Seeping Matter

What a wacky year of college football. Utah State wins again today over the Idaho Vandals, pulling themselves clear up to 7th place in the WAC and clearly not the worst football team in the nation. This is a spectacular improvement from last year. Way to go Ags!

It has been a truly wild, crazy, amazing college football season thusfar, but the craziest thing happened last night when Utah State won a football game.

Utah State had lost 16 straight games, dating back to last season, before finally winning a game last night in Las Cruces over New Mexico State. (Take that, maryck!) This is almost sure to vault USU up in the polls from 119th. Way to go USU! There is nowhere to go from here but up!

Yes, Utah State is my alma mater. What of it?

Well, here we are, January 2 2007. The NCAA College Football bowl games are almost over. Also almost over is the BCS’s annual “prove why we are stupid” campaign.

Boise State proved me wrong in my predictions, and I couldn’t be happier. They are the deathblow in a volley of shots lobbed at the ridiculous BCS. Bowl Championship Series? Try Bowl Comedy Series.

Let’s see how I’ve faired so far in my predictions:

1. BYU v Oregon – Hit. Oregon wasn’t exactly the tops of the PAC-10, but not considered child’s play either. But BYU handled them 38-8.
2. Cal v Texas A&M – Hit. The PAC-10 may be overrated, but so is the Big XII. Cal wins 45-10.
3. Tennesse v Penn State – Miss. Tennessee should have won, but maybe there’s some karma involved here. Penn State wins 20-10.
4. Auburn v Nebraska – Hit. Two fundamentally great teams, but Auburns superior defense and 2nd half adjustments prevail. Auburn wins 17-14.
5. Arkansas v Wisconsin – Miss. What can I say? Arkansas should have won this game but just did not play well enough to get it done. Wisconsin wins 17-14.
6. USC v Michigan – Miss. Memo to Michigan: When something isn’t working, DO SOMETHING ELSE. Michigan was committed to their gameplan come hell or high water, and it sank them. USC wins 32-18.
7. Boise State v Oklahoma – Miss. And I couldn’t be happier. This is one of the best football games ever. Boise State wins in overtime 43-42.
8. USU v ND C&D – Hit. USU was destroyed by ND C&D in the Toilet Bowl, 3267 to -21.

What does all of this mean for the BCS? Who knows? #1 Ohio State barely beat Michigan, who got trounced by USC, who got beat by both UCLA and Oregon State, UCLA was beaten by Florida State, etc. etc. etc. What it means is: WE NEED A PLAYOFF.

Otherwise, next year the BCS will spend a lot of time and money to prove, on national TV, to millions of viewers, that it is stupid again.

Whew, that was a great regular season of NCAA football! So great, in fact, that I didn’t actually take any time to blog about it. Sorry about that. But now that it is over, I guess it’s time to see how my predictions are going thusfar.

I Said: SEC football is where it is at.
Result: Dead on. Of course, who would argue that? Okay, maybe some people would – but not the intelligent ones. There were so many good SEC football games this year, I don’t even know where to begin. So I won’t.
The disappointment of the year has to be Auburn. When these guys are clicking, I still think they are the best team in the SEC. But they didn’t put it together week after week, quarter after quarter. Hats off to Florida and Urban Meyer (who I like) for winning the SEC and a title bid.

I Said: The PAC-10 is overrated.
Result: Pretty much true. USC is good – but they lost to Oregon State and UCLA (?). Who knows about anyone else. We’ll find out in the Rose Bowl.

I Said: Notre Dame games are usually a good bet.
Result: Whoops. I should have looked at their schedule. Are you serious? I’m sure they can get a better schedule than that.

I Said: The Big 10 and Big XII are also good.
Result: Mixed. The Big 10 is really more like the Big 2 (I can’t take credit for that, but I don’t know who to give it to). The Big XII has been pretty unpredictable, but the Texas v. Texas A&M game was great!

I Said: Utah State is terrible.
Result: Yep. Ranked 118th in the nation. At least they won a game, although it might have been by forfeit.

I Said: BYU is not nearly as good as they think they are.
Result: BYU is probably not as good as they think they are – but they are pretty darn good. They deserve their #20 ranking.

So, now we are gearing up for the title game. As much as I like to see an SEC team in the title game, I have to say that Michigan got robbed here. Sorry. And if USC had beaten UCLA, I would still feel the same way. So what if it is a rematch of the earlier game? The national title game should be between the two best teams in the country, and there should be no way that you go down in the polls simply because you don’t play one week.

So, here are my predictions for the bowl games – at least the ones I care about:

1. Ohio State v. Florida – Ohio State. True, they haven’t seen speed like the SEC. But Ohio State is a dang good football team. Florida is not consistent enough, and too error-prone. Sorry Urban.
2. Notre Dame v. LSU – LSU. How Notre Dame got invited to this game is beyond me. They are just not nearly so good as LSU, and with this game essentially being a home game for LSU, they have the definite advantage.
3. Boise State v. Oklahoma – Oklahoma. Boise State may be undefeated, but they are from the WAC. Utah State is also from the WAC, if that means anything. Unfortunately, this will be great fuel to the fire that says mid-majors shouldn’t go to BCS bowls.
4. USC v. Michigan – Michigan. They barely lost to Ohio State, the best team in the country, by 3 points. USC lost to Oregon State and UCLA, both unranked.
5. Arkansas v. Wisconsin – Arkansas. Outside of Ohio State and Michigan, the rest of the Big 10 are at varying stages of fair. As a general rule, I will always pick the SEC over just about anyone.
6. Auburn v. Nebraska – Auburn. At least, Auburn should win it, if they bring their A-game. See the rule above.
7. Tennessee v. Penn State - Tennessee. Again, see rule above.
8. Cal v. Texas A&M – Cal. This is a tough call and should be a great game to watch.
9. BYU v. Oregon – BYU. I saw them play live this year – they are really good.
10. Utah State v. North Dakota Culinary & Drama College – ND C&D. Actually, I hear they only have ten people on the entire team, including coaching staff and cheerleaders. But it doesn’t change my pick.

So there you have it. We’ll check back in a month and see how it played out!

Glory be, it is finally football season again. And here, just a few days late, is the Half Bad Boy 2006 Football Preview and Guide.

First, the NFL football guide. Who cares. Watch whatever you want. They are mostly a bunch of criminals and spoiled brats anyway, but at least with helmets on you can mostly avoid looking at their faces.

Okay, now that the NFL is out of the way, we can get to what we all really care about – NCAA Football. Here’s some guidelines for watching NCAA Football.

1. The SEC is the definition of football. Auburn. Arkansas. Tennessee. Florida. South Carolina. LSU. Alabama. Georgia. Ole Miss. This conference always seems to have at least one title contender. Can you just imagine trying to go undefeated in conference play in the SEC? Any SEC game is a good one.
2. Generally avoid any PAC-10 matchup if you can help it. The PAC-10 is the most overrated conference in all of football, and watching it will cause you to erroneously think that those teams are really good. With the exception of USC, most of them are not as good as everyone seems to think (witness the recent 35-18 rout of #23 Tennessee over #9 Cal last Saturday). Exception: watching a real conference destroy a PAC-10 “opponent” is good fun.
3. Notre Dame games are usually a good bet. With their high-profile TV contract, these guys usually draw a great opponent every week, from all across the country. And with Charlie Weis directing things for the next 10 seasons, this really good team will only get better.
4. Other good football conferences are the Big 10 and the Big XII. The ACC is okay, and the Big East is overrated – but not nearly so much as the PAC-10.

So, in general, prefer the SEC or the Notre Dame game. Avoid the PAC-10 game. Check out the Big 10 or the Big XII to see if there is a game you shouldn’t miss. That should keep you busy for the weekend.

A couple of other pointers. First, a BYU-Notre Dame matchup is usually good fun. BYU likes to make this into a “religious war” of sorts. I don’t think Notre Dame really views it that way. The facts are, Notre Dame is usually orders of magnitude better than BYU, so they usually win, which causes many BYU fans a bit of consternation.
Actually, any game where BYU will probably be destroyed is generally a lot of fun.
Outside of that, don’t concern yourself much with any conferences west of the Rockies. The PAC-10 is overrated, as I said, but at least they can blame the stupid media for that. The MWC and the WAC, however – well, they overrate their own selves. Nobody else thinks they are that good. There are some obvious exceptions (Utah in 2004 for example), but one good team does not a conference make (USC and the PAC-10 for example).
Don’t concern yourself with the Utah State game, if it is even on TV. Sadly, my alma mater is pathetic at football. If you are cheering for USU, you will just become frustrated; if not, you run the risk of witnessing an embarrassing upset if the improbable should happen.

Bottom line, stick to the SEC, Notre Dame, and key Big 10 and Big XII matchups and you will have a very satisfying season of college football.

Predictions? Well, what do I know? Nothing. I’m not a sportscaster. But hey, they seem pretty clueless also – after all, they are the ones who keep saying that the PAC-10 is good!
I won’t name teams. I’ll just say the following – this is how it SHOULD be:

First – if any SEC team goes undefeated, they deserve a national title shot. They have the toughest conference in all of football (including NFL, excluding possibly the AFC West).
Second – if Notre Dame goes undefeated, they also deserve a national title shot. They play top teams from many different conferences, having to adjust to many different styles of offense and defense. Tough.
Lacking that, my guess is that the national champion will be the conference champion from either the Big 10 or the Big XII.

Of course what we might get is another matchup against USC, since it is much easier to run the table in the PAC-10. Which will be fine in one sense, in that we get to watch them lose again. But it will also mean that another deserving team gets shut out (think Auburn and Utah 2004), which is a problem.