Country Mike Blog

Country and BCS

Mike Sudhalter  |  January 6, 2009

Country music album sales have dropped 24 percent from 62.7 million to 47.7 million. Thank goodness the genre considers Taylor Swift among its ranks, because her approximately four million albums sold stopped the drop from being a lot worse.

I think it probably has more to do with digital downloads and people listening to music online than it does with actual disinterest in country music. I, for one, will always like to purchase compact discs and have the music right there in front of me. That doesn't mean I never download albums from itunes. Other people - especially those younger than me - download almost all of their music online. One visit to my apartment, and you'd realize I'm not among them.

College football's Bowl Championship Series is obviously flawed as it doesn't produce a true champion. It's so arbitrary. Texas' victory over Ohio State in Monday's Fiesta Bowl proved two things - the Longhorns are worthy of playing for the national championship and junior quarterback Colt McCoy is capable of engineering the two-minute drill. The game started off slow, but it finished like a classic with the Longhorns winning 24-21. And I'm not even a Texas fan.

But if college football is going to get a playoff, why not the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music? Some of the CMA voters may not have seen a Toby Keith concert that year.....so they're no more qualified to vote for or against him as a scribe who hasn't watched the Utah Utes play a game.

The CMAs and the ACMs should have playoffs - for entertainer of the year, you can have six finalists - give two of them byes. And then have Alan Jackson vs. Brad Paisley in the semifinals of Male Vocalist of the Year, and then put George Strait vs. Kenny Chesney in the other semifinal. Based on what they've done that year, we'd put AJ vs Strait in an epic final for the award....concert tickets sold, songs that went to No. 1, etc., etc. and then the CMA would make their selection - making one fan base really happy and another group, wanting to protest.

Wait for the ACMs, that's how I'm going to pick the nominees that I think deserve to win.