Welcome to the latest installment of “What I Think…” for the Holiday Season 2001.

 

First of all – HOW ABOUT THOSE STEELERS!!!!  Yup, by the time you read this, they can possibly have a three game lead over the defending Super Bowl Champions.

 

And quite possibly, they could have got the crap beaten out of them on Sunday night.

 

Regardless, this STEELERS team is undoubtedly the best team since Kordell took them to the AFC Championship in 1997.  For those of you who don’t remember, that STEELERS were seeded first in the AFC, and hosted the Denver Broncos for the AFC Championship.  This was the first of Denver’s championship teams.  The STEELERS had beaten the Broncos earlier that season, and this game wasn’t much different.  The STEELERS led the entire game, and Elway led his team down the field with less then two minutes, completed a VERY LUCKY fourth down pass, and the rest is history.

 

Back to this year’s team.  They surely are playing well, and I don’t see anyone stopping them (barring injury).  I look at it this way.  The critics’ choice for the AFC seems to be the Raiders.  Well, people picked the Raiders last year, too.  And once again, as memory fails all others, the Steelers happened to BEAT the Raiders last year, IN OAKLAND!  This STEELERS team is much better than last year, so I suspect we should be able to take care of business wherever necessary.

 

But as we all know, in the playoffs, anything can happen.

 

Speaking of playoffs, let me just throw out a shot at the BCS.

 

You stink!

 

Okay, so it kind of works, but just sometimes.  How can a team that doesn’t win its conference championship be considered a national champion?  If you compare it to a wild-card team winning a championship, at least the wild-card team still had to win the playoff games.

 

If the BCS changes any rules, I’d like to see these:  if you don’t win your conference, you don’t get considered; and change the point values of losses based on the time of year.  For example if you lose in August or September, it’s worth 1 point; you lose in October 1.5 points; you lose in November or December 2 points.  That way the teams that finish STRONGER at the end of the season have a better shot.  That way that loss to Fresno St. in September doesn’t mean as much as the Nebraska 28 point loss to Colorado in November.

 

When it all comes down to it – play a frigging PLAYOFF!!!  You don’t have to have the top 16 (as some propose) or top 8.  Usually the National Champion is between 2 – 4 teams.  So, use your stupid BCS to determine the top 4 (implementing my new rules from above).  Have a semifinal game the minimum 7 days before New Years, then have your National Championship as usual.  Only one extra weekend, and the two semi-final sites and final site can be rotated between the big 4.  The other site can host “the best of the rest”.

 

I don’t watch a lot of college football based on this.  I’ll sneak in an occasional USC or UCLA game, and a parts of bowl games.  But that’s it.  I’ll watch NCAA Final Four because the playoffs are exciting!  One and you’re out!  I’ll watch women’s softball and volleyball for the same reason.

 

Now to change the subject – on my other website I wrote about how Apple stole my idea of “box of music”.  Well, I’m watching “Everyone Loves Raymond”, and Frank gets a guest column in Ray’s newspaper.

 

What does he call it?

 

WHAT I’M THINKING…

 

Now even I know that I’ve been writing this column well before that episode airs.

 

At least, that’s WHAT I THINK….

 

Have a Happy Holiday, and keep GOD first in all that you do.