Todays Ramblings: College Football Coaches and College Football Bowls/Playoffs

Here's a question...

Why do college athletes have to sit out a year athletically when they transfer to a new school but college coaches are free to break contracts with their former schools and sign lucrative contracts at a new school..see Brian Kelly who moved from the Univ. of Cincinnati to Notre Dame last week.

Sure, Brian Kelly earned a shot at coaching at one of the premiere football schools in the country but abandoning his Cincinnati team prior to their marquee Bowl game vs. Florida was a classless decision on his part.

The argument by many for this decision is "coaches have to jump ship early to begin their recruiting process." Ba-loney...you finish the job you were hired to do! Would Notre Dame have hired a different coach if Kelly decided to finish out the season with Cincinnati...I doubt it. In my opinion, if coaches want to break contracts to sign one with a different school...they should have to sit out a "transfer" year to do it...period.

New topic: The BCS and the College Bowl system...

One of the arguments for the current BCS bowl system is it has to be this way because of college final exams...essentially...kids can't miss their Finals because they are playing every weekend in a national college football tournament. This is perhaps the single worst argument for the BCS bowl system.

College basketball forces players to miss days...and sometimes weeks...of classes to travel all over the country for days at a time to play in the NCAA Hoops tourney in March/April.

College football teams in Division I, II and III (aka Football Championship Series) all hold posteason tournaments forcing players to travel all over the country for 3-4 weekends to participate in their games...why can't Football Bowl Series teams do the same?

I understand the bowls are big money makers for schools but what the higher ups fail to realize is they are playing second fiddle to the NCAA basektball tournament by continuing the current bowl system. Imagine the hype, TV dollars, etc that would be generated by a BCS Tournament! Sure, some teams are going to be left out of the tournament but at least 8-12 teams would have a shot at the national championship instead of two teams under the current system.

This year, three undefeated teams don't have a shot at the title...unheard of! Imagine an eight team tournament this year with Alabama, Texas, Florida, Cincinnati, Boise State, TCU, Oregon and Ohio State...it would be tremendous! Just like the other football divisions (I, II and III) the team with the better seed would be the home team and no teams would play more than three games in the tournament. We already have to wait 4-5 weeks after the regular season and conference championships for the better teams to play in their bowl games...why not fill that time with three rounds of a college football championship tournament?