It is about time for me to make my annual rant about how we need a playoff in College Football. Sure, this year has been fun. And, yes, we have effectively been in a playoff these last few weeks with team after team "controlling their own destiny" for the finals only to have their hopes dased by some unranked upstart (Arkansas, Florida St, Rutgers, Arizona, etc, etc). But at this point, can you really say that West Virgina and Missouri are more deserving to play for the title than Georgia or Ohio State? And would you really want to face USC or LSU in a early round game?
I am not proposing a massive "December maddness" with 16 or 32 teams. Good Lord, no! And I don't think anyone who is serious about a divison 1-A playoff wants that. But a 4 or 8 team series is perfectly reasonable. And it wouldn't disrupt the bowls- just use the bowl games to host the playoff matches. I've been over this ground a dozen times and I know most of you agree with me, so I won't rehash the same old argument. But one piece of good news is that with the BCS bowls adding a game at New Years and repeating in the Sugar Bowl a week later, the infrastructure is finally in place for a 4 team or "plus one" system.
The 2007 season will definitely be remembered as the Year of the Dog. In the last 8 weeks, the number 2 team is a horrible 2 -6, and most of those losses were at home! Why have there been so many upsets? The usual suspects: 85 scholarships standard across the board and parity for one. Overconfidence and rivalries are often the seed of upsets. But another big factor is injuries. One ESPN analyst pointed to the Kansas-Missouri game with two healthy QB's and pointed out that as QB's have fallen to injuries, so has their team's run at the champtionsip. He believes the team the QB who lasts the longest (the last to get injured) will be left standing come Janurary 7th. I agree that key injuries have played an important role this year, but it's not just the quaterback:
1) Oregon: Dennis Dixon. This team is so bad without him, that should be enough evidence to give him the Heisman
2) Oklahoma: Bradford. One game he goes down hard, Texas Tech walks all over them. Unfortunately for Missouri, he's back in the saddle after gunning down the cowboys
3) LSU: Glenn Dorsey (LB): After seeing Arkansas get a running game going only after Dorsey left the game, I am beginning to agree with the Tiger fans that are promoting him for Heisman.
4) Cal: Nate Longshore: DeSean Jackson can't do much to help the Bears if Longshore can't throw him the ball.
5) USC: Sam Baker and most of the starting OL: Baker finally played in the first half against ASU. That was the part of the game where the USC offense looked like classic Boise State run and shoot and not the anemic slugs that struggled with Stanford and Arizona.
Georgia should play West Virginia in the Orange Bowl and Missouri should get Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, then let the winners meet in New Orleans a week later. How sweet would that be!
Fight On,
Hans
PS: I told you the USC-ASU game on Thanksgiving would be the Pac-10 title game. Nice result, too. Now all we have to do is beat UCLA. Its like Deja Vu all over again.
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2 comments:
I must say that I finally endorsed an 8 team playoff. I think the week after the conference championships should the top eight should square off in either the 4 small bowls, or on the home fields of the higher ranked teams. Then on NYD, the four winners face of in the two BCS bowls without the championship that year. Finally, 1 week later, the two remaining teams will play of it all.
No argument on a playoff. The former 1AA (hard to remember its called the FCS nowadays) does very nicely with their 16 team playoff. Can't 1A teams (FBS) do at least an 8-team playoff. TV would love it!
We can't root for a white christmas here in the Southland but we can, in this crazy year, imagine ASU and USC (13-9 are tough numbers to swallow) getting bit by the upset bug. As all Dogs know this would give us Bruins in the Rose Bowl! The denizens of the Hills of Westwood dream of such things. Far fetched? Only the future knows.
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