There has been a lot of discussion lately about college athletics, specifically college football. It is obvious that there is a major disparity between the haves and the have not’s. Realistically, 90 percent of schools have no shot at winning a national championship, or even being invited to a major bowl game.

There has also been greater focus put on whether or not football athletes are being used unfairly to generate money for their respective universities.  One school, Northwestern, has voted to unionize while athlete directors seem to talk more these days about expanding the brand and generating revenue than helping student athletes succeed.

So where do we go from here? Perhaps the solution can be found across the pond by taking a page from the Barclay’s Premiere League. The league, for those uninformed sports fans, features England’s best soccer clubs. The clubs play matches outside the league, but winning the Barclay’s is equivalent to winning a Super Bowl or being named National Champions.

Now before you say “I hate soccer, it’s boring”; what makes the Barclay’s Premiere Leagues so unique is that they “relegate” teams every year. That means the bottom three clubs are kicked out and new ones added. (I’m sure the Texans and the Astros are glad the NFL and MLB don’t follow this policy).

The beauty of this set-up is that it creates drama at the top and bottom of the standings. First you would need to set up a “Super Football Conference”. I know there will be lots of disagreement about the criteria, but for the sake of argument, let’s pick last year’s BCS Top 25 schools.  Those not making the cut would remain in their respective conferences.

The top four teams in the BCS standings at the end of the year were Florida, Auburn, Florida State and Michigan State. These schools could have competed in a play-off system to determine the national championship. USC, Duke and Northern Illinois finished at the bottom of the list and would be relegated out of this super conference and returned to their respective conferences.

The incentive is that opens the door to three other schools to join this super conference. Again, the exact criteria would need to be worked out as to how to select those schools. It could be best record, followed by most points scored in a season, but you get the idea and it would give a lot of schools the opportunity to play with the big boys that they might not have gotten in the past.

Perhaps a super conference could also address some of the disparity in college football by allowing them to have different rules including paying athletes and other issues facing big time college football. Yes, this means schools could lose some of their traditional rivalries, but in a world where Texas no longer plays Texas A&M and bowl games seem to extend into February, it might just take a radical move to save college football from itself.

Let the debate begin.

#5:  Introduction of the teams.

There’s no pyrotechnics or loud obnoxious music to get fans pumped up. Both teams enter the pitch side by side at the same time, often holding the hands of young soccer fan. The home team then walks calmly down the line and shakes the visiting team’s hands and officials.

#4:  The fans

Soccer fans are notorious for being fanatical about their teams and with good reason; some of these teams have been playing over 150 years. It’s not unusual to see fans singing the team fight song throughout the entire game while cheering, moaning and flashing their team’s colors.

#3:  There are no TV timeouts.

While there are plenty of times play is halted, you won’t be inundated with commercial after commercial. You will see little pop-up ads while play is taking place, but it never interferes with the pace or flow the match. Just make sure you visit the Loo prior to the opening whistle.

#2:   Close enough is fine

It is interesting how, in the world of the NFL where every inch of yardage is scrutinized and debated, soccer players simply pick up a ball that went out of bounds and then take a few steps either way to throw the ball back in. The same thing occurs when a ref calls a foul. The ball is simply placed in the “area” where the foul occurred and play is continued. There is no replay to determine the exact spot of where the ball should be placed which adds to more delays and hence more advertisements to sit through.

#1:  Relegation

As the season draws towards the end, all eyes are on the top and bottom of the standings. Not because the bottom three teams will be in a position to draft a good player, but because they will be kicked out of the league. Seeing as how the Houston Texans and Astros finished dead last last year, you have to believe they’re glad they don’t play in the Barclay’s Premier League.

Cheryl and I participated in the Houston Rodeo 5k fun run over the weekend. Felt pretty good about my time and had fun. Great event and crazy fun to run down the parade route with all those people watching.

When you think of non-profits organizations, names like The United Way, The American Red Cross and the Susan B. Komen Foundation come to mind.  What might surprise you is that the National Football League is also classified as a non-profit and are given tax-exempt status.  How is this possible you ask?

The IRS describes 501(c) (6) tax-exempt status this way…

Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the exemption of business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, boards of trade and professional football leagues, which are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.

As you can see, the law only includes “Professional Football Leagues” which leaves Major League Baseball, The National Basketball Association and others sitting on the sidelines.   So why did Washington agree to provide preferential treatment to the NFL?

It all goes back to the hey-days of the NFL/AFL Merger.  Back in 1966, then NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle was lobbying to obtain an antitrust exemption for the merger. The antitrust and tax exemptions were put into an undisputed bill and very few people noticed or complained at the time.

That was then, this is now.  The NFL is starting to face pressure about their non-profit status, and the worst part for the NFL owners?  It’s coming from a Republican Senator.  Senator Tom Coburn who represents Oklahoma thinks the government is getting a “Raw Deal” and wants that to change.

A spokesman for the NFL said the league office itself “is classified as a not-for-profit under the tax code because the league office makes no profit.” He said the teams make the profits and they are taxed.  This is true, but what he does not mention is that NFL owners don’t pay taxes on the “dues” they pay to belong to the league (an estimated $6 million dollars a year).

Their non-profit status also means they can skip out on paying other taxes because state and local governments usually exempt these organizations from state income and sales tax as well.  This was a nice little bonus when the Super Bowl was recently held in Indianapolis because hotels and restaurants did not tax National Football League employees.

And guess what?  The NFL actually loses money in a way that would make Enron proud.  The NFL paid 8 of its top executives around $53 million dollars in 2009.   It would seem the NFL goes out of its way to lose money so they can retain its non-profit status and allow the individual teams to be more profitable.

Now how much additional tax money governments are losing out on is open to debate; it may be a little, or it may be a lot.  But when Washington continues to dance on the brink of default and gentle creatures such as Big Bird could be on the chopping block; the government might want to head into the instant replay booth to see if they need to over-turn the ruling on the field and change the 501(c) (6) tax-exempt status law.

The sports-talk airwaves are blowing up over the latest botched call by the substitute NFL officials.  For those of you who don’t follow the game, last night’s Packers/Seahawks game came down to a last second Hail-Mary pass.  The replay clearly showed the Green Bay defender intercepting the ball, but the officials ruled “Dual Possession” and awarded the Seahawks the Touchdown.

Now even the regular officials have been known to blow calls (see Ed “Guns” Hochuli”), but this latest mangled call was reminiscent of a Marx Brothers movie.  As you can imagine, the sports-talk show hosts are outraged.  They remind us in no uncertain terms that the fans are not going to accept this type of football.

The fans?  Really?  They think the NFL is that worried about the fans?

Let us visit the replay booth for a moment…

• This is a league whose goal it was to increase player safety, yet see no problem throwing scrub officials who are in way over their heads, increasing the risk of injuries from uncalled/missed penalties like chop blocks and blows to the head.
• This is the league that makes its fans purchase preseason game tickets at regular season prices even though most of those games are played by people you’ve never heard of before (or after).
• This is the league that makes fans purchase PSL (Personal Seat Licenses) which require paying them for the right to purchase tickets.
• This is the league that rewards Buffalo fans (Disclaimer:  I am a long suffering Bills fan) by taking away one home game each year and having them play in Toronto so they can make even more money.

Now sports-talk hosts are preaching to us that we should boycott the games.  Don’t watch them they tell us.  Don’t attend the game (even though you had to take a second mortgage to buy the tickets in the first place).

This issue will be resolved, not because the fans are upset,  but because Las Vegas cannot be happy.  The Packers were 3 to 3 ½ point favorites to win that game.   The final score was 14-12 which means a lot of people lost money on that final play.   If I were the NFL, I would be a lot more worried about a visit from Tommy DeVito than Jim Rome.

I have to admit that I have only recently started to enjoy the English Premier Soccer league (Barkley’s), but yesterday’s match was one of, if not the, best sporting event I have ever watched.

Manchester City needed to win to be crowned champions, and Queen’s Park Rangers (what a great name for a sports team) had to win to stay in the league and not be de-listed.

It started poorly for QPR giving up a weak goal, but they roared back to score twice and led 2-1 when play went into stoppage time.  Besides the goals, there was also a classic knee to the butt that drew a red card and so many corners for Manchester City, that I lost count.  After all that, the ref put 5 minutes up on the clock and Manchester City put the ball in the goal twice to win.

Watching the Manchester City fans faces go from joy to total despair to simply going bonkers at the end was like watching a roller coaster ride.  I can’t imagine what they went through, especially when you consider how long they have been second to their arch rivals, Manchester United (They last won in 1968).  It was also funny seeing the Man U. coach’s face when he learned that City had come back.

The game was so dramatic, the announcer screamed “They’ll make a movie of this match” when final whistle blew.  Who says soccer, errrrr football is boring?

The 2011 Bowl Game schedule was released last night.  I always look forward to learn who gets to play where.  Which school got rewarded with a fun trip and which school got stuck playing in Shreveport always makes for entertaining reading.

The University of Houston gets to play Penn State in something called the TicketCity Bowl in Dallas after being unceremoniously blown out by Southern Mississippi in the C-USA Conference Championship game (how does Dallas host 3 different bowl games a year?) .  Texas A&M is rewarded with their 6-6 season by getting a trip to Houston to play in the Meineke Bowl and the Texas Longhorns head out west to compete in the Holiday Bowl.  (You see the entire bowl schedule here)

After reading down the list, I started to plan my New Year’s day viewing.  Sure, they moved all the really big games to later in the week so they don’t go against each other, but there are still plenty of good bowl games left to nurse that New Year’s Eve hangover.  Right?

Imagine my shock when, after taking a closer look, I learned that there was not one single game scheduled for January 1st!  The traditional New Year’s Day games like the Rose, Sugar and Orange bowl are all scheduled for Monday, January 2nd.  Even the early games like the Capitol One, Outback and Gator Bowls are being played on the 2nd.  What gives?

It can’t be because they are afraid to play on the Sabbath and offend their Christian fan base can it? (as if the Penn State scandal wasn’t enough to do that)  No, the real reason is because the bowls don’t want to go against the NFL.  As usual, the all-powerful television networks dictate sports with the all mighty dollar and those of us still clinging to tradition like gum to a shoe are left to remember the good old days when men were men, and girls were still a mystery.

Still, there are 35 bowl games played this season for crying out loud.  Could they not move the Go-Daddy Bowl (Arkansas St. vs. Northern Illinois), or the Pinstrip Bowl (Rutgers vs. Iowa St) to New Year’s Day?   I’m sure that somebody like the Longhorn Network would broadcast it (on second thought, never mind).

It’s not the first time these games have been moved from the 1st, and it won’t be the last, but put me down in the “I don’t like it” category.