Bowl Championship Survey

I was watching College Gameday (as is my normal Saturday wake-up routine) and I actually had to rewind the live TV because I could not believe what I was hearing: Nearly all of these guys that I love to listen and laugh to each week, had suddenly lost their minds. Corso, Herbstreit, Fowler, and even Desmond Howard all were coming out AGAINST a playoff system?!?

Here's the gist of their argument: They were saying that the system works-That despite early problems with the system, the last two years the BCS has pitted #1 against #2. They were also saying that the fans would never be up for flying to one bowl one week and then have to follow their team again the very next week in order to pack out areas that seat over 100,000 people.

Here's my take: Did they forget about Auburn so quickly?!? Herbstreit especially has been all aboard the Auburn bandwagon last year when they went undefeated and did not get the opportunity to play for the National Championship. He is so enamored with them that he was actually lobbying for them to get into a BCS bowl game instead of Oregon, who's only loss this year so far has been to #1 USC.

Now, back to why I bring up the Auburn scenario. The 'analysts' were saying that if College Football adopted a playoff, it would only move the controversy down to the debate over who would get into to the playoffs as the #8 seed. I say-"WHO CARES?!?" I say that if you win all of your games, you as a team, have done all that you can do to stake a claim at the National Championship. Auburn last year did everything that it could do: It won all of its games, coincidentally in the very conference (the SEC) that most analysts-including the guys on Gameday-like to say is the toughest conference in the country.

Wouldn't it be better to have the debate center on those teams that had not won all of their games instead of on those who do not have strength of schedule issues, who won all of their games, and did all of their talking on the field?!? As much as everyone likes to talk this year about the 'feel good' story of JoePa and the Penn State Nittany Lions-they still did lose to Michigan and noone can deny that fact. It doesn't matter that people didn't like the fact that the refs added time on to the game and that is why people feel that Michigan won. The result of the game was a W for Michigan.

I would much rather not have to worry about rewarding those teams, like Auburn, last year that had put in the effort to win all of their games than worrying over who I might offend because I kept them out of the playoffs when they didn't even win ALL OF THEIR GAMES!!!

So, now that my rant is over, and as Tony Kornheiser of the great PTI always says: I WIN!, here is what I propose for the "NEW AND IMPROVED COLLEGE PLAYOFF SYSTEM:

1) Let the BCS or whatever system 'they' want determine the rankings for the Division 1-A football teams.

2) The top 8 ranked teams in the country in the final BCS poll get invited to participate in the playoffs to compete for the National Championship.

3) The first round games will be hosted by the higher ranked team-so right now, this year- USC would host Notre Dame, Texas would host Oregon, Penn St would host Ohio St, and LSU would host(?) Virginia Tech.

4) The next round of games could be rotated each year between the BCS Bowls-the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, and Rose Bowls-with the National Championship game rotating sites each year just as it does now.

5) Here's the last and most important point for those that like to look at the "revenue" aspect of the BCS-I propose that the semifinal games be played on their normal New Year's Day schedule with the National Championship game played the weekend in January between the NFL Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl. I think that this would take advantage of a week off in the football calendar and allow the teams to prepare for the matchup and further tie college football ratings into the NFL's.

Well, that's my rant-What do you think?!?

On this time of Thanksgiving.....I eat Crow!

As many of you know, I have been working frantically to finish up my Masters degree in Management from Indiana Wesleyan. It has been typical to my experience with IWU-I have had to do all of the work to follow up on enrollment and financial aid. It has been an amazing time of growth and learning how to persevere to see this thing through to the end. I am now on course to finish all of my coursework in May!

I as started my new class, the professor gave me a reminder as to WHY I am pursuing this degree and WHY I try to be deligent to my mission field of Student Development with his devotional entitled, "Servant Leadership". I hope that it speaks to you as much as it did me.

Servant Leadership

Two of the most vivid illustrations of Servant Leadership are found in the books of Matthew and I Peter.

“But Jesus called them unto him, and said, “You know that the leaders of the Gentiles exercise dominion over then, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you, let the LEADER be your minister; And whosoever will be CHIEF among you, let him be your SERVANT: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and GIVE his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-8).

“Be leaders of God’s people that are under your care, serving as overseers – not out of a sense of obligation, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to all” (I Peter 5:2-3).

Both passages clearly illustrate the continuum from theory X leadership to theory Z leadership; from authoritarian leadership to transformational leadership. There are seven Servant Leadership principles that can guide each of us in our various leadership roles.

1. We are only qualified to lead to the degree we are willing to serve.
2. The more we serve the greater we become.
3. Serving is a cheerful giving of love.
4. Love is the great commission for all that choose to serve and lead.
5. Love is the passion to benefit others by the giving of self – from self to service.
6. There is a price to pay in Servant Leadership, but the benefits are enduring.
7. Servant Leaders know that perseverance will outlast persecution.


Lord, I pray that during times of stress and trial that you will help me to remember that: The more we serve-the greater we become! Thank you so much for the priviledge of working with college students. --Jason

Perspective

It's interesting to me how we are all so focused on ourselves that we fail to see how are actions affect others. I have been working down here in Abilene, Texas for almost 3 months now and I am still blown away at our capacity to think only of ourselves. In the last few weeks I have had to deal with putting out a fire caused by someone smoking in their bathroom, students climbing out on roofs trying to get into the opposite sex's room, and just recently, I spent over 5 hours waiting in the emergency room for someone who had overdosed on morphine pills.

Why do we all continue to punish ourselves in these ways? Why do we as a people insist on finding new and exciting ways to make ourselves miserable. I myself am finding that I am feeling the weight of this Thanksgiving holiday. I have so many things in my life and things that I have overcome that I should be rejoicing over the opportunity to share a day of thanksgiving with others. What am I doing instead? I am brooding over not being able to go home to Iowa to spend this holiday with my family. I know in my heart that I should be thankful for my life, and I am, it's just that for me-this pain is real. I know in my heart that stacked up against the losses that the people in the Gulf region have endured, my pain is nothing, but for me my pain is real. In spite of having multiple options for where to go for Thanksgiving dinner, I still feel sorry for myself=The pain is real.

This is where I live in terms of the lessons that I try to teach to my residents. Ours is not to continue to dump on ourselves with guilt for feeling bad-Ours is to learn from these things so that they allow us the ability to walk in other people's shoes. If we truly learn about ourselves and become comfortable in our own skins, we will gain the perspective to reach out to others in their pain withour needing to defend our own.

This year, I am thankful for the gift of Jesus. I am thankful for my family. I am eternally thankful for the friendships that God has brought into my life=without some of you available on the other end of the line, where would I be?!? I am also thankful for the hurts in my life that God carried me through in order to help me be the man I need to be to be effective with my residents.

Have a Great Thanksgiving!!!