Round robins please silver cats
It's elementary, My Dear Watson
Rich Linde, 1 June 2009
 

The phrase, "Round robins please silver cats (Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Silver, Cadmium)," might be a good mnemonic for memorizing part of the transition metals appearing in the Periodic Table, but round-robin scheduling works to the detriment of the Pac-10 on a national level. The silver cats (fat cats) represent the other BCS conferences raking in the dough by virtue of playing an added BCS bowl game.

The Pac-10 gets no respect for playing a rugged round-robin scheduling format in determining its conference champion. Think "the eastern mafia," starting with the Lew Alcindor rule, and climb that crooked ladder to the biased voting leading to USC's exclusion from the BCS title game this past season.

Yes, the conference can claim the moral high ground for having each member play each other every season, but the other conferences and their members are laughing all the way to the bank.

BCS football is all about the money, not about scheduling bragging rights.

By playing a round-robin format, the Pac-10 ensures that five of its teams will be guaranteed 5 more losses per season than it likely would have had if it had been playing an eight-game format as it once did. Tossing out an extra game each season, means a Washington, say, could play a non-conference game against a non-BCS team and gain one more win a season, increasing its chances of getting into a bowl game and lessening its chances of going through another litany of head coaches.

Since the inception of the BCS bowls in the 1998/1999 season, Big Ten teams have played in 19 lucrative (high payoff) BCS bowl games. The Pac-10 has played in 13 of them and hasn’t had two teams playing in them since USC whipped Iowa, 38-17, in the Orange Bowl in 2003.

The Big Ten conference has gone 8-11 in BCS bowls, while the Pac-10 has won 9 games and lost 4. (*) Because of its BCS-bowl record, the Pac-10 has proven itself worthy of the profitable payout that would be inherent in playing an additional BCS bowl game, more so than the Big Ten – or, perhaps, even the Big 12, which has won 7 and lost 9.   

The SEC has played in 17 BCS bowls, wining 12 and losing 5. I have no argument with the SEC playing an extra game.

Before the round-robin format began in 2006, Pac-10 teams skipped playing each other twice in consecutive years over a 16-year period, with the exclusion of the natural rivalry games. Teams played four conference games on the road and four at home. See Bob Condotta’s blog.

The advantages of playing just eight conference games are as follow:

• Increased chances of going to a bowl and playing in an added BCS bowl game. This means more money for the conference to be split among conference members.



• Breaking up an ugly scheduling pattern. This upcoming season, the Huskies play five conference games at home and four on the road. However, three of those conference teams (Cal, Oregon and USC) at home are contenders for the conference crown. These are three conference games the Huskies would probably lose, whether the game were played on the road or at home. You might as well play them all on the road. Of course in 2010, it will work the other way, but it would be nice if this pattern were scrambled by the eight-game format, meaning that there is a 3 out of 8 chance these 3 teams, as an aggregate, might not play the Huskies in a given year.



• Getting off to a good start. In his blog (click on link), Ted Miller argues, “The strength of the conference, both as a mathematical part of the BCS formula and as a perception issue within the college football nation, would improve because records would be better…most Pac-10 teams could schedule their way to a 3-1 or even a 4-0 start, which is what nearly every other BCS team does.”

Texas Tech, with an 11-2 record in 2008, got off to a 4-0 start by playing Eastern Washington, Nevada, Southern Methodist and Massachusetts. It ended up in the Cotton Bowl playing on January 2nd. Last season, the Pac-10's last bowl game, other than the Rose Bowl, was played on December 30th in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl. The conference needs more TV exposure over the New Year's holidays.

Last season, the LSU Tigers drew over 90,000 fans at home for each of its victories over Appalachian State, North Texas, Troy and Tulane. Once Washington, say, gets into the winning mode again, attendance at home will increase when it plays lesser-quality teams as part of its nonconference schedule.

Miller says the reasons for playing a round-robin format are because scheduling is more equitable and easier to do. He says that a “...conference game is easier to sell to a fan base than a game against a lackluster nonconference foe.”

However, he says that in an informal poll, conference coaches voted 6-4 in favor of ending round-robin scheduling. Miller adds, “That's about how a straw poll went in May during the Pac-10 meetings in Phoenix, and feelings were strong enough against the nine-game conference schedule that the athletic directors will review the issue during their June meetings in San Francisco.”

What do the Periodic Table and its memory gimmicks have to say about this matter?

While "round robins please silver cats," in the period (row) below they say, "overt initiative portends gold mines (Osmium, Iridium, Platinum, Gold, Mercury)."

That's what they say. (No, I'm not one electron short of a full outer shell, that is, highly reactive.)

So conference members, show some initiative, drop the round-robin format, and mine some gold by working towards earning a second BCS bowl game as well as sending additional teams to lesser bowls.

If that’s what the Periodic Table is saying, it’s got to be the right formula. It’s elementary, My Dear Watson.

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This month, Nick Daschel of Buster sports will be naming his top 30 coaches in "modern" Pac-10 history, this era starting in 1959, fifty years ago. His number 30 on the list might surprise you. (Click on link).

(*) You could argue that USC has gone 6-1 in BCS bowls, while the rest of the conference has played to a 3-3 record. However, the conference went 5-0 in its bowl games last season and deserved to have had Oregon play in a BCS bowl.