The biggest movie of the summer has just opened: The Dark Knight, a film that highlights the struggle between order, symbolized by Batman, and chaos, symbolized by the Joker.
The Joker definitely won out during the 2007 college football season. We had top teams like Michigan and Louisville sink in the first half and relative unknowns in Missouri and Kansas rise towards the end. We also had the Curse of Being No. 2 and the first two-loss champion since champions have been named after the bowl season.
Some have wondered if last season was a temporary thing or the start of a new era of parity. Before we can answer that question, we have to figure out why last season felt so chaotic.
No Dominant Team
There was not one single dominant team the whole year. It looked for a while like Oregon might step up and be that team, but when Dennis Dixon went down, so did the Ducks.
College football always feels more orderly when a couple of teams are at the top all year. All kinds of craziness can go on underneath them, but as long as we know a couple titans will blow out their opponents, it seems much more manageable.
That sense of order goes right out the window when USC loses to Stanford and LSU loses to Arkansas and Kentucky, rather than Florida and Auburn.
Scheduling
The schedule worked out perfectly for the much of the insanity to happen too.
That is especially evident with the No. 2 curse. If Boston College plays Florida State earlier in the year, the Eagles never get to No. 2. If USF plays Rutgers earlier in the year, the Bulls never get to No. 2. I think you get the idea.
Another example is with teams and weak schedules. Kansas played only one team that was ranked when bowl invitations went out—No. 6 Missouri—and lost. That was good enough to get into the Orange Bowl.
Hawaii played only one team that was ranked when bowl invitations went out—No. 24 Boise State—and that was good enough to get into the Sugar Bowl.
USC played only one team that was ranked when bowl invitations went out—No. 11 Arizona State—though it did get Oregon with a healthy Dixon. That was good enough to win the Pac-10 and go to the Rose Bowl, despite the epic upset loss to Stanford.
Those are all anomalies that don't normally happen.
Rapidly Changing Expectations
If you look at top of the preseason poll and the final poll
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