67-15 and lost their opening playoff series.


• The NFL playoffs are notorious for the 'best' team not winning because its single elimination. Although I admit its not always the case, can you honestly disagree and say the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals were the two best teams in football last year! I would also love to use 2007 as a classic example (the 10-6 Giants beating the 16-0 Pats) but I won't being incredibly biased on this issue...

However, I feel like a playoff would be perfect for college football. Hundreds of teams only play 13 games or so there is no way all the key rivals face each other. We all know the deal, a computer picks the two best teams and they face off with at least 1 team getting snubbed and never getting a chance to prove themselves. Its not rocket science, just add more teams and have a 4 or 8 team playoff to decide the title. There's even a 3 week layoff between this weekend's conference championships and the title game. BRILLIANT!

Take this year's results. Alabama spanked #1 Florida in the SEC Championsip to go undefeated at 13-0 and solidify them as the top dog. But now who do they play for the National Championship??? Undefeated Texas? Undefeated TCU? Undefeated Cincinnati? Undefeated Boise State? All these teams have not lost a game and, for 3 of them, that won't be good enough to be considered for a title (and its not the first time for Boise State who was the ONLY undefeated team in 2006 but were not chosen to play in the National Championship)?!

I think this is rather obvious. If you want to name a college football champion, then have a playoff. I have no problem keeping the long-standing tradition of the bowl games, but please, do not call a single team the best because a computer said so. I dunno fellow sports enthusiasts, what do you think?

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Too Many Beaks

-You whippersnappers, with your dreadlocks! And your McIntosh computers!-

RWPilk

Current Standing: 1-1, 5th overall

Hell and damnation! Two weeks in and I already popped my "loss" cherry. Peyton Manning, a curse on your never-branching family tree. And Brandon Marshall, how does riding the pine in Week 3 sound!? Yeah, you think about that! Until then, wear this abnormally long funnel on your head until I find a dunce cap.

Alright. Back to mid-week randomness. As you might have read, I've checked out a few athlete Twitter accounts. Twitter's a great idea for sports, right? A first hand account inside the game! Awesome. Awesome? Eh. I gotta tell you people, it's losing a bit of its luster.

Late Monday, PFT reported more NFL Twitter action, this time documenting a rift in the sacred bond between QB and receiver. Gasp! All might not be well in Arizona, people. Word around the knitters' circle is WR Larry Fitzgerald ain't all too pleased with the amount of ball action he's getting from Kurt Warner (pause). This comes on behalf of tweets from Larry's younger brother Marcus.

Apparently, Marcus received texts from big bro Larry during the game Sunday about not being thrown the ball enough, that WR long-ball has been cut down for shorter passes to RBs. Oh, boy. And the phrase "80-year old" was used to describe Warner.

C'mon, brothers Fitzy. First of all, Arizona won that game and old man Warner broke a record for completion percentage. Second of all, "80-year old"? Kurt Warner is a very spry 68-year old man and starts each day a with a glass of warm milk, a boiled egg, a crisp issue of Reader's Digest, and tops it off with a Werther's Original. Sigh. What am I doing? Writing about the Cardinals? Is it next Sunday? Is Westbrook probable yet?

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2009 NFL Preview: The Draft You Save...

- Stoppable force, meet movable object -

Cole

I don't know what Rob's talking about: this segment was totally his idea. Still, if he's not going to give you players to help you win, neither will I. Here's four players (well, three and a defense) that you should think twice before you pick them up on draft day:

Kurt Warner, QB, Cardinals: Yes, Warner took countless owners to league titles last year, resurrecting the Greatest Show on Turf in the goofiest stadium in the Western Hemisphere. But will he be an elite fantasy quarterback again? Don't count on it. Or how often do 38-year-old quarterbacks last a full season, especially given last year was Warner's first since 2001?

Joseph Addai, RB, Colts: I went to my league championship last year. Addai was my first-round pick. Those events are almost entirely unrelated, as I'm sure you know if you selected Addai as well. In addition to missing four games, Addai ran for over 100 yards once (vs. Houston), and had over 100 yards total in only one other game (70 rushing, 31 receiving vs. San Diego). Add in the hype surrounding rookie Donald Brown, and Addai is far from a consensus first-rounder.

Ted Ginn, Jr., WR, Dolphins: A first-round pick out of Ohio State in 2007, Ginn is one of those perennial-sleeper types that's supposed to have a breakout year every year. Ginn compiled nearly 800 yards of receiving last year, and was second in the league in yards per touch. The problem? Chad Pennington, who hasn't been known for his deep ball since he was throwing to Randy Moss at Marshall. Don't expect Ginn to have a stellar season with Pennington -- or Ronnie Brown -- under center. But he's certainly someone to watch on the waiver wire.

New England, DST, Patriots: You wouldn't think I'd have to tell people that a defense whose starters average 47 years old isn't a good draft pick. Still, it's hard to pick a defense, and most people will go on reputation. Don't let that be you, though: the secondary is porous, the front seven is unimpressive beyond Jerod Mayo, and there are no true playmakers on special teams to get you return touchdowns. And don't forget games against the Colts and Saints. The resurgent offenses of the Falcons, Dolphins, and Texans will give the Pats problems too.

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