The Other National Football Championship

It's football's championship season! On January 10th a national college football championship was played. The winning team wore green and gold uniforms... but they weren't the Oregon Ducks.

No. This was the NCAA's 2nd tier championship: The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). This year North Dakota State won their fourth consecutive FCS title.

Off the top of your head, do you know how many divisions there are of NCAA football?  Quick now... Don't Google it... Keep thinking...

The answer is four.

Did you get that right? Now can you tell me who won those four national championships?  I have no idea... So I went to the source: the NCAA website.

The answer is:

• FBS: Ohio State University
• FCS: North Dakota State
• Div II: Colorado State - Pueblo
• Div III: University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

You probably knew the FBS. Perhaps you knew the FCS. But Div II & III? I don't know that anyone other than current students, alumni and players' mothers knew those results!

The players in those lower divisions will almost certainly never play football professionally. They risk injury and take time away from their studies with no big pay day in sight. They win national championships, and no one knows about it.

The players on these teams train as long and as hard as the players on national TV on Monday night. They sweat and hurt just like the Buckeyes and the Ducks. But no one's watching.

Yet for these players each victory contains the same elation as the victories the big schools experience. Each loss hurts as much as it does for the big programs. Each personal failure causes a crisis of self-confidence just like the big boys. Each dominant performance makes them walk a little taller, as all athletes will tell you.

The only differences between most of the players on these teams are skills and physical limitations. Perhaps they didn't receive as high quality coaching in high school. Perhaps they'll just never be fast enough. Maybe their minds don't quite analyse the situation as quickly as the FBS players. But the passion they bring to each training session and each play is consistent throughout the divisions.

Churches are always looking for their members to get more involved. Most of the time they're not looking for leaders, they're looking for members willing to complete tasks. The baptistry needs cleaning. We need greeters in the parking lot in winter. We need someone to make coffee. There are never too many people willing to send cards of encouragement.

I wonder if too often we don't rank the importance of particular tasks and pay little attention to those we consider Div II or III.

Unlike the players on the Div II & Div III teams we often don't bring the same passion to the tasks we judge as less important. They require less skill. No one will notice them. No one cheers for us like they do the song leader, or the prayer, or the small group leader.

Jesus was the Messiah, but he wasn't seeking the limelight. If anyone deserved to have his name up in lights, it was God in the flesh. Yet Jesus gives us the example of someone willing to wash feet.

I wonder if our churches really do a good job of communicating the values of humility and service. Do we elevate the efforts of talented individuals while overlooking the work of humble servants of God? Do we portray to our church members that the people in the church that are in the public eye are more important than others? May God have mercy. 

We all have the same goal and we should all play a role, whether we're sweeping the floors in a minichurch of 80 or a megachurch of 8,000.

Whatever you do—whether you eat or drink or not—do it all to the glory of God! Do not offend Jews or Greeks or any part of the church of God for that matter. Consider my example: I strive to please all people in all my actions and words—but don’t think I am in this for myself—their rescued souls are the only profit.  1 Corinthians 10:31-33

The NBA MVP is a Servant

I've been attracted to Kevin Durant as a basketball player since he emerged on the national scene during his one year playing for the University of Texas. The guy just knows how to score. He has now won the NBA scoring title four of the last five years. Yesterday, he was named the MVP of the league.

Before I get to his MVP award I really encourage you to take a few minutes and read THIS ARTICLE that I came across back in February.

For those of you who didn't read the article...

In an interview in early 2014, KD commented that he'd prefer the nickname, "The Servant" more than any other. In hindsight Durant later regretted the comment and the interview because giving yourself a nickname that draws attention to your humility doesn't really work. But his desire for that nickname actually stems from his faith and desire to serve others as Jesus did.

Ho hum.... what's that? Another star athlete professing to be a follower of Jesus? Forgive my skepticism, or don't.

I'm always reluctant to highlight athletes who make public faith proclamations because so many of them fall short (as we all do) and their shortcomings catch the media spotlight to the extent that all previous statements of faith are overshadowed.

For example, an ESPN.com article describing the firing of Warriors coach Mark Jackson makes the point at least twice that he's an ordained minister or pastor. However, the tenor of the article is that his cocky demeanor made him difficult to work with and for and led to conflict. Would you want him as your pastor?

Here's a sample from the article:

An ordained minister away from the court, Jackson often spoke of his Christian beliefs and promised to turn the Warriors into one of the best defensive teams in the league and a perennial playoff contender -- and he did. But Jackson's boisterous personality, at times, did not play well with Warriors management, [and] his staff... Jackson's demeanor, which bordered on confidence and cockiness, might have ultimately cost him his job.

So back to Durant... Did you read the article? Did you see the back tatt?

Durant's not just giving in to social pressure when he makes a point of thanking God for his achievements. He's not just fulfilling NBA service obligations when he calls kids with cancer or donates to tornado relief efforts. I don't know where the rest of his life will take him, but right now I've gotta believe he's living out his faith in God as best as he knows how.  (Here's an interesting interview with Durant about his faith journey: Interview with Craig Groeschel)

This brings me to his 2014 MVP acceptance speech.

This is a 25 minute video, but it's truly inspirational. The odds are that you'll tear up. Please do yourself a favor and watch it.

So often when we have a captive audience we want to tell the world about ourselves. We want to convince the world that we're worthy of its love. We want to persuade the world to pull for us. We want to tell a story that's new, that will paint us in a good light, that will make people like us.

Durant used his 30 minutes in the spotlight to deflect its glare on everyone around him. If you didn't hear the introduction you'd swear he was giving his team a pep talk as he went down the line thanking each of them for the ways they encourage and better him. You'd have a hard time believing he was accepting an award recognising him as the Most Valuable Player in the entire NBA throughout this season.

This article on NBA.com is good example of how Durant impressed many people. I heard similar sentiments on sports talk radio throughout the day.

Things he didn't say:

• It's nice to finally beat LeBron James at something.
• Thank-you for recognising me as the MVP this year.
• This is a league of very talented players and it means so much to have my performances this year recognised with this award.
• I WON!!!!!!!!!!!! [while holding up his index finger]
• I couldn't have won this if I wasn't wearing Nikes.
• Russell Westbrook, why don't you take next year off too, so I can win another one of these.

Durant didn't need to ask anyone to call him The Servant. He just went out and lived like one... at the moment of his greatest personal achievement.

As you watch the video of one of the greatest basketball players in the world, it's difficult not to admire his sincerity and authenticity as he thanks those around him for lifting him to the heights he's achieved.

I wonder how this compares to our hearts when we thank God for accomplishments in our lives.

• Do we accept recognition and compliments as "deserved" by us? 
• Or do we truly believe that we couldn't have done it on our own? 
• Do we pay attention and acknowledge the way others in our lives make our accomplishments possible?
• Are there people in your life that you haven't thanked recently?

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." - 2 Corinthians 8:9

"He, Jesus, must take center stage; and I, John the baptiser, must step to His side." John 3:30

The Voters Made a Mess of That!!!!!!!!!

Monday night's BCS Championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama turned into an embarrassment, not only for Notre Dame, but for the method of selecting the finalists.

NCAA football and basketball are unique around the world by having their rankings determined by votes. First the NCAA football gurus select 115 media and football personalities to rank the top 25. Then 59 coaches also rank the top 25 teams. Finally, 6 independent computer formulas rank the top 25. These 3 scores are combined and averaged and result in the official NCAA Top 25 List. This list is then used to determine which teams play in which bowl games and eventually the top two teams meet in the BCS championship game. (Study the details here or here...if you're feeling brave!)

The reason for all these polls and computations arises from the ridiculous number of teams in the same competition. No where else in the world do 120 teams compete in the same competition. Of course, there's no way they can all play each other, so any system must be intrinsically "unfair".

The closest comparison of a field that size that comes to my mind is the field at a tennis major which starts with 128 players. But in tennis each round is an elimination match that halves the size of the field. Players can also compete every second day making the entire tournament last just two weeks.

So for many years college football championships have been decided by voters, and more recently by a championship game. As this year demonstrates the "experts" don't necessarily do a great job of making this decision. In fact, during the "Bear" Bryant era ('64, '73) Alabama was twice voted national champions at the end of the regular season and then proceeded to lose their bowl game! In fact, in 1973 Notre Dame was the team that defeated the national champions in the Sugar Bowl.

How I picture the voters casting their votes.

As an outsider, one reason I see the voters seem to make these mistakes is that they give too much weight to an undefeated season. Of course, an undefeated season is a major accomplishment, but an undefeated season against weak opponents does not automatically make you a better team than a 2 loss or 5 loss team who played stronger teams. Even after the bowl games were played the voters still ranked Notre Dame above Georgia. That makes no sense considering how close Georgia played Alabama compared to the Fighting Irish.

I'm not saying Notre Dame is a bad team, but during the regular season they only played one Top 10 team compared to Alabama's three. Plenty of other teams also had a tougher schedule. Stanford, for example, also played three Top 10 teams during the season.

It's not all Notre Dame's fault. USC was ranked #2 when Standford played them early in the season, and outside the Top 25 when Notre Dame played them later. But who's responsible for the schedule isn't my point. The simple truth is that others had a more difficult schedule and losing doesn't make them a worse team.

All of this just reinforces the difficulty of making judgements. 115 football personalities and 59 coaches plus the mathematicians and computers all operating within their area of expertise couldn't correctly identify the best 2 teams in college football in 2012. BRING ON THE PLAYOFFS!!!! Even 4 teams is sooo much better than what we have now!!!!!

So when we're tempted to poke our nose into other people's business and criticise the way they're raising their kids, working on their job, attending church services, or whatever it is, we need to remind ourselves that we're not experts and we'll never have all the necessary information to make a completely accurate judgement. Of course we need to care for people, listen to them, encourage them, support them and occasionally within the church we even need to reprimand them, but we should always do so with an attitude of humility, leaving the final judgment to God.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
Romans 12:3