The first ever World Cup held in a Middle Eastern country is in full swing. The question of FIFA’s corruption has been buzzing around so much that Netflix released a documentary on November 9th 2022 called 'FIFA: Uncovered', which was produced by Miles Coleman. Multiple media outlets have also been touching on the scandal for years, with Wired releasing an article back in May of 2015 about the matter. So, it is a hot topic right now- but how deep does it really go?

In Wired's 2015 article, the author states that, in 2015, United States police infiltrated the hotel where the FIFA members were set to have a meeting. They took the elevator up to the executives' rooms and arrested 14 people involved in FIFA. 

Those who were arrested were some of the higher-ups in the organization, sports marketing executives, and the owner of the FIFA broadcasting company. With charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. It also touches on how many people suspect vote buying (which is where a country will pay off an executive in FIFA for a vote as to who gets to host the World Cup) was involved back in 2010, when Qatar was selected to host the 2022 World Cup. Most of the defendants were a part of The Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and The South American Football Confederation,and are the North and South American divisions (CONMEBOL). 

Netflix’s documentary, 'FIFA: Uncovered' dives into the root of corruption in FIFA. It all started with one man, Joao Havelange, who was the president of FIFA from 1974-1998 and he took the company from being a group of people trying to entertain the masses to a company that was trying to actually make money. 

He started by signing the first ever sports sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola. He then sold the broadcasting rights to a company called International Sports & Leisure, or ISL, which was another money hungry business. The biggest thing that happened was that he gave the 1978 World Cup to Argentina, one of the first not-so-fit countries to host a World Cup which affects issues of today. 

FIFA today is still more caring about money over soccer. Many people suspect that the way Russia and Qatar were given the past two World Cups were through vote buying. Evidence from 2015 supports this claim where many FIFA officials were arrested for money-like reasons. It is heavily supported by the allegations against FIFA that both Qatar and Russia are guilty of bribing FIFA for votes to get them to be the World Cup hosts. FIFA is a very corrupt company and will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future. 

After opening up the season with a tough first game loss falling just 7 points short against Shawnee, making the Lady Bears feel defeated. The Lady Bears hit the road going to Richmond to face Model Lab School, who is also coached by the Lady's Bears Former Coach, Ray Hampton.

Previously, Coach Ray Hampton had come to one of the Lady Bears scrimmages to watch them play. He taunted them with jokes about losing and saying “It's going to be a long ride home.” The Lady Bears Coach Josh Luttrell had different plans though; he continuously told the Lady Bears they had to play their best, they had to prove Coach Hampton wrong, etc. Usually there is a scouting report for Coach Luttrell to read to the players, but he had never seen Model Lab play so there was nothing. But quickly after a few moments of watching them play, Coach Luttrell told the girls that the girls on Model Lab were not on their level and they had no chance to win against us. 

The Lady Bears came out aggressive in their full court man defense as usual, quickly tiring out the opposing team. The Lady Patriots defensively couldn't keep up with the Lady Bears. Lady Bears wing Taylor Morris abruptly found her golden spot. She found an opening that works for her to score the best. Taylor was getting in the lane with ease, one pass from their guard Jany’ah Kirk and then she was dribbling in for the free throw line shot.

After hitting a few, Coach Luttrell came up with the perfect thing for the Lady Bears to do to make it even easier for Taylor to get to her spot. Cutting from the left side of the court around a screen to the free throw line for a mid-range jumper/floater, Taylor drained them one after another ending the game with 20 points.

 It was a close game all four quarters, with the final score being 32-29, Lady Bears taking the win home back to Louisville. The Lady Bears had an exciting ride home after the game, joking with former Coach Ray Hampton about the loss.

Watching college football playoffs can get repetitive every year. There should be more than four teams competing for the championship. Implementing a 12 team bracket will allow for more diversity among teams making playoffs, and there would be an increase in games among top teams, and having a few more games is alot of revenue for the NCAA. 

Having a 12 team bracket would bring more diversity to the playoffs. Since the 4 team playoff was introduced in 2014 there have only been 6 different teams to compete in the championship game. In the past 8 years, Alabama has made the championship game 6 times, winning 3. In the current setup, the 4 competing teams have a 25% chance of winning a championship, resulting in more recurring teams. 

In comparison, with 12 teams, each team has around an 8% chance of winning. Despite having more teams, the top 4 teams will still be incentivized by having first round byes. At left is an imaginary bracket on what the playoffs would have looked like this year with 12 teams.

An expanded playoff allows for more games among top teams. Besides the playoffs, these teams won't see each other in the regular season unless they are in the same conference. With a 13 game season and 8-9 of those games being conference, it only allows for 4-5 non conference competitive games. This gives the selected 12 teams a potential of 4 extra very competitive games. With these added games, quarter finals can be played at the highest seeds home field of each game. 

With an extra 11 games, there is lots of revenue to be made for the NCAA. Money can be made through viewership, in game attendance, and in special goods for these games. With extended playoffs there can be games through December which means the NCAA could have some Christmas games. The added revenue from these games can support the programs involved to improve.

In conclusion, there should be a 12 team playoff for NCAA football due to the diversity of teams it brings, the increase in games among top teams, and the revenue produced by additional games.