BCS Championship Game: Ohio State v. LSU

Hey, this is simple for me.

1. The Big 1o is overrated, even in a year when they suck.

Ohio State didn’t really play anyone this year. Their biggest rival pretty much sucked. Playing Youngstown State, Akron and Kent State doesn’t cut it. I know Ohio State is feeling disrespected, but when LSU gets a hold to the Buckeyes, it’s gonna look like this by halftime.

Truth be told, I can’t name one single OSU player off hand. Yes, I know they have some hot cats, but overall, they’re just uneventful. They got whooped last year when they had stars like Troy Smith and Ted Ginn, Jr., this year? I don’t think so.

2. LSU plays in, and won, the best College Football conference, the SEC.

It’s very simple. The SEC is the best conference every year period. LSU is battle tested and fearless.

3. It’s in Louisiana

Short of Lil Wayne singing the national anthem with a Duffle Bag Boy background beat, LSU already has every single advantage.

Now, there’s only one way for LSU to lose the game, turnovers. If LSU messes up over and over again and Matt Flynn plays awful, yes, OSU has a chance. But Ryan Perrilloux is too much. Jacob Hester is too much. And yes, Glen Dorsey is TOO MUCH. Sheeyut, LSU will have more athletes in the stands watching than Ohio State will have on the field. It’s LSU, it’s he SEC, it’s Louisiana, the deep south. It’s football country. Ohio State cannot and will not win this game. Period. I like LSU BIG in the Superdome.

– Lake

I Can’t Wait for New Year’s Day

You already know my opinion on the BCS.  I think the entire thing is completely bogus, and they just made up the matchups that they wanted to see.  They need a playoff system, and the “football” version of March Madness would be great.  All of that being said, I forgot about the worst part of the bowl system.

Three Words: PetroSun Independence Bowl.

Come on man, they didn’t even try on the logo.  That just looks like some BS.  Look, I don’t have any problem with the PetroSun bowl specifically, but there are just too many bowl out there.  With Alabama and Colorado, this game is semi-legit.  But Cinci v. Southern Miss. in the “Papa Johns.com Bowl?  The Sheraton Bowl?  The Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl?

That is really now necessary.  Donovan, you played ball, did you watch the “San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl”?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

I know there is a lot of money to be made on these bowl games, but hasn’t it gone too far?  I know the “unpaid” students get to load up on free sweatsuits, Nintendo Wii’s, iPods, Stereo systems, and all of that other free swag, and the schools get to drop a few million in their pockets, but how do these cats even get hype for the game.  The players haven’t played in a month and a half, the game is literally for nothing.  Wait, maybe you get a Jostens Championship ring…but are you really going to rock your Gaylord Hotels ring?  I think not.

New Year’s day can’t come fast enough.  That way I can at least watch popular teams that probably don’t deserve to be playing a high profile game.  Right now, I can’t take it.  Hell, Lake and I are throwing the Us Versus Them Bowl in 2008.  It might be more like the lingerie bowl than an actual football game though.

-Brock

UvT Sports: College Football Final and the BCS

Every college football season is another opportunity to make the BCS system look ridiculous. When you have more than two undefeated teams it makes them look bad. When you have a few teams on the outside of the national championship looking in, it makes them look bad. This season everybody lost, so the teams at the top have changed more than Beyonce during one of her concerts.

Which brings us to today.

You knew something wasn’t right when the “number one team” in the country is a three point underdog going in to the Big 12 Championship game. But even I didn’t expect it to be this bad. Let’s be realistic. We all know that Mizzou v. West Virginia would have been the lowest rated championship game ever. It would have been fun to watch all the commentators try hype up such an awful game for an entire month. Don’t get me wrong, I like a sports Cinderella story as much as the next guy, but we’ve had some really BS teams in the top spots this year. Boston College? The USF Bulls? Missou, Kansas, and West Virginia?

I didn’t watch the games, but I think the BCS planted Tim Donaghy at the games to make sure things “turned out right”.

So here we go, we find out the Bowl matchups tonight and the AP rankings already have Ohio State and LSU in the top two spots. Yeah, people are voting for the game they want to see. Let’s see, I guess the “computer” was wrong when it had the Georgia Bulldogs at #4 and LSU at #7 when the Dawgs weren’t even in the SEC championship game. Sorry Georgia, it’s not looking good. Ohio State got to sit on the sidelines for the last two weeks of the season and watch teams lose around them. That doesn’t quite seem fair, does it? So let me get this right, in the SEC not playing is a bad thing, so LSU jumps (5 spots? when else has that happened?) but in the Big Ten it is a good thing. Great, Ohio State last played on November 21. The national championship game is January 7th. Ohio State has almost two months off before the game. What else? Ohhhhhh, the game is being played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Nice.

All this proves is that there needs to be a playoff system. I know the BCS likes the cash, intrigue developed in the current system, and they continue to say it is a fair system. In reality, how great would it be to see the top 8 teams in a playoff? Look at these teams, Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Mizzou, and Kansas. Maybe the undefeated Hawaii gets a shot to test themselves against respected programs since it appears that everyone thinks their record is complete BS. Florida is right there on the edge. Give the teams that worked hard a shot at it. Seriously, there is nothing Hawaii could have done better, they don’t deserve a sniff at it? Next year they will be rewarded with a ranking in the high teens while perennial favorites like Michigan, Florida, USC, Texas, and Cal get right back to where they are every year. Plus, think of the drama of March Madness, teams earn it with every game. The underdog schools build a following by showing their heart on the field. The national favorites get a few weeks where everyone gets to see how good they are on a national stage so by time they hoist the trophy everyone knows what they can do.

This season has been a debacle for the BCS, it is time for a change. No one wants this.

-Brock

—————UPDATE———————

Well, the results are in. This is a joke. Look, if you are just going to make the games you want to see at the end of the year, throw out the whole system. Don’t get me wrong, LSU v. Ohio State is exactly the game I want to see, and the only thing that makes sense at this point. So get this. Georgia goes in to the weekend at number 4 in the BCS. Then #1 and #2 lose. That makes them number two going into the championship game, right? That is how it happened the other thirteen weeks of the season, right? That is how Boston College, South Florida, Kansas and all of those jokers got to be #2, right?

Not this week, this week when two of the three teams in front of you lose, you come back out of the week at number FIVE. That’s right, they didn’t play and lost a spot. Ohio State didn’t play and got right up to #1. That means VA Tech jumped up three slots for beating number 11 Boston College. LSU jumps five slots to number two, and Oklahoma also jumps up five to number 3…but they beat the number one team in the country so they deserved it, right?  Meanwhile #9 Kansas gets in while #6 Mizzou drops out completely, that sucks.

Yeah, look at it, read it again. None of it makes sense. But no one will remember it by time Kirk Herbstreit and Corso talk about it for a month. We got the game everyone wants, that’s the whole point, right?

Right?

-Brock

College Football Roundup: Holy S#it!

Oh man this is great. I woke up Saturday morning to post my weekly predictions for college football when I realized that it was the functional bye week. Hell, Gameday was at a freaking D III school for the pregame talking about museums. Then this happened:

This was supposed to be the off week. Illinois was one of the worst teams in the nation next to Duke last year and they just clipped number 1. Not only that, but Michigan lost to Wisconsin (It seemed like Lloyd Carr was saving the boys for Ohio State next week. He wants to make it to the Rose Bowl), and Notre Dame continues its exercise in futility by dropping one to Air Force making their game against Duke Football on national television next week HUGE. By the way, just for the record, we haven’t done the Brady Quinn watch this season because he uhhhhhh hasn’t taken a snap this season.

Here’s the deal, things had shaken out to the point where LSU and Ohio State were in the top 2, ready to head to the national championship. That is a respectable match-up. In fact, LSU v. Oregon still is. Here’s the thing? Remember about three weeks ago when South Florida was number two in the country, Boston College was #3, and currently unranked Cal had just dropped out of the top 2? Remember that? Well we are one SEC championship loss and one trip up through the PAC 10 away from Kansas v. West Virginia for the title. Sure, I appreciate how much parity there is in college football, but I’m not interested in waiting until January 8 for that game.

That game is going to look like this.

LSU was always the best team in the land and I hope they can hold it together. The next few weeks should be great.

-Brock

College Football Roundup

Let’s call this the “I told you so” edition. I predicted the winners and losers of the weekend on Saturday morning, and my top 5 match up with Kirk Herbstreit’s…he just called it after the game was over. Kansas makes it into the Top 5 this week in the BCS and coaches poll, but I still have Oklahoma and West Virginia rounding out the top 5 teams in the nation after OSU, LSU and Oregon.  Boston College just wasn’t going to hold up.

Like I said, FSU has powerful forces on their side.

I also have to give some love to the Michigan Wolverines. Where would they be if thy held it together for those first two games? Fine, lets assume that Oregon would have beat them anyway. The Ducks have everything that Michigan doesn’t want to see: Black Mobile quarterback, an option offense that gets to the edges of the defense, a tough running back up the middle, and those blinding green and yellow uniforms. Without that loss to Appalachian State, which is nothing but mental preparation and even then it came down to fingertips on a kicked ball, Michigan would be at least #4, probably #2 as LSU and Oregons losses (Kentucky and Cal) would have been worse than Michigan’s loss to Oregon.

Either way the Wolverines have a shot at winning the Big 10, and it doesn’t even matter what they do against Wisconson next week. All they need to do is beat Ohio State.

In the end, LSU has three games left and they need to make it past the SEC title game, definitely a tough road. Ohio State only needs to get past Michigan in the two weeks then they can take the damn near two month breather (ridiculous) before they play in the title game. I think the Wolverines pull it out in the Big House. Oregon v. USC in the BCS Championship.

Why the hell does the Big 10 get to play less games anyway? That’s just cheap.

-Brock

College Football Roundup: The Top 10 Can’t Win

I can’t tell if this is the greatest year of college football as far back as I can remember, or if it is the worst.  I will say that this  is the best opportunity that the BCS will ever have to prove its worth.  Sure everyone loves to see the dominant team destroy everyone in the field, but honestly I like this better.  The system is built so that you have to string together three or four good years to even have a sniff at the championship game.  You at least had to be ranked in the top 5 at the beginning of the season, and you had to essentially go undefeated.  (You could have a “quality loss” against another strong squad, but it better happen early in the season and you better dominate after that.)

This season is different.  Every team is catching losses, and bad ones at that.  Michigan set the stage when they lost to Appalachian State and Oregon in back to back weeks.  USC lost to Stanford, LSU dropped one to Kentucky (and almost Auburn Saturday night)  Texas has tanked, South Carolina gave it up to Vandy?!?!?, Oregon lost to Cal who is now on a two game losing streak which includes UCLA, the entire Big 10 has damn near disappeared.  So it is up for grabs right?  South Florida had a chance to make history (what a debate that would have been) but got jammed up by Rutgers on Thursday night.  (The number two team shouldn’t even be playing on Thursday night, much less losing).  Oh yeah, Ohio State, you haven’t played anyone yet.  You’re #1 by damn near default.  Youngstown State, Akron, Kent State and Minnesota all in one season?  All in the first eight games?  Nice scheduling, play someone next time.

So here we are with five weeks left until the end of the regular season and the top 5 is Ohio State, Boston College, LSU Arizona State and Oregon.  Although they caught a scare last night, I still think LSU is probably still the best shot to be in the championship game.  I think the winner of Oregon v. Arizona State will be there too.

The biggest story is that the BSC system and the computers actually get to do some work this year.  Every year that there aren’t three undefeated teams at the top is another year that whatever computer geeks programmed the black box-like “computer” can breathe easily that their “system” doesn’t come under scrutiny.  The funny thing is, no matter what happens and no matter who wins this year, the top five next year will be USC, LSU, Ohio State, Florida, and Michigan…or something like it.

Stay away from that top 10 if you aren’t ready for the heat.  Those squads are dropping like flies.

-Brock