By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-01-04 16:01:27
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
尽管他们竭尽全力，凭着最糟糕的直觉行事，他们依然没有毁掉大学橄榄球。
那些大学的校长和董事们没有，即使他们为了追逐金钱而放弃了百年联盟和传统对抗。
那些体育部门也没有，即使他们处处与学生（他们的命脉）作对，拒绝接受或为不可避免的变化做好准备，然后将球员塑造成随之而来的混乱的替罪羊。
甚至那些唯命是从的联盟专员也没有，即使他们为了迎合电视网络的奇思妙想，丝毫不关心有多少院校和球迷群体被抛在身后。
他们试图搞砸这一切。
但他们失败了。
是的，大学橄榄球季后赛只剩下四个超级富有的豪门球队。是的，两个最富有的超级联盟和唯一的超级独立球队战胜了所有其他球队。
但如果这次季后赛证明了什么，那就是其他球队并非可有可无。“其他球队”仍然很重要。那些试图让大学橄榄球变得更加排外的家伙最好三思而后行。
还有人相信东南联盟可以独当一面吗？十多年来，它可能是大学橄榄球界最好的联盟，但它所谓的优越感已经荡然无存。在去年未能将任何成员球队送入全国冠军赛之后，本赛季东南联盟唯一的半决赛球队是一支在十二大联盟时期打造的德克萨斯球队。
如果不是在加时赛第四档13码的进攻中完成了一次完美的临场调整和一次完美的传球，这支德州长角牛队也不会出现在这里。亚利桑那州立大学，一支被预测将在被德州队抛弃的所谓过时联盟中垫底的球队，距离一场史诗级的爆冷只有一步之遥。
瞧，尽管那些试图毁掉这一切的人竭尽全力，凭着最糟糕的直觉行事，但爆冷仍然可能发生。东南联盟和十大联盟的学校受益于让其他所有学校都相形见绌的电视转播合同，但电视转播合同并非万能。
如果捐赠者想在姓名、形象和肖像权上大笔投入，他们可以让像南卫理公会大学这样的项目进入季后赛。
像博伊西州立大学这样的球队可以找到像跑卫阿什顿·简蒂(Ashton Jeanty)这样的特殊球员来带领他们进入季后赛。如果有一些传统的强队，每个人都认为他们比那些新贵更好，仅仅因为他们一直如此？那么，像佐治亚大学(University of Georgia)和阿拉巴马大学(The University of Alabama)这样的世界级强队最好还是能够证明这一点。
大多数时候，这些学校将能够应对挑战。毕竟，资金和基础设施确实很重要。但仅仅因为斗牛犬队和深红潮队可能在大多数年份里都能战胜贝勒大学(Baylor University)、弗吉尼亚理工大学(Virginia Tech)和德州大学圣安东尼奥分校(University of Texas at San Antonio)，并不意味着来自十二大联盟、大西洋海岸联盟或美国体育联盟的学校不应该有机会震惊大学橄榄球界。
这就是为什么12支球队的季后赛形式，尽管存在种种缺陷，却取得了如此巨大的成功。四分之一决赛应该在校园里进行，半决赛可能也应该如此。种子排名导致了一些不太理想的怪事，比如头号种子（俄勒冈大学(University of Oregon)）被迫在玫瑰碗球场与可能是全国阵容最深厚、最有天赋的球队（俄亥俄州立大学(The Ohio State University)）进行四分之一决赛。
没有充分的理由让球迷为三轮在中地球场比赛的旅行买单。而且也没有理由不能像NFL那样在首轮比赛后重新排定种子。
但这正好说明了这里的中心思想：尽管大学橄榄球界的人们试图以各种方式破坏整个事业，但人们仍然热爱它。正如预测的那样，这次12支球队的季后赛的电视收视率爆棚。即使许多比赛都是一边倒的，但这并没有扼杀人们的兴趣。
这合情合理。其他所有体育项目也都有不均衡的季后赛结果。
解决几个无聊的第四节比赛的办法不是把小家伙们淘汰出局。他们仍然有机会。
联盟重组并没有破坏这一点。支付球员的薪水也没有，转会门户也没有。
因此，当本月有四个超级富有的豪门球队争夺全国冠军时？
人们仍在观看，他们知道金钱很重要。
但还不至于毁掉一切。
Texas defensive back Jelani McDonald (25) celebrates after the team’s 38-24 win over Clemson during a first round college football playoff game at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Austin.
Texas head coach Stephen Sarkisian celebrates with running back Quintrevion Wisner after the team’s 38-24 win over Clemson during a first round college football playoff game at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Austin.
Texas running back Jaydon Blue (23) runs for a 77-yard touchdown during the second half of a first round college football playoff game at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Austin.
点击查看原文：Imperfect as ever, college football still gets it right
Imperfect as ever, college football still gets it right
Despite their best efforts and their worst instincts, they didn’t ruin college football.
Not the university presidents and trustees who chased the money wherever it took them, even when it took them away from century-old alliances and traditional rivalries.
Not the athletic departments who fought their student lifeblood at every turn, refusing to accept or prepare for inevitable change, then painting players as scapegoats for the ensuing chaos.
Not even the conference commissioners who obligingly carried out the whims of TV networks, not caring how many institutions and fan bases were left behind.
They tried to screw it up.
They failed.
Yes, the College Football Playoff is down to four ultra-wealthy blue bloods. And yes, the two richest superconferences and the only mega-independent outlasted everyone else.
But if this playoff has proven anything, it’s that everyone else isn’t expendable. The “everyone else” part still matters. And the people trying to make college football more exclusive had better think twice about that.
Does anyone still buy the idea that the Southeastern Conference can go it alone? It might have been the best league in college football for more than a decade, but its presumption of superiority is gone. A year after failing to send a member to the national championship game, the SEC’s only semifinalist this season is a Texas team that was built in the Big 12.
And had it not been for a perfect audible and a perfect pass on an overtime fourth-and-13, the Longhorns wouldn’t be there, either. Arizona State, a team picked to finish last in the supposedly obsolete conference Texas left for dead, was one play away from an upset for the ages.
See, despite the best efforts and the worst instincts of those who tried to ruin this stuff, those upsets still are possible. The schools in the SEC and the Big Ten benefit from TV contracts that dwarf everybody else’s, but TV contracts aren’t everything.
If donors want to spend big on name, image and likeness, they can lift a program like SMU’s into the playoff.
A team like Boise State can find a special player like running back Ashton Jeanty to carry it there. And if there are traditional powerhouses that everyone assumes are better than those upstarts, just because they’ve always been? Well, the Georgias and Alabamas of the world had still better be able to prove it.
Most years, those schools will be up to the challenge. Money and infrastructure do matter, after all. But just because the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide are likely to dominate Baylor and Virginia Tech and UTSA most years doesn’t mean that schools from the Big 12 or the Atlantic Coast Conference or the American Athletic Conference shouldn’t have a path to shocking the college football world.
That’s why the 12-team playoff format, for all its flaws, has turned into such a rousing success. The quarterfinals should be on campus, and the semifinals probably should, too. The seeding has led to some less-than-ideal quirks, such as the top overall seed (Oregon) being forced to play a quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl against perhaps the deepest, most talented squad in the country (Ohio State).
There’s no good reason to make fans pay for three rounds of trips to neutral-site bowl games. And there’s no reason why the bracket can’t be re-seeded after the first-round, the way the NFL does it.
But this just illustrates the central point here: For all the ways that those in college football try to undermine the whole endeavor, people love it anyway. The TV ratings for this 12-team playoff have been, as predicted, through the roof. And even though many of the games have been blowouts, it hasn’t killed the interest.
That makes sense. Every other sport has lopsided postseason outcomes, too.
The solution to a few boring fourth quarters isn’t to cut the little guys out. They still have a chance.
Realignment didn’t spoil that. Neither did paying players, and neither did the transfer portal.
And so as four ultra-wealthy blue bloods compete this month for the national championship?
People keep watching, knowing that money matters.
But not enough to ruin it all.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News