Unimpressed by the BCS

By Brett Samuels

(AP Photo)

The wait that spanned two calendar years is finally over and the BCS National Championship Game is finally upon us. However the other big time matchups that were supposed to whet our appetites frankly did little to provoke college football fans’ enthusiasm.

It all began New Years Day with a Rose Bowl game that few people outside of the state of Wisconsin or northern California were looking forward to. Stanford is a good team trying to break through the barrier of being one of the nation’s best, while Wisconsin entered the Rose Bowl with five losses to their credit.

The game was actually competitive from start to finish, with Stanford holding on for the 20-14 victory in the end. However there wasn’t much to be discussed afterword, because frankly the team that should have won did win, and that was that.

Later in the day the Orange Bowl kicked off in a classic underdog versus talent-laden-super-team matchup. Northern Illinois was a team not everyone believed deserved a shot to play mighty Florida State in a BCS bowl, but that’s the way the cookie crumbled and the Huskies got their shot.

It didn’t end well for NIU and quarterback Jordan Lynch, as they were simply overmatched by the talent and athleticism of the Seminoles. That being said, Florida State did very little to make people believe they were one of the best teams in the country, playing generally mediocre football before finally putting the Huskies away in the fourth quarter en route to a 31-10 victory.

The Sugar Bowl on Wednesday night was supposed to be a blowout. No. 3 Florida was supposed to run all over No. 21 Louisville, but Cardinals’ sophomore superstar Teddy Bridgewater had other plans. Bridgewater led Louisville to a 33-23 win over the Gators in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score suggests.

With all that said, the game with the most hype outside of the national title game was the Fiesta Bowl, a matchup featuring No. 4 Oregon and No. 5 Kansas State. At one point, many people believed those two teams would face each other for the national championship. However, each team suffered a loss, and so they met in Arizona instead.

By the time Oregon was finished with KSU, many people were left wondering whether the Ducks really were one of the two best teams in the country. Oregon piled up 219 rushing yards in a 35-17 victory over the Wildcats.

While each BCS game contained a few great plays or individual performances, the competition simply was underwhelming compared to past years, and that is a trend the national championship will hopefully stop come Monday.