Thursday, January 10, 2008

On Second Thought, Maybe No One Wants to Win It All

So the BCS bowl announcement should be on FOX soon (it's 7:30 pm EST right now...in the background I have sadly unmuted the annoying smugness that is Joe Buck, hoping that Rex Grossman and/or Eli Manning will hurry up and choke the game away).

Yesterday the #1 and #2 teams lost. UGA was #4.

Odds are, UGA doesn't play for the title.

You know what? I'm actually ok with that.

I said Nebraska didn't belong in 2001, and neither did OU in 2003. Of course both those teams also LOST their last game prior to the bowl, whereas UGA hasn't lost since the first weekend in October, something none of the other contenders for the BCS title can say.

But 11-2 and an SEC title trumps 10-2 and no SEC title in my book. Even though I think LLes Miles is an idiot and horrible public speaker (oh, and the misspelling of his first name is intention, given the number of Ls he gets per year.)

So my take is LSU sort of kind of deserves to be in the game.

Who doesn't? The Buckeyes.

Don't tell that to ESPN, who treated an Ohio State University in the title game as fait accompli from about halftime of the Big 12 title game on.

Of particularly crappy journalistic note was Kirk Herbstreit, who it should be noted played QB for anOSU in the early 90s, suddenly doing an about face from last year's politicking. He had no issue with a Michigan team, that just lost it's last game AND didn't win its conference, playing anOSU team again. But suddenly this year, everything's changed, and LSU's conference title mean's more than UGA's being previously ranked higher in the standings.

I'm not saying Herbie's biased, but it'd be nice if they put "Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN Analyst and former Ohio State QB" whenever he's on tv.

And the inconsistencies in reasoning bugs me.

UGA doesn't play and is penalized for it. AnOSU doesn't play and moves up.

LSU wins a conference title and moves up a lot. OU beats the #1 ranked team--by a large margin--and moves up, but only a little.

The worst possible scenario--a Hawaii-Kansas matchup--won't happen. I think.

But the best--and at this point I think it's an LSU-OU match up--won't either, because too many jacklegs at ESPN think Ohio State is the shit, despite:
1. No wins over a currently ranked team (vs. several other contenders having multiple wins over currently ranked teams.
2. Losing to the best team they played (a 9-3 Illinois team--in the Horsehoe--that was dismantled at a neutral site by Missouri).
3. Playing in the Big 10, which for this year at least, is one hell of a shitty conference if you go by the out-of-conference schedule. Sure, the Pac-10 had teams lose to Notre Dame, but Northwester lost to the only team Notre Dame whipped, Duke.

And worse, those old, tradition-loving Big 10 fans at the Rose Bowl will screw the public and UGA out of a game that could be better than the tile--USC-UGA--by selecting Illinois to keep "Tradition" alive. Leaving UGA playing Hawaii, who is overrated.

Bah.

On second thought, blow it up: Kansas-Hawaii for the title.

I almost feel like I've watched too much college football yesterday anyway (probably because I was semi-bed ridden and feverish all day, and watched the Big 12 title because I felt too sick to go to an OPEN BAR company Christmas party. Yeah, being sick on the weekend sucks.)