Continuing A Theme

Yes, I'm still talking college football, but that's because it's got a lot going on right now. Ohio State beat Michigan in the “Game of the Century”. They only won the game by three points, so now a lot of people are calling for a rematch in the BCS Championship. Which is crap. To begin with, Michigan was on an emotional after the death of their patron saint. Plus, it was a rivalry game where strange things happen. As the underdogs, Michigan played over their heads (this was their second highest scoring game), so a close game could be an aberration. It doesn't matter to me. I just don’t think any team should be playing in a one game national championship if they didn’t win their conference. The argument is that since Ohio State is clearly the number one team, then a close win means Michigan is clearly the number two team. Well, since Michigan was as close to losing to Ball State as beating Ohio State (Michigan scored their last time with two minutes, left and OSU ran out the clock while Ball State had the ball last with a chance to tie), does that mean Ball State is clearly the third best team in the Big 10 or is Michigan only the fifth best team in the MAC? The rematch argument might have a shot if the Big 10 was the best conference, but it wasn’t even close. Wisconsin is the only other Big 10 team in the top 25, and they got there by playing nobody (best non-conference opponent was 4-7 Bowling Green). Notre Dame lost to Michigan, but overall went 3-1 against the conference, and I’m not sold on the Irish. Hell, the Big East went 3-2 against the Big 10 with the only losses being Ohio State over Cincy and an Iowa win in overtime to Syracuse (worst team in the Big East). Outside of Ohio State’s win over Texas and Michigan’s over Notre Dame, what is the Big 10’s biggest out of conference win? Michigan State over a 6 win Pitt? Michigan over Vandy?

Unfortunately, Wisconsin has become the rule with the top teams from the big conferences. Don’t play anybody hard out of conference and defend it by saying your conference is so hard, you have to schedule patsies. It ignores the fact that Wisconsin has conference colleagues Illinois, Indiana and Northwestern every year. Much like the SEC talks about having a hard game every week, but ignores the fact that their conference includes Mississippi, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, and most years, Kentucky. On a side note, I find the SEC defenders amusing when they talk about the great defenses in the SEC, but LSU was the only SEC school to put up more than 31 points against the Wildcats. Yet, Louisville, Central Michigan and Louisiana Monroe all scored 36 or more against UK.

I think Auburn last year was the epitome of the using the conference affiliation crutch. They started out the season losing to Georgia Tech, but went 7-1 in the SEC with the only loss being at LSU, so by the end of the season some were saying it was a shame Auburn’s loss kept them out of the SEC title game because they looked like the best team in the conference. Well, they lost 24-10 in their bowl game to Wisconsin meaning their only non-conference games against other BCS conference teams was two losses by double digits. If people had looked deeper, they may have noticed something. Auburn had lost to Georgia Tech pretty handily. In the SEC, five of the teams they beat (Ark, UK, S. Carolina, and the Miss schools) were mediocre at best, lousy at worst. So, they only had three hard games in conference. They lost to LSU, squeaked by Georgia and beat Alabama by 10. Simply put, they were a good team, but not anything special, so when they faced a comparable team from another conference, they lost.

This is really why I wish there was a college playoff. Teams would have more incentive to play tougher out of conference schedules, because a loss to a good team wouldn’t hurt as much as it does now. In football now, a second loss completely takes a team out of contention for the title. If Texas hadn’t scheduled Ohio State, they would be in consideration for the BCS championship because (assuming they replaced the Buckeyes with a cupcake) only have one loss since then. With a playoff, they would still have a shot because as winner of the Big 12, they would get in. Another reason is that this year, the assumption is made that Ohio State and Michigan are the top two teams, but since they haven’t played anybody from the PAC-10 or SEC, how do we know they aren’t where they are because the Big 10 is down? We don’t. In a playoff, they would have to face a top team from another conference. As much as I like going to bowl games, they are really a crap way to settle a championship.

OK, I've updated

At Matt & Kara's Bar Mitzvah party or wedding or whatever they had that served beer (lots of beer, for which I thank them) that I went to, a couple of people griped that I hadn't updated my blog. Of course, some others criticized my dancing which is patently unfair because I suffer a disability - lack of rhythm (which should be classified as one if it isn't). I have good reasons for not being able to update my blog. For one, Little Guy died, and I was completely devastated or at least as devastated as one can be when their favorite rodent passes away. I'm not really sure where that falls on the grief meter. However, the main reason is that it's football season, and I do a weekly report for it at my fantasy website which get pretty long. WARNING - the site is for adults only and people who aren't easily offended. Actually, if you aren't easily offended, there is a good chance you might still be offended. Just remember, the target audience is male and friends of mine.

Ironically, another complaint was that the last post before my recent hiatus was about college football. Well, so is this one. Once again, I think college football needs a playoff. There are too many teams that I think could win it this year. I have season tickets for Louisville football, so obviously I have a bias towards them. However, before they defecated on themselves in losing to Rutgers, I could not believe how many people were arguing that an undefeated Big East team was undeserving of a shot in the national championship game. That's ludicrous. If Rutgers wins out, they will be 12-0 with wins over top 10 teams Louisville and West Virginia. I think this weekend showed the fallacy of thinking the Big East is a lesser conference.

Does the Big East have as many good teams as the SEC or Big 10 or other BCS conferences? Probably not, but that's because the Big East only has 8 teams while the others have between 10 and 12. So, obviously, the depth isn't there. However, if you break it down, I think it looks a lot better. At the top of the conference is Rutgers, Louisville and Toothless-Redneck-Central-Tech (commonly referred to as West Virginia University). I would put those teams up against any of the top teams from the other conferences. Would they win every time? No, but they wouldn't lose every time either. Rutgers hammered Illinois 33-0, but Ohio State barely beat them last week. Maryland is tied for first in their ACC division, but were destroyed by WVU. The same Kansas State team that UL beat by 18 on the road without their starting quarterback just beat Texas.

However, it's not just the top of the conferences. Contrary to popular belief, the other conferences have some crap teams. UConn is the second worst team in the Big East. They beat Indiana, a Big 10 team that will go to a bowl if they can beat Purdue next week. Syracuse is the worst team in the Big East, and they beat the worst team in the Big 10, Illinois. So, I think it's pretty obvious that the middle and bottom of the Big East match up pretty well with the middle and bottom of the other conferences. Southern Cal is probably in the driver's seat to be the one loss team playing Ohio State (who should beat an overrated Michigan team) in the title game. Yet, USC lost to Oregon State - an unranked team that lost 63-27 to UL last year and 42-14 to Boise State this year. Want to tell me again about their tough schedule?

The SEC is the conference that really irritates me. For the record, I think top to bottom, the SEC is the best conference in college football. However, I don't think it's by much. Outside of LSU, no one beat a decent Kentucky team like Louisville did. The problem with the SEC is that they rarely play nonconference road games, but claim they can't go undefeated because the SEC is so tough. We don't know that because they only play patsies outside of the conference. Auburn is the epitome of this. They had eight home games. Of the four road games, they squeaked by mediocre South Carolina and bad Mississippi and lost badly at home to Arkansas. Yet, going into this weekend, they were considered one of the top one loss teams in the country. Then they lost to a Georgia team best described as mediocre. Florida is the other SEC team claiming greatness with a loss. They've managed to keep winning, but not well. They barely held off Georgia. A close win over Vandy. They needed a blocked extra point and field goal to beat South Carolina. Surprisingly, the best team in the SEC, Arkansas, gets about as much respect as a Big East team even though they are undefeated in conference. My guess is that it's because the SEC doesn't want to mention that their best team lost to a PAC-10 school by 36 points.

I think Ohio State is the best team, but they only beat Illinois by 7 (at home). I think if they had a 16 team playoff, there are several teams that would have a shot at it. Michigan, Texas, Southern Cal, Florida, WVU, UL, Rutgers, Cal? All are good teams. Does anyone really think George Mason was the fourth best team in the country last year in basketball? Yet, they made the Final Four. College football needs to decide a champion on the field.