Last Time France won the World Cup & McGwire 70, Sosa 66
Character can't be measured until it is called upon
What a great season of college football (well, unless you go to school in Chapel Hill... defeat has never been snatched from the jaws of victory so often in one season) and now we're nearing the greatest time of the year, the bowls! Yes... time to arbitrarily crown a champion by a system, while flawed, gives merit to all the elite ballers of the premier and hidden gems (Central Michigan stand up... what is a Chippewa?) of the country. While most of the lesser bowls have tie-ins and are a sorta business trip to reward the long, arduous path to above .500; the larger bowls have an obligation to offer proper consolation (both in locale and match-up) to teams searching for momentum for next year and proper swan songs for their seniors.
While the system isn't perfect, it is all we have, as there is no feasible way to reach a champion without it. There have been problems in the past (see: USC 2002, Auburn 2003), we've pretty much moved on without incident.
Until this year...
Ironically, in mediocre years, the biggest problem is the championship. However, in this chaotic year, the championship is passable/fine. Despite a little grumbling, most people feel that Ohio State and LSU deserve to fight it out for the title.
The problem is the other bowls...
With all the upsets and upheaval, it seemed that by even drawing names out of a hat, the BCS could end up with feasible match-ups. Apparently, that's what they must've done to come up with the draws they have on the boards. Let's start at the top:
Rose Bowl: USC v. Illinois
USC, after stumbling early, have found their stride. Despite losses to an Oregon team that doesn't exist anymore (poor Dennis Dixon) and a once-in-a-lifetime upset to Stanford, they haven't come close to defeat since September. They're in the top in the nation in virtually every category of importance. Illinois is not... USC has a stable of running backs and all-american wide receivers and at least a half dozen future 1st round picks on Defense. Illinois has Juice, Mendenhall, and Arrelious Benn and 8 other guys on offense and some guy named J Lehman on D. If USC is favored by anything less than 16 points, lay heavy action on them...
Prediction: USC 49, Illinois 16
The Match-up I would've liked to have seen: USC v. Oklahoma
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma v. West Virginia
This is the most heartbreaking for me because West Virginia is my favorite team to watch and they dropped the most disappointing game in school history saturday night. Now, they find themselves in a nightmare match-up with a team similar to the South Florida team that eviscerated them, except for 3 frightening facts. 1) Oklahoma is bigger; 2) Oklahoma is faster; 3) Oklahoma is more skilled and runs a more complex system. All this spells a 4 touchdown beating...
Prediction: Oklahoma 35, West Virginia 13
The Match-up I would've liked to have seen: Hawaii v. Missouri
Sugar Bowl: Hawaii v. Georgia
So, in honor of last year's shocker in 'zona, the BCS wanted to make sure that no upstart won... A great move given the heroics of the little guy of the past few years(Utah and Alex Smith started it off). Another upset would prompt more ridiculous talk for play-offs (that's another entry altogether)... They pit the giant killer to be darlings up against the hottest team in the country. The only bright spot is that both teams have awesome uniforms...
Prediction: Georgia 56, Hawaii 31
The Match-up I would've liked to have seen: Arizona St. v. Georgia
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech v. Kansas
This is going to be a blowout. Virginia Tech hasn't come close to losing in a long time and Kansas hasn't beaten anyone of consequence all season... I don't even know if they should bother televising this game.
Prediction: Virginia Tech 24, Kansas 3
The Match-up I would've liked to have seen: Virginia Tech v. West Virginia
All my match-ups provide a mixture of good, competitive games (minust 'zona st. and georgia, but someone has to get blown out) and also create interesting subplots (Oklahoma and USC are storied programs with a bunch of national titles between them and the winner will position themselves to be next season's pre-season favorite, Hawaii and Missouri are everyone's favorite cinderellas and it'll draw a lot of casual fans who want to either see the death of the bcs or how the magic will end up for both teams, and West Virginia can erase the sting of losing out on the bcs championship game by beating their second most bitter rival).
I dunno... what do I know? The real bowl games may make this discussion obsolete... given this season, anything is possible
What a great season of college football (well, unless you go to school in Chapel Hill... defeat has never been snatched from the jaws of victory so often in one season) and now we're nearing the greatest time of the year, the bowls! Yes... time to arbitrarily crown a champion by a system, while flawed, gives merit to all the elite ballers of the premier and hidden gems (Central Michigan stand up... what is a Chippewa?) of the country. While most of the lesser bowls have tie-ins and are a sorta business trip to reward the long, arduous path to above .500; the larger bowls have an obligation to offer proper consolation (both in locale and match-up) to teams searching for momentum for next year and proper swan songs for their seniors.
While the system isn't perfect, it is all we have, as there is no feasible way to reach a champion without it. There have been problems in the past (see: USC 2002, Auburn 2003), we've pretty much moved on without incident.
Until this year...
Ironically, in mediocre years, the biggest problem is the championship. However, in this chaotic year, the championship is passable/fine. Despite a little grumbling, most people feel that Ohio State and LSU deserve to fight it out for the title.
The problem is the other bowls...
With all the upsets and upheaval, it seemed that by even drawing names out of a hat, the BCS could end up with feasible match-ups. Apparently, that's what they must've done to come up with the draws they have on the boards. Let's start at the top:
Rose Bowl: USC v. Illinois
USC, after stumbling early, have found their stride. Despite losses to an Oregon team that doesn't exist anymore (poor Dennis Dixon) and a once-in-a-lifetime upset to Stanford, they haven't come close to defeat since September. They're in the top in the nation in virtually every category of importance. Illinois is not... USC has a stable of running backs and all-american wide receivers and at least a half dozen future 1st round picks on Defense. Illinois has Juice, Mendenhall, and Arrelious Benn and 8 other guys on offense and some guy named J Lehman on D. If USC is favored by anything less than 16 points, lay heavy action on them...
Prediction: USC 49, Illinois 16
The Match-up I would've liked to have seen: USC v. Oklahoma
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma v. West Virginia
This is the most heartbreaking for me because West Virginia is my favorite team to watch and they dropped the most disappointing game in school history saturday night. Now, they find themselves in a nightmare match-up with a team similar to the South Florida team that eviscerated them, except for 3 frightening facts. 1) Oklahoma is bigger; 2) Oklahoma is faster; 3) Oklahoma is more skilled and runs a more complex system. All this spells a 4 touchdown beating...
Prediction: Oklahoma 35, West Virginia 13
The Match-up I would've liked to have seen: Hawaii v. Missouri
Sugar Bowl: Hawaii v. Georgia
So, in honor of last year's shocker in 'zona, the BCS wanted to make sure that no upstart won... A great move given the heroics of the little guy of the past few years(Utah and Alex Smith started it off). Another upset would prompt more ridiculous talk for play-offs (that's another entry altogether)... They pit the giant killer to be darlings up against the hottest team in the country. The only bright spot is that both teams have awesome uniforms...
Prediction: Georgia 56, Hawaii 31
The Match-up I would've liked to have seen: Arizona St. v. Georgia
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech v. Kansas
This is going to be a blowout. Virginia Tech hasn't come close to losing in a long time and Kansas hasn't beaten anyone of consequence all season... I don't even know if they should bother televising this game.
Prediction: Virginia Tech 24, Kansas 3
The Match-up I would've liked to have seen: Virginia Tech v. West Virginia
All my match-ups provide a mixture of good, competitive games (minust 'zona st. and georgia, but someone has to get blown out) and also create interesting subplots (Oklahoma and USC are storied programs with a bunch of national titles between them and the winner will position themselves to be next season's pre-season favorite, Hawaii and Missouri are everyone's favorite cinderellas and it'll draw a lot of casual fans who want to either see the death of the bcs or how the magic will end up for both teams, and West Virginia can erase the sting of losing out on the bcs championship game by beating their second most bitter rival).
I dunno... what do I know? The real bowl games may make this discussion obsolete... given this season, anything is possible