The BCS is a joke.

We'll do a sports note, if you don't mind. I don't go into sports much here, because outside of the NFL, I never care.

At least that was till this season. Let me state some facts here: I hate college football. It's a joke, plain and simple. The BCS is a night club with the SEC and Big-12 on the guest list and they won't let anyone (WAC) because that building is "full capacity." It's a money thing, but the bottom line is that the big conferences don't want equality, or a little school going in and kicking their asses (read: 07' Fiesta Bowl).

I also hate Boise State. It's a good reason, I received a degree from the University of Idaho. We hate the Broncos, in fact just about every rivalry game we have results in brawls in the parking lot. Fuck Boise State.

But since I hate Boise State doesn't mean I can't hate what Boise State Football is standing for. I'll admit, I'm swept up in the bandwagon. I want BSU to do well, even if it means beating us (Vandals) to get there, it's good for college football. I agree some of this hype is blown out of proportion, and that BSU may be slightly overrated, but I accept that on a neutral feild they could take anyone.

So could TCU, and probably Utah. But we'll get to that in a second.

The only way the BCS is going to change is if the NCAA steps in and puts a stop to it. Either that or we get the feds involved. It's very well documented that a Utah senator started filing stuff saying the BCS violated Federal Anti-Trust laws among other things, only to get a statement from the BCS President saying something along the lines of, "The BCS has done nothing wrong. We have done everything according to our specifications."

Didn't Roger Clemens say something like that when the feds went after him for steroids? What was the end of that tale?

Anyways. It's obvious that the BCS is in deep shit. In the 1960s, this system would have worked. There was only 10 or 15 good teams in the whole country. But not in 2010, there are too many great teams in this country, in different conferences for them to blacklist them from a championship game. I give it a few more years and things will change, but it may be too late for me to care then.

I hoped BSU would be the shining horse to do it. If BSU were to go undefeated, get invited to the National Championship, there would be widespread bitching in the southern states, which would end in a playoff. It would happen if BSU won, which they could do against the teams in 2010, there isn't anyone that good. Oregon? Are you kidding me? They are beatable, just look at what an unranked USC did last night, they didn't win, but they showed that it's possible.

So it looked great. BSU went in and beat Virginia Tech at the start of the season, for all intents and purposes, in their house, and returned to Idaho with a win against a top ranked team. Now for a team like Virginiat Tech, that's a loss very difficult to recover from. Especially when the Broncos let you score 17 unanswered points and have victory in your grasp, only for Chris Peterson to snatch it in the final drive of the game. So Virgina Tech lost to a no name school the next week and dropped in the rankings which now HURTS BSU (what?).

BSU stayed at No. 3, it got annoying when they kept having teams jump to No. 1 over them, (Auburn, Ohio State, Oklahoma) but they showed their stuff and it sort of made sense.

Then Oregon leap-frogged BSU. Keep in mind they had the same roster last year that they have this year. And last year, Oregon showed up on the Blue Turf and got pwned. Blount punched a BSU player who wouldn't shut his face and we all know how that ended. Again, annoying, but we can let it pass.

Now it's ridiculous. TCU has just jumped to the No. 3 spot over BSU. Now TCU helps my cause cuz they are in the same position as BSU-a non-automatic qualifying school, but it doesn't help what's right in the system. All off-season we're hearing about how things are carried over, how they need to look at things last season as they figure out rankings this season. Any relevance to it? I would hope so, since several key figures said this on ESPN.

But if there is a look at last season how does Oregon jump BSU? Strength of schedule. Ok, we can give them that. Oregon has punked some good schools and they are the team to beat. THey arn't that great of a team, but I'll give them that. But TCU? Flashback: Fiesta Bowl 09' TCU got owned by Boise State. TCU fell victim to the trick plays, excellent coaching, and hornets nest defense that is the Boise State Broncos, and looked really fucking good doing it. I'm saying TCU played pretty damn well in the Fiesta Bowl. So why, oh why, is a roster that is virtually unchanged ahead of BSU?

Because this system is archaic. TCU should be behind Boise State and they can't beat the Broncos again. Really, I just don't see it happening. Make matters worse, they are No. 3 and BSU is No. 4 leaving us with another bowl game between TCU and BSU, the third one in five years. Wonderful, can't wait to watch that again. Does anyone remember how people got sick of the Rose Bowl a few years back because it was USC v Penn State? Yeah, point exactly.

But we'll never know. Why? because they can't do a playoff. Why won't they do a playoff? Money, plain and simple. To institute a playoff, even an eight team playoff with champions from across conferences (and maybe some wild cards for the independants and unknown division 1A schools). would cost money, they'd have to slash some games fromt he season, and they would be games where teams like Florida hosted Rice for a slaughterfest. Both of those schools make a pile of cash from those games, so they can't toss those.

The whole season is no longer BSU vs the big schools, it's what's right and wrong about the system. TCU doesn't deserve to be there. BSU beat them and probably could still beat them. The only thing BSU has left is Hawaii (a decent team on their own) and Nevada (which can be a solid win if Nevada can go up a few more spots). I am for what BSU is doing which is opening the doors for other schools like my Idaho Vandals (who would never get a shot in the current system) I am not for the way things are going. TCU going to number three shows how ridiculous this whole thing is, it's partly to set the stage for another BSU/TCU bowl game, but it's also so stupid that they hypocritically screw BSU out of their shot. BSU is the better team, TCU isn't. It's also making me wonder if they are setting up the fall man if one of the smaller schools should go to the National Championship-TCU would lose, BSU wouldn't. If TCU loses, the BCS could stick around, BSU wins-they got a lot of explaining to do.

The bottom line is, this whole thing is stupid. BSU fans shouldn't be getting pissed about it because contrary to what analysists will tell you or what you read, it's all political, and it's all designed to draw money. Why do you think the FIesta Bowl took one for the team last year and put the two small schools into the same game?

It only proves my point. The BCS is setting everything up for a National Championship that isn't BSU. They dont' want BSU there. They don't want TCU or Utah there, but they'll put them there if they have to cuz TCU and Utah will get the shit kicked out of them while BSU will hang on.

Fuck the BCS, just don't watch it. I dunno if I made a point in any of this, but that's what I think.

Go Vandals!

Final Fantasy...the Playstation releases.

So I did a marathon of sorts for the last few months trying to play through the PS1 installments of Final Fantasy. These were probably the more memorable ones because people were playing RPGs and I could actually talk storylines with them. In a decade since setting the controller down on these though, I can look at them with differet opinions. There's no denying that all three of them (even IX) outdo the PS2 installments, and there is no denying that they are games you'd play again. Here's my thoughts on each one, years after their release. I'll post VIII and IX later...

Final Fantasy VII: It's not overrated, period. FFVII still holds up well today and it makes me laugh that Square Enix is feeding us this dogshit that remaking this would be too much money/too many resources. Sure it would, but you'd get that money back by your fanbase that has in unison said you need to make it.

Note to Tetsuya Nomura: Less is more, look at your designs here. The character designs in FFVII are without a doubt, his best. Cloud and Sephiroth are simple, yet detailed. Vincent doesn't have an overabundance of zippers on his clothes, and Tifa, despite her top-heaviness is a good design. The graphics took a bit to get used to again, but that was just the in-game. Those pre-rendered backgrounds continue to hold up and are always pretty.

I'd be lying if I said Phoenix doesn't open the same way FFVII did, and rightly so, my novel was me trying to do a story in Midgar...but since I don't own the rights to it, I made the continent of North America Midgar. FFVII's story is its strong suit, but it has a few kinks. For one thing, a decade ago, I got turned off on the second half of disc one just traveling the world map in pursuit of Sephiroth, and it's no different here. They just insert party members with a storyline blurb and keep you moving. All of this could have been cut and the characters could have stayed in Midgar for a much longer time. Midgar IS FFVII. I agree with what Pat R on SMPS.net said where it would have been a lot more disorienting if Cloud and co were locked in the city a bit longer. I wanted to explore that city.

Sephiroth wasn't exacatly hated by me, but he got the job done. I felt more sorry for him than anything because it wasn't his fault he went insane, but I hated the Shinra Co. for their shananigans in the whole shindig.

Cloud in itself is the posterchild for main characters. From the moment he steps on the screen and says "I don't care what your names are" he's in control and he's intriguing to keep you going. While I hate the fact his storyline ends towards the middle of disc 2, up to that point he makes FFVII. That and his sword is awesome (again, LESS IS MORE).

Finally the combat. This game felt like a SNES FF game with a fresh coat of paint-and the battle system really never got broken. Yes, some materia combos made the game easier, but it wasn't near as ridiculous as the Junction system and being able to kill bosses in three hits by hour 3. FFVII can still kill you if you'r e not careful, though it's rare. Furthermore, I'm always compelled to DO EVERYTHING in each playthrough of the game...well minus chocobo breeding.

Overall, I liked Final Fantasy VII. I still like it. My favorite Final Fantasy is tied between IV and VI, but FFVII is my second favorite game of all time. If you still haven't picked it up-go give it a whirl, you'll be happy about it.