To nobody’s surprise, the Green Bay Packers are number one in the polls and thus, are the top ranked team heading into the NFL bowls.  The Pack will play New England in the Rose Bowl, while number 2 San Francisco at 10-2 heads to the Sugar Bowl to take on the Baltimore Ravens.  There will be 8 bowl games this year, and one bowl eligible team, the New York Giants were not selected to a game this year. 

Here are the matchups:

Rose:  Green Bay (12-0) vs. New England (9-3)

Sugar:  San Francisco (10-2) vs. Baltimore (9-3)

Orange:  New Orleans (9-3) vs. Pittsburgh (9-3)

Fiesta:  Dallas (7-5) vs. Houston (9-3)

Outback:  Atlanta (7-5) vs. New York Jets (7-5)

Capital One:  Chicago (7-5) vs. Denver (7-5)

Gator:  Detroit (7-5) vs. Oakland (7-5)

Holiday:  Cincinnati (7-5) vs. Tennessee (7-5)

What if the NFL was run like college football?  What if, after 12 games, teams were selected to play in “NFL Bowl games, ala the Orange and Rose Bowl?  Well, next week, I will have my annual NFL bowl pairings that you all will look forward to.

Stay tuned to Johnny228.

As college football continues to court new members to its conferences, the Big East remains the big uneasy.  With Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia set to bolt to the ACC and the Big 12, the conference is desperate to hang on, to recruit enough new members to solidify itself and its coveted BCS bowl berth.

But, look who they’re trying to add.  Navy, Army, Air Force?  The first two are Division 1-AA (now called FCS) at best, how do they add to the conference, or more importantly, how do they make the Big East morlike the Big Ten or the SEC?  And, there is also talk of adding Houston, SMU and Central Florida from Conferene USA.  Just because your conference has 12 teams, doesn’t mean you get to keep your BCS bowl berth.  The Mid American Conference has 13 teams—-14 next season—and they’re far from a BCS bid league, but they might more than hold they’re own against current Big East members.

One has to wish that somebody would step in and put a halt to all this conference realignment discussion, and given the wake of the recent Penn State sex scandal, bigger won’t necessarily mean better.  The Big East would like to add Boise State and BYU to its league for “football only,” but how much sense does this really make?  Boise State has a nice program and they would likely win the Big East, but nobody is convinced that Boise State would be a top 5 program is they played in one of the major conferences.  That’s not a knock on the Broncos, but they would not go 10-2 or 11-1 each year if they played in the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC or Pac 12, no chance.  Sure, if they played in the Big East, they might go undefeated in conference play and may do equally as well in the ACC, but adding Boise State does not really strengthen your league. 

The same can be said about BYU, now in its first year as an independent.  They went 12-0 in 1984 and were voted national champions after beating a 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl, but how strong as BYU been over the last 20 years.  Theyhave had some 11-2 seasons to be sure, but they really haven’t gone out there and gotten that signature win over the years.  How does BYU, a non AQ school suddenly make your conference an AQ school?

Houston and Central Florida are interesting studies.  For some reason, Houston, the fourth or fifth bigest city in the United States has been left out of most major conference expansion plans and I’m not quite sure why.  They must have burned a bridge down somewhere, because all the talk is about expanding your geography to get more television viewers and one would think that adding Houston would do just that.  It’s Houston, a big city in a big state with a rich tradition of producing tremendous high school talent.  I would think that they would be a perfect candidate for the Big 12, a natural replacement for the departing Texas A&M.  The rumor is that Texas AD DeLoss Dodds would die before adding Houston, so obviously, there is some leftover hostility from the old Southwest Conference days.  But, to me, Houston would be an attractive candidate for any conference. 

Central Florida is also intruiging because of the state in which they play.  Like Texas, Florida produces a vast amount of high school talent, and UCF has the 45,000 seat on campus stadium to attract players and TV cameras.  But, on the field, UCF has never been great, and even so, they still have to compete against the others Floridas:  Florida State, Florida, Miami and the littllier ones like Florida Atlantic and Florida International.  But, like Houston, Orlando is a big town with people,so it might help.

As for Navy, Army and Air Force, I just don’t see it.  Navy has been going to bowl games for many years, but nobody massages its schedule better than them.  Yes, they have beaten Notre Dame plenty of times in recent years, but they also have a lot of soft tosses on their docket.  Rice, Duke, Delaware, Tulane and other bottom feeders of the 1-A spectrum.  Of those team listed, Delaware may be the best and they play in 1-AA.  Navy is really somewhere between 1-AA and 1-A, and they would add nothing to an expanded Big East. 

Ditto for Army.  Like Navy, they can’t recruit the big, blue chipper and Army and Navy are both better suited for the MAC, or to remain as they are; an independent.  That way, they can effectively schedule their games so they can get to 6 or 7 wins and get the small bowl bid that will help them recruit solid football players.  And, if anybody can remember, both Navy and Army were once members of Conference USA, and they found out that adhereing to a conference was very difficult, but in their case, the money from the Big East might be too hard to pass up.

Air Force is also a big reach.  What do they bring?  For some reason, Air Force has had more success against bigger time 1-A oppoents than Army and Navy, but like them, they do have recruiting restrictions that aren’t necessarily the right fit for BCS football conference.  Nothing against Air Force, but would they excite the college football fan?  Would Air Force at South Florida bring eyeballs to the set?  What about Air Force-Rutgers?  Air Force-Cincinnati?  I can see a Cincinnati-Kansas State future Big 12 matchup, but Army-Louisville?  I don’t know.

The raiding of the small conferences is bad for college athletics.  I would hate to see Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference be weakened, or worse, dissolved for the greed of the big six.  CUSA is not a power conference, but it is a very competitive league with a nice little championship game and a nice solid 12 team structure.  As a fan of college football, I would hate to see that disappear.  SMU is just righting itself after the old death penalty sanctions from the 1980s and now, they want to go to the Big East?  The MWC has always been a good league, particularly in basketball, the forgotten sport in all of this.  In basketball, they have a great conferenc etournament in Las Vegas, and in football, they have had BCS bowl winners in TCU.  Why break that up?  Why force Boise State fans to drive to Rutgers for a Big East game?

It’s not normal, but what is normal these days?

Until recently, most college football fans did not know who Jerry Sandusky was, and if the world was right, most still wouldn’t.  But, that all changed when the longtime Penn State assistant football coach was arrested and charged with numerous sexual assaults with young boys over a 15 year period.  Sandusky was known as a defensive guru, helping the Nittany Lions win two national championships in the 1980s.  In 1982, they effectively contained Hershel Walker and the Georgia Bulldogs, and in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, still the most watched college football game of all-time, Sandusky’s scheme induced Heisman Trophy winning QB Vinny Testaverde into throwing five interceptions.

As a football coach, Sandusky knew his stuff, but as a human, well, that remains in deep down.  It appears that the coach used his power to take adavantage of young boys.  When one is charged with deviant sexual misconduct, it makes everybody wince.  Many saw Sandusky as the eventual heir apparent to Joe Paterno, the now 84 year old coach at the school.  But, in 1999, Sandusky abruptly retired to devote more time to his Second Mile, a program that aided troubled boys. 

It seems fairly apparent that Sandusky was using the Second Mile to find young boys who he then could take advantage of and have sex with.  In 2002, a then grad assistant testified that he saw a young boy, about 10 or 11 with his hands pressed against a shower wall while Sandusky was having anal sex with him.  This was three years AFTER Sandusky retired, but because of his status, he was allowed to use the facilities and often brought boys from the program to the school. 

After the alleged incident, the grad assistant told Paterno, who then reported it his athletic director Tim Curley, but that’s where it seemed to end.  The police were never called and the only action the university took was to bar Sandusky from using the lockerroom in the future. 

For most coaching icons, it usually doesn’t end well.  Bobby Bowden was forced out and deep down, he didn;t want to go.  He knew it was probably time, but in his heart, he felt he could make one more run at a national championship.  But, Bowden retired because the football team’s perfromance was on the decline, not because of a sexual scandal. 

Last year, several members of the Ohio State football team, including star QB Terrel Pryor were suspended for giving memorablia in exchange for tatoos and other comepensation.  It was reported to coach Jim Tressel, who covered it up.  The result:  Tressel resigned over the summer.  So, the question is simple.  If Tressel was forced out over trading memorabilia for tatoos, how does Joe Paterno survive this cover up?

We have heard that Paterno is not under investigation, and we have heard that Paterno did the right thing by alerting his superior, athletic director Tim Curley.  But, Paterno should have done more.  Why didn’t he call the police?  Why didn’t he confront Sandusky?  Why didn’t he follow up and get on Curley for not taking serious action?  Simply reporting the incident may fulfill all legal obligations, but what about a person’s moral compass?  This is Joe Paterno, perhaps the most popular Pennsylvanian today.  For him to stop merely at just reporting a sick incident to his AD, to me, indicates that he was covering things up.  We keep hearing that were always “whispers about coach Sandusky,” but when it came time to deal with a very serious incident, nothing was done.

Paterno is a college coaching icon, and at 84, he has always been too stubborn to retire.  The administration was always in a dilemma.  Most of his supporters wish he would step down, simply because at his age, it’s time to retire, but no one wants to be the one who forced Paterno out.  It happened at Florida State, but eventually those who wanted Bowden out got him out.  It’s tougher to do that at Penn State.  It’s a more homogenous state, and most who live in Pennsylvania, are from Pennsylvania.  They grew up with Paterno prowling the sidelines and they are loyal to him and the program.  There is less passion in Florida, with many more transients and of course, Florida and Miami also playing football in the Sunshine State. 

For those who want Paterno out, they have the scenario.  He has to retire now, and in this case even his most ardent supporters will give in and accept that the time has come.  It’s a sad ending that hopefully, time can help heal.  You can’t blame Paterno for something that Sandusky allegedly did, that’s not fair, but the fact that nothing was done, well, there is some blood on his hands. 

Paterno has done wonderful things for the university and even today, is adored by the undergrads that attend the big school in State College.  That shouldn’t change, but there most be changes at the top of the football program, and it is time for Coach Paterno to step aside and leave the program, the regime to somebody new.  That will be hard to do,because Paterno has been there since 1966, head coach since 1969. 

it’s tough to go out the right way, in fact, is there a right way?  Most times, something drives a person out.  For some, it’s age, for others, effectiveness, and others it may be illness.  Joe Paterno is no exception to this.  Like everybody else, his time has come.  You just wish it woudl have been he who dictated the terms.

Somewhere from above, Willie Stargell is smiling, so too, is Dave Parker and the rest of the” We Are Family Buccaneers”, the last road team to win a World Series Game 7.   In fact, as long as the roadies continue to lose these games, the now laughable Pirates will continue to get mentioned as the last roadie to conquer home opponent in a World Series finale.

Texas took a quick 2-0 lead, but after that, they went into a baseball coma, as the Cards, behind World Series MVP David Freese scored six unanswered runs to bag thier 11th world championship. 

The win ends an improbable run for the Redbirds, who played well down the stretch, and let’s be fair, needed a monumental collpase by the Atlanta Braves just to make the postseason.  The Red Sox collapse received more attention, but don’t kid yourself, the Braves was as bad, if not worse. 

As for the Rangers, they just couldn’t the 27th out and after taking a two run lead in the 10th, couldn’t get the 30th out, the outs they needed to capture their first title.  It will sting them for a long time, forever, unless they come through and win it all.  Of course, that’s what makes baseball great.  No taking a knee, no running out the clock, no scrubs checking in for garbage team, no clock.  You have to get the outs, or simply put, you don’t win. 

It was a compelling series that saw Albert Pujols have an epic game (don’t forget his leadoff double in the 9th in Game 6), Derek Holland pitch a gem, and David Freese become a household name, along with Allen Craig.  And, it also had the classic game in Game 6, a game for the ages.  Game 7 didn’t have the drama, but after Game 6, that would have hard to replicate. 

It is all over for now.  Pitchers and catchers will report in 13 weeks.

If you go back into the baseball annals, you will see lots of classic games, but for some reason, or at least in my mind, there have been more Game 6 classics than any other.  Last night added yet another chapter to the Game 6 legend as the Cardinals, twice down two runs and twice down to their last strike, remarkably rallied and forced Game 7 tonight. 

There has not been a Game 7 since 2002, when the then Anaheim Angels beat the San Francisco Giants 4-1 to win their only title.  But, that series will be remembered more for Game 6, when somehow, Anaheim rallied from a 5-0 deficit to force the decisive game.  While Game 7 has the ultimate urgency, Game 6 has a different urgency.  The team that’s down obviously has to win, while the team that’s up wants to do everything in its power to not play a Game 7, and last night, you saw that.  The Cardinals were so desperate that they used all their position players and had to rely on pitcher Kyle Lohse’s sacrifice bunt in the 10th to stage their second rally. 

Texas was desperate, but certainly not as much as St. Louis.  I was suprised that Ron Washington, didn’t let Neftali Feliz pitch a second inning.  No offense to the crafty Darren Oliver, but is he the one you want out there to close?  Now, the Rangers have to do something that is very hard:  win Game 7 on the road. 

The list of classic Game 6s is lengthy.  Most over 40 remember Carlton Fisk’s foul pole home run that forced that series to a decider.  There was Reggie Jackson’s three home run performance in the ’77 Fall Classic.  In 1985, the Kansas City Royals rallied for two in the ninth to beat St. Louis to even that series, with yes, a little help from umpire Don Dekinger, and the next year, was perhaps the ultimate of ultimates when Mookie Wilson’s ground ball through Bill Buckner’s legs still gives me goosebumps every time I see it.  I can still hear Vin Scully state, “If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words.”  In 1993, it was Joe Carter, in 2003 it was Josh Beckett’s haunting, crowd silencing performance at Yankee Stadium. 

Now, for Game 7, as said, the odds are never good for the road team.  The last road team to win Game 7 occurred in 1979 when the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Orioles in Baltimore.  For some reason, it is tough to do, in all sports, not just baseball.  The Brewers couldn’t do it in 1982, the above mentioned Cardinals and Red Sox failed in 1985 and 1986 as did the. Cardinals in 1987. Like Texas, all four of those clubs brought 3-2 series leads into the Game 6, and lost both games.  Other roadies to fail include the Braves in 1991 (Minnesota), Cleveland in 1997 (Florida), NY Yankees in 2001 (Arizona), and of course the Giants in 2002.

So, tonight, it is one for the vine, a defactos Super Bowl game for baseball.  Deep down, the baseball execs are smiling.  It’s Game 7, it’s Friday night and hopefully, millions of casual fans will tune in for this “one off” to decide the champion.  While Friday is not a great TV night, the bad economy, and the fact that kids don’t have school tomorrow, and the fact that it is the last game, should help, not hurt the TV rating. 

If Game 7 is half as good as Game 6, it should be a dandy.

Each day, there are reports of conference expansion and conference jumping.  One day, it’s Boise State going here, Central Florida there.  The Big East is expanding, folding, crumbling, merging, you name it, we’ve heard it.  To me, the solution is simple.  Let’s get all the conference commissioners together and has everything out. 

There are 11 Division 1 FBS conferences in the United States.  Six are members of the coveted BCS, meaning its champions and possibly a second team get to play in the juicy and big BCS bowl games.  For the reamining five, you basically have to go undefeated and finish in the top 12 of the BCS standings.  If you do that, you get to play in a BCS bowl.

It’s a flawed system to be sure, and each day, speculation looms over the great game of college football.  The college football season is like no other.  Short, sweet, but always riveting, but over the past two years, talk of the conference realignment has taken away from the always great storylines that are college football.

Look at TCU.  A year ago, they were the BCS busters.  They went 12-0, landed in the Rose Bowl and beat Big Ten champion Wisconsin to cap a perfect season and the number two ranking.  They were also frustrated, so they joined the Big East conference, knowing that all they had to do was win the conference—not go undefeated—to land a BCS bowl game.

A funny thing then happened.  Realignment.  The Big 12 one day, the Big East the next.  Texas A&M joins the SEC, Oklahoma and Texas threaten to go somewhere else.  With the Big East on shaky ground, TCU decided to leave a conference it hadn’t officially joined to play in the Big 12 conference. 

This is nothing more than ridiculous.  Everybody is scared, nobody wants to be left out, so each day, everybody is courting each other, for nothing more than security purposes.  The answer is simple.  Get together and hold a draft and get everything in place.  The inevitable is this:  there will be four 16 team “superconferences,” totaling 64 teams.  These will be the BCS leagues, with automatic berths to BCS bowls and hopefully, in the future, a legitimate playoff system.  The remaining 56 or 58 schools (I have lost track) will form the other conferences such as the MAC, Sun Belt, Mountain West, Conference USA and WAC.  Right now, there are 66 BCS schools, so having the “4-16,” would force two current BCS schools to drop to non AQ status, hence the fear.  Of course, you could have one 18 team conference—why is 16 the magic number—or you could do what Conference USA and the Mountain West are doing and that is to merge for a championship game, but stay seperate for the regular season and scheduling purposes. 

A big meeting could get everything on the table and provide much needed security for the future of college football.  We all know that the regular season is the best of all the sports, and the postseason is the worst.  And, this is coming from somebody who likes the bowl games.  But, as nice as it is to see a 8-4 team get to play an extra game, a playoff would drip with excitement and would make the sport more money than it could ever imagine.  That day will come, because both ADs and college trustees have seen how much money can be made and it is substantially more than what the current bowl game driven system delivers.

Have the meeting, bring some sanity back to college football.  Yes, there will be some hurt, some pain, some hard feelings and yes, perhaps Baylor and Vanderbilt get dropped tp Conference USA, but let’s not have this ruin the sport.  And, sorry Big East fans, your conference shouldn’t make it.  I don’t rate the Big East much better than Conference USA and from top to bottom, the Mountain West is probably a better conference, and heck, even the MAC is closer to the Big East than the Big East is to the SEC.  Syracuse got an officials break to beat MAC school Toledo, how would they do at Alabama? 

Adding Navy, Air Force, Boise State and Central Florida does not enhance your football profile.  Navy is nothing more than a 1-AA program in disguise and Boise State could probably do much better if they hold out (Big 12).  Just because the Big East adds for survival, doesn’t mean it should retain an automatic BCS bowl berth. 

They can get this done, but it has to be sooner than later.  The game is too good to suffer because of it.

When the Yankees are eliminated from the playoffs, it is always fascinating to turn to the YES Network for the breakdown, the whys and hows of the painful defeat.  As I have said, it has to be hard to be a Yankee fan/employee/anybody related to the organization.  If they win, it is relief, if they lose, it is an utter failure of epic proportions.  And, the YES Network only make exacerbates the concept.

Michael Kay, the lead announcer for Yankess games says it every time the Yanks are taken down,  “I think the Yankees are the better tem, but in this series insert team played better.  I guess we have to come to accept that in American sports.  When you win, you have overcome all the obstacles, you are gritty, determined and just would not accept losing.  But, when you lose, it is never because the better team won, itis impossible to tip your hat and acknowledge that you just plain got beat.

In a way, that’s what makes the Yankees so delicious.  If you love the Yankees, you love the fact that they—or those who work for them—never admit defeat, even when they are defeated.  It’s that arrogance that makes them a brand, not just another team in Major League Baseball.  There are 29 teams in Major League Baseball, and then, there are the Yankees.  I would think that only Manchester United of the English Premier League compares to them and it’s a vague comparison since the United States is very much immune to world soccer. 

That same arrogance makes you despise the Yankees as well.  If you hate them, you take complete delight that the team with the $170 million payroll can’t win a playoff series.  You tune into the YES Network to hear the magic words, that the Yankees lost to a superior team.  You want to hear it from Michael Kay, who in many ways, personifies the Yankee arrogance.  Even though you are satisfied with the result of the series, for some reason, it is not complete until Kay admits that the overpriced Yanks were taken out by the better team.  But, you don’t hear it.  You hear what losers always say—excuses.  As Kay stated, “one big hit here, the Yankees move on to the ALCS,” or,”The Yankees outscored Detroit, but couldn’t win the close games.”  In some ways, you take sheer delight in listening to the excuses, on the other hand, it makes you seethe, because you know that excuses are for losers and the reason for tuning in is that you want to hear them concede.  That’s why the Yankees are so polarizing, and so captivating.

As mentioned, I don’t think there’s much fun in being a Yankee fan.  The regular season is somewhat of a snoozefest because in Yankee land, the mission statement (borrowed from Kay) is to win the World Series, anything else is a failure.  Contrast that to the Tampa Bay Rays, who were absolutely thrilled to just make the playoffs and after losing to Texas in four games, their leader, Evan Longoria, said “we won’t hang our heads, we had a great run and to make the playoffs means we had a great season.”  If Derek Jeter said that, he would likely be reprimanded.  So, as fans in other cities get giddy over bir regular season wins, Yankee regular season wins only make the fans more nervous.  Each win means that they’re one step closer to the playoffs and also one step closer to failure.  To me, that’s no way to live, but that’s life in Yankeeland.

What will the Yankees do now that they completed another season of failure?  Does CC Sabathia opt out and seek an long term deal?  Hopefully, the Yankees call the bloated Sabathia’s bluff and let him opt out and go and find a better deal.  But, because the Yankees fear losing more than any other team, they will likely overpay to keep him.  When Derek Jeter became a free agent, they let him test the free agent waters and still responded by overpaying him a three year $51 million contract.  Yes, he is one of the best of all time, but had the Yankees let him go, he would have been lucky to get $10 million from another team. 

A-Rod looks broken down.  Since he stopped using PEDs, he has gotten hurt each and every year.  He misses significant time each year, but the scared Yankees reacted to his opt out/opt in by paying him through age 42.  He’s not done, but he will never be the dominate A-Rod that he was eight years ago. 

But, this happens all the time in baseball.  The Nats overpaid for Jayon Werth, the Red Sox for Carl Crawford, the Yankees for Jeter anf Rodriguez.  No matter who signs Albert Pujols, somebody will overpay for him, too, because that’s what teams do.  Is Pujols worth it?  On the field, yes, but why give him a seven or eight year deal, when you know that after four years, his best days will be behind him.  As Pujols and the Cards get ready for Game 5 of their Division Series, Pujols had to be excited about last night’s games.  With the Yankees out before the World Series, he knows that they have failed and maybe, just maybe, it will be the Yankees, out of panic will offer him the big contract so they can climb the mountain once again.  Had the Yankees kept winning, they likely would have decided not to pursue him.  Of course, the odds of Pujols landing in the Bronx weren’t high to begin with, but now, there is a chance, a sliver that they may get involved, because that’s what the Yankees do. 

Call it arrogance, call it cockiness, call it cleverness, but that’s why as much as one hates them, you love seeing the Yankees playing October baseball.  When they win, the hater says that they’re supposed to win; when they lose you can take delight, even though the guys at YES Network won’t give you what you’re looking for.

Let’s face it:  the 2011 Mets did not enjoy a banner season.  The season began with the Wilpon family mired deep with the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme scandal.  The question remains how much money the Wilpons will have to fork over to the fruad victims.  Next, was the advertisement that the Mets were looking for a minority partner to infuse them with the cash. They appeared to find one, but of course, that didn’t work out either. 

Next, was the on-the-field play.  The Mets won 77 games, but they did hang in there despite numerous injuries.  Star shortstop Jose Reyes won the batting title, but spent two stints on the DL.  Despite his “controversial” bunt then leave the game, he was derserving of being the first Met to win a batting title.  I didn’t see anything wromg with what Reyes did.  He is not the first player to “protect” his average.  Many players—-too many mention to mention—-have done it.  John Kruk, in 1995, singled in the fifth inning of a gem while a White Sox, getting his career average to .300.  He retired right after the inning, the fifth inning to end his 10 year career. 

David Wright has regressed to the point that the Mets should listen to offers and consider trading him.  He seems permanently spooked by Citi Field and the hitch in his swing also appears permanent.  The Mets have to make decision of resigning Reyes or letting him become a free agent.  We know what will probably happen.  If they let him go, he will likely bat .310 with 25 triples and become a perennial all-star for year to come.  His hamstrings will never ache again.  On the other hand, if they resign him, he will likely be plagued by leg injuries and a .266 batting average.  Remember, this is a team where Ed Kranepool, an ordinary player is the all time hit leader with 1418 hits. 

If I were the Mets, I would let Reyes go.  They won 77 games with him, they can probably win 77 without him.  They should look at Carl Crawford as the blue print.  Both are spark plug players that rely on athleticism and speed to be productive.  But, how did Crawford do in year one on Boston?  Sure, he will get better—he has to—but $140 million better? 

The Mets also suffered another PR blow by saying no to the Yankees.  The Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees, the Yankees Triple A affiliate has a problem.  Their stadium, PNC Field, is being torn down and rebuilt, leaving the team homeless for 2012.  The team wanted to play its 72 game home schedule in Newark, New Jersey.  But, to do so, the Yankees needed permisssion from the Mets to relocate, since Newark is in the Mets territorial rights area.  The Mets, always lurking in the Yankees shadow, vetoed the idea and as a result, the SWB Yanks will play home games in Buffalo, Syracuse, Batavia. Lehigh Valley, Pawtucket and Rochester, which will host 37 of the 72 “home” contests.

Were the Mets really afraid that the Triple A team was going to hurt them at the gate?  Why not approve the move and score some much needed PR points in the baseball crazy New York metro area.  As Yankees GM Brian Cashman, the team was certainly within their right to say no, but why not say yes.  I don’t think the Triple A baseball fan is the same as the MLB fan.  Because ticket prices are so expensive, a Met game is more of a bring your friend proposition, where a Triple A game is a bring your family event. 

I think the Mets could have co-existed with the Newark/SWB Yankees, but the Mets would have none of it.  Sure, the Long Island Ducks play in Islip—-also Mets territory—but Newark, forget about it.  The Mets once again, dropped the ball.  It would have been fun to see Triple A baseball back in Newark, a city with a long history of minor league success, but the Mets had other ideas.

Happy Hoildays, Seasons Greetings to all, so let’s clear up some last minute things before the holidays begin.  First, is the unfortunate suspensions of five Ohio State players for the first five games of the 2011 season.  Once again, the NCAA profits enormously from these players, yet if the players so anything to compromise themselves they get hit hard.  To be sure, nobody wants the players to run wild, but there has to be some loosening of some of the rules.  Pryor is certain to leave school if he can’t play almost half of the 2011 season, whether he is NFL ready or not. 

Speaking of college football, once again, there are just way too many bowl games—-way too many.  For some reasom, the university presidents cling to the notion that bowl season is great, yet most bowl games generate little interest.  Last night the MAACO Bowl was contested between Boise State and Utah, three days before Christmas in Lax Vegas.  For the record, Boise State won in a rout, but did anybody care?  Furthermore, with all the 6-6 teams that made it to a bowl, means that several teams will go bowlnig yet will finish with a sub.500 record. 

To add insult to the bowl’s injury is the Fiesta Bowl.  Connecticut made their first ever BCS bowl and per agreement had to buy 17,500 from Fiesta Bowl organizers.  But, securing airline tickets, hotel rooms and the $111 ticket is not that easy and according to Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News, the Huskies had sold only 3,000 of their allotment.  Oklahoma, with a much more rabid fan base has only sold 8,000 of their repsective tickets. 

What that indicates is that bowl games have lost their luster and the BCS Championship Game has taken away much of the prestige that the big bowls used to have.  Not that the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl are irrelevant, but they don’t count anymore as for determining a national champion.  There was a time when the bowls were all played on January 1 and the next day, a team eas voted the national champion.  I always cite the the 1977 and 1983 seasons as the best example.  Both times, the team that came into the bowls ranked fifth ended up winning the national titles (Notre Dame, Miami).  The BCS prevents that from happening because it sets up one game and crowns the winner.  For the most part, fans prefer this over the old system, but it hurts the bowl games, particularly the ticket sales. 

In some ways, you should root for the smaller crowds at the bowl games.  Less people means less money, and as we all know, it’s all about money.  Eventually, the power brokers that run college football will see that they can make more money by having a playoff and once that occurs, the bowls will be gone. 

This is not a call for a playoff, because personally, it has never bothered me that college football has the system it has.  The polls don’t bother me, nor does the silly BCS Championship Game.  Let them do what they want to do, but money will always win out at the end. 

One more thing about the bowls.  Had Boise State finished unbeaten, they might have/probably wouldn’t have played for the BCS title, but no matter what anybody thinks, the Broncos are a very good football team.  I’m not sure how good they would be in the SEC, but I know one thing, they’d be closer to 9-3 than 3-9.  But, what rubs me is the bowl they played in.  They likely didn’t deserve a BCS bowl, but they were better than the MAACO Bowl.  But, because of tie-ins, they get the MAACO Bowl.  Why not let them play on the Sun Bowl, or the Gator Bowl, give them a big time spotlight on a day where watching bowl games is commonplace.  I’m not knocking the MAACO Bowl, but let Michigan go there and allow Boise State to go to Jacksonville.