A SCHADENFREUDIAN SLIP: College Football 12/3

Four reasons college football is the greatest, and one reason to doubt it all
Reason #1- The Civil War of the Roses

The NFL has gone to great lengths to force their channel down all our throats, and sometimes it works (ie- their highlight show is the best) but more often that not it fails. The night began with a quick look at the TV offerings for a sports junky: NY Jets vs Buffalo in Toronto OR Oregon St @ Oregon. The meaning of the NFL game? Best I can figure is it would just about mathematically eliminate the Jets from play-off contention with a NY loss. It being played in Toronto doesn't do anything more than to remind us all of the fact that it is indeed The Bills. The college game on the other hand? It's a long, bitter rivalry game known as The Civil War between the Beavers and Ducks. You have Oregon, the more interesting offense in a conference known for the offense, and Oregon State, the best coached team in America (they win 9 games a year, and they're based out of Corvallis, Oregon... good luck with the map on that one). Just in case that isn't enough for you? The winner is off the Rose Bowl as the Pac-10 Champion.

Whether by Land, Sea, Twitter, or Carrier Pigeon

Reason #2- Rivalry Matters, to everyone involved
In a recent post I questioned Pete Carroll's handling of Southern Cal's game against Stanford. In the game Stanford went for two after a touchdown to try to put up fifty points in a blow-out. So then in their rivalry game against UCLA the Trojans were leading 21-7 at midfield with 0:44 left on the clock and took a kneee, and then UCLA took a timeout. Incidentally I am a proponent of using every timeout you have even in a loss. So to retaliate Pete Carroll either ordered or allowed a touchdown pass for the endzone which they caught. The only appropriate way for it to end was if UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel had given Carroll the line "What's your deal?" which had been the greeting Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh received from Carroll after their game. Instead a stand-off approaching mid-field ensued that luckily for everyone didn't lead to any real physical confrontation or injury. The good news is rivalry is tough, the bad thing?

Some times it really gets out of hand

Reason #3- It may not be a true play-off, but their are play-off games

I agree with most of the world in saying that college football needs play-off, but I also know that college football does have games with play-off implications. No we won't see Texas play Cincinnati or TCU for the other spot, but we will get a national semifinal this weekend when #1 Florida faces off against #2 Alabama. This game doesn't need much more hype than it's already getting. I'll just take Florida 20-17, more specifically I predict Florida wins the game on a fourth quarter touchdown drive that begins with the Crimson Tide leading 17-13. Other predictions include that Verne will remind us at least 5 times that Riley Cooper is Tebow's roommate, that at least one moment in the game will lead you to ask "why don't these decisions blow up in Meyer's face?", and that the national championship game will likely be a let-down by comparison.

Final prediction, if Alabama does win, you'll be hearing this

Reason to doubt it all? Florida State

I know this is a topic with people on all sides of it, but Bobby Bowden shouldn't have been fired. Why? Well, because the only reason the last four seasons (7-6, 7-6, 9-4, 6-6 with bowl upcoming) have been disappointing is when you compare them to the last 80's through early 2000's Seminoles. Why is that a problem? Well, because it was Bobby Bowden who led the 'Noles to the greatest run in the history of college football in terms on AP Top 5 dominance. Bowden failed his own expectations. The face is that it's been too long since FSU knew how bad they were pre-Bowden. Spurrier saw it coming at Florida and left, you will eventually fail to meet the expectations you yourself set, but Bowden stayed long enough to find out. Bowden should have been allowed to coach one more year, the coach-in-waiting contract with Jimbo Fischer would have required the retirement after next year, and Florida State deserves every bit a futility that comes its way from here on out.

This is Bowden after year 1