System Failure

By Audrey Hart

College football is intermission for a couple weeks while everyone prepares for the bowl games. That doesn’t mean there still isn’t plenty to talk about though. It’s time for the post-season system failure.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

The bowls were announced last week to the general disappointment of everyone. Once again, the BCS system has failed to match the best teams against one another and instead has resulted in match ups between Florida State and Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl or unranked Wisconsin against Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

The Cotton Bowl, which pits Texas A&M against Oklahoma has a better match up then those games!

The problem is this though; the BCS bowl selectors just followed the rules.

 The rules of the selection process state that if a team from a conference with non-automatic BCS bowl bid, such as, uh the Mid-American Conference, finishes in the top 16 of the BCS rankings, and outranks at least one conference champion with an automatic bid, then that team gets a bowl slot. Which is how, after propelling themselves to No. 21 in the rankings by beating No. 23 Kent State, Northern Illinois ended up in the Orange Bowl. After Stanford pounded UCLA twice in one week, Nebraska was creamed by Wisconsin, and Texas had a disappointing performance against Kansas State, the NI Huskies ended up No. 15 and playing in the bowl.

Wisconsin’s argument is much shorter. Simply, they won the automatic bid for the Rose Bowl when they beat Nebraska in the Big 10 Championship.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said it best, the BCS is in “a sad state for college football” right now. The BCS was originally established to determine the national champion for college football, while also showcasing the premier teams in the country to enhance the bowl system. While that’s a great idea in theory, it’s hopelessly flawed. I’m sure I’m not the only one who can’t wait for the bowl system.

(Pause for a moment to reflect on the fact we could have had play off between Notre Dame, Alabama, Oregon, and Florida.)

Point is, this controversy is really quite uncontroversial. There was nothing in the system that could have been done, kind of like Heisman trophy that will be presented tonight.

Johnny Manziel is by far the favorite for the trophy. His most impressive statistic though of course, is his performance against Alabama. But everything else he did, his yards, touchdowns, and highlights, were against second-rate teams like Sam Houston State, South Carolina State, Southern Methodist, and Louisiana Tech.

Since it’s traditionally an offensive award, you can expect him to win it. The true description says though that the “trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity.”

And that isn’t Johnny Football. It’s the only player who led his team to an undefeated season, Manti Te’o.

Notre Dame coach Manti Te’o describes him as the “backbone” of the team. He had 103 tackles, seven interceptions, and 11 passes defended. And he did this all against the country’s hardest pre-season schedule, including eight tackles and two interceptions against Michigan, 11 tackles against Stanford, 11 tackles and an interception against Oklahoma, and five tackles and an interception against USC.

He is the only player that actually earned his Heisman spot from the first season to last, in every single game.

Unfortunately, Te’o will most likely not get the trophy. He walked away the other night with six honors though, including the Maxwell Award as college football’s best player.

It is understandable why Te’o won’t win, just as it makes sense why Northern Illinois is in the Orange Bowl. System failure in college football is as traditional as anything. Might as well look toward next year and move on. It all evens up in the NFL. Just think, would you rather be Andrew Luck or Tim Tebow?

The Self-Fufilling Prophecy

By Audrey Hart

Everyone knows that the SEC, year after year, is going to have to top rated teams in the country. We all assume that they will be in the national championship, win the national championship, and then start the next season as No. 1.

This year, finally, we might have a year with out the SEC winning, so maybe this year will break the cycle.

(AP Photo)

Starting next year though, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see it again.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that the SEC dominates the college football scene, one that isn’t necessarily because of the teams.

It’s because they follow a system.

The prior year, the SEC has 7-8 teams qualify for a bowl. These bowls are usually played down south, where the weather is nice and the crowd is all SEC.

Then when preseason rankings come out, since they are returning bowl teams and powerhouses, at least 6-7 teams are ranked. This year’s included Alabama No. 2, LSU No. 3, Georgia No. 6, South Carolina, No. 9, Arkansas No.10 and Florida No. 23. Kansas State was 22; Notre Dame wasn’t even ranked.

Then the SEC teams play each other 7-8 times throughout the season, but plan all out of conference games against patsies. Each SEC team plays at least one Division 1-AA team and Texas A&M plays against two. Florida scheduled Bowling Green, Louisiana-Lafayette (who they barely beat) and Jacksonville State. Their one away game is against traditional state rival Florida State. Alabama’s schedule was classic SEC with three very easy teams of Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, and Western Carolina, and one traditional match-up of Michigan. This is supposedly in a neutral location, meaning its played in Arlington, Texas. That’s kind of like how LSU tried to claim last years’ Oregon game was neutral. SEC loves neutral locations that aren’t neutral at all.

Point is, let’s say a team gets a 3-4 record in the “terribly difficult SEC conference play”, with the extra padding of the out of conference schedule they’re almost guaranteed a national rank. If they go 5-2, they’re top ten!

Now repeat the whole cycle again.

This is not saying that the SEC doesn’t deserve some of the credit that they have. They send more players than any to the NFL and they have 6 BCS Championships in a row. (Never mind this is because their formula allows SEC teams to reach number one and two rankings easier.) There is a lot that is great about the SEC but if other conferences had the same record inflation that the SEC did, college football could be completely different.

Alabama lost last week making Kansas State and Oregon the favorites for the National Championship.

Bama will still get a decent bowl berth and will come into next season ranked high. LSU, South Carolina, and Georgia won’t be far behind, and after a few games against Division 1-AA teams, we’ll all be back where we started. 

Every Second Counts

By Audrey Hart

(AP Photo)

This weekend provides a little bit of a break from the excitement of last weekend. Somehow all four of the top teams came out undefeated, but it was close. This week there aren’t as many big games but as the season is dying down, there is still plenty to watch for.

1.    No. 1 Alabama plays against No. 15 Texas AM on Saturday. Alabama survived last week, but just barely. You have to know they’ll have bruises and maybe won’t have the energy they had last week. It’s no easy task to play these two games two weeks in a row. The question is, can Texas AM capitalize on the fact that LSU did the seemingly impossible task of making Alabama look beatable. They’ll have to come out with heart, but its possible.

2.    No. 11 Oregon State plays No. 14 Stanford. Both teams have lost their starting quarterback. Both teams have also had some disappointing losses and exciting wins. They’re about as comparable as you can get in the Pac-12 and provide a great conference match up.

3.    No. 21 Mississippi State plays in Death Valley this weekend against No. 7 LSU. LSU will be as bruised as Alabama and it doesn’t have the consolation prize of at least getting the win.  Mississippi State is ready to prove itself and come out hard. No one wants to be the laughing stock of the SEC.

4.    Speaking of a disappointing season, No. 19 USC goes up against Arizona State on Saturday. USC has had probably the most disappointing season of them all, expected national title contenders at the beginning. They didn’t end the game to tight with Oregon last week, but USC did what no other team has. They starters played for the whole game. Let’s see if they can keep up that energy this weekend.

5.    Finally, No. 4 Notre Dame is playing Boston College. That should be an easy win but so should have Pitt. Instead it was a nail-biting triple over time thriller. Boston College has spoiled Notre Dame’s season before. In 2002 Notre Dame was also undefeated until they lost to the Eagles. Then they lost three more of their last five. Let’s hope it doesn’t derail like that, but its possible.

The best part of the end of the season is because this is when every second counts so let’s see which team makes it count more.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Saturday night was an unbelievable display of high-ranked teams. Audrey Hart previews the action. 

(Getty Images/Otto Greule Jr.)

By Audrey Hart

Drum roll please! Saturday is the night where it all ends. The college football season can arguably be defined in one night. People having been planning for November 3 since the end of last season—in one day, No. 1 Alabama faces off against No. 5 LSU and No. 17 USC challenges No. 4 Oregon.

Let’s look back to last year, because it will only make this weekend better.

The two current underdogs pulled out the wins in the regular season. The Tigers won the 9-6 defensive struggle of the game between LSU and Alabama, playing even in Tuscaloosa. 

USC beat Oregon by a botched field goal—in an uncharacteristically conservative more by Ducks’ head coach Chip Kelly. Oregon fans still writhe in pain when that field goal is remembered, especially the fact that it gave them their second loss of the season and first home loss in 21 games.

In the post season however, the Tigers obviously choked in the Allstate BCS National Championship Game, and USC was prevented from playing for the Pac-12 Championship against the wounded Ducks.

These games are what each of the four teams has been waiting for. And the landscape is very different from last year.

Alabama and LSU both lost a multitude of players to the NFL. Somehow it hasn’t seemed to affect Alabama at all. They are defensive gods. Not to say that LSU is that far behind. Alabama is ranked first in defense, LSU is ninth. No shame in either of those. More importantly than the players perhaps, coaches Nick Saban and Les Miles still remain. They know defense, and the know how to plug in players to win.

As for offense, you have to look at the Oregon-USC match up for that. USC, also known as Tailback-U, has the best wide receivers in the country in Marquise Lee and Robert Woods. The addition of running back Silas Redd could be a game changer as well. Oregon may have lost running back LaMichael James, and that’s no small loss. He was awesome. But running backs Kenjon Barner and De’Anthony Thomas have more than made up for that. Barner, a veteran player, has come into his own this year and have proven himself more than just a workhorse. When you look at the quarterbacks, you have Matt Barkley. He was the presumed Heisman winner until USC succumbed to Stanford (the one team he has never beat), but he’s still damn good. Redshirt freshman Marcus Mariota has proven himself a budding Heisman candidate and maybe Kelly’s best quarterback to date.

The games are being played in LSU’s Death Valley and USC’s Coliseum. Oregon generally has a pretty good record in the Coliseum. But Death Valley? That provides a huge advantage to the LSU underdogs. It is exactly what the name says it is. Get out alive if you can Alabama.

It seems silly to even mention Alabama loosing, but they have a better chance to lose than Oregon. LSU is good. Defensive end Barkevious Mingo is one of the best defensive players in the country and you know he wants blood. Plus, LSU had a bye week last week. Alabama has been the only thing on their mind the past two weeks and they’re raring to go. Les Miles’ record for night games is 36-1; his record against Saban is 3-3. Anything could happen.

Now just because its not as likely as it seemed a year ago, USC still has a chance for the upset. If they didn’t, this article wouldn’t need to be written. USC has all of the weapons they need to win. That is, if it can figure out its penalty situation. They lead the nation with 10.3 penalties per game and that would give Oregon every advantage that they already don’t need. Arizona scored 39 points against the Trojans last weekend. They scored 0 on Oregon. The biggest thing in USC’s favor is that they’ve done it before. If they can figure out how to contain the Ducks, they might have a chance.

If LSU and USC do it, prepare for riots. Two upsets like that, in one night, there is no way all hell wouldn’t break loose. Oregon and Alabama have been unchallenged during the season so far, if it’s going to happen it better be Saturday.

If that’s not enough, still unbelievable No. 2 Kansas State might meet their match against No. 24 Oklahoma State and No. 3 Notre Dame plays unranked Pittsburgh.

Are you kidding me? Saturday night is loaded. Grab your remote and get ready. You might also want a burning torch on hand. You know, just in case.

(Note from Editors: This story was supposed to run on Saturday morning. We apologize for the delay)

The Irish Keep on Fighting

Notre Dame knocked off the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners 30-13 on the road last night. Welcome back Notre Dame

(GETTY IMAGES/Wesley Hitt)

By Audrey Hart

After one of the highest falls from greatness in college sports, it appears Notre Dame is back.

No. 5 Notre Dame is undefeated, earning their reputation as a college football powerhouse for the first time in years.

Notre Dame has said that it plans on staying an FBS independent, despite the rest of the athletic department switching to the Atlantic Coast Conference. It has agreed to play against five ACC teams a year and will be part of the ACC’s bowl arrangement.

Before the season though, in the wake of the new playoff system agreed upon for future post seasons, this move seemed like a last chance holdout to stay independent.

Head Coach Brian Kelly was challenged. Make Notre Dame a threat again. Prove the team is worthy of its elite status.

And Kelly brought it. A contender for the national title now, if Notre Dame can play out the rest of the season undefeated, no one will balk about them just getting into the game because they’re Notre Dame.

Their schedule to go holds No. 8 Oklahoma State, Pitt, Wake Forest, Boston College and No. 9 USC, Boston College. Not too hard beside the bookends, but they’ve already faced the likes of No. 10 Michigan State, No. 18 Michigan, and No. 17 Stanford.

Notre Dame’s defense has allowed fewer touchdowns than any other team in the nation (including Alabama) and it hasn’t allowed a single rushing touchdown all year.

In the final two games against ranked opponents, Notre Dame will face some serious offenses though. Oklahoma has Blake Bell, the 6’6’, 254 lb quarterback who doesn’t throw touchdowns and instead bulldozes through the red zone for eight rushing touchdowns this season. USC has Matt Barkley, Marquis Lee, Silas Redd, and Robert Woods. Does anything more need to be said?

The Irish’s defense has proven itself on paper and on the field. Its possible they can do it again. That’s not the problem at hand.

Notre Dame has an average offense. If they can figure that part out, Notre Dame fans might have their dreams of a national championship come true.  If not, Notre Dame will have a successful season, a possible BCS bowl berth, but no national title.