Okay, I can’t keep from at least commenting on the conclusion of the college football season. What a terrible end to the season. I couldn’t even watch the supposed national championship game — I peeked from time to time and saw an uninspired LSU against a revenge driven Alabama, you tell me who wins such a match up. So, if I am getting this right, the new national champion isn’t a conference champion and didn’t even win their division in their conference. Does anyone else find this fouled up? Someone please help!
I couldn’t watch the game because I thought the whole idea of the game was terrible. First, nothing could be more unfair to LSU than to have to beat the same team twice in order to win a national championship. The way college football works, without a playoff, you get one chance — that’s it. These bowl games are determined to a great extent by which team really wants to win. Emotion plays a huge role. Supposedly, in the national championship game both teams bring that to the table. This match-up messed up that balance. Alabama gets 40+ days to prepare for revenge, LSU has to play an SEC championship game, revel in the incredible accomplishment of winning the SEC, come back down to earth, and then realize that they have to play Alabama again. That’s too much to ask of these young guys.
Second, without a playoff it is important to at least pit different regions and styles against each other to add validity to the game. The defense in the SEC is awesome, but name one quarterback this year on an SEC team that “scared” you. This was a down year in the SEC: Mississippi, Mississippi St., Tennessee, Florida were not very good; if you want proof this was a down year in the SEC, look at how well Vanderbilt did. Defense in the Big 12 and Pac 12 was sometimes non-existent, but those hyper-speed offenses put an incredible amount of pressure on you. The point is this, pit those two against each other and let’s see how it turns out.
We all have a “sense” of fair play and want that to rule in our sports. This game did not meet my sense, it was not a “level playing field.” Here’s a rule to consider: Only conference champions can play for the national title.
Maybe someday the sport I love the most will actually figure out how to have a true national championship. In the meantime, go Longhorns!
Posted on January 10, 2012
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