Wildcard Wednesday: Things I don't Understand in Sports

• Why doesn't Division 1 College Football have a playoff system? I don't want to hear the arguments about kids missing class, please! Other college sports travel more and miss much more class. D1A and D2 has playoffs, are those students academics worth less then a D1 athlete? Money - Come on, a D1 playoff system would generate more. The importance of the regular reason - How would that change? If you had an 8 team playoff system or even a +1, the regular season games are still very important. I do like the traditions of the bowl games, but there are ways to keep them involved. I think the only real losers would be the Motor City Bowl and Poulan Weed Eater Bowls if still around would become the equivalent of the NIT in Basketball. If you think about it, aren't they the NIT already?
• Al Davis? I'm know when you own the team, you can make any damn decision you want. But if this guy was my Grandfather, I wouldn't let him hold the TV remote! I saw on ESPN last night that he was taking away play calling from Greg Knapp, the team's offensive coordinator. Are you kidding me? I believe the only thing this guy has done right over the past 10 years was hire Jon Gruden. Then of course he traded him. I'm sorry, but the NFL or someone has to step in and relieve Al of his duties, he is making a mockery out of himself and his once proud franchise. What quality coach would want to coach the Raiders? I'm sure his head coaching wish list looks like this right now: #1 John Cooper, #2 Wayne Fontes, #3 Jerry Faust, #4 Greg Robinson current headman at Syracuse.
• Signing Day: Basketball vs Football: Did you know today is one of the official signing days for high school seniors to officially sign their letter of intent for the 2009 class in Basketball. Yes, today! Why is college football so behind college basketball? Most major college football programs have their 2009 class filled or close to full and have moved on to the 2010 class. There should be an early signing period for Football as well. This seems like a no brainier. Of course people will argue, what if kids change their minds, etc. Well don't sign early or make it easier for schools to let kids out without a penalty. Last point, with all these kids enrolling early, does it make sense that kids could enroll in college, start class in January and not have to sign their letter of intent until late February? It doesn't, change the rule and add an earlier date.
• Every play in college football is reviewed? Varsity Blue another fine Michigan blog, made this same point this week. It seems the guys in the booth only look at replays if: a catch is trapped, if a runners knee was down before the end zone, or did the ball come out on a possible fumble. I see at least two or three plays each game that should be reviewed but isn't. Michigan clearly recovered a fumble in the Minnesota game and it wasn't reviewed. Come on guys! Push the button and watch the game!
• Why do we care so much about Notre Dame? There was a constant stream on the ESPN ticker last night that Charlie Wies is going to take over play calling for his Offensive Coordinator who is at a funeral this week and will miss some practice time. Who Cares? How is this news? Information like this should be reserved for Notre Dame Blogs not a national news story on ESPN. Let's also be honest here for a second, the reason he is taking over play calling is because Boston College beat them 17-0. Not because his OC is attending a funeral.