Mizzou is a mess, but so is college football in general

I have seen so many post words of encouragement in regards to Mizzou’s triumphant comeback victory over Arkansas to end a miserable 4-8 season for first year coach Barry Odom. So many say, “Way to end the season on a high note,” or “This will build some great momentum in to recruiting season.”

Most of the people saying these things were not at the game on Friday in what is suppose to be a budding rivalry. In fact, very few were there at all to witness this second half charge by this underwhelming Mizzou program. The turnout for this Thanksgiving weekend home matinee was more putrid than the Democrats turnout in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin on election day (11 million less than 2008).

It is not that fans do not want to get out to vote, I mean, attend Mizzou home games. I believe in my heart of hearts, they do. But much like the Dems were on November 8, Mizzou fans are faced with supporting an epic lack of leadership in Columbia at the present moment. For some, that is just too much to stomach, especially 24 hours after gorging themselves with turkey and stuffing (oh, and pumpkin cheesecake, don’t forget about that delicious pumpkin cheesecake).

This is not all Odom’s fault. The problems in Columbia are more wide ranging than the struggling and rebuilding football program. The leadership failures have occurred much further up the chain at Mizzou.

But maybe Odom can be apart of the solution if he can get this program rolling again. Sports have a funny way of bringing people together and from the sounds of things, there are very few places in America where people need to come together more than they do than at the campus in Columbia.

It was a nice win for Odom on Friday. It was good to see somebody smile in black and gold for once. But lets not pretend that the road back to prosperity for Missouri football is anything but a long, steep, uphill battle that will take many years to overcome, just like some of the other leadership issues on campus too.

~ Speaking of messes, college football is once again a mess too, thanks to a system that relies on humans rather than the outcomes on the field. Yes, this is about Ohio State and how I do not believe they should be included in the four-team playoff that determines that National Champion.

If you can not win your own conference title, why in the world should you be given the right to play for a national title? And if you are not even one of the two teams vying for that conference title, the case against you should be even stronger.

Everyone in life gets dealt different hands, but we all have the opportunity to play those hands to the best of our abilities. Sometimes we are given a tougher hand than our opponents. Ohio State was given a tough hand. They may be a better player than a Clemson or Washington, but Ohio State lost a hand that does not give them the right to sit at the same table as those guys moving forward in my eyes.

How could you put Ohio State in over a Pac 12 champ? Or over the actual Big 10 champ, like many would believe would happen if Wisconsin knocks off Penn State?

The logic just does not make sense to me.

I understand those that say Ohio State looks like one of the best four-teams in college football, and so does USC. But Ohio State lost the one hand (game) they could not afford to lose and USC lost three times.

And for those that say expand the field to eight teams. It already looks like eight teams are in the playoff to me. There are eight vying for the conference champs that should make up the final four (SEC, Big 10, Pac 12 and ACC).

Maybe that is too simple minded for some to handle, but looking at it any other way degrades the importance of regular season games and conference championships.

~ What I watched this weekend…. The Fall on Netflix. If you like looking in to the mind of serial killers and watching the chase to hunt them down and piece the evidence together to convict them, you will like this show.

~ What I read this weekend…. A whole bunch of garbage on Fidel Castro’s passing, including some truly bothersome opinions on his life. If you came here looking for me to say anything good about that man, then you came to the wrong place.

This here from the Miami Herald regarding a Cuban sports beat writer’s interaction with Colin Kaepernick was probably the best of the bunch of what I read this weekend.

~ What I ate this weekend…. Turkey! You remember that scene in Forrest Gump when he lists all the different types of ways you can cook shrimp. Yeah, that’s what we did with turkey. I’m still sleepy.