No Conference Title Game = No BCS

Originally written December 1, 2007

Watching SEC, Big 12, ACC, and Big East title games on ‘Championship Saturday’, I can’t help but wonder why the Pac 10 and Big 10 get away with not having to play a final game. Ohio State gets to sit and watch after their win over Michigan. USC gets to play a rivalry game versus UCLA that everyone else played last weekend on ‘Rivalry Weekend’. Pac 10 and Big 10 have no conference title games, but still have the opportunity to play in the BCS. Every other major conference must play a game theoretically versus the second best team in their conference. It is simply not fair to the other conferences that some do not have to play a final game. If their conference is not big enough to have one, then they should expand the conference an extra team or two to create better competition in the conference.

If there were no conference title games, the national championship game would be set with Missouri versus West Virginia. The BCS should have a section of their contract saying that all conferences must have a title game if they want a chance to play in any BCS bowl. Of course, if Ohio State does play in the national championship and lose, everyone will blame it on their long layoff. Sportswriters will somehow try to blame this on the BCS because it is the easy thing to do, writing that the BCS sets the championship game too late after the season. The BCS or better yet, the NCAA should make a statement that says all teams must play a conference championship game by 2012 if they want to play in BCS bowl games. The BCS contract will be up before then, so it would be better if the NCAA made the rule.

I wonder if USC and Ohio State would have been in as many recent games for a national championship if they had to actually play for their conference championship first.

The First Loser

Originally written November 22, 2007

“Another week of BCS turmoil”

This is possibly the only thing that’s been printed more than a Lindsay Lohan mug shot this year. A number 2 curse rundown. The players, the culprits and the results.

Week 7: California

The start of the upset curse of 2007. I can easily see why at this point in the season voters felt confident putting Cal at number 2. They had just beaten a phenomenal Oregon team and handled SEC powerhouse Tennessee. However, a week 7 loss to Oregon State would only be the beginning of their troubles. From here California began to tailspin going 1 – 5 in their last six games. It’s been the kind of season where a number 2 team has became an after note for most Pac 10 opponents.

Current: Unranked – Pac 10 (7^th)

Overall: 6 -5

Week 8: South Florida

Well forgive me if I wasn’t too shocked to see this team lose. This was a team that started out the season unranked and not causing much of any notice at all on the national radar, however a strong start garnered a lot of attention when all the big boys were falling around them and to them (WVU and Auburn). Then it kicks in. Everyone realize they just ranked a team that plays in the Big Easy, oh I mean Big East, at number 2. 2 – 3 in the last five games.

Current: Unranked – Big East (3^rd)

Overall: 8 -3

Week 10: Boston College

I don’t really know why, but everyone was kind of waiting on this team to lose. People just weren’t fully buying into the prospect of a Matt Ryan Heisman Trophy for one reason or another. This is a good team, but after the miracle comeback in Blacksburg, VA no one was convinced that this was a BCS National Championship team. It reminded me of an out of control downhill skier who had just dodged the big rock just to swerve into a tree. A Seminole tree.

Current: #15 – ACC Atlantic (1^st)

Overall: 9 -2

Week 11: LSU

Another team that is really good. Great coach. Great Talent. Great Schedule. Cursed Ranking. The Bayou Bengals had the task of marching to Lexington to face a tough Kentucky Wildcat team. Playing in Lexington is no easy task, especially when they are lead by an early (and still) Heisman front runner. This is one of the exceptions to the rule this year. A great team plays another great team, one has to lose after several over times and they just pick it up and continue to win.

Current: #1 – SEC West (1^st)

Overall: 10 -1

Week 13: Oregon

You really can’t blame the Ducks too much for this one. You lose your team leader, Heisman frontrunner and the quarterback of your team then there is nothing you can do. However, you lost to Arizona. Yea. Arizona. Duck fans be glad you go to have the season you did. Dixon gets hurt game 2, your name would probably not be anywhere in this article, much less any other one this year.

Current: #9 – Pac 10 (2^nd)

Overall: 8 -2

5 out of the 13 weeks this year we’ve seen the number 2 team lose. This week #2 Kansas vs. #4 Missouri.

Doesn’t suck to be a WVU fan right now.

Living in LA LA Land

Originally written November 20, 2007

Los Angeles, CA is not a college town, not by a long shot. Yes, I come from Houston and the South where we claim anyone north of Kentucky (outside of those Yankee and Sox fans) doesn’t care much at all about sports. This is wrong, and I admit it is wrong. There is great football played in all over the US and great fans in many different cities. However, that’s not what this is about. This is about why anyone claiming that LA is an up and coming college city is full of shit. Everyone here says LA is turning into some great college town due to the lack of an NFL team and success in both major schools.

I call bullshit.

The reason why is because any college city lives and dies by the success of the team, this city does not. You want to try to say that all cities become apathetic when a team begins to lose? Go to Lincoln, Nebraska and ask them. Go to College Station, or Austin, or Knoxville, or Gainsville, or Tallahassee. Get my point? I can guarantee you that the second that USC has a 6 – 6 season or UCLA is floored by a Utah more than few weeks in a row this cities support will dry up like a Promises Rehab success story.

In a city where everyone you meet cares about drama and entertainment, why do people simply not care about football? What is more dramatic than a year full of HUGE upsets by FCS (D-1AA)/Non-ranked teams, secret gossip letters by millionaire coaches and more arrests than a Enron board meeting? A lot of times you’ll hear the excuse, ‘there is just too much stuff to do in LA rather than go to a sports game’. Um, wrong. LA has a certain thing about it to where it is like “yea, I’m in LA this is cool and famous and blah”, however not for anyone who has been here more than 45 minutes. Let me take you through a tour of the city. This here is the Hollywood walk of fame and I truly hope you have your hepatitis insurance. Next over here we have the studio tours, you’ll see some 10 to 15 year old movie sets and a lot of families confused at why they paid 49.99 to ride in a bus to go see the house where the exterior shots were taking for some obscure 80’s sitcom. Next, we have some of the Hollywood hotspots, where you too can get a scone for 15.99.

I can hear the responses now from the 13 people who actually graduated from USC or UCLA that will truly follow the team. All I can tell them is to stay strong, because you will be alone the second the pretenders find a new shot of Britney Spears vagina is more important that USC’s 6^th win on game 10 of the season. The day will come I tell you.

This is not a college town. It’s a good place to visit and provides a world of opportunity for the ambitious, but please please stop saying that it’s a college city. Take a weekend, go watch some SEC football in Gainsville, Lincoln or the Ole Miss’s The Grove (not the one on Beverly Dr. and Fairfax) but the real Grove you’ll begin to understand what it is to bleed team colors.

Heisman Hopefuls Without the Hype

Originally written November 11, 2007.

After week 11 in this upset filled college football season, we finally get to hear some long awaited Heisman talk. The past few years, the media has given away the Heisman to Leinart, Bush, and Troy Smith. Bush and Smith have received the most points in Heisman history, with 2,541 and 2,540 points respectively. Every single week that Bush and Smith highlights were shown, they were commonly referred to as ‘future Heisman winner’ Reggie Bush or Troy Smith. ’05 and ’06 had two of the largest margins from first to second in recent Heisman history.

This year has left the media unsure of who to support because all of the preseason hopefuls have failed to live up to the hype.

This year the preseason (media-dream) hopefuls have not performed as expected. John David Booty has not played in three games and has a 15 to 8 touchdown to interception ratio along with a 4 interception loss to Stanford. Arkansas did not have national title hype, but McFadden was a front runnerHe has rushed for under 125 yards in five games and has rushed for over 200 yards only once in his 321 yard SEC record rushing performance at South Carolina. DeSean Jackson has only two games with more than 100 yards receiving and is on pace for less than 800 yards receiving and only 6 receiving TDs. Currently Cal is 6-4 and in the bottom half of the Pac-10 standings. He also has one rushing and one punt return touchdown. West Virginia’s Heisman hype disappeared with its national title hopes in South Florida. Steve Slaton has seen his production drop with four of the last five games failing to rush for 100 yards. Pat White has been efficient with 11 TDs to 2 Ints and a 69% completion ratio. Tim Tebow and the Gators have three losses, and he has his lowest numbers in those losses. Michigan lost to Appalachian State, end of story, no further explanation needed for Henne/Hart.(that’s good I like that sentence) Brian Brohm’s defense has hurt him more than his play this year for his Heisman campaign. His numbers are pretty ridiculous with already over 3500 yards and a 28 TDs to 9 Ints, but he has three losses of 7 points or less. Heisman winners need to lead their teams to win the close games and not be on a 5-5 team second to last in the Big East. That pretty much wraps it up for the preseason hopefuls. Some preseason players still have a good chance at the Heisman, mainly Pat White and possibly McFadden. It is better for college football that the media has not given away the award prematurely to a player yet. That being said, there have been some Heisman worthy performances this season that people are finally starting to notice. There are three Big 12 quarterbacks on here, which will change because the winner of Kansas vs Missouri will probably play Oklahoma. I expect one of the three QBs to emerge from those three to big a legitimate Heisman contender. Keep in mind, this is a list of top players that did not receive any Heisman hype, not my list of top six Heisman candidates.

1. Dennis Dixon – Oregon. The front runner. He has received the most Heisman hype so far. Dual threat quarterback has rushed for one TD in all of his games this year except at Arizona State last week. He has 20 TD passes to only 3 Ints this year. Oregon’s only loss was to California in the middle of the year, which is always better than losing in the last two weeks. One of probably three teams that have a chance to play for the national title if they win out, which is a big factor for Heisman voting.

2. Todd Reesing – Kansas. The dark horse. He has not received any hype despite an undefeated season because Kansas is the biggest surprise this year. He has helped put up over 50 points five times this year including throwing for a 6 TD 0 Int 76 point game versus Nebraska. On pace to throw for over 3000 yards and 30 TDs. If he can beat Chase Daniels and Sam Bradford, he should on equal footing with Dixon.

3. Colt Brennan – Hawaii. The NCAA all time TD passer. He has too many individual and career passing records to type up here. Brennan and Harrell have the luxury of playing in a passing offense, which allows them to put up monster numbers. I list Brennan ahead of Harrell because of his undefeated record. Hawaii may play an inferior schedule, but Brennan does not play with a team full of blue chippers that some teams have. Hawaii has just now started to look at the possibility of taking recruiting trips off the islands. Any undefeated team should receive some recognition and praise.

4. Michael Crabtree – Texas Tech. The receiver. Big receiver at 6’3” 222 lb, but he plays in a Texas Tech system that throws almost every down. His numbers cannot be ignored. He has over 1700 yards and 20 TD, but receives no hype because “the system” he plays in. Players who played in favorable systems have won the Heisman before and that should not change now. He is only a freshman, so that probably hurts his name recognition and chance to win. But if he keeps performing this way for the next year or two, expect his name to start receiving some hype.

5. Sam Bradford – Oklahoma. The freshman QB. The biggest question on Oklahoma coming into the season was the quarterback position. They had a great defense and offense coming back but had questions after the Bomar debacle. Bradford has fit in perfectly and surprised many people with his stellar play. 70% completion rate with a 28 TD to 6 Int ratio shows how efficient he is. He has the luxury of playing with stellar receivers and a solid two-headed running game. If he leads OU to a Big 12 title, they will have as good an argument as any other team to play for the national title.

6. Chase Daniels – Missouri. The junior. Chase Daniels receives this nickname because is the only junior and received criticism out of high school for his size. He has lead Missouri to a number six ranking and a chance for the Big 12 title if they can beat Kansas. He has a good chance to throw for 4,000 yards and 30 TDs. If he has big games versus Kansas and Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game, he should rise on this list.

Notables not mentioned – Matt Ryan and Graham Harrell