I will resist the temptation to write about the weather. Yes, snow's in the forecast and grocery store stock owners are elated, as urban morons who think that 2 inches of possible snow will keep them housebound for a week clean the Safeway's shelves of bottled water, bread, eggs, and milk. Good luck with that.
As for me, if it snows, I will curse the fact that my digital camera is still in California.
Rather than go on about the weather and the freakish reaction that people around here seem to have to it, I'll go on about the Orange Bowl and my recap of the conferences.
1. Penn State v. Florida State. A dream matchup between two ancient coaches, who between them will have 155 years on earth when they meet. Between them, they have 39 bowl victories. Bowden has 6 more overall wins than Paterno (359-353). The only problem is that Florida State, at 8-4, appears to be less deserving of a BCS bowl than say Oregon. But that's what happens when you give automatic bids to conferences. Granted I'm a PSU alum, but I think Penn State wins the Orange Bowl matchup with its stifling defense.
2. The best conference in college football: The Big 10. I'd line up the top five Big 10 teams against any other conference's top 5 anyday. Only the SEC would challenge them. The Big 12 might go 0-5 and at best they'd go 1-4.
3. The Big 12. One team wonders. Nebraska has been disappointing the past few seasons and Oklahoma fell off the map as well. The funny thing is these teams both finished 7-4. I don't think Nebraska's 7-4 is anywhere near as difficult as Michigan's 7-4...those two teams meet on December 28 in the Alamo Bowl.
4. The ACC. Until this year, you couldn't even call it a football conference. The ACC is the premier basketball conference, but as for football, only Florida State was for real. That's the main reason Bowden joined the conference -- what better way to rack up some easy wins than join a weak-ass conference? Now with Miami, the overhyped Virginia Tech, and the surprisingly resilient Boston College in the conference, the ACC may actually get taken seriously.
5. The SEC. The only conference close to having the overall quality of the Big 10. Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU had great years, and Florida at 8-3 wasn't bad (they lost to So. Carolina, LSU, and Alabama). I think Florida beats Iowa in the Outback Bowl.
6. The Big East. Are they still around? WVU finished with only 1 loss and no respect. Somehow the Big East gets an automatic BCS bowl bid, and so WVU is off to play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Georgia has a history of choking, so I'm backing WVU in this matchup.
7. The PAC-10. Another one team wonder. It's interesting that USC's only challenges have come from outside the PAC-10: Notre Dame and Fresno State. In a battle of two really shitty conferences, USC beats Texas in the Rose Bowl.
8. Notre Dame. Constantly overrated. They beat one quality opponent this year: Michigan. How many teams have they beaten who ended with winning records? 3 teams (Michigan, Navy, and BYU) who are 20-14 combined. The combined records of the other teams they beat? 23-43. Look for Notre Dame to be destroyed by Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
That's the recap for now.
2 comments:
Careful what you say about ACC football. Someone at Maryland might get offended and loot your blog. And Duke was 1-10 this year. A non-shut-out season is noteworthy.
Ah Cookie, for as long as I've been alive, people have been talking about Maryland football as if it's division 1-A...with the exception of about two years in the last thirty, it hasn't been.
Duke's football team is lousy so people don't hate them as much for having such a consistently and maddeningly brilliant basketball team every year.
Post a Comment