BCS - C = ?

So today I remembered that I have a blog that I never post in/on/at. Kind of stumbled onto it on accident. So, why not throw down with an overdue update? Well, with all the BCS BS going on this weekend, why not put in my two cents?

As of right now, it appears that LSU will be taking on Ohio St. for the National Championship, essentially screwing 10 or so teams out of their chance to prove they are worthy. LSU wins the popularity contest that is the Coaches and Harris polls, and Ohio St. gets in simply because they attach the word "The" to their names when referring to their University. Sure, OSU has a good case for why they deserve a place in the BCS Title game, but no more than Kansas does.

What? Kansas doesn't deserve a shot? They are, after all, the only other 1-loss team in Division 1 this year. That one loss coming to a Missouri team that was ranked #4 at the time, and following the game bolted to #1 in the BCS. A Missouri team that, by the way, beat Illinois. Now Missouri loses to Oklahoma, and suddenly Kansas gets forgotten? I'm not buying it.

Now who was it that Illinois beat just a few weeks ago? Before you call Kansas' schedule in to question, remember who Ohio St. scheduled for non-conference games this year. Kent St., Washington, Akron, and the 1-AA monster Youngstown St. That's quality scheduling right there. As far as conference toughness goes, the Big 10 is just as weak as the Big XII this year. Any conference who's #2 lost to any 1-AA school can't possibly consider themselves tough. Sorry.

Now let's say we take a team like Florida St. or Miami, give them KU's schedule, with the same results. Is there any argument over which 2-loss team gets the other spot in the Title game? Hell no. In fact, Ohio St. probably enters the game as the #2 team in the nation. The fact that Kansas is not traditionally known as a National Championship contender is all that is excluding them from a shot to play for the crystal.

This season is the latest and greatest argument for why college football needs a playoff system. The BCS simply does not work for anyone except the pocketbooks of the NCAA. The sad thing is, a playoff system is ridiculously easy to put into place. Here's how I envision it working:

There are 11 conferences in Division 1-A football, both major (BCS) and otherwise. By taking these 11 conference champions, along with 5 at-large teams (which could be put in place by using the BCS ranking system), we have created a 16-team playoff.

1st Round - Dec. 15: The top 8 teams are given home games, with the seeding set up the same way as one of the regions of the NCAA basketball tournament (1 vs. 16, 8 vs. 9, etc). Again, the top seeds are determined by the BCS rankings (since they work so well).

2nd Round - Dec 22: The 8 teams that advance play in 4 bowl games, two of which are BCS bowls (Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, and Rose), and the other two are two of four second-tier bowls (Cotton, Outback, Gator, and Citrus--I absolutely refuse to call it the Capital One Bowl. The excessive corporate sponsorship of college football is just ridiculous. Call the damn bowls the Something-Or-Other Bowl, presented by X Corporation, fine. Naming it the Corporation Bowl, and now we know, it's all about the money...but that's another issue, for another time. Judging by my frequent updates, you can look forward to hearing my full opinion on the matter in say, 10 months to a year. But I digress). These bowls would be on a rotating schedule, much the same as the 4 BCS bowls rotated which one hosted the National Title game before the BCS decided it needed its own game.

3rd Round (Final 4) - Jan 1: The Final 4 square off in the remaining two BCS bowl games. Keep the January 1 tradition alive with these two big games. Simple enough, not much to explain. Moving on...

National Championship - Jan. 7: The last two teams standing square off in the BCS National Title game. More than likely this would stay on the same 4-game rotation schedule that's currently used.

Now granted, your Sun Belt conference champion would get demolished in the first round, but how is it any different from SW Directional St. Poly Tech A&M getting pummeled by Duke in the first round of the basketball tournament? They earned a shot, they deserve to be there. Settle it on the field. Let them play. And yes, there will still be debates about who is the last team in, and who got screwed out of the last at-large bid. That's life. However, under this system, a team like Hawaii would have only themselves to blame if they failed to make the National Championship game. They won their conference, they made the tournament. Now get out there and prove you can hang with the big boys. Take down USC in the Cotton Bowl. Maybe UCF pulls off a huge upset, dumping Oklahoma in Norman in week 1? Maybe Ohio St. proves they deserve a shot at the title by rolling over Virginia Tech in the Rose Bowl?

Sadly, this won't ever happen as long as the BCS is around. There's simply way too much money involved, although no one at the NCAA Headquarters, or whatever they call themselves, will ever admit it. The have some pretty lame reasons they keep feeding us though.

#1 It would extend the season too long.
The BCS title game is on Jan. 7 this year. That's just over 5 weeks from the end of the regular season. In my system, after a week off, start the tournament Dec. 15, and it's all over on Jan 7. Wow, that's the exact same time frame. So much for prolonging the season.

#2 Fans wouldn't travel to all the games.
You're telling me that the farther your team gets in a playoff, the less likely you would be to pay to see them? Or are there really only 50,000 LSU fans nationwide that can afford to buy tickets? If fans miss out on 1st round games, they can (and will) still buy tickets to 2nd and 3rd round games just as easily. The stadiums will fill up. Guaranteed. Saying otherwise is simply a gross underestimation of the passion of college football fans.

#3 It would make the regular season less exciting.
If you ask me, it would make the in-conference portion of the season actually interesting for a change. I could care less when Ole Miss plays Vanderbilt as it is. Give them something to play for, maybe that changes. Maybe when the ticker scrolls across the bottom of my TV screen during another Stuart Scott "boo-yah" session, I might pay attention past the Top 25.

#4 It would take away from the Bowl tradition.
Not if you keep the other bowl games around, like in my scenario. The games are still there, people will still watch them. In fact, you are only tying up 7 bowl games (including the BCS National Title game) with 16 teams, which means two more schools can make the post season. If the NCAA cared about the bowl "tradition" we wouldn't have nearly 30 of them every year. Teams that struggle to finish .500 for the season wouldn't be rewarded with a post-season bid. We wouldn't have to put up with games being named the PapaJohns.com Bowl and the Meineke Car Care Bowl (again, another topic for another time, but come on man!).

This isn't something that just popped into my head today, either. I've felt this way for years--probably since 2001 when Nebraska played Miami in the National Championship. So many people whined that NU didn't deserve a shot, and whether or not they did, the system said "yes." Put in a playoff, and we would have known for sure. Who knows, Oregon might have rolled past the Huskers in the Final 4 and met up with Miami after all.

If only we would have had a playoff.

Thanks, I Have Enough "Friends"

Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm going to end up dying alone in this house, with nothing but a few hundred cats to keep me company.

It has been way too long since I have been in any sort of committed and/or serious relationship, and it is starting to get to the point, well maybe it's past the point where I'm not sure I will be again. Enough failed attempts, and that's the direction your mind takes you. I don't know which is worse, watching opportunity after opportunity come crashing down, or just not having the opportunities at all.

I'm pretty good about getting my hopes up, just to set myself up for a greater fall. I make the mistake of letting my mind wander down the roads of possibilities while going into things with a positive outlook, only to see everything turn out the same as the time before, with me left alone again.

So what's wrong with me? I have a good job, I have no kids, never been married, and I'm pretty sure I don't have The Clap, but apparently I'm not a good enough "catch" to even interest a woman in attempting a relationship with me lately.

Recently I met a girl that I was totally into, moreso than any other girl I have come across in the past couple of years, and it seemed that she was into me too. We seemed to be getting along great, and every signal I was picking up appeared to be saying that she was interested in becoming more than just friends, but as usual, I was wrong. I'm telling you, the next time I have to hear the "let's just be friends" speech, I may have to club a baby seal.

This is becoming a trend.

Just remember, in 15 years or so when you see a weird 40-yr old guy in the bars hitting on the 21 year old chics (and no doubt getting shut down), be sure to introduce yourself and let me know you read my blog. Just watch out, because I might have The Clap by then. And if not, maybe you'd be interested in giving it to me?

Yeah, you're right. We should just be friends.

This is Horse(shoe)shit

Ever since starting two months ago, I have taken great pride in working for the Horseshoe Casino. It is (well, was) pretty evident in my signature at both The Batcave and over at FCP, but as you'll notice, the Horseshoe insignia I once displayed with pride is now gone, and unless something changes soon, it won't be back.

So what happened? No, I didn't get fired, just screwed over big time. Last night when I came in, I went to the pencil (the person who assigns our tables) to find out what game I would be dealing for the night, and was told I had to go to the office first. Ok, no big deal, I thought. Wrong! I had to meet with Linda and Bob (really not sure what their official titles are, but they're both important), and was told, out of nowhere, that I was going to be reduced to part time, against my will. Two whole days a week.

Why? Well according to Linda, we are currently overstaffed, even though we currently control 40.5% of the local market, and that number is steadily increasing. So how was I "lucky" enough to be chosen? Because of my hire date. Everyone that came out of my blackjack class is being demoted to part time starting July 27th, EXCEPT the 4 people who started "shadowing" on Tuesday the 16th (of May). I wasn't so lucky as to shadow the 16th, because my normal days off are Tuesday and Wednesday. So as not to be required to work 7 days straight, I was told to come in on the 17th (Wednesday) to start my shadowing. And now because of that, I get a 50 ft. lead pipe shoved right up my ass.

I was told I had to sign a job change form demoting me to part time, which clearly I didn't want to do.

"Do I have to?" I asked .
"Yes."
"And what if I refuse?"
"This isn't optional," I'm told.

So I had to sign it. Basically it was that or lose my job right there.

Later on in the evening, I talked to my direct (my immediate boss) to try to find out more info on why this was happening. He didn't even know they had done it. I told him that I was told we were overstaffed, and his response? "Bullshit! If anything we're short dealers right now! We've been having to close games early just to get people out on time!" Yep. We need all the dealers we can get, yet we're cutting back. Great idea.

This leads me to wonder why the hell they're really doing this. Then it hits me. July 27th will be my 74th day of employment; I'm available for my full time benefits after 90 days. Hey, let's save money on benefits by shoving everyone to part time! I'm told that there is a "chance" that if business "picks up" some time in October, I "might" be able to return to full time "temporarliy."

Well, why don't I just transfer to another casino? This is good. In order to be available for a transfer, you must have been employed with Harrah's Entertainment full time for at least 90 days. I'm going to be a couple of weeks short on that now aren't I? This basically means I'm stuck holding the shaft here at the Horseshoe.

There's no way I'm letting this happen without fighting it. I was offered a full time position when I was hired, which meant I had to quit my previous job. Due to the fact that I was taken out of class early (due to my exceptional dealing skills) to get on the casino floor sooner, I wasn't able to put in my two weeks notice before I left, which means I can't go back. It isn't fair to me (or any of the rest of the dealers facing the same situation) to offer full time positions only to turn around and change to part time without being informed that it would possibly happen. Had I known there was a chance I would get my hours cut, I would have chosen Harrah's over Horseshoe (we were given the option when we "graduated" from dealer class).

One of the things that pisses me off the most is the fact that there are some dealers who sign the EO (early out) list every night, hoping to go home early. Every damn night! If these fools don't want to be here, knock them down to part time, and let people like me (who would work 7 days a week if they'd let me) take their full time spots! They obviously don't want them anyway!

I made a point to tell every single one of my players last night about my situation, and a few of my regulars told me they wouldn't be coming back unless they hear I'm on full time. Many people have told me that they've had the best time ever in a Casino when they've sat at my table. They enjoy my personality, and appreciate the fact that I tried my hardest to make their visit enjoyable. Six of my players last night asked for comment cards to a) commend me for providing them the most entertaining evening possible, and b) protest my being moved to part time. One guy went as far as to say that he would add that he wouldn't be frequenting Horseshoe or Harrah's as a result of my unfair demotion. That made me feel pretty good.

It also got me thinking. Until this is straightened out satisfactorily, if it even is, I'm on a Harrah's Entertainment boycott too. That means I won't be rockin' the Horseshoe tags, or doing any of my gambling in any of the Casinos they run (Horseshoe, Harrah's Harvey's, Showboat, Bally's, Caesar's, Flamingo, Grand, Paris, Rio, and I think there's a couple others) nationwide. Sure it's not much, but that's all I've got.

The Horseshoe and Poker

So yeah, I decided to make a blog. I'll spare everyone the whole "this is me" intro first entry, because either a) you already know a little bit about me, b) you probably don't really care, or c) I don't really care. I'll go with c.

Anyways, sometime in the middle of May, the 17th or so, I started working at the Horseshoe Casino as a Table Games Dealer. My job is awesome. I play cards all day long with other people's money, and when I lose, I get tips, unless I have stingy bastards at my table. The only problem I have with my job is that it has seriously taken away from my poker life.

When I was 8 or 9, I taught myself how to play by looking up "poker" in an encyclopedia. I read up on the rank of hands, as well as how to play standard 5 card draw. We had an old set of those plastic poker chips in a Dutch Masters cigar box (pretty good smokes for as cheap as they are), and an endless supply of playing cards in our junk drawer. I never had anyone else to play against, so naturally I carried on a four player game of 5 card draw with myself quite often. Yep, I started playing with myself at 8 yrs old (pun totally intended).

A while later I remember seeing the final table of the WSOP on ESPN way before the game got poular. It was on in the middle of the day during summer vacation in a slot generally reserved for basket weaving, llama riding, and other big name sports. After learning the terminology and procedures of the game, I switched from 5 card draw to Texas Hold 'Em. Again, all by myself. Luckily, in about 4 or 5 years the poker boom would hit, and suddenly I had other people to play against.

The first night I played hold 'em for money was on a fluke. One of my former roommates had bought Rounders, and after watching it, wanted to play some poker. We all bought in for $5 around 1:00am and played with a 5 cent ante (no one understood blinds yet). The game lasted until 4:00 in the afternoon, we took a nap, and started playing again around 8:00pm. It wasn't long before we were playing almost every night with a revolving group of people.

Eventually it evolved into a $20 buy-in .25/.50 blinds bi-weekly event with the same group of 8-10 people. I used to keep track of my wins and losses, and found that poker had become a productive second job for me (I was averaging $60 a week profit, save a few bad nights where I'd drop $60 or so). In fact, both times I lost my job, playing poker helped make ends meet until I found a job.

So what does all this have to do with my job? Well since I started dealing I have played poker all of one time. A 6-person $20 tournament where I finshed 3rd as my AA lost to JJ when he flopped a set (I was all-in preflop). I miss playing poker, but it just doesn't fit my schedule anymore. Luckily, I recently found out that employees of the Horseshoe Casino can now play poker in our poker room. Apparently it had something to do with some study they did in Vegas where dealers were turning down jobs because they couldn't play poker where they worked, so they changed the rules.

Wow, how's this for irony. As i sit here writing this, I got a call from a friend of mine, and we're putting a game together for tonight. How's that for timing?

That's all for now. Later.