Playoff Conclusions

So let’s recap.

We’ve got two main sides, the pro-playoff fans who focus on the games and want their champion to be clear-cut, and the anti-playoff fans who focus on the season and want their champion to be the best. Both sides attack the other’s logic and arguments while using dubious arguments and logic of their own, and often they’ll often turn the rhetorical weapons that get used against them right around and fire them back on the other side. There’s a lot of yelling, viciousness, displays of pride, shooting of feet, slobbering, and general mayhem. (And that’s at the congressional hearings – imagine the anarchy that exists in the internet forums.) Everybody screams about fairness and doing what’s right but nobody can ever agree on what is fair and what is right. We go round and round in circles, jumping off one carnival ride and onto the next, fully realizing the futility of our arguments but unable to stop making them nonetheless because the whole situation just begs for a fight. And so fight is what we do. Everybody gets involved – the conferences, the schools, the fans, the coaches, the congress, the waterboys, the mascots, the network talking heads, the announcers, the cheerleaders, and even the players. Crying and throwing things and pissed off. All because of a championship.

But the sport is bigger than just the championship.

Play and watch the games, enjoy the feats of athleticism, marvel at the coaching strategy and trickeration, get goosebumps when a stadium full of people collectively holds its breath, take pride in moving up the rankings, breathe in the crisp fall tailgating air, rush the field when you beat your rival. Jump and scream with joy when your team scores, and hang your head when they give up points. Be happy that there’s so many great, unique things about the sport.

Realize that while the national championship is an issue, there’s much more to college football.

Money. Money money money <> Introduction: Setting the Scene