Eleven Lessons Learned: BCS process just stinks; Karma haunts Texas
Polls. Computers. Politicking. Facebooking. Banner-pulling. Placard-holding.
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| Did Mack Brown's BCS campaigning in 2004 come back to haunt him and the 'Horns? (Getty Images) |
Look, if the Barack Obama Invitational were put in place this year, we'd have none of this Hatfield & (Colt) McCoy feuding over who deserves to go where at all. In fact, we would instead be left with a pretty cool three weeks of football. Here's how the bracket would look as of today:
1 -- Alabama
8 -- Penn State
7 -- Texas Tech
2 -- Oklahoma
Oh sure, I'd like to see fewer rematches, like the 2 vs. 7 game, but look at some of those other matchups and potential head-to-heads! (Ahhhhh, there's that wishful endorphin rush).
Instead, we're left with reality. Sad, sad, reality.
Here's this week's 11 Lessons Learned in our withering college football world.
Lesson 1
We will all soon find out that this is the worst week to be a college football fan.
I don't know if it's like this for you, but this is the week where all my NFL-based friends laugh hysterically in my face over the fact that a popularity poll is what decides the two teams in the biggest game of the season in my favorite sport. And I have no comeback for that.
Their easiest and most obvious dagger to my college pigskin heart? "What if the NFL just decided at the end of the season to hold an opinion poll as to who the two best teams are and put those two in the Super Bowl. Sound good there Baldy-locks?" (Laughs ensue)
Lesson 2
Texas just learned what karma is all about.
The Longhorns are up in arms about Oklahoma getting voted into the Big 12 title game. They should be. But look beyond the anger. This is payback My Name Is Earl-style.
Rewind to December 4, 2004 when Cal had just won at Southern Miss by 10 points (which included taking a knee with a minute left inside the USM 10) and was ranked No. 4 and in line to get picked up by the Rose Bowl since No. 1 USC was going to the Orange Bowl to win the national title. But then Mack Brown publicly politicked and allegedly made a number of glad-handing phone calls to his poll-voting cronies, begging them to rank his Longhorns ahead of the Bears in the final regular-season poll. This tactic worked. Cal's lead over Texas in the coaches poll went from 48 points to five allowing the 'Horns to jump the Bears in the final BCS poll and get the Rose Bowl bid.
Guess what Longhorns, 2008 is your karma for 2004. OU gets to go to the Big 12 title game because you only beat the Sooners by 10. Only this time it looks like it cost you a shot at the national title. Grin and bear it.
Lesson 3
See, Alabama can win impressively.
And it's about time. It was good to see the Crimson Tide finally pummel someone they should have all along in its 36-0 crushing of Auburn. And it's legit. No special teams returns for touchdowns, no tipped interception returned for scores, no recovered fumbles by a fat lineman for a TD, not even a blocked punt returned for a touchdown. This was a manhandling bar none.
Auburn was held to 170 total yards and had more punts (nine) than first downs (eight). Finally, 'Bama looked worthy of No. 1.
Lesson 4
Meanwhile, beyond the Tide and Florida, we found out that the rest of the SEC is tailspinning.
All those people that say the SEC is the best conference, even the ACC is giving you a Bronx salute. Sure the Seminoles got bombed by the Gators ... that was expected. But beyond that, three other ACC teams toyed with their formerly stronger SEC mates.
Wake Forest subdued Vanderbilt 23-10, sending the Commodores to a bowl game with a 6-6 limp on its ledger. Clemson breezed by the ole ball coach 31-14, leaving the Gamecocks 1-4 vs. FBC teams with winning records. And Georgia was out-optioned by Georgia Tech 45-42, begging the question: Who says the SEC's defenses are too fast for good old option football?
Lesson 5
Once again we are shown how much LeSean McCoy loves to play against West Virginia.
McCoy helped Pitt burn the BCS dreams of the rival Mountaineers for the second year in a row with a career-high 183 yards. Like all good running backs, McCoy grew stronger as the game went on, getting 84 of those yards in the fourth quarter.
Lesson 6
We learned for the umpteenth time that most conference championship games are unnecessary.
Unless you're in love with money.
ACC: Boston College (9-3, 5-3) vs. Virginia Tech (8-4, 5-3)
Nope. Sorry. Don't need it. This game was already played back in October -- with BC winning 28-23. Besides, who wants to see the same two teams play in the ACC title game for the second year in a row? Just skip it people.
MAC: Ball State (12-0, 8-0) vs. Buffalo (7-5, 5-3)
Really, do we need Ball State to put a possible BCS berth on the line? Buffalo lost three MAC games. BSU was obviously the best team in the conference. This is awful. Especially if the Cards should happen to lose.
Big 12: Oklahoma (11-1, 7-1) vs. Missouri (9-3, 5-3)
First off, nobody in the Big 12 North deserves to be in this game. It just makes no sense. Plus, with the Big 12's history of the conference title game ruining national title runs, it's amazing it would bother to keep risking it.
Lesson 7
Even USC fans realize it's time to get out of this Rose Bowl contract.
At the 9:24 mark of the second quarter of USC's 38-3 win over Notre Dame, the Coliseum Jumbotron showed its out-of-town scoreboard. And there it was: Oregon 37, Oregon State 10. Halftime.
First a group of cheers rang out from the Trojan crowd, since this meant another undisputed Pac-10 title. Then, you could audibly hear the muttering. Dare I say, even some groaning. It dawned on Trojan fans that for the fourth year in a row it appears as if their team is headed across town to Pasadena on New Year's Day. Worse, they are going to play another Big Ten team.
Almost every Trojans fan I talked to while tailgating before the game went so far as to hope Oregon State would win its Civil War game with Oregon just so USC could go somewhere new and play a more marquee Big 12 or SEC opponent. Alas, barring a Missouri upset in the Big 12 title game and some funky voting after that, the Trojans will beat another Big Ten team and still leave people in the South and Midwest wondering if the Trojans are really all that good or not.
Lesson 8
We learned that coaches can lose their mojo very quickly in this sport.
Those people that claim Tom Brady made Charlie Weis, well, I think they're right. Especially after watching Notre Dame slog through nearly three quarters before even picking up its first first down of the game vs. USC.
The Irish finished the game with four first downs and 91 total yards. Long gone are the days when Weis looked so brilliant while Brady Quinn led the Irish to the highest passing yards total in school history. That was 2005. Today? Well even in the postgame press conference, Weis himself admitted he didn't know how to counteract simple football.
"He (quarterback Jimmy Clausen) was under duress on fundamental pass plays," Weis sputtered. "I could understand being under duress with seven or eight guys coming at him. But they were doing it by rushing four guys. We had no answer for it."
Charlie has lost it.
Lesson 9
We discovered that Ball State deserves something better than the postseason destination they're going to get.
The MAC has bowl tie-ins with the Motor City Bowl (against the No. 7 Big Ten team), the GMAC Bowl (against a Conference USA team) and something called the International Bowl (against a Big East team).
Behind the magical arm of Nate Davis, this might be the best MAC team since the 1970 Toledo squad that went 12-0 and finished No. 12 in the AP poll. I'm saying better than Ben Roethlisberger's No. 10-finishing Miami (Ohio) team of 2003. With that as a back-drop, do we really want to see these guys from David Letterman U. take on some lame fish like UConn or East Carolina or North Carolina State? No. Give them a big conference challenge people!
Lesson 10
We learned why the college football season should be moved back.
Weather. This weekend saw the triumphant return of "football weather" to the scene. Rain in Athens. Mud in Tallahassee. Snow in Kansas City. Remember when you were a kid and played backyard football with your buddies? The most memorable times were when games were played in the elements. The mud, the rain, the snow. It made you feel like warriors. I say give us more of these manly games. Give us less of the 95-degree, 100-percent humidity games of September. Besides, nobody likes to see games delayed 20 times by guys laying on the hot turf with cramps in their legs from the heat.
Lesson 11
We learned why the oafish Mike Leach can also be absolutely brilliant.
He said it and I believe it. They should settle the Big 12 South by whichever team has the best team graduation rates. Why the hell not? For once this is a chance to put academics into the equation. Lord knows we rarely get the chance to put "student" into student-athlete.
And if you didn't catch it earlier, those graduation rates are:
Texas Tech: 79 percent
Texas: 50
Oklahoma: 46
