Before I get to the games, I've gotten a bunch of questions about how I feel about the Big 12, the BCS controversy, and cake. Firstoff I love cake, it's delicious so that settles that. The Big 12 three way, which is not nearly as sexy as it sounds, creates a problem. What happened for those of you who were uninformed is that somehow it looks like the Big 12 south is going to end up in a three way tie between Texas Tech, Texas, and Oklahoma. Texas beat Oklahoma, Texas Tech beat Texas, and Oklahoma hammered Texas Tech so the tie breaker to decide who goes to the championship game for the Big 12 to play Missouri is BCS ranking. Currently Texas is the highest ranked of the three, but Oklahoma is right behind them with another ranked team to play this weekend. So if all three teams win this weekend then it's pretty likely that Oklahoma will be playing Missouri. However, the major gripe I have with this is that Oklahoma beat TT at Oklahoma, TT beat Texas at TT. Texas beat Oklahoma at a neutral site. So of the three games, the most meaningful to me is the Texas beating Oklahoma, because one of the measures of how to rank teams is which team would win on a neutral field, well in this case the question has already been answered for us. In my mind Texas should be playing for the Big 12 championship. Everyone assumes that whichever one of those three teams advances to the title game, they will win. But in truth Missouri certainly has the ability to beat any one of them, thus furthering the problem with the BCS championship game and it seems pretty likely that this would happen since the Big 12 championship has traditionally had it's fair share of upsets.
That brings us to the BCS controversy. There are really in my mind two big controversies this year. The first, and less talked about is the fact that there looks like there are going to be at least 1 if not two undefeated teams that will not be playing in a BCS bowl game. Currently it looks like Utah will get an automatic bid to a BCS bowl and Ball State (who still has to play in the MAC championship game which is not a gimme) and Boise State (who still has to play Fresno State which is not a gimme either). So that would mean that two teams with perfect records would be stuck playing in some no name loser bowl game rather then a huge one. Which I think is a shame. These three undefeated schools should play in the BCS game, and I understand that they aren't in a BCS conference, but they can't really help that, they can only play the schedule they have. It sucks because both Utah and Boise have won BCS games in the past when they were allowed to go. It's like the prom I guess, all three teams are pretty enough to be prom royalty, but since they didn't participate in enough extra curricular activities only one of them is allowed in to make out with the hot prom king and princes. The other two have to settle for getting felt up by their drunk overweight prom date while they sigh disappointed and keep checking the clock. Realistically Ball State will probably play Minnesota, which is a disappointing ending to a great season.
The far more prevalent BCS controversy is the fact that we're running kinda low on undefeated teams from BCS conferences. Only Alabama remains and most people think they are going to lose to Florida in the SEC championship game. So let's go ahead and assume that happens, and that whomever goes to the Big 12 championship from the big 12 south beats Missouri. That leaves us with 7 potential teams with 1 loss from BCS conferences to choose from for the national title game, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, USC, Texas Tech, and Penn State. Penn State is already finished for the year and they are Rose Bowl bound unless Alabama (twice), Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Florida and USC all lose, in which case they might play Utah in the BCS title game. But basically they are locked into the Rose Bowl and at this point it's probably too late to change that. But it still remains, how do you decide which of these 7 teams plays for the National title? Which one is better based on their one loss? We already described the Texas Oklahoma Texas Tech weirdness, so assume that if one of them wins the Big 12 championship game they would be one of the two teams. But then you have to say the winner of the Alabama and Florida game go to the title game as well and what would be a 11-1 USC team and a 11-1 Penn State team are left out in the dark. USC in fact would have to hope that Oregon State loses before the end of the year or USC would have to receive an at large bid to a BCS bowl and the Rose Bowl would be a boring matchup between Oregon State and Penn State, a game which Penn State already won easily this year. But at the heart of the question is which team with 1 loss is the most deserving? Or which loss told us more about the team?
Penn State lost because they played at Iowa and lost headset communications while Iowa won via ref interference (seriously one of the worst pass interference calls of all time) and a last second score. USC lost because they played at Oregon State and they couldn't tackle a guy who is like 5 feet tall. Texas lost because their freshman defensive backs couldn't handle the pressure at the end of the game. Texas Tech got completely outclassed in Norman by a motivated Oklahoma team. Oklahoma just got outplayed by Texas at a Neutral site. Florida lost because Mississippi had some variety of magic going for them on a Saturday afternoon. Of those losses I would say that USC's is bad because it might cost them the conference championship and therefore they shouldn't be in the title game. They also shouldn't have lost to a team that got blown out by another one loss team and lost to Stanford and Utah (who is undefeated). Penn State's loss is bad because Iowa isn't a great team, and it would almost be forgivable except for the fact that Penn State shouldn't have been in that close a game to begin with. So you are left guessing which of the teams left should be deserving of a national title game, the only thing that would solve all this is Alabama going undefeated for the rest of the season, then all this controversy would go away and all you would be left with is why when there were more then 2 undefeated teams left, did they not play each other for the national title game? Oh and also you are left wondering why the ACC and Big East are getting BCS spots. Fun stuff.
Comments:
"Navy should save the onsides kicks for Army! Ken"
Oh man this might be true, but can you believe how close that game became?
Friday Games:
Fresno State at #9 Boise State - The Boise State Broncos don't really have much to play for in this game other than pride. The have already won the WAC and they aren't going to pass Utah in the BCS standings so the best they can do is go undefeated and shake their fists at the BCS staff for not including them like an old curmudgeon shaking his fist for the damn teenagers to get off his lawn. Sucks but it's a way of life with no playoff. However if you get a chance check out Freshman Kellen Moore, who is astonishingly good for a freshman quarterback. He would be getting way more attention if this were any other year besides one in which the Big 12 has so many heisman quarterbacks. The Fresno Bulldogs have lost to Boise by an average of 29 points at Boise in the last 7 years, this game might be a little closer but the result should be the same. At the very least anyone who watches this game in HD will go blind from the bright blue Boise field.
Saturday Games:
#22 Georgia Tech at #11 Georgia - Rivalry game! It's a fun one too pitting the great Georgia Bulldog defense against the GT Yellowjacket triple option offense. Georgia really should shut down the run game which would leave the Jackets high and dry, which I guess as it goes for flying bugs isn't a bad place to be. A fun way for this game to go down is the traditional pro-style Georgia offense and NFL bound QB Matt Stafford have a shootout against the quirky triple option. But I think it's far more likely that Georgia wins for coach Mark Richt's 8th consecutive time in this peachy rivalry.
#4 Florida at #20 Florida State - Before the Florida Gators start thinking about national title hopes and beating Alabama, they had better get a handle on the FSU Seminoles. The most newsworthy thing about the Seminoles is in fact the performance of Safety Myron Rolle, who earned himself a Rhodes scholarship last weekend before he played in the second half against Maryland. FSU seems like such an unlikely place to have a football player with that kind of academic credential especially since half the team got suspended for cheating last year, but Myron will have to make the enviable choice whether to attend Oxford, or play in the NFL where he's projected to be a mid-round pick. For Florida, QB Tim Tebow looks to pad his own resume for a second Heisman by beating the Seminoles en route to a showdown with Alabama. He may have to work pretty hard considering how well FSU has played against the run this year, he may actually have to throw the ball more then 11 times like he did last week when he had a QB rating of 325.31 and went 9-11 with 3 touchdowns. Expect Florida to win, although you never know, maybe FSU will play beyond themselves in the hopes that Boston College loses and they get to go to the ACC championship. I was going to make a joke about some gators eating some native americans here, but I figured that was in bad taste, so I'll make a joke about the gators eating a delicious pumpkin pie, which tastes much better.
#23 Oregon at #17 Oregon State - "The Civil War" as this game has been dubbed, will determine if a 3 loss Oregon State team plays in the Rose Bowl as the Pac-10 champion, or whether a one loss USC team gets to go. The ducks of Oregon have had a pretty disappointing season. Which is pretty much the line used to describe every Oregon season, lots of potential, lots of expectations, mix in some failure, and you get Oregon year in and year out, also that describes me to a letter, damn. The Oregon State Beavers on the other hand have had a much better season then expected given that they started off the year losing to Stanford and then getting mauled by Penn State. The game may boil down to this, if freshman RB Jacquizz Rodgers plays then Oregon State has a great chance of winning, otherwise I expect this game to be much closer, likely ending in a victory for the ducks, which is a much more fearsome animal then a beaver. At least I think, have you ever been bitten by a duck? It hurts man.
#3 Oklahoma at #12 Oklahoma State - I don't even really feel like writing about this game, but the jist of it is that if the Oklahoma Sooners and QB Sam Bradford win then they will likely vault Texas and play in the Big 12 championship and then if they win that then National title game. If they lose to OK St. Cowboys and QB Zach Johnson then Texas Tech would get the honor of doing everything I just mentioned in the last sentence. Essentially it's going to be a shootout, because they both have really good quarterbacks, and not as good defenses. OK St. has a great chance to pull the upset, most think it's a forgone conclusion but don't be so sure, they beat Missouri earlier in the year and that could be the same recipie that stops the Sooners, but I still pick Oklahoma.
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