Archives for November 2006

Couldn’t resist writing the headline.

Link.

That intermittent cacaphony of clicks you’ll hear tonight is the collective sound of millions of remote control buttons being pushed as the eastern US switches back and forth from My Name is Earl and the Office to the Thursday night ESPN game.

Like it or not, the winner of tonight’s game controls its own destiny, and (if still undefeated) will meet the winner of the OSU/UM game OSU in Glendale.

The knee jerk reaction of most fans is to complain about the Big East’s strength of schedule, and compare it to the SEC’s, for instance. It doesn’t seem fair to most that an undefeated Big East team would get a title shot ahead of a one-loss SEC team.

To counter that, others argue that just because a conference has a lot of parity, doesn’t mean that it’s the “best” or the “strongest.” The Mountain West conference has a lot of parity, as does the Sun Belt. Doesn’t make them superior. Just because Arkansas, Tennesee, Florida, LSU, and Auburn are going to beat themselves senseless this year doesn’t make the SEC the “best” conference.

Having said that, I think most reasonable people think a Tennessee or Florida would crush WVU or Louisville in a match up. However, most reasonable people thought Georgia was going to crush WVU in the Sugar Bowl earlier this year… but it didn’t happen, even though GA had the homefield advantage.

So, what say you? Who would you prefer to have the opportunity to play against lose to OSU in Glendale this January? Most likely victims candidates include West Va., Louisville, Florida, and Auburn. Give us your opinion in the comments.

Note: I know that some will point out that UM and Texas are also possibilities, but IMO would be a slap in the face of college football. Texas had their shot, as will UM. I’m not a fan of the rematch. If you don’t like the results the first time, you shouldn’t get a “do-over.” The only occasion in which I would support a do-over type of rematch is if some external factor affected the first ballgame’s outcome, like a major officiating screwup (a’la Oregon and Oklahoma earlier this year).