You Knew This Was Coming
Yeah, un-retirement biatches. So, Florida made it to the (Mythical) National Championship game. Bully for us, I guess. Early prediction is that it turns out a lot like the last time we played in Arizona for a title. And of course the whining from the Midwest has only just begun. There really ought to be a playoff. All this and not much else through the link.
Florida vs Michigan
Is UF better than UM? Is UM better than UF? We’ll never know for sure. The one thing we do know is that Michigan lost to Ohio State already. “But TALB, it was at Ohio State and they only lost by 3!” Okay, Florida lost by 4 (the final 6 points came off a fumble on a desperation end of the game hook-and-lateral kick-off return) to Auburn, at Auburn. Florida’s cupcake was Western Carolina who we beat by 62 points. Michigan squeaked by Ball State by eight. Using the final BCS rankings, Florida played four teams in the top-25, going 3-1 in those games. Michigan played against three, going 2-1. Florida won its conference championship. Michigan came in second. I don’t know what that all means when comparing the teams. But unless and UF and UM can play each other before Jan 8, the statistics lean in Florida’s favor ever so slightly.
Rematch Talk
Florida won its only title by getting a rematch. Granted. However, during that time the mechanism for matching up the two best teams was not in place. With the Big Ten, Pac-10, and Rose Bowl out of the Bowl Alliance/Coalition one could not be sure that the top two teams would meet. If we didn’t have the BCS (warts and all) the teams (with BCS rank) would probably be slotted like this:
Rose: (1) Ohio State vs (5) USC
Sugar: (2) Florida vs (11) Notre Dame (Probably. Outside chance of [7] Wisconsin or [8] Boise State)
Capital One: (3) Michigan vs (4) LSU
That’s an even bigger mess than we have right now. Now that any team (including the “mid-majors”) is allowed into the BCS there should be no reason for a rematch. In the current system, that is. If there were to be a playoff, then rematches would abound I’m sure. If we had a four team playoff this season, there would be a very large chance for a re-match between either OSU-UM or UF-LSU. But if you’re going with the BCS and the whole “the season is the playoff” then a rematch should be avoided. At all costs.
It could have been argued a few years ago that the two best teams in the NFL hailed from the AFC. But no one was saying we needed to ensure that New England and Indianapolis got to play in the Super Bowl.
TALB’s Division I-A College Football Playoff
The BCS has the Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta bowls. Add another one to make it five. Pick one, doesn’t matter. Cotton, Capital One, and Outback have been bandied about over the years when BCS expansion has been discussed. For argument’s sake, and because I’m a big homer (that’s homer…) we’ll go with Outback. You draw straws, or flip coins, or whatever works to seed the bowls. Let’s say it works out like this:
1. Fiesta
2. Rose
3. Outback
4. Sugar
5. Orange
For year one (and we’ll use 2006 as the example) you take the top two and stage a 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 semi-final. So we’d have OSU vs LSU in the Fiesta and UM vs UF in the Rose. These games would be played on Jan 1. On Jan 8, the Fiesta Bowl would host the winners and crown a real champion. For 2007 you’d move down one notch and the Rose and Outback would play host to the semis with the championship at the Rose. And so on. The other BCS bowls would do their seeding and slotting as currently designed.
The impact to the bowl system would not be trivial. But it would be survivable. The championship bowl would not be hit as hard since they’ll have two games. The other semi-final bowl would likely see a big decline. The fans aren’t going to spend two full weeks in a row out-of-town. But a bowl would only serve as the “other” semi-final every six years.
By adding the extra bowl site the system retains the ten team format it currently has. Which ensures that teams like 2004 Utah and 2006 Boise State can still come to the party.
Early Prediction
I don’t know. If the Gators keep playing the way they have so far, then we’ll get blown out. Maybe something like 42-14 or thereabouts. But what if TTNHBC decides to let Tebow loose a little bit? There’s no tomorrow after this game. The 2006 season ends, win or lose, in the wee hours of January 8, 2007. Tebow has been held back, in part I’d suspect, so as not to provide next year’s opponents with too much to work with. What is the harm in allowing Tebow to work with the full spread option in this case?
TALB? Back? WTF?
The new TALB will be less regular and less Tuesday. There will be little, if any, game analysis. And most postings will very likely just be long rambling pieces like what you see above.
