Jack’s Blog

Here we are at the end of another college football season and at the highest of level of the intercollegiate sport, we hear complaining from people (not just the coaches and players) that their school, i.e. not the University of Florida Gators, is the best team in the nation - and each is prepared to do (oral) battle - in the form of a debate, be it on radio talk shows, TV or anywhere any two people disagree.  Bring your stats, tradition, schedule, crap on the other teams who’ll be showing up at the championship debate and be ready to get it on.  It will be held at a bar in South Bend so the participants will be assured of a neutral field.  As bad as the locals there were this past year, I don’t think they’ll be joining the verbal sparring.  They definitely would not be on the invited guests list. 

My blog on 11/23/08 explains that a playoff in big-time college football would not give us the best team in the country.  Let’s say a four-loss Virginia Tech squad snuck in the playoff and upset Oklahoma, then went all the way through unblemished, with the benefit of a miraculous field goal as the horn sounded in their next game against Utah and then, with 0.02 left in the semi-final game, they blocked the potential game winning extra point by three touchdown favorite USC and ran the recovered ball back for two points, snatching a victory out of what was surely what the networks wanted, i.e. a USC-Florida final.  Then they beat the Gators, who on the title game’s opening possession had Percy Harvin and Tim Tebow collide, both being carted off the field and unable to continue.  You’d have your National Champions - the 12-4 VPI Gobblers, the best team in the country.

That’s ridiculous.  Not the scenario, the thought that a team who played in the ACC, a BCS conference but a poor one at that, would be crowned as the best team in the nation.  Being named National Champions and being considered the best team in the nation are two seperate entities.  I mean, how excited would it be to see a scenario like that happen?

You know, like in 1983, when NC State beat vastly superior Houston or two years later when Villanova had to be nearly perfect, but pulled it off against Georgetown, or, more recently and closer to my home, when Fresno State won the College World Series.  I’ve heard so many people call the Bulldogs the National Champs, but don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody lay claim to their being the best intercollegiate baseball team in the nation.

So that’s what we want?  Some underdog, in the powerful sport of football, beating the team ranked number one all year because of a bad call (that couldn’t be reviewed)?  Do you really want a year like ‘83 with Jimmy V running around looking for somebody to hug or ‘85 with Patrick Ewing going down to defeat (when everyone knew his Hoyas team would have beaten ‘Nova 99 times out of 100) or the Underdogs to Wonderdogs Fresno State baseballers dogpiling at the pitcher’s mound in Omaha?

Yeah, me too.  We can still hope.  Who cares who’s considered the best team, we just want the excitement of one-and-done pressure-packed playoff!

“Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.”  Â

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 4:57 am and is filed under customer service, tradition, Patrick Ewing, polls, pressure, USC football, Tim Tebow, upsets, Final Four, BCS, referees, coaching, fans, NCAA, risk, football, persistence, attitude, enthusiasm, instant replay, problem solving, TV Talk Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.