College Football ADD: Pre-Bowl Edition

For those who don’t read full articles

(*note, picture above featuring team that won a conference championship game because they earned it on the field during conference play is fictional. It does not happen in real life.)

Let’s start from the top

1.)  I’m sorry I missed a few weeks. Vacation and work happened, and I didn’t get an opportunity to do my duty over the two most important weekends of the season. My bad, I’ll take a pay cut.

2.)  The BCS Mess…

- I belong to whatever religion acknowledges that Texas just got sodomized and that sodomy is wrong. 

I belong to the group people that find it utterly ironic that Oklahoma fans had the nerve to tell Texas fans to stop whining. Really? 45-35 is THE FINAL STATEMENT.

I subscribe to the theory that someday we will decide that the archaic bowl system and biased polling used to determine the champion of my favorite sport is outdated. I hold on to the thought that we will not endure the idiocy of partial juries for the rest of my life.

I believe it is the duty of sportswriters everywhere, both nationally and locally (outside of the state of Oklahoma of course. Did you know Oklahoma is Indian for “one who takes advantage of the system; democrat”?), to write about the BCS Championship game in the following manner:

“Florida will be facing the Big XII co-champion and loser to a team that just as deservedly belonged in this game, if not more so Oklahoma...”

That’s how every reference to the game should happen, just so we’re reminded of the fact that, oh yeah...Oklahoma did lose to Texas, seems so long ago.

I also believe this story has been beaten into the ground and will therefore stop here. But to any and all sportswriters who sa,y “It is what it is, let’s just move on”, I say nay! Every article written about the BCS from now until Jan. 8 should include a giant asterisk. 

This is the worst BCS atrocity in its 11 years, and it should be a sportswriter’s duty to say as much. No Auburn, put your hand down.

Thoughts on the end of the season

- Here’s my problem with giving de facto championship berths to the Big XII and SEC...let’s remember Ohio State/Michigan 2006. Now, this was before the fallout, so try to remember back to a time that people actually thought the Big Ten was good and recognized this as the “title” game.

Sports Illustrated ran a cover article the following week that I still have framed at home that proclaims “Ohio State: The Best. Period.” 

I’m not saying Florida and the Big XII champ to be named later aren’t the best two teams in college this season; I’m just saying we don’t know for sure. And the fact that two of the teams tossed aside as irrelevant, Penn State and USC, play one another does nothing to prove anyone any different. 

So the best/only top-tier opportunity to dispel the truth to Big XII/SEC supremacy this season lays solely on...The Ohio State Buckeyes...crap.

- Over the next few weeks, the big announcements besides the award ceremonies will be who is staying in school for another season and who’s going to the draft. My opinion on who should stay and who should go:

Players that should go get paid (a.k.a., first-round locks): LeSean McCoy, Sam Bradford, Andre Smith, Michael Crabtree, Vontae Davis, Brandon Spikes.

Players that should stay: Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow, Chris Wells (ok, that one’s a hope and prayer from a Buckeye faithful), Jeremy Maclin, C.J. Spiller.

Just an opinion on whom I think is ready for the show and won’t be disappointed. We’ll see if I’m right or wrong.

- Think the ACC powers that be had these attendance numbers in mind when they set up the championship game four seasons ago?

2005 - 72,749 (94% capacity) at Jacksonville Municipal

2006 - 62,850 (81% capacity) at Jacksonville Municipal

2007 - 53,212 (69% capacity) at Jacksonville Municipal

2008 - 52,927 (80% capacity) at Raymond James, Tampa

Those were 52,927 tickets that were allotted, as you and I saw on TV there's no way there were more than 30,000 people in that stadium. Almost like Miami playing a home game...ha! 

In contrast, the SEC Championship game attendance has been over the listed capacity of the Georgia Dome each season since it started playing there in 1994.

The ACC, basketball schools with a football problem.

- Oh...so that’s why Ball State wasn’t ranked the same as Utah and Boise State. I see, I see.

- Rutgers = college football’s version of the Houston Texans. My explanation:  Expectations that they’ll finally make the leap, followed by a miserable let down to start the season and thus an assumed falling back to their former, horrible selves. 

This is followed by a second half of the season rejuvenation finished off with one of the hottest stretches in all of football, thus saving the coaches’ job and securing their place at repeating the cycle again next season.

Thoughts on Bowling

- I’m so glad that we could rekindle the great clashes of the regular season in bowl games. I was just thinking to myself how great that Navy-Wake Forest game back in September was just the other day, and how I longed for them to meet again in the EagleBank Bowl to open bowl season. You have no idea how elated I am for this game.

Also, Air Force vs. Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl is a rematch of their thrilling 31-28 regular season matchup won by Air Force.

Seriously, make a ruling against this. If we’re going to have 34 bowl games, of which 25 suck any way, at least don’t allow them to be rematches of the regular season. 

Where’s Bill Simmons’ Sports Czar policy on this?

- All I want for Christmas is a Hawaii victory over Notre Dame on Christmas Eve. Is that too much to ask?

- Best Chance to See a Four TD Blowout Bowl—Champs Sports Bowl between Wisconsin and Florida State. This is the same Wisconsin that needed three missed extra points from Cal-Poly to win their final game of the season...and it was at Camp Randall.

- Best Chance to See a Coach Fired/Resign Afterward—Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl between BYU and Arizona. I say this because I hear Mike Stoops found out he could still be relevant in January instead of playing in all these bowls he didn’t know existed before if he’d have just stayed at his brother’s side.

- The “Wait this isn’t the national championship we were supposed to be in” Bowl—Konica Minolta Gator Bowl between preseason BCS favorite Clemson and former college football ruler Nebraska. I’m glad we have a bowl for them, too.

- Great article hereabout the Super Bowl being determined by a BCS system. I know it’s been done before, but this is one of the better written ones I’ve read.

- What’s the over/under on amount of fans at the Motor City Bowl in Detroit between Central Michigan and Florida Atlantic? Ford Field’s capacity is listed at 65,000. I say two-thirds of that are empty seats.

And that still would easily outdraw the average Lions game by oh...10,000?

- I’m so glad bowl season brings us such great games like the one above and an Independence Bowl between WAC fourth place Louisiana Tech (7-5) and MAC West fourth place Northern Illinois (6-6). I now know my life is complete, now that they haven’t been left out of the bowl cold.

- Bowl eligible teams left out in the cold: Bowling Green (6-6), Arkansas State(6-6), UL-Lafayette (6-6), and San Jose State (6-6). This, to me, means we need two more bowl games so that such an injustice and travesty never occurs again. 

Where is our Harrah’s Entertainment Biggest Little City in the World Reno Bowl? Or our Chi-Chi’s Salsa South of the Border Bowl played in Juarez, Mexico? The losers have to spend time working for a local cartel. Make this happen!

- This year’s bowl season ends up looking a lot like the final polls, top heavy. Of the 34 bowls, nine really look interesting to me. The rest pit either underachieving or undeserving teams against one another, sometimes both.

My Top Nine

1.) The BCS National Championship Game – No. 2 Florida vs. Big XII champ to be named later

No, the BCS didn’t get it right. I apparently was misled when I heard anti-playoff proponents say they didn’t want extra games because it takes away from the week-by-week drama in the greatest regular season in all of sports. 

Thanks to the blatant disregard of the regular-season results, those people would be wrong. The BCS takes away the drama from the greatest regular season in sports.

I’m bitter…yes…but I’ll still watch. Bitterly.

2.) Rose Bowl – No. 8 Penn State vs. No. 5 USC

I hear you, Big Ten and Pac-10 fans. No one is talking about how you were arbitrarily eliminated just because of your conferences’ shortcomings. So your reward is to play one another.

Why do I have this as No. 2? Because missed in the talk of USC’s 5-1 record in BCS bowls over the past six seasons is that they’ve accumulated four of those wins against Big Ten teams. How bad does that sound boys from the Midwest? 

Penn State had better draw up a game plan that resembles what they did vs. Oregon State and not their hesitant approach vs. Ohio State and Iowa.

3.) Sugar Bowl – No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 6 Utah

There’s only two ways this game gets analyzed when it’s over:

If Utah wins – who cares, they didn’t play the best team from the SEC.

If Alabama wins – that’s exactly why a mid-major doesn’t belong in the BCS.

Done, I just did the work for you media guys. You are welcome.

4.) Fiesta Bowl – No. 10 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Texas

Let me attempt to summarize every battered Ohio State fans’ thoughts on this game in the most positive way possible. It’s like Jan. 5 is Christmas morning and we should be excited for the presents and the food, but we know Mom and Dad have had a rough go of it this year with the economy and what not, so maybe it won’t be as special. 

Maybe Dad, in this case Jim Tressel, shows up drunk and confused as to why this game is played in Glendale and not Tempe anymore, and why does this scenery look so familiar to the point of bringing back repressed memories.

We know we should be excited, but we know how this ends: Dad kicks the dog, and then passes out crushing all the cheap Wal-Mart presents. We just can’t look forward to that.

5.) Cotton Bowl – No. 7 Texas Tech vs. No. 25 Ole Miss

There are about 10 different reasons why I like this game and can’t wait to watch it and all of them have to do with the uncertainty of what you’re going to see.

Will Tech be able to move the ball vs. Ole Miss’s 15th-ranked defense? Will this game just be a flat shootout? What’s the over/under for great quotes by Mike Leach between now and Jan. 2?

I’m really excited for this game.

6.) Christmas Flower Bowl – #11 TCU vs. #9 Boise State

(insert funny joke about bowl game’s title sponsor here, everyone chuckle) Now let’s move on.

Great matchup between these two, but I feel like they did each other a disservice (and in turn let the BCS conferences off the hook) by agreeing to meet in this game.

I would have much rather they worked out an arrangement where they played a No. 3 or No. 4 team from a BCS conference, just to show if they could measure up.

All this game will show is that San Diego’s weather is sweet! Even in December.

7.) Orange Bowl – No. 12 Cincinnati vs. No. 19 Virginia Tech

I said sometime around October that I hoped Cincy’s run would lead them to an upper tier bowl game vs. another BCS school and not back to the Papajohns.com Bowl. I said that meaning maybe they’d get into the Sun Bowl or something but didn’t expect this.

Bearcats, welcome to the big stage. They want to step out of Big Brother’s shadow here in the state of Ohio, this is the way to do it. Can’t emphasize enough how amazing UC’s run has been with their QB troubles.

I would be a complete homer if I didn’t mention VaTech is making their third BCS game, only this time with a freshman QB. While these teams aren’t highly ranked, this could possibly pull off the best BCS game…if anyone watches.

8.) Sun Bowl – Oregon State vs. No. 20 Pitt

I think a few NFL scouts will be on hand to witness two of the best running backs in all of college football in El Paso. Jacquizz and LeSean will be on display with this game coming down to who can tackle the other teams’ future first rounder better.

9.) Capital One Bowl – No. 15 Georgia vs. No. 18 Michigan State

If you’re into that whole conference superiority debate, this game sits at the heart of it for Big Ten and SEC fans. Michigan State ended their season by getting spanked by Big Ten Champ Penn State.

UGA finished by getting run all over by rival Georgia Tech. Javon Ringer will be dutifully watching film of that game until New Year’s.

While the Sun Bowl pits the No. 10 and 13 rushers in yards/game, this one has the No. 3 in Ringer and No. 16 in Knowshon Moreno. Let’s see what you have left Dawgs.

So while there are other bowl games I’m interested in, and many more that I’m not interested in but will still watch because it’s the only thing on a Tuesday evening at 8:00 on TV, these are the ones I actually care about.

Thoughts on the Heisman

And the 2008 Heisman goes to: a top QB on one of the Nation’s best teams. Congratulations.

And the 2009 Heisman goes to: a top QB on one of the Nation’s best teams. Congratulations.

And the 2010 Heisman goes to: ok, you get the picture, huh?

My End of Year Top 10

1.)      Florida (12-1)

2.)      Texas (11-1)

3.)      Oklahoma (12-1)

4.)      USC (11-1)

5.)      Alabama (12-1)

6.)      Utah (12-0)

7.)      Penn State (11-1)

8.)      Texas Tech (11-1)

9.)      Ohio State (10-2)

10 Boise State (12-0)

The All - A.D.D. Team

QB –The Big XII South QBs of Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and Graham Harrell all received one-third of a vote each from me. A cop out? Maybe. But I can’t split up my Heisman vote, so I'll do this instead.

RB – Shonn Greene, Iowa – Read the second sentence of Shonn Greene's Wikipedia page hereand let that sink in for a second.  He’s the No. 2 rusher in the nation in yards per game this season and was Iowa’s fire in their upset of then No. 3 Penn State.

RB – Kendall Hunter, Oklahoma State – Only one game in which he finished with under 100 yards rushing (unfortunately that one was vs. Oklahoma) and had a TD in all but two games.

WR – Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech –Unable to duplicate last season’s freakishly amazing season, Crabtree still hauled in his second consecutive 1,000 yard season and caught 18 TDs. Oh and he had that one catch you may have seen a few times vs. Texas.

WR – Austin Collie, BYU – Who? He’s the nation’s leading Mormon receiver and college footballs’ as well.  Collie led the nation in total yards and ended the season with 10 consecutive 100 yard receiving days.

WR – Dante Love, Ball State – Honorary A.D.D. Mention to a guy we’d no doubt been talking about more had his career not ended in the fourth game of the season. Love was one of the nation’s top receivers last season, but opted to return to Ball State for his senior year.  Love had 25 catches for 433 yards through three games before he was suffered a spinal injury vs. Indiana.

I don’t like to be serious often but this kid could flat out play.

TE – Jermaine Gresham, Oklahoma – Gresham had a knack for showing up in the biggest games of the season for the Sooners. Oklahoma’s six biggest games (Cincy, Washington, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Missouri) were the six top receiving days for Gresham.

Offensive Linemen – I’m not going to lie to you and pretend that I’m Mel Kiper by awarding offensive linemen awards like I know what’s what. Whoever is on the majority of all the other All-American teams is who I pick.

DL – Nick Reed, Oregon – Got to see this guy a few times this season and I’m just amazed at home many plays end with him in on a tackle. He registered at least one sack in all but three games and led the nation overall.

DL – Brian Orakpo, Texas – With all the nationally televised Texas games this season, you have to know Orakpo is the Texas defense’s motor. Had four forced fumbles and 10 sacks on the year.

DL – Michael Johnson, Georgia Tech –I jumped on the GT bandwagon right about the time the North Carolina one lost two wheels. Johnson saved his best for last in the season ending win over rival Georgia getting seven tackles (two for loss) and a sack.

DL – Aaron Maybin, Penn State – In his first year starting, I learned I hate Aaron Maybin.  He was the cause of nearly every scramble by Terrell Pryor in the Ohio State game and led the Big Ten in sacks. Great, he’s only a sophomore too. Can’t wait.

LBs – Brandon Spikes, Florida; James Laurinaitis, Ohio State; Ray Maualuga, USC

When you have three near unanimous linebackers of the year, why mess with the consensus when you agree?

DB – Malcolm Jenkins, Ohio State – Jenkins carried on the Ohio State defensive legacy of the No. 2 jersey. Mike Doss would be proud. 

DB – Alphonso Smith, Wake Forest – He’ll be on draft boards this April. While the Demon Deacons as a team took a step back, this senior stepped up with six INTs on the year to go with leading the ACC in passes defended. If only they had four more of him.

S – Eric Berry, Tennessee – Berry does not lack confidence that’s for sure, what with his nickname being “The Phenom”. SEC Defensive Player of the Year and consensus All-American will also be adding an A.D.D. All-American award to his resume.

S – Michael Hamlin, Clemson – One of the only bright spots left in Clemson that lived up to his expectations this season. Hamlin finished fifth in the nation in INTs and 10th in the ACC in tackles from his safety position.

K/P – Louie Sakoda, Utah – When you double as your team’s kicker and punter while ranking in the top 30 national in both categories, you deserve an award. Here you go Louie, I nice shiny All-A.D.D. Award!

Coach of the Year, East of the Mississippi – Turner Gill, Buffalo. 

From the program’s resurrection in 1999 until 2006, the Buffalo Bulls went a combined 12-79 including four losses to I-AA teams.  Turner Gill has made the Bulls a non-laughing stock. Since taking over in 2006, his team’s have went from two to five to eight wins, including their upset of No. 12 and undefeated Ball State in last week’s MAC Championship.

I’ll be honest; the winning coach from that game was going to win this.

Coach of the Year, West of the Mississippi – Kyle Whittingham, Utah. 

The former BYU Cougar player started the season as the potential spoiler for his alma mater’s perceived undefeated run.  The season ended with the Utes claiming that undefeated spot and the school’s second BCS berth.

If I had a Heisman Ballot, what would it look like?

1.) Colt McCoy – Harrell and Bradford put up better statistics, but no one was more important to his team both passing and rushing. This kid has come a long way since I first saw him as a freshman in the Ohio State/Texas game. I’m less than excited to see him again in Glendale.

2.) Sam Bradford

3.) Michael Crabtree – Under the assumption that Harrell is better for having Crabtree than Crabtree is better for having Harrell.

4.) Tim Tebow

5.) Shonn Greene

And thus concludes a deluxe, mega-super edition of College Football A.D.D. I plan on getting another one of these out before the bowl games next week, so look forward to that.

As always, take care of the waitstaff, times are tough.