THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! B C S STYLE! Well we all know that there is one too many letters—really!
I have been watching College Football for as long as I can remember—the National Champion in Football was usually decided before the end of the year, and on New Years Day, we had four major bowls played in one day!
I miss the day when the Cotton Bowl started the New Year off with not only their parade but the game—then the Rose Bowl played… then the Orange Bowl took Center Stage—the Sugar Bowl was played on New Years Eve… we remember those days!
Now we have all these bowls strung out starting on the second weekend of December and played on almost every night of the week, then the you string out the bigger bowls and they aren’t even on “free TV” they have to be aired on ESPN—only three games were over the air…. The ROSE BOWL was even on ESPN! In the history, of that grand game—its been on all three big networks—CBS, NBC, and most recently ABC!... now its on its cable sister, ESPN! At least the Cotton Bowl has FOX Network to keep them over the air!
Now we move to the number one game, the game that will decide who is the National Champion in College Football, the BCS Championship Game from New Orleans this evening, the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Some say, this is nothing more than a rematch of the game earlier played in Alabama when the Tide lost to the Tigers 9-6 in overtime. Rematch, re-run, replay, whatever you wish to call it, some people are not happy about it!
I miss the day when the Cotton Bowl started the New Year off with not only their parade but the game—then the Rose Bowl played… then the Orange Bowl took Center Stage—the Sugar Bowl was played on New Years Eve… we remember those days!
Now we have all these bowls strung out starting on the second weekend of December and played on almost every night of the week, then the you string out the bigger bowls and they aren’t even on “free TV” they have to be aired on ESPN—only three games were over the air…. The ROSE BOWL was even on ESPN! In the history, of that grand game—its been on all three big networks—CBS, NBC, and most recently ABC!... now its on its cable sister, ESPN! At least the Cotton Bowl has FOX Network to keep them over the air!
Now we move to the number one game, the game that will decide who is the National Champion in College Football, the BCS Championship Game from New Orleans this evening, the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Some say, this is nothing more than a rematch of the game earlier played in Alabama when the Tide lost to the Tigers 9-6 in overtime. Rematch, re-run, replay, whatever you wish to call it, some people are not happy about it!
They think that Oklahoma State should be playing for this title, and I have to admit, that would have been a better game, but none the less this is the time where they will either put up or shut up… meaning Alabama—they think that they were robbed in the first meeting, but the truth is, they played the same guys and they lost that game—you want to shut the “ney-sayers” up then beat LSU by more than three!
Though from my side of the fence—I don’t see that happening. I believe that the best team in College football is LSU. They proved it before and I think that they will prove it again in the Super Dome,… that will be more like a Home Field for them—and though Alabama will travel—the LSU side will a bit more louder!
I do think that this game will not be as defensive as the first game, and that the offensive schemes will be more wide open and not so conservative.
With that being said, here is the real crux of the matter…. There must be a playoff system for College Football, the Bowls must agree that they will be used to decide the National Championship tree, and they will be more than just the SUPER Conferences.
Our society has to understand that College football is as huge as the NFL, and that without a playoff system the arguments will continue! WHO is the BEST? Well we will never know unless they break it down, we do it for Basketball as well as Baseball! Why not for Football?
Lower conferences do it, why don’t Division I? I don’t have a clue! And if you do, then you are lot smarter than I.
WE have been told that the schools and the Bowls are against it because of finals and money, and those two things have always been the driving force of college athletics, and that school comes first (grades that is) and that corporate sponsors don’t wish to lose their NAME visibility with the attachment to the Bowl Games.
IN Dallas, the AT&T Cotton Bowl has been the presiding name in that bowl for over 15 years, there has not been another corporate sponsor that has been attached to a bowl for longer and with stronger ties that AT&T. I give them credit, before they came on board—it was the Mobile Cotton Bowl, and then SBC Cotton Bowl, we all know that SBC joined AT&T and that was a natural transition.
But the other Bowls have changed names faster than you and I change shirts. So why is it that one sponsor has stayed with the same bowl for all this time? Its simple, they are local, and the CBAA (Cotton Bowl Athletic Association) has been working with the community for the last 76 years. ‘Nuff Said!
So tonight—in Louisiana, sixty minutes will decide who will be crowned the number one team in College Football and as soon as that game is over—the critics will start their barrage of comments on how this was not the game that should have been played, that Alabama slid into that position without playing in a conference championship game, and that their position in the polls was a load of hogwash, that Oklahoma State should have played—and so on and so on!
Truth is… it’s the Crimson Tide and the Bayou Bengals are hooking up and may the best team win!
Truth is… it’s the Crimson Tide and the Bayou Bengals are hooking up and may the best team win!
Just a thought
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