Brian Grey Blog

…Toby Gerhart.

Not because I’m a Pac-10 apologist (whatever that means?).  Not because I’m flexing some “the teams in the West get no love” muscles.  Not because my wife went to Cal so I’m trying to stir up some marital non-bliss during the Holidays.

Here are my reasons:

1) Stats

The guy has more yards rushing and more touchdowns than the guy from Alabama, the supposed favorite.  Further, the big stat I heard this morning that he averaged 200 yards per game against ranked teams was pretty darn impressive.  Did Alabama play any ranked teams this year besides Florida (well, ok, they beat Va Tech who finished second in the Coastal division of the ACC and LSU who isn’t the LSU of a couple years ago)?

And my favorite stat about Gerhart:  the guy carried a class load of 21 credits this fall during the football season.

2) Baseball

Now I know it doesn’t have any bearing on how the voters will vote, but this is my pick and therefore my criteria.  I love the fact that the guy is also a stud on the Stanford baseball team.  Sure he plays left field (what, he has a weak throwing arm?!), but he mashes fastballs like he mashes linebackers and defensive backs.

But think about it, rather than going through spring football drills, he’s out playing another sport — yet he still put up bigger numbers than Mr. Ingram.

3) Personal Interaction

Again, this last reason doesn’t carry weight with the “real” voters, but it’s my favorite.  Last spring I was a guest in a Stanford Graduate School of Business class that I go to every spring to talk about the confluence of digital media and the sports business.  The class is typically for second year MBA students, but this year the instructor (George Foster) opened the class up to upper class undergrads.

In the class sat Toby and one of his teammates from the football team.  I could tell he and his pal were a little intimidated being in a class with a bunch of twenty-somethings who were using big time business lingo — you know, “leverage” this and “synergy” that kind of stuff.  But near the end of the class Professor Foster called on Toby and his buddy to give their prepared answer to one of the pre-assigned questions.  Now I can’t say that I vividly recall how the two Stanford footballers answered the question, but I do recall them being pretty darned buttoned up in what they had prepared.  And I was impressed by the follow up questions they asked after I gave them some feedback on their slides.

Listen, as I write this a few hours before the Heisman winner is announced, I am supposing that voters will be swayed by the body of career work put up by Colt McCoy or by the team ranking of Alabama’s Mark Ingram, and that one of those guys will get the hardware.  But my vote is with #7 from Stanford.

Oh, and did I mention that I grew up near Portland, Oregon, the home of Ndamukong Suh, another Heisman finalist?  I guess that’s enough to make him my second favorite pick this year!

Since Sunday I have struggled with the following quote in the NY Times:

“It’s more frustrating than anything that I can think of right now…I can’t see my way clear to the solution.”

So said NCAA President Miles Brand in Pete Thamel’s Times article questioning the lack of African American football coaches in Division I-A (now the FBS I guess).

There are currently only 4 African American coaches among the 119 FBS schools and only one – Miami’s Randy Shannon – coaches at a school that is eligible to play in the BCS Championship game.

The issue has been recently highlighted by the fact that Auburn overlooked Turner Gill (the guy who turned around Buffalo) for a guy who was fired at Iowa State after going 5-19 over two seasons. Auburn blew it.

But back to Miles. Perhaps he should dig in to the NCAA men’s basketball situation. Men’s NCAA basketball D-I programs have African Americans as head coaches at almost 30% of schools. Surely there are some learnings to be had there?

Better yet, how about playing off of Georgia Tech basketball coach Paul Hewitt’s idea of having this be driven by the young recruits. Hewitt’s example is simple: if offensive and defensive recruits went to play for say Shannon at Miami, and in a couple years Miami won the BCS title, perhaps that would trigger more minority hiring.

Ok, so how about Miles does something to make this issue front and center to recruits and their parents.

How about mandating that each recruiting packet or letter sent to a kid contains the summary stats of that school’s hiring profile across not just the coaching staff but the university’s administrative positions (no surprise that these jobs are underrepresented with minorities as well).

At least let the players and parents make an informed decision based on the inclusion of this information.

Then there’s always the idea of having the NCAA spend as much time on this issue as they do defending the current bowl system and negotiating their TV contracts.

Good news is we’re down to 6 teams in college football that really matter — or I should say 6 teams that really should be considered in the debate for who should be playing for the BCS Championship in Miami in January.

Three Big-12 teams (Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma), two SEC teams (Alabama and Florida) and a lone Pac-10 team (USC). Ok, so play this out. Alabama and Florida will play in the SEC Championship, so one of them will get knocked out of the picture. As for the log jam in the Big-12, I guess if OU beats TT, then all three of the guys at the top could make a case for being the top dawg in the conference. But never mind that, two of the Big-12 teams (likely TT and OU) will meet in the Big-12 Championship, and so one will emerge. And to make it even easier, let’s just say the Pac-10 is weak this year and USC’s loss to Oregon State in September knocks them out of the picture.

So it’s really pretty much set, Florida beats Alabama in SEC Championship, Oklahoma beats TT, and then wins Big-12 Championship game, so the match up in Miami is easy: Florida vs. Oklahoma for the National Championship.

No, it’s not that easy. Even with the scenario above, how do we really know where Texas and USC would fit in at the end of the season? How about this scenario: Texas vs. Alabama and USC vs. TT. The winners play in semi-final matchups versus Oklahoma and Florida respectively, with the final two playing in Miami. Play the quarters in the week between Christmas and New Years Day, the semis at the Rose and Sugar Bowl venues.

This will never happen. Not this year or next or ever. Too much interest and discussion gets whipped up by the current maligned BCS structure, not to mention the economic pay days that come out of the current bowl structure.

Maybe we’ll get to at least see USC vs. Texas in say the Sugar Bowl and we can call it the “other” National Championship Game this year?