Sunday, November 12, 2006

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.

2 comments:

Amber Moles said...

GO Toothless-Redneck-Central-Tech!!!!

Sherman said...

44-34