The Idiotic Reason People Don't Want Condoleezza Rice On College Football's Playoff Committee
In a radio interview for WJOX in Birmingham (via AL.com), former Auburn head coach Pat Dye said Rice has no place on the committee because she never played the game:
"All she knows about football is what somebody told her...or what she read in a book, or what she saw on television. To understand football, you've got to play with your hand in the dirt...I love Condoleezza Rice and she's probably a good statesman and all of that but how in the hell does she know what it's like out there when you can't get your breath and it's 110 degrees and the coach asks you to go some more?"
Of course, the fallacy of this argument is that the current BCS system uses six computer formulas that never played college football and one poll that is based on the votes of many media members that never played college or pro football.
In addition, former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese is also expected to be on the committee even though he did not play football in college. The only thing that is different about Rice's credentials is seemingly that she is a woman.
Earlier in the week, ESPN college football analyst David Pollack said on ESPN's "College GameDay" that he only wants people on the committee "that can watch tape, yes, that have played football, that are around football, that can tell you different teams, on tape, not on paper."
He was more blunt when asked if women don't belong on the committee at all. Pollack answered "I'll say it, yeah."
In both cases, the argument is that only people that have played the sport should be allowed on the committee, which by itself is just a silly argument. But by selectively applying the rule to a woman takes the argument from silly to idiotic and sexist.
Here's a clip of Pollack from GameDay: