The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board

This time last week, the Big 12 seemed to be sulking into a corner to put writing on the wall: A Big 12 championship game was coming, and the league commissioner was beholden to the warnings of the College Football Playoff committee and not the foundation of his conference structure.

Bob Bowlsby had just met with and listened to the CFP folks, which was a necessity because if the league was going to make a dramatic and seemingly unwanted change to re-introduce a conference championship game, then it had to be compelled to move in that direction. Someone in the CFP room absolutely had to say, “League, you cost yourself a spot in the playoff last year and the status quo will continue to haunt and hurt your membership going forward.”

Well, it looked like the CFP compelled Bowlsby and the Big 12.

Bowlsby wouldn’t definitively say the Big 12 will add a championship game in 2016 if a new NCAA rule allows 10-team members to do so. But given the knowledge he has now, Bowlsby said, “I surmise we would probably move in that direction.”

Bowlsby said he was told this week by CFP Selection Committee chairman Jeff Long that 13 data points are better than 12. Ohio State blew out Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game on the final week last season while Baylor and TCU won their final regular-season games in round-robin play.

“What we heard is if we don’t go to a championship game we’re at a disadvantage,” Bowlsby said. “All things being equal, 13 games are better than 12 games. That’s what we heard. So that gives us clear enough direction that we’re coming in at least at a modest disadvantage. We need to do whatever we can to mitigate that.”

Not to repeat myself repeating myself, but changing right now felt like a terrible idea … which is different from saying changing ever is a bad idea. I think it’s a bad idea overall, but it’s especially bad when it’s a forced and/or reactionary adjustment based on the smallest available sample size. If time proves the process wrong, then you can’t ignore that. But similarly, you can’t assume a problem exists when there’s little evidence to support that.

The whole “13 data points are better than 12” idea sounds really good. It’s a talking point. It resonates. It’s also true. So let’s accept and apply that standard.

If 13 > 12, then isn’t 2 > 1? Of course it is. So let the second season of the CFP unfold and let the Big 12, which damn near had a team in the top four last season if not for variables that, I think, would have still prevailed if the conference had a championship game, see if it happens again or if something different happens. You can’t establish trends with one event.

And, lo, the Big 12 will not. At the conference meetings — which began yesterday and conclude today and no longer exist to expand and realign but to govern and keep house — the league announced it would acknowledge logic and would not jump into a championship game.

“I think we all believe that one year is not a long enough trial to draw any conclusions,” Bowlsby said. “We may find ourselves in better shape than some other conferences as a result of our model rather than in spite of our model.”

Bowlsby met with league athletic directors Tuesday morning and coaches Tuesday afternoon during the league’s spring meetings.

The Big 12 was upset when TCU dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the final CFP Rankings despite beating Iowa State by 52 on the last day of the season. Baylor, which beat TCU and ultimately shared the Big 12 title with the Frogs, finished fifth. An upset in one of the other conference title games might have allowed one or both into the top four.

“We were so close to being golden,” Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt said.

When asked if he overreacted to Long’s interpretation, Bowlsby said, “Maybe I did. I’m not immune to that.”

Let me tell you some stories about telling Kevin White’s story, and we should begin at the start. When White enrolled at West Virginia in January 2013 and signed the following month, I did not know about the player. That’s unusual. I don’t follow recruiting all too closely, but I know who’s signing and then I’m searching for something to share on signing day. He was a late addition to the recruiting class, visiting and committing in December, and he had a weird run in junior college. Right away, White had my attention, but I didn’t have much else on him.

I asked about some people about him and came away with the idea he was a project who was there as a matter of convenience but also potential. There wasn’t much to him, and it was said that he could be good, if he so desired. Seemingly more important was that he could enroll in the spring semester and play spring football. That would give him an edge and WVU an advantage as both tried to replace Stedman Bailey outside. But it was clear to me that Mario Alford was the day’s better get, one pried from the claws of the Arizona Wildcats, and that he, in line to replace Tavon Austin inside, was the one to be more excited about, never mind he wouldn’t arrive until the eve of preseason camp. (If we’re being honest, more heed was paid to signing Ronald Carswell, who was once good enough for Alabama.)

To me, White was sort of fascinating and frustrating, sometimes all at once, from that point forward — and then the spring game happened, and he turned in the signature play. WVU rules kept him from speaking to the media during the spring, but there was no doubt he was a different specimen than all the other receivers. There would be some doubt about as to when or whether his potential would intersect with his capabilities, essentially because it had not yet happened. It came slowly in the fall. How many times did he fail to high-point a pass? How many times did he high-point a pass and not secure it? What good were these deep balls when they were 50-50 plays? How could you resist the temptation to send No. 11 deep and let him work?

He was injured early and he fumbled against Oklahoma (Aside: I’ll never get enough of Gabe Lynn bailing on Quinton Spain — twice!) He came on late in the season and found something with Clint Trickett, but we still didn’t know him or much about him.

He was irresistible in the following spring, when he flexed his muscle, literally if not figuratively, and dominated cornerbacks while looking like he was wearing a smaller uniform because he was just so big. When preseason practice started last summer, cornerback Daryl Worley told me that White made the fastest and easiest trips up law school hill. It’s the only time I’ve ever heard anyone excited to talk about law school hill. Trickett raved about White’s desire to be great, about how the seeds were planted on a car ride they shared from Pennsylvania to campus and how Trickett’s invitation to pass and study whenever White wanted was actually driving Trickett crazy because White, it turned out, was relentless.

And then this happened, and this encounter between Kevin White and Karl Joseph opened my eyes to White like never before.

Joseph’s a bad man. He was a high school wrestler and he’s been a missile in college. He usually owns that drill. You wouldn’t know any of it, and that was riveting. Look at White. That’s his drill. That’s his space. That’s his field. Who’s messing with that guy?

So I was all in, and I tried to find out more and more about White, which was difficult. Here’s his media guid bio for his senior season, and tell me where or how you’d solve the mystery. You can’t. What happened in the other season(s) at Lackawanna College? What were his high school stats? When did he graduate from Emmaus? Who were his other scholarship offers? And why wasn’t any of that included? (This is not a critique. It’s further proof this came out of nowhere.)

White’s star would explode, of course, and I think it’s important to know that when we did get to know him, we were too caught up in how awesome he was and thus too busy to look into his background story. We’d get some of your many answers, either in time or in abundance, as he became a bigger deal and his story became harder to ignore, but it wasn’t a lot, and it certainly wasn’t everything.

Without ruining the big feature we have running tomorrow, understand he moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania before his freshman year of high school and moved again before his sophomore year. He didn’t start until his senior season at Emmaus and he redshirted because of a bum shoulder during his first year at Lackawanna. He was then out of school for a semester and then the best player on the team the following season.

And now he’s a first-round pick in the NFL draft? How did this happen?

Well, that Eric Thomas quote up top has something to do with it. It’s nestled into the big feature. What follows is not.

The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

Bob Huggins spares no one

Let us turn back the clock

Check in next week, though

Kevin and Roger and Bears, oh my

Draft. Root. Beer.

Outtakes: Kevin White’s rise to riches

And here come the chips

Jared Barber’s rusty eyes

Deep thoughts

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