College Football Recap, Weeks 11 and 12
I can hardly believe that there are only three weeks left to the season, but we still have some big games ahead, and a potentially devastating BCS conundrum on our hands. All the experts seem to think that it’s simple, the Big 12 Champion will play the SEC Champion. We’ve seen a lot of controversy over the years, but consider this scenario:
– Texas Tech beats Oklahoma, Florida beats Alabama, then Missouri beats Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship. Obviously Florida is in. However, who do they play? The right answer should probably be USC, but they trail Texas by a wide margin in the BCS Standings, and if the Horns can win out, they’d probably be tough for the Trojans to catch. It’s one thing to try to justify having a team in the BCS Championship that didn’t win its conference. It’s a completely different thing to try to justify a team who didn’t even play for its Conference Championship!
But of course, this misses the biggest problem, which is just deciding which Big 12 South deserves to play for the Championship in the event that Texas Tech loses this weekend at Oklahoma and Oklahoma takes care of business against Oklahoma State the following weekend. I looked into the tiebreaker scenario, and this situation would take us down to the sixth tiebreaker, which is….(Wait for it)…..the team ranked highest in the BCS Standings! And the kicker here is that a team might actually benefit from not playing in the Championship game by way of a Missouri victory, and then catapult itself over its “Big 12 North Representative” all the way to the Championship game. This shouldn’t happen. However the Big 12 North Champion is selected, (and I can’t even begin to devise a method to figure that out if Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma all have 1 loss and are 1-1 against each other) only that team should have a chance to make the BCS Championship Game. If they lose, then USC has to get the nod. What a debacle!
Hopefully Texas Tech will win the rest of their games and save the BCS once again, but I think we’ve all watched too much college football to think there’s a good chance of the gods taking it that easy on the BCS. USC certainly deserves a chance to get back into the argument. They’ve played as well as anyone in the past few weeks (except maybe Florida) and their road loss at Oregon State is looking better and better every day. However, the long and short of it is that if the Red Raiders lose, there are going to be two unnamed teams from the Big 12 South (probably Texas Tech and Oklahoma) left out of the national championship picture without much justification, and I never hope for that.
Briefly:
- Florida’s offense is absolutely blazing right now. They are probably the scariest offensive team I’ve seen in a decade the way they’ve been playing the last few weeks. With such an improved defense, they have to be the pick to win the Championship right now, even over USC.
- I can’t believe how easily Texas Tech handled a very talented Oklahoma State team two weeks ago. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain that intensity this weekend.
- The ACC is a complete joke right now and no team in that conference deserves to be in a BCS game. Maryland, North Carolina, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Florida State and Miami are all 7-3 and all have basically an equal number of wins over each other. Yawn. None of them are very good either.
- The Coaches Poll is doing some silly things. They have Oklahoma ranked ahead of Texas and Missouri ranked ahead of Oklahoma State. Someone fix this please. Those teams have the same records and have played each other. You won’t see mistakes like this on my list!
TOP 25 OF THE MATTY
- Texas Tech (10-0)
- Alabama (11-0)
- Florida (10-1)
- USC (9-1)
- Texas (10-1)
- Oklahoma (9-1)
- Utah (10-0)
- Boise State (10-0)
- Penn State (10-1)
- Ohio State (9-2)
- Georgia (9-2)
- Oklahoma State (9-2)
- Missouri (9-2)
- Ball State (10-0)
- TCU (9-2)
- BYU (9-2)
- Michigan State (9-2)
- LSU (7-3)
- Pittsburgh (7-2)
- Cincinnati (9-2)
- Maryland (7-3)
- Oregon State (7-3)
- Oregon (8-3)
- North Carolina (7-3)
- Boston College (7-3)
HEISMAN WATCH:
- Graham Harrell, Texas Tech
- Tim Tebow, Florida
- Colt McCoy, Texas
- Sam Bradford, Oklahoma
- Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech
GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK:
Michigan at #10 Ohio State, 11:00 AM CST, ABC: The parity in college football is amazing. Only two short years ago, these two played one of the decade’s best games as undefeated team fighting for a spot in the National Championship. This one doesn’t figure to be as close, but it’s still the best rivalry in the game.
#17 Michigan State at #9 Penn State, 2:30 CST, ABC: If Michigan manages to pull a monumental upset, then this one is for a spot in the Rose Bowl if your name is Sparty. Otherwise, Penn State need only take care of business in Happy Valley in front of their home crowd. Gotta root for JoePa to get back to Pasadena.
#16 BYU at #7 Utah, 5:00 CST, MTN: This is the last road block for the Utes, who are poised to secure a BCS bid if they can win this one at home. It won’t be easy.
#19 Pittsburgh at #20 Cincinnati, 6:15 CST, ESPN 2: The winner of this one suddenly in the driver’s set for the BCS bid out of the Big East, and the Bearcats can allt but secure it with a victory. Pittsburgh still has West Virginia to face in a couple of weeks. This should be an unexpectedly good game.
#1 Texas Tech at #6 Oklahoma, 7:00 CST, ABC: Another in a series of fantastic Big 12 night games this season, and it will be as meaningful as the rest. It’s likely that the loser is out of the BCS Championship picture. I’ll certainly be pulling for Tech, but I have to admit, this is a really tough spot for them, going into Norman to face a hungry Sooner squad that probably should have never lost that Texas game to begin with.
Explore posts in the same categories: Sports
ENTHUSIAST OF ALL 