Ok, time to finish off the Bowl Previews with the BCS bowl games, also known as the only games that anyone really cares about. Well, one game that people kind of care about and four others that are just kind of there.
January 1:
Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi: Ohio State vs. Oregon: The pageantry! The spectacle! The floats covered with numerous types of roses in a complete waste of ecological resources! And for the first time in recent memory, no appearance by USC! This year we have the traditional matchup of overrated Big 10 team versus much faster Pac 10 team. (The Pac 10: Nine fine academic institutions and Arizona State.) I would like to remind everyone that Oregon will be fielding a player who punched a Boise State player in the face after a loss during the first week of the season. Yes he was suspended but it is good to know that a knockdown punch does not end your season. Sadly, the only way Ohio State wins this game is if most of Oregon is either suspended or banned from taking the field in neon yellow uniforms. I recommend watching the parade instead.
Allstate Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. Cincinnati: I would like to take a moment here to honor the career of Tim Tebow who I fear will become the Christian Laettner of football. What I mean is that on a college level no one in the modern era had quite as good a career as Laettner. Two titles, four final fours, magical last second shots, most NCAA tournament games played, just amazing accomplishments that led to a rather pedestrian pro career. I see the same for Tebow who could become a decent pro quarterback but will probably never be a Hall of Famer. But my god, was he unstoppable in the college game. Watching him in tears at the end of the SEC championship game made you realize just how much he wanted to win every single time he took the field.
Cincinnati is the team that just got screwed by Notre Dame. Or more accurately, their coach left an undefeated team to join ND before the bowl game. I’m still a little underwhelmed at the signing. I like Brian Kelly and Cincy has put together a nice program but I am not sold on him at all. Winning in the Big East is not the most impressive thing in the world. I hope I’m wrong and that he turns out to be a good coach but I am more excited by Kansas signing Turner Gill as their new coach. Anyway, Florida wins this one because no way Tebow goes out as a loser.
January 4:
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Boise State vs. TCU: You have to love the BCS. You have two undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences who can’t play in the title game because no BCS school will schedule them. At the moment Boise State has an open challenge to any BCS school to play them and no one has taken up the offer. So what do the bowls do? They have them play each other. Just completely unfair.
There is no team that I get more joy in watching than Boise State. Every single thing about the program is wrong. Their uniforms, the color of their field, the fact that Idaho has two Division 1 football programs, none of it makes a lick of sense. But they go out and play and win year in and year out and they’ve proven that they can beat the big boys. On the other hand TCU couldn’t sell out home games during a dream season. Cheer for Boise State and ask your school to put them on the schedule. Until we get a playoff (four team or eight team) that will be the only option.
January 5:
FedEx Orange Bowl: Iowa vs. Georgia Tech: What sucks about the new bowl schedule where you no longer have all the games on New Year’s Day is that we seem to have lost the spectacle that is the Orange Bowl halftime show. As a kid this was amazing as it always seemed to take forty five minutes and involve elephants and performers previously seen only as guest stars on The Love Boat. I believe Colorado performed knee surgery on a player during halftime one year. Now this is just a meaningless Tuesday night game.
Georgia Tech is coached by the former Navy coach and runs the triple option. There is no trickery. They are going to run the triple option and you must stop it. No one does. Iowa football is made up of the typical combination of farm boys and…pretty much farm boys. I’m pretty sure they are the only school that schedules a bye week for the crucial shucking season. Oh, and the following video is for my old friend and blog commenter Rug. We kid because we admire the program Rug. No other reason.
Citi BCS National Championship Game: Texas vs. Alabama: Again I must note that the final bowl game does not have the word Bowl anywhere in its title. If that doesn’t tell you how screwed up the system is nothing will. Of all the possible title game matchups this has to be the least interesting imaginable. I would have loved to have seen Cincy or TCU or Boise State in here to give us an underdog. Or for there to be two dominant teams meeting up like the Texas vs. USC game a few years ago. Instead we have this.
Texas has just been completely underwhelming. They should have lost to Nebraska and would have if it wasn’t for a horrible kickoff, a dumb penalty and luck after running the worst two minute drill that I have ever seen. Even against Oklahoma, a team they should have destroyed, Texas played poorly and Colt McCoy hasn’t shown me much all season. Alabama, on the other hand, has just been dominant but not in a fun way. This isn’t a high explosive offense that excites you with great plays. This is a team that beats you 17 – 6 in a game that is never in doubt. They are a great team with a star player in Ingram but they are not exciting. Alabama is going to win this one but a year from now no one will remember the game.
Best of 120 Minutes: There is only one thing better than the Pixies playing “I Bleed” and that is the Pixies with Weird Al Yankovic on lead vocals singing “I Bleed.”
The five random CDs for the week:
1) John Wesley Harding “Trad Arr Jones”
2) 10,000 Maniacs “MTV Unplugged”
3) Wayne Toups and Zydecajun “Back to the Bayou”
4) Ryan Adams “Easy Tiger”
5) Neko Case “The Tigers Have Spoken”
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