He does make some really good points. In particular, the weight of importance given to the national championship is disproportionate to the team’s accomplishments relative to the rest of the teams. (If you begin to compare teams across years, as Kyle does, it becomes really evident, but ignoring that for now…) The most famous example is the ‘03 Auburn squad, who was not only denied the chance to earn the trophy; they were denied the chance to not earn the trophy, even though they could not have done anything more to deserve the chance. Auburn fans really shouldn’t feel bad about that season; that was a tremendous team that had one of the best seasons of the decade (far better, in fact, than last year’s LSU team).

But, disproportionate rewards are what championship trophies are all about. Every single one of them. In last year’s NFL season, the Patriots were clearly the play-to-play best team in the league, and second place wasn’t even close. The one loss they did have was by a single score in a very close game where the Giants played their absolute best game of the year, and still had to rely on some very lucky plays. But now the Giants have the rings, the extra money in the SB paycheck, the increased ad revenues, the praise from ESPN, etc. The most telling mark of the value of that one game was Belichik’s postgame interview. His team just pulled of one of the most dominant years in NFL history (and, as a non-Pats fan, I must say that watching the O-line was a thing of beauty), but he was completely inconsolable – all due to a freak off-the-helmet catch that couldn’t have been duplicated if they tried.

In NASCAR, a race in Talladega or Daytona runs for 500 miles and the difference at the end may be 0.01 seconds. In fact, the guy who won second may have climbed 20 spots to get it, while the 1st place guy climbed a mere 5 spots, indicating that the second-place guy actually ran faster over the 500(+) miles. Statistically, they tied and there is no way to justify giving 185 points to the 1st place guy and 170 points to second (ignoring bonus points). Heck, there is probably no statistical justification for separating tenth from first. But we all know who won, and he gets a disproportionate share for his achievements.

That is exactly the premise behind competition. The winner does indeed ‘take it all’. Be it playoff or poll, we overlay some arbitrary system for handing out an ultimate award to one team while send the rest packing with an edition of the home game. I understand Kyle’s frustration at that, since his Bulldogs get undervalued without that trophy, but that trophy adds so much more value to the pursuit, that it really can’t be ignored. Having the ‘all-or-nothing’ impetus adds risk of failure/success, and that makes the sports far more interesting.

It’s also a lot truer to real-world pursuits (contract bids, World Wars I and II, elections, etc.). But I’ve probably written enough for a comment.