COLLEGE FOOTBALL NOTES SUNDAY: YOU KNEW IT HAD TO HAPPEN, THAT EVEN WITH A NEW “PLAYOFF” SYSTEM, THE NCAA WOULD SCREW IT UP. And, yes they did. To dump TCU or Baylor in favor of Ohio State would surely infuriate a whole lot of college football fans, and since we now know that is what happened, start counting the infuriated (led by the Christians of TCU and the Baptists of Baylor). Thus the Bowl Championship Series will feature: Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, and Ohio State. That would not have been my vote. I would have pushed for keeping TCU and dumping Florida State, as six of FSU’s wins were by fewer than four points. And, if not for an inexcusable official’s decision, would have lost to Notre Dame, who had them beat fair and square. So, 13-0 or not, National Champions or not, I would have shut the door on the Seminoles and gone with the Christians of Ft. Worth. (And yes I know Baylor beat TCU by three, 61-58.) Because you have to explain, how do you eliminate last week’s number 4 TCU and defer to OSU? Yes, Ohio State tore up the Badgers of Wisconsin yesterday, 59-0, but TCU’s 55-3 win over Iowa State Friday night wasn’t as if they had defeated Our Sisters of the Poor. Given that the NCAA has playoffs for Divisions II and III, the relevant question is why not Division I? That is not a new question, but the NCAA’s efforts to fix it with a four-team playoff was controversial when it was unveiled, was predicted by media savants to be controversial in its implementation, so now that we have controversy, should surprise no one. THE BIG-10 AND PAC-12 HAVE A LONG INTEGRATED HISTORY, one that began January 1, 1947, when Illinois beat UCLA, 45-14, in the Rose Bowl. The two great conferences would play another 53-years for a total of 54-times and each conference would claim 27-Rose Bowl winners. All of which I note to say the two conferences were equal again Friday and Saturday nights as their two championship games were blowouts – Oregon wining over Arizona Friday night, 51-13, and Ohio State defeating Wisconsin Saturday night, 59-0. But there was this noticeable difference: The OU/AU game in Santa Clara, sold 45,618 tickets; OSU/Wisconsin in Indianapolis, 60,229. There were a lot of empty seats and no shows in Santa Clara; there were none in Indianapolis. The PAC-12 has a championship site problem that needs to be fixed. IN SEASON ARIZONA BEAT OREGON IN EUGENE, but how they did that is now a very great mystery, given the Ducks’ total dominance Friday night. Oregon led at halftime, 23-0, despite having played poorly, but put it all together in the second half and won going away. The mystery of the two games was compounded by the conservative game plan by AU coach Rich Rodriquez, who had his QB, Anu Solomon, throw only 12-passes. What? In their upset win October 2, 31-24, Solomon threw 31-passes and completed 20 for 287-yards and a TD. But once Arizona attempted to control the game on the ground, OU’s dominance in the PAC-12 title game became complete. The Ducks had 31-first downs to AU’s 10, and time on the clock, was 38 minutes and 55-seconds for Oregon to Arizona’s 21.05. So much for ball control. Coach Rodriquez, who has a habit of leaving university’s unexpectedly, unexpectedly left his game plan behind in Tucson. But who won and who lost in the rain Friday night was secondary to me. My main interest was in how Marcus Mariota performed, and whether his performance secured this year’s Heisman. These are Mariota’s game totals: Passes attempted, 32; passes completed, 20; total passing yards, 276; TDs, two. For the season, this oh so impressive young man, completed 254 of 372 passes thrown, resulting in 3,773-yards and 38-TDs, with only two interceptions. The Heisman for 2014 will go to Marcus Mariota; who will become the first OU Duck to win it since Terry Baker in 1962. IN OHIO STATE’S BIG WIN OVER WISCONSIN – 59-0 is big, really big – I thought the key stat was this: Melvin Gordon, the nation’s leading rusher, as in 2,336-yards and 26-TDs, ran for only 76 on 26-carries vs. OSU; an average of only 2.6-yards per carry, whereas his season’s average was 7.6. I am a big Urban Meyer fan and obviously he and his coaches did a heck of a job preparing the Buckeyes for the titles game in Lucas Oil Stadium. (To understand my regard for coach Meyer, I suggest reading SI’s profile of him a couple of years back.) IN OTHER BIG GAMES SATURDAY, the winners were Alabama, Baylor, and Florida State. Bama won with a blowout of Missouri, 42-13, as their senior QB, Blake Sims, had a stellar game, completing 23 of 27-passes for 262-yards and two TDs. The Bears of Ken Starr’s Baylor team beat Kansas State in Waco, 38-27. BU’s QB, Bryce Petty, threw for 412-yards, while hitting on 34 of 40-passes and one TD. Florida State was a two-point winner over Georgia Tech, 37-35, in the ACC title game. Jamies Winston, who won the Heisman last year but won’t this year, had a big game, hitting 21 of 30-passes for 309-yards and three TDs. WITH ALABAMA PLAYING OSU IN THE SUGAR BOWL AND OREGON FACING FSU IN THE ROSE, all that’s left to figure out is where the other 82 Division I teams will play between now and January. How did I arrive at 82-bowl eligible teams? By going to the conference standings and counting the number of teams that won six or more games, that’s how. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Don’t cuss. Don’t argue with the officials. And don’t lose the game.” – John Heisman
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 20:49:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015