Tuesday, January 8, 2008

National Champions?

Well, I watched the LSU destruction of Ohio State last night. A couple of thoughts crossed my mind:

1) College football season is over and 24 is not coming on the air until some undisclosed time in the future (thanks, Writers Guild of America). Hmm... sounds like a lot of reading and Food Network between college basketball games.

2) Would a playoff in college football really be that hard? It would have to be better than most of the games the BCS gave us - all blowouts pretty much decided by halftime, and only 1 of the games really mattered for much of anything.

3) Mike and Mike in the Morning were discussing comparisons that Ohio State is getting to the Buffalo Bills, saying that such comparisons were intended to slight OSU and that was unfair to Buffalo and OSU. I agree, but not for as positive a reason as they gave. I think OSU and the Big 10 have to look at the last 2 years and wonder what the future holds. Is it a bad thing to get to the national championship game and lose? No, but for 2 straight years OSU has been totally manhandled in the championship game. In both years, they were supposedly the better team (Vegas odds left out of the discussion). Take that and combine it with Michigan's blowout loss to USC in last year's Rose Bowl and Illinois' blowout loss to USC in this year's Rose Bowl, and I do think that there is a real problem the Big 10 is facing. Their elite teams seem to be a whole lot less elite than the other elite programs. People bash the ACC for the way it has fallen in football. Is the Big 10 really any different?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does one game define a football team, coach, program, season any more than one action define a human?

Anonymous said...

does one football game, player, coach, or call define a season any more than one action by a human?

Mark said...

I don't think so. I disagree with those who say Hawaii didn't deserve to be in the BCS based solely on the game against Georgia. However, I do think that 2 straight years of the best Big 10 teams being blown out by the best teams in other conferences should be a cause of concern, especially the last two OSU losses in the national title games. That is really the only bowl game that has anything riding on the outcome. Ohio State still had a great season, for sure. But in a day and age of college football where just winning doesn't seem to be enough at most of your big schools, I do think conferences like the Big 10 and ACC need to try to understand why they don't seem to be matching up well with other "power schools". Perhaps the issue is not a problem with the Big 10 or ACC but that other schools and conferences are more willing to make compromises in regards to academics and recruiting rules. I don't know - but I do think the question has to be asked.