College Football Chaos

College Football Chaos

Nuts to the 2007 College Football Season

The college football season is coming to an end, and as I sit here on this Sunday morning, there are people gnashing their teeth over perceived slights and others selling rosewater to the masses. Who will play in the big championship game in January? This is only a question today because Missouri and West Virginia, the two top ranked football teams in the country, both lost last night in their final regular season games.

USC has no business laying claim to the title game. Pete Carrol, their coach, claims he’s not politicking but then complains that their troubles this year (losing to a 40 point underdog-Stanford) stemmed from adversity...all teams face adversity.

LSU has an argument, but you can't escape the fact that they had a late season loss to an unranked opponent (Arkansas). Their other loss was also to an unranked opponent (Kentucky). Adversity? You bet, but every team faces adversity.

Ohio State has less of an argument for the title game. They play in a weakened conference and only played one ranked opponent all year. They had the luxury of feasting on lesser competition and sitting on the sidelines while other teams slugged it out in conference title games. Whichever team plays OSU will be drooling at the opportunity.

Georgia, technically, should slide up the ladder, but the whole "not winning the conference" thing is a major roadblock...even though Richt is quick to point out that there is no rule against it. They had some adversity early in the year that led directly to their two losses (young QB, young O-line), but all the teams (except Ohio St.) faced adversity.

Kansas is being overlooked, and rightly so. They lost head up to Missouri and really shouldn't be ranked where they are to start.

Oklahoma is playing powerful football now, but you can't run away from the past. They lost to two unranked teams they should have beaten, Colorado and Texas Tech. How can that be ignored?

Now as you might know, I have a bias toward Virginia Tech. Admittedly, I am passionate about my school. My years as an undergrad at VT grow more romanticized in my mind and dearer to me as I grow older and older. Yet, even though VT is in the mythical national championship hunt, I can’t see them as being chosen for the marquee game.

VT certainly can't seem to run away from the past. Getting pasted by a monster that doesn't exist anymore is hard for the nation to forget. If LSU and VT were the same teams they were back in September, I'd vote LSU in the game in a heart-beat. But they aren't. Injuries and discontinuity have made LSU a shell of it's former team (a very strong shell though). VT faced adversity like the other teams, even more than most. They had to overcome real offensive issues and find a way to win while they healed (Ore) and learned (O-line). Toss into the mix QB changes and major injuries to key players (Center, tackle, linebacker, and qb ) and you would have to wonder how we even survived.

Our schedule saved us. It was weak up the middle when we were struggling to find our identity. I would even argue that our recent four game roll was over paper teams. GT, FSU, Miami, and UVA were teams that all had issues. GT was over-rated with a Pop Warner QB, Miami and FSU were storied traditional powers on the skids, and France held a paper ranking after sucking on lollipops all season. They sucked on those lollipops a long time each game while most real teams would have crunched the suckers quickly.

In the end, I'm pleased as punch that Virginia Tech is where they are...in a BCS Bowl and in the discussion for the MNC, but I don't think they deserve the big game. The thing is, I don't think there is a team that deserves to play in the MNC this year. I hope the whole thing gets so muddled that the NCAA will have to go to a playoff scheme.