BCMess

Well, 2011 has finally come to an end. And in terms of sports, more specifically college football, it has been one to forget if you ask me. Sure I know it is only because I am a Buckeyes fan, and witnessed probably the worst year in Ohio State football history. But even if you do not like the Buckeyes, the bowl games should be more than sufficient evidence to support my claims. And we can all give thanks to the BCS.

I will focus on the main BCS bowls, only because it has gotten ridiculously fatiguing trying to get excited for the Taxslayer.com Gator bowl; or dare I mention the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl? What, did each player get a sack of potatoes as a bowl gift? But I digress.

Thanks to the BCS this is what we had to see:

1) The third best team in the Big10, a team that did not even play in the conference championship game, who some-how got a Sugar Bowl invite over the team that finished 2nd in the Big10, faced off against the 2nd place ACC team which lost to the same team twice, and that team got 70 hung on them in the Orange Bowl! (more on that later). Don’t give me any of that “overtime thriller” nonsense, that game was a snooze fest and many could argue the refs blew the call in OT.

2) The team that probably should have been in the National Championship game, Oklahoma State, with the freak-of-nature wide out, and two time Belitnikoff winner, Justin Blackmon faced off against future #1 draft pick Andrew Luck and Stanford. In my mind, the Fiesta Bowl was the only one the BCS got right, and it was an exciting game. A shame that Stanford’s kicker could not hit sand if he fell of a camel, but Blackmon and Luck both lived up to the hype. Here’s hoping Blackmon is wearing a Browns jersey come April.

3) The only reason WVU, and Clemson were in the Orange Bowl is because they had to be. Damn automatic bowl tie-ins. Sure WVU scored 70 points, but coming against an ACC team, and a team that lost 2 of their final 3 games on the way to the Orange Bowl it diminishes the accomplishment some. Lest not forget WVU, the Big East powerhouse that lost to Louisville, and Syracuse this year was barely ranked in the top 25, yet still made it to a BCS Bowl.

4) Sure the Rose Bowl saw a record for most points scored, and kudos to Oregon for winning their first bowl game since the second decade of the twentieth century (1916 to be exact). We did get to see Wisconsin lose the Rose Bowl for the second consecutive year, and an assistant coach pick his nose and eat it on TV! (if you don’t believe me just YouTube it, you will find it). This matchup was fine by me, I like seeing the traditional PAC12, Big10 matchup in the granddaddy-of-em-all.

5) The rematch. Just when you try to get excited about the BCS National Championship game you remember the first time Alabama and LSU played to the 6-9 over-time thriller! LSU’s late three run home run in the top of the 10th helped seal the deal. Seriously though, I am with many of the AP voters who would have a hard time putting Alabama over LSU if the Tide won this game. LSU beat Bama at home! Alabama did not even win their SEC division let alone play in the SEC Championship game. But then you have to remember the father of the BCS is Roy Kramer. Who is Roy Kramer? Oh, just the former commissioner of the SEC…

Also, thanks to the BCS, here are few things we were robbed from seeing:

1) The winningest quarterback in college football history, and his number 7 ranked team, Boise State were delegated to the MAACO Bowl on December 22! Hope you tuned into ESPN3 to catch Kellen Moore dismantle Arizona State. Sure Boise State is not in a major conference, but they still finished the season in the top ten in the BCS standings.

2) The number 6 team in the BCS, Arkansas, will face the number 8 team, Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl. Neither of these teams won their conference, but both are ranked higher than the two teams that played in the Sugar Bowl.

3) Good thing we did not get to see the Heisman Trophy winner, Robert Griffith III, or RG3 to some, take his 12th ranked Baylor team to a BCS game. Again Baylor was ranked higher than both Michigan, and RG3

On Monday, January 9th (which also happens to be my birthday) we will get to see two teams who already played each other this year, play again. I predicted the score to be LSU 11 – Alabama 10, and that could be considered high scoring if you consider their last game. My only hope, at this point, is that Alabama wins by a field goal, and the AP voters still vote LSU as their national champions, thus leaving us with a split national championship, and possibly the beginning of the end for the BCS.