K-State Slate: 7.29.14 - Jimbo Fisher fires at the Big 12

Yesterday, Brett McMurphy reported via Twitter that Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher is still firing shots at the Big 12.

Jimbo Fisher believes all leagues should have title games: “ones that don’t have 1 less opportunity to lose, to get injured, 1 less game"

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) July 28, 2014

What Jimbo Fisher is failing to grasp here is a very simple point which should be apparent to anyone with two functioning neurons: the Big 12 plays nine conference games. Now, to be fair to Fisher, Florida State is actually playing nine games against other ACC teams this year, and if he'd just stick to defending Florida State's 2014 schedule in and of itself... well, that would not only be fine, but it would be unassailable. Florida State's non-conference games are against Florida, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame (sort of), and The Citadel; that one laugher is pretty acceptable in comparison to pretty much everyone else's schedule.

But Florida State is the exception within the ACC, not the rule. Now, Kansas State has no room to argue here; we all know that, so if you're an ACC fan reading this you can just shelve your Stephen F. Austin jabs. We're the first to admit that if 12-1 Florida State and 11-1 Kansas State are jockeying for the last playoff spot, there's probably no contest. But Oklahoma and Texas aren't playing any FCS teams, and both have Power Five teams on the schedule, so a look around the ACC is worthwhile.

Syracuse opens with Villanova and Central Michigan before playing a "real" game. Louisville has Murray State and Florida International on the schedule. Virginia? Richmond and Kent State. FIU appears again on Pitt's schedule, along with Delaware and Akron. Virginia Tech's got William & Mary, East Carolina, and Western Michigan. And then there's Duke. Duke's non-conference slate is Elon, Troy, Tulane, and Kansas. We could go on, but the point here is that as bad as Kansas may be, the Big 12 plays just as many conference games when it's all said and done as the ACC champion will end up playing ACC teams (unless they play Notre Dame). The "extra" game for virtually every ACC team may as well be a scrimmage.

Jimbo, your argument's fine for defending your own team if there's any question about their resume in December. If Florida State's in contention, they've got a fine argument against most anyone, and we'll gladly concede that. It's also true that many Big 12 teams need to stop scheduling creampuffs in September, and you won't hear anyone around here arguing that the Big 12 shouldn't be playing a championship game. But that's not the argument you're making. You're arguing that the lack of a championship game in and of itself denotes an inherent imbalance. The thing is, until we're actually in a position where all Power Five teams are scheduling real opponents from August to December, the championship game argument is bogus, and especially considering that both your conference and the Big 12 are supporting a proposal to allow conferences to play a championship game even if they don't have twelve teams, there's only one sound piece of advice we can offer you: you really need to sit down and be quiet.