Naming things is hard.
Every year, millions of people are born into the world, and every year some parents name their children weird things. In spite of all the reasonable people naming babies Joshua or Olivia, a few radical souls name their children Morpheus or Moondog or Apple or something. These people may not be insane, but rather become overwhelmed by the enormity of naming a person who's going to be around for decades.
That's hard enough as is. Now imagine that you have to name a corporation. If you get it wrong, you're not screwing up a kid (you can always make more kids anyway), you're screwing up the effort of dozens or hundreds of people.
To make a long story short, trying to come up with a fancy name makes rational people lose their minds from the pressure in the process. This is the rationale I assume is behind the announced name of the new college football playoff... the College Football Playoff. The website is here, and the Twitter handle for it is here.
It's not impressive — milquetoast isn't bland enough to describe it — but it's accurate and parsimonious. If you ask for more creativity from these people, you'll get ideas that make Leaders and Legends look as sensible as East and West. At least Jim Delany has a dry sense of humor about the thing:
"I'll be happy with whatever. Obviously I'm not great at names."
The name of a playoff doesn't change much about the NCAA: the inconsistencies of wealth distribution, big money games, and movers and shakers remain in place. We still don't know many specifics about the playoff, other than six (!) sites hosting semifinals. But the name change makes college football a little more intellectually honest, and college football can be redeemed with more honesty.
MACTION=DRAFTION. The Big Ten has had better draft years, but this year may be the MAC's best. While the Big Ten may get shut out of the first round altogether, left tackle Eric Fisher of Central Michigan has a chance at being the top overall pick:
Fisher is no guarantee to go to the Kansas City Chiefs with the No. 1 overall pick when the 2013 NFL Draft starts Thursday night, but he's thought to be in the mix. He's not expected to fall out of the top five, and maybe not out of the top two.
He's poised to become the highest MAC player ever drafted, ahead of Marshall's Byron Leftwich (No. 7, 2003), Bowling Green's Bernie Casey (No. 9, 1961), Toledo's Dan Williams (No. 11, 1993) and Miami-Ohio's Ben Roethlisberger (No. 11, 2004).
When talent like Eric Fisher is passed over by Big Ten schools without a second thought, as Fisher claims in the article, the conference has development AND evaluation issues. Congratulations to the MAC on producing another top player, but it's an embarrassment for the Big Ten to not have anyone up there. Johnathan Hankins and Kawann Short of Purdue receive mentions as top players who could be drafted in the first round. Should Hankins be drafted in the first round, the Green Bay Packers or Indianapolis Colts are potential landing spots, per this CBSSports mock draft projecting Hankins 26th and 24th overall. However, most mock drafts leave the conference out entirely. The next highest Ohio State players, like Reid Fragel, are projected around the third round.
Adding to the conference's misery: guess which team has produced more first-round draft picks than anyone else since 2008? If you guessed Illinois, you are right! 11-29 in-conference Illinois has produced more first-rounders than any other Big Ten school since the zenith of the Zook era. So they have that going for them, which is nice.
Take note, College Football Playoff: this is a good logo. PLAYOFF PROFITEERING. Perhaps not coincidentally, College Football Playoff corresponds to a domain name ESPN has owned for quite some time. It's not clear how long ESPN has held onto www.collegefootballplayoff.com, but the domain has existed since at least 2003. Conspiracy theorists might wonder how much influence ESPN exerted on the BCS to make the name for the new playoff match the domain it owned. Of course, crass crossbranding is something* ESPN would never partake in.
Also, on the official website is a public vote for a new playoff logo. If you have a free minute, you may as well check it out. Though none is head and shoulders above the rest, I'm partial to Logo #1. No matter the choice, you'd better believe the powers that be are going to monetize the snot out of it.
*I miss Le Anne Schreiber writing about ESPN.
GOLFING FOR GRANTS-IN-AID. Urban Meyer, I would assume, enjoys golf. Schools getting scholarship money is good. So what's not to like about the Chick-Fil-A Bowl Challenge? Which great charity benefits from the prestige and exposure of these fine coaches and media partners?
Errrm. Not that coaches should be kept from enjoying their offseason on the links, but is this really productive for the NCAA? Scholarships are scholarships, and they are great for the universities, but there are approximately 15 schools that benefit from the event, all large. When smaller schools complain about an uneven playing field, they may not be directly referring to this kind of event, but the celebrity status of the coaches involved helps their schools to be included in a sort of invitational that isn't accessible to, say, Gardner Webb. Some clarity would be helpful; it's this kind of preference that may precede a split.
Take this with a grain of salt, but a little birdie told me Steve Spurrier has petitioned the NCAA to allow scholarship money grants solely based on golf challenges and opponent burns. And so South Carolina becomes a superpower.
BROWN, TAKE TWO. The Cleveland Cavaliers have reached a handshake agreement with Mike Brown for him to return as the head coach next season. Ohio State assistant and former Cavaliers assistant coach Chris Jent had been rumored for the position.
Though many NBA coaches are retreads, Mike Brown's history with the Cavaliers makes the move peculiar. Brown had been the Cavaliers head coach from 2005-2010, and left with the highest winning percentage in franchise history. Unfortunately, he left on a sour note as the Cavaliers bombed out of the playoffs in 2009 and 2010 and he was subsequently fired. The Los Angeles Lakers also fired him five games into this season after a rough start.
Brown was a successful coach with an effective defensive system, but his coaching was also offensively flawed. If he's rehired, the obvious question is why Cleveland would rehire somebody they already decided shouldn't coach for them and couldn't get a title in two LeBron James MVP seasons. One hypothesis, the Cavaliers making this move to increase the likelihood of James coming back to Cleveland in 2014, is a pipe dream. More likely is that they couldn't find a better coach, retread or not.
The deal is supposedly for 5 years and $20 million, though the Lakers owing him money might reduce what Cleveland pays. The move is disappointing to those hoping for title caliber teams, but this likely will make the Cavs at least a middle-of-the-pack team for some time.
LINK SAUSAGE. Lance Armstrong is being sued by the U.S. Postal Service... FIFA officials are still insanely corrupt... The OSU men's tennis juggernaut wins its eighth straight Big Ten title... The Jacksonville Jaguars will play in AFL uniforms next year... NASA draws an interesting pattern on Mars's surface... Selling your school to recruits a bit too hard... ESPN names a new ombudsman... Please don't start talking about playoff beards until the Blue Jackets clinch... OMG, I love Obesity Epidemic too!
