After Friday's mountain sized upset, which left Mountaineer fans reeling, the table wasn't even set for a Saturday smorgasbord comprised of Top 10 confounding final scores. Rutgers was now the Big East's fine china, with their main course, the hopes for a national championship resting on their plate. In just one fair swoop, the national landscape changed and the congested agglomeration of remaining unbeatens was sliced in half.
But a funny thing happened on the way to October. The Big East's lone unbeatens are not the trio we've hyped since January but rather the unexpected uprises. The Big-10 and Pac-10 lead the way with three unbeatens, the Big-10 and SEC both have a pair of undefeated teams. The ACC(Boston College), Big-12(Missouri Tigers), and WAC(Hawaii) each have one respectively.
But do not fret, because while a perfect season is lost, possibilities for a national championship are not out the window. For the SEC's 1 loss teams, all that is needed is an SEC championship. Because of the BCS, an SEC team could probably lose two games, win the SEC championship and sneak into the National Championship over an undefeated Hawaii team.
The perception by BCS voters this season is that the Big-10 or Big 12 champion will not play for a championship unless they can remain undefeated. Missouri is the lone unbeaten team in the Big 12 but in the Big 10, Ohio State and Wisconsin remain alive. Unfortunately, because of the Big 10's lack of a season-ending champinship game, Purdue and Wisconsin could both end the season undefeated.
Oregon fans may grieve over their team literally fumbling away a national championship, all hope is not lost. There is still the chance of USC beating Cal just after Oregon's showdown with the Trojans on November 16. To say the least, Oregon must win out, hope for a pair of losses by Cal and beat USC.
Just when we thought the Florida Gators had
attained a monopoly on Florida football, the South Florida Bulls had to come handing out invitations to their party. It'd be the equivalent of Georgia State starting their football program in 2008 in the Football
Championship Sub-division (formerly Division I-AA) winning a few games before becoming
a Bowl eligible member of Division I-A. Then, after a few seasons of marginal success playing in the Georgia Dome(South Florida plays in Raymond James Stadium)they gained the recruiting
coup of a generation by getting a surprise commitment from
super phenom quarterback, David Sills in the place of Matt Grothe.
That would sum up the spectacular uprising of South Florida's football program over their dozen years of existence. It shouldn't be surprising considering that they play and thus have a recruiting advantage in the state of Florida, the nation's most formidable stable of high school football stars alongside Texas and California(per square mile, they may be tops). 12 years ago, they had never fielded a football team, now they are an undefeated national championship darkhorse.
Now let's see if college football's master architect Howard Schnellenberger can work his reconstruction magic as he did at another team in South Florida, the Miami Hurricanes in 1983 and Louisville in 1991(when they capped off a 10-1-1 season by routing 34-7 of Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl) and the 7 year transform old football program at Florida International.
Auburn's victory over Florida hardly, eliminated the Gators from championship contention, however it did put more emphasis into South Florida's victory over Auburn two weeks ago. Now Urban Meyer's Gators go for all or nothing against the LSU Tigers this Saturday as they aim to keep their fading national championship hopes alive. A win by Florida would shake up the national championship race for more than just the SEC.
Florida's defense may be young but fortunately for the Gators, LSU doesn't start the best quarterback on their depth chart. That honor would belong to Ryan Perrilloux, the Tigers redshirt sophomore and former mega-recruit from the Class of 2005, who spurned the Texas Longhorns to come to Baton Rouge. In my opinion, at sme pin through Saturday's game the chronically underachieving Les Miles will turn to Ryan Perrilloux over the struggling Matt Flynn.
But its not like I didn't expect it.
Both teams have one common trait among them . Neither has a single marquee running back. Florida's only 100 yard rusher this season has been Tim Tebow while LSU has also had just one 100 yard rushing game in their rushing by town hall committee offense.
However, the SEC West is so overrated it's laughable. Behind LSU is an overhyped Saban coached Alabama team, an offensively anemic offensive unit of Auburn which upset Florida, but so what Kansas State beat Texas and Colorado beat Oklahoma. Upsets happen everywhere in the year 2007.
(Every time an SEC team gets upset, that doesn't illustrate how tough that slobberknocker against the 1-3Mississippi State is it just means that team exploited glaring weaknesses of a team the media has over hyped. Yet when, an upset occurs in the ACC or Big East everyone down south manages to manages to point out "Dat der team was over ratted. That would finna' never happen in the SEC." There's always a special southern affliction on the initials S.E.C. )
I love how Florida's demolition of Ohio State embodied the SEC's dominance but somehow USC's ______ of Arkansas in 2006 and their ____ thrashing in 2005 went unnoticed. Or how West Virginia's domination of the SEC Champion Georgia Bulldogs in 2005 is old news when lets not forget the stars from that game are still around and have improved in the 1.5 years since. Or how about Wisconsin's dismantling of Arkansas in a New Years Bowl in January? I even read an article which had the gall to state the SEC was better than the Pac-10
because of the passion emitted by the fans and the stadium capacities on the West Coast compared to the South. Apparently, the capacity to have more interests than just football by fans gives the players an advantage on the field.
Oh by the way USC has trampled the last four SEC teams it has faced by a combined total of 119 points.
Because of the ACC's perceived weakness from top to bottom this season, NO ACC team will make the championship game with 1 loss. That means that Matt Ryan's Boston College Eagles are the ACC's only remaining national championship contenders. The last ACC team to play for a national championship were the Seminoles in 2000. The Miami Hurricanes played for two consecutive championships while they were members of a very different Big East.
But there is light over the horizon, no matter how dim it may seem. It's easy to forget that Brian Brhm arrived at a non-BCS school. 3 years ago after the Big East lost Miami and Virginia Tech to the ACC, they sent an 8-5 Pittsburgh team to the Fiesta Bowl to get clobbered by the MWAC's best, the Utah Utes.
They responded by lifting Louisville from their confines of Conference USA as West Virginia nearly embarked on an undefeated season and run circles around the SEC champions. That win marked a defining moment for the new Big East. This season either Clemson, or Boston College will deliver that groundbreaking season or win to ACC faithfuls such as myself.
Sure it would would require a difficult period of adjustment for college football fans to this idea but if the sport were to revolutionize the sport and introduce a complex playoff format comprised of the top 6,7, (no its gotta be an even number) 8 teams, here is how it would look right no
w.
1. LSU
2. USC
3. Kentucky
4. California
5. Wisconsin
6. Ohio State
7. Boston College
8. South Florida
The Hawaii (formerly Rainbow) Warriors, Purdue Boilmakers, Cincinatti Bearcats, Arizona State Sun Devils would inevitably be left out but fortunately Wisconsin actually plays Ohio State this season and California and USC will go toe to toe on November 23. The best way to offset a scenario where two Big-10 teams finish the season undefeated would be force every conference to institute a conference championship game.
The knock against a possible playoff system have been the supposed degradation of the impact of regular season games, however, the logic doesn't seem to apply. At this point in the season almost every game in the country featuring one loss teams is deemed irrelevant on a national scale.
1.
California/USC- I see their experience finally trumping USC's talent. The past two seasons have seen two teams go wire to wire as the top ranked team in the nation, however, USC just doesn't have the X-factor at quarterback that Matt Leinart and Vince Young were. Stafon Johnson has finally emerged as the Trojans apparent marquee tailback but given the coaching staff's tendency to rotate tailbacks we'll see how long that lasts. If USC beats California, this would be USC in this position, however I won't abandon my pre-season Pac-10 champion.
2.
South Florida- Matt Grothe's legend is quickly growing and the one thing which separates the Bulls from the Big East's other contenders is their balance on offense and defense. West Virginia and Louisville may score points in droves but South Florida's defense is on par with some of the best in the nation. Rutgers also has one of the stingiest defenses in the nation and Mike Teel improved considerably from his sophomore season (2nd highest passer rating in the nation)but he's nowhere near the playmaker that Matt Grothe is. There are players that make quarterback and there are quarterbacks who make plays. Matt Grothe is the latter.
3.
Kentucky- the game that could win Woodson the Heisman Trophy and affirm them as legitimate national championship contenders. will come against LSU. Anther major flaw in the BCS system is the voters penchant to prefer perennial contenders and recognizable names over emerging powerhouses. Would a one loss season which included an SEC Championship propel them into the national championship?
Could we get a possible SEC remix on the Michigan-Ohio State scenario if Kentucky loses to LSU on October 13th then beats them in the SEC Championship? The Georgia Bulldogs can sneak into this spot by avenging last season's non-televised loss which put Woodson and Kentucky on the southeastern map. Following tonight's match up against the South Carolina Gamecocks, people should come out talking about SEC quarterback Chris Smelley.
4.
Wisconsin- The Badgers have the Big Ten's best record since 2004, but their 31 wins have gone virtually unnoticed outside the league because of the headlines grabbed by Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. Now the bright lights are trained on Madison, given the return of 18 starters from a 12-1 team that won its New Years bowl game against Arkansas you can expect the Badgers to seize their opportunity.
I was on the Illinois, Juice Williams, Arrelious Benn, Ron Zook bandwagon before the wheel was even invented but even though they are favored against Wisconsin on Saturday, I'd stop short of declaring them Big 10 champs just yet.
5.
Clemson- the Eagles could be the ACC's best team but they are still a bit of a mystery besides Matt Ryan and running back Andre Callender. First though, they'll have to get by Clemson which has the conference's best defensive line, best backfield and the best quarterback this season. Florida State could be a sleeper with Xavier Lee now at quarterback but Clemson holds the tie breaker so it's too early to switch allegiances now.
6.
Florida- Everyone has commented on their young and inexperienced defense as their kryptonite . When Kentucky's Heisman hopeful Andre Woodson comes to town, he'll exploit this weakness but their one deficiency on offense which has chronically plagued Urban Meyer's teams has been his distaste for running backs. Unfortunately, your best runner can't be a quarterback who doesn't elude tacklers but chooses to plow through them instead.
When he arrived in the SEC, they said his spread option offense would never worked and after his first season they seemed right, Lets see how he handles this new snag in the gameplan.
7.
Hawaii- Hawaii may appear to be one-dimensional on offense but defensively they field a disruptive defense and something tells me they haven't unveiled their entire bag of tricks. WHich team is a bigger Cinderella story, Hawaii or South Florida?
Play in Game: Oregon vs. West Virginia- West Virginia may have looked unconvincing in their second consecutive loss to South Florida, but Pat White was knocked out of the game in the first quarter as backup Jarrett Brown struggled under the lights. Oregon also came a fumble away from heading to overtime with California and the senior laden team will be inspired to beat USC November.
The SEC would have two teams already in and the Pac-10 and Big East are battling for second place in the hearts and minds of fans so why not take the second best teams from each conference and allow them to battle for second place supremacy.
Left out:I know a controversial prediction but I'll take the jump. In the coming weeks I expect
LSU to be exposed on the offensive side of the ball. Matt Flynn has been pedestrian and they lack a marquee back. Going into the toughest part of the schedule they are a defensive lapse away from an upset loss... or two. We see it every season. Meanwhile, Reports of John David Booty's Heisman candidacy have been greatly exaggerated. The Trojans playcalling has been conservative this season as evidenced by John David Booty's marginal yards per completion average and his two interceptions against Washington nearly did in the Trojans.
So there you have it, a first round docket featuring
Wisconsin vs. Clemson,
Hawaii vs. South Florida,
Florida vs. Kentucky and
California vs. the winner of West Virginia/ Oregon. The most interesting aspect of this playoff is the potential of a
South Florida-Florida national championship.
