Thirty-something bowl games later. That’s a whole lot of football. And, frankly, much ado over nothing. Another year of college football ends in turmoil. Sure, there was a “national championship” game, and yes, there was a winner of this “national championship” game. But when the best bowl game was the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl, you really have to wonder about the state of the post-season.
As an aside, the Humanitarian Bowl had Idaho edging Bowling Green 43 – 42. The fourth quarter was, without doubt, the most entertaining (and refreshing) 15 minutes of football all year. With the game tied at 35, Bowling Green scored a touchdown with 32 seconds left. Score: Bowling Green 42, Idaho 35. Idaho then stormed back to score a touchdown with 4 ticks left on the clock, making it 42 – 41. In perhaps the gutsiest coaching move I’ve seen in a long time, Idaho went for the two point conversion – and made it – to win 43 – 42. Now that’s not something that even Les Miles or Nick Saban would do.
Games like this would be commonplace if college football had a playoff. It is laughable that the NCAA continues to claim that the BCS is “in the best interest of the universities”. As it stands, there are 34 bowl games, which means that 68 of 120 schools are in a bowl game. Most of these bowl games have incredibly low attendance. If this is what is “in the best interest of the universities”, then it’s kind of like being in elementary school and everyone getting participation awards because “everyone’s a winner”. And if that is the case, there is a lot of money being invested in college football so that “everyone is a winner”. Yeah right.
Now that we have the benefit of having watched a few bowl games, and having established who showed up and who didn’t, let’s take one final look at December Delirium, and find us a real national champion. The good ‘ole fashioned way – on the field.
Five plays. That was the sum total of playing time for Colt McCoy during the national championship game. Instead of watching McCoy, the University of Texas’ senior quarterback, battle Alabama’s defense for 60 minutes, his college football career ended abruptly on the fifth play of the first Longhorn drive of the game. Sadly, he was forced to watch his final college game from the sidelines as him team lost to Alabama 37 – 21. It was hard to imagine, almost surreal, that the all-time win leader in college football would end up with this type of career finish. Here is a young man that has given everything to his team and to this program. He had prepared for 4 years to play on the game’s biggest stage. Watching his post-game interview was just plain sad.
I can’t imagine how Colt is feeling right now, but I do have a few words for him. First of all, a personal thank you for all of the memories. From the first moment you took the field in the void left by Vince Young – through each and every one of those 45 wins – you have exhibited the highest level of class and sportsmanship while representing the University of Texas. You’ve brought great joy to all of the fans like myself that have followed you and the Longhorns. Though I have no doubt that this is a very difficult time for you, I know that many good things lie ahead for you. We remember you not for those five plays tonight, but for times like the photo above.
As an aside - yes, there was a game last night.
I know that you’ve all been anxiously awaiting the 2nd annual December Delirium – a fully functional and highly effective NCAA college football playoff proposal. This year, it has become even more appropriate to have December Delirium since we have 5 unbeaten teams all vying for that coveted BCS National Championship game. It’s rather obvious that all 5 didn’t get the nod, and it’s been hotly debated as to who should and should not have been given the championship game berths.
On a quick sidebar, it seems like everything in college football this year was hotly debated. The winner of the Heisman Trophy – Mark Ingram of Alabama – wasn’t even the best running back in the pack. But, he does play for one of those national championship playing teams, so I guess that was enough rationale for people to select him for the Heisman Trophy. Fortunately, we’ll see if the real Mark Ingram is the one that showed up against Florida – or the one that didn’t show up against Auburn. And it won’t come easy against the Texas defense. It seems to me that the last time Texas won the National Championship, their quarterback (Vince Young) finished second in the Heisman voting, being beaten out by running back Reggie Bush. Will Colt McCoy deliver the same message? As Yogi Berra might say, it’s deja vu all over again.
But … back to the discussion at hand – the 2009 December Delirium bracket buster show!
I will confess - I was always thankful for physics in high school. Strange as that may sound, it was one of my strongest subjects. But beyond that minor digression, physics defines what we experience in the physical world. Newton and Einstein, among many others, have contributed greatly to our understanding of the dynamics of the world around us. At this point, you must be asking “why ponder physics on New Year’s Eve?”, and this would undoubtedly be a fair question. Physics certainly doesn’t involve resolutions, or the consumption of alcohol, or watching the ball drop on Time’s Square.
But when left to your own thoughts about life, when left facing the challenges of your world, you may sometimes revel in some newfound insight. And insight finds us at the strangest moments, at times when we are open to what the universe has to say to us. Perhaps the problems don’t change, but the way we see them changes. As Einstein himself noted, “the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them”. Smart man, that Einstein guy.
Strangely enough, physics may indeed contribute to not only our understanding of the world around us – but the world within us as well. There are two optical principles that I can think of right now that apply to life as well as they do to our physical realm.
The NCAA needs a college football playoff. I’ve said it once (or twice) before, and I will say it again. Annually. It’s pretty simple, actually. No matter how many people you talk to, it seems that the overwhelming response is yes, there needs to be a playoff format for the top 4, 8, or 16 teams. But in 2009, we have another year, and another mess. Sadly, the only people that don’t tend to agree with this are the school presidents and conference commissioners. We’ve heard all sorts of reasons to not have a playoff, most of which are incredibly lame and self-serving. Let’s be realistic here – the number one reason (unspoken, perhaps, after everything is said and done) is “maintaining the status quo”. Now the federal government – yes, the same government that is struggling with health care reform, the banking industry, and two wars – has put college football in the political spectrum. Please welcome H.R. 390, the College Football Playoffs Act. It’s good to see our government working on things that truly effect the population [sarcasm inserted here].
But seriously folks, this is what the law would look like:
It is the beauty and privilege of living in a country like the United States of America – the freedom of the people to speak freely and maintain their own religious faith and convictions. I fully support an individual’s choice of faith and belief systems, even as they differ from my own or anyone else’ beliefs. I think that as intelligent human beings we can have our faith, and agree to disagree on what it means to the individual in the meantime. Frankly, I enjoy discussions of religion because it gives me a greater insight into the world (and it’s people) and provides me with varying and unique perspective of life on the planet. The issue of religion and religious freedom once again came to the forefront recently in the media. There was a seemingly inexplicable hue and cry from many people in this country regarding President Obama’s religious convictions. Is he a Muslim? Isn’t he? Better yet, do we really care? Last I looked, the Constitution gives people the freedom to participate in their own religious beliefs, and that freedom would also extend to the President. So if the President of the United States is Catholic – or Hindu – or a Scientologist, for that matter – does he not have the right to do so? Worse yet, why would anyone use that as some form of “reasoning” that he shouldn’t be in the office? And even beyond that, somehow the debate over his religious beliefs provoked fear in many.
This could have all simply been a blip on the media airwaves. But in my humble opinion, the level of religious intolerance appears to have magnified since that time. Perhaps I am getting more sensitive to it, and perhaps I am more offended by it. Or both.
The pundits use all sorts of platitudes when they describe a game like the 2009 Big 12 Championship. In the past 12 hours, I’ve heard a number of them - “it all counts as a win in the win column” or “winning ugly is still winning”. All true.
And when everything was said and done last night in the Longhorn’s 13 – 12 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers, it only took one second on the clock to seal the deal.
But it was the previous 59 minutes and 59 seconds that were so disturbing, and gave the nation of voters (Heisman and BCS alike) plenty of reasons to wonder if the Longhorns should be heading to the national championship game – or not.
There are two things I know from last night’s game. One is that Texas has a spectacular defense - a national caliber defense without doubt. And the other thing I have had re-affirmed is the utterly anemic offensive play-calling that continues to hound the Horns.
First, the defense. Spectacular. Phenomenal. Stifling. What other words are needed to describe it? They gave up just 106 yards to the Huskers – a total of 39 rushing yards and 67 passing yards. The season-low for Nebraska prior to this game was 180 yards. They limited Nebraska to only 5 first downs during the game. Three interceptions. And only four field goals scored against them. I would say that this was a statement game to tell the nation that this defense is truly Pasadena-ready.
But then we have to look at the other side of the ball. And what I am seeing isn’t good.
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