The game last night

The Men's Basketball Championship game was amazing. I have had the good fortune of seeing two college teams I like, teams in the Big 12, winning the national title. First, Texas in 05/06 in college football, and now Kansas in 2008. Both games were somewhat similar. Both games started out with the Big 12 team doing well in the first half, leading at halftime, only to see the other team dominate for the most part in the second half. Both teams made improbable comebacks to win the game, Texas being behind 12 points with 6:42 left, Kansas down 9 with 2:12 left to play.

The great debate in sports radio today is if Kansas won the game, or if Memphis lost it. I would say, for the most part, Memphis choked. Kansas did a lot of work themselves, however, and it took a miraculous 3 pointer at the end to tie the game up. I don't think Memphis gave Kansas the game by any means, but they gave the Jayhawks something to claw back with.

When overtime hit, I felt confident in Kansas' victory. It's never over until victory is mathematically impossible, but it's almost like Kansas won the game at the end of regulation and overtime was merely a formality. Looking at center Sasha Kaun, he wasn't stressed out, he was pumped up. The Kansas team was excited to play.

As if anyone cares about my bracket performance

I am 3 for 4 in the Final Four. I picked Kansas, UCLA, and North Carolina to go, who all made it. Instead of Memphis, however, I picked Stanford. Memphis is a team I greatly underestimated, and after seeing them dismantle Texas, who rolled over teams they played, I think Memphis is for real. Unfortunately, just about everyone in my group picked the same teams.

I picked UCLA to beat NC in the final. I am rooting for Kansas though.

Why expand the field?

There's been a lot of talk about expanding the NCAA Basketball tournament from the present number of 65 teams (counting the play-in game).

My question is why? For those unfamiliar, teams are ranked from 1 seed(best)-16 seed, with four #1s, four #2s, etc... The lowest seed to win the tournament was Villanova as an 8 seed in 1985. Every once in a while a seed lower than that will win the tournament. Yes, maybe some teams more deserving were left out while others get in, as no system is perfect. However, when you get into the lower seeds, the odds are so small of running the tables anyway. Already, the lower half of the tournament has such a long shot anyway. If multiple low-ranked teams making it to the Final Four was a regular occurrence, I would think the seeding and the invitations needed quite a bit of work. But we see only see it as an irregular occurrence.

Probably the best argument in favor of expanding the field is that teams in the smaller school conferences have a smaller chance of getting in. Many times only the conference champ gets a shot. Is there any other good arguments in favor that I'm not seeing?

Will Vince Young be another Michael Vick (as in athletics, not in felonies)

The Tennessee Titans firedtheir offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who found great success during his time with USC as their offensive coordinator.

So the burning question is this: is Chow really the problem, or is it Vince Young, the quarterback? Many sports analysts believe that Vince Young is a coach career killer, in the sense that he is not performing as well at the NFL level, and his coaches are wrongly blamed. Apparently, a similar thing happened with Michael Vick.

I am a huge Vince Young fan, as someone with ties to The University of Texas. I do believe in Young, and hopefully that belief is not solely based on my bias. Young is not your prototypical NFL quarterback; the Titans and everyone else knew that when they drafted him. Does one have to be the NFL prototype to be successful? I don't think that is necessarily the case.

Concerning athleticism, Young and Vick are very similar. Concerning character however, I believe they are miles apart. This isn't even about the dogfighting case. Even before that ordeal, Vick was hardly a boy scout. Young is different. There have been no off the field incidents to speak of. The closest thing is that he was suspended for a preseason game. I do believe that character helps a person develop in the NFL.

The Texas Longhorns became national champions because they developed their game around Young. The NFL is different, but it is not unreasonable to think the Titans should do the same. I'm not saying Chow did or didn't try to do that, but NFL teams lack the virtue of patience.

Unfortunately rookie quarterbacks are thrown in right away. That is fine if teams are patient, but if they are not, an otherwise good quarterback may be considered a failed project. Time will tell if Young becomes another Vick, but I think we'll see differently.

How to have a college football national championship

Tune into ESPN or listen to sports radio and almost every time college football is discussed, the term "playoffs" soon surfaces.

For a while, I wasn't on board with a playoff system. I thought the season would simply be too long. Too much work and too much risk of injuries. But, something I think very few people realize is that there are playoffs in college football. Division-II and Division-III, even Division-IAA (now called Division I FCS) all have playoffs. 16 teams, 4 games for the top 2 teams. Why not Division-IA (or Division I FBS)? Not only that, high school football as playoffs. My high school's division had 32 teams, 5 games. How can one say that a playoff is too taxing for college football's top division when even high schoolers seem capable of handling it?

So if we decide playoffs are the best way, the question is who and how many?

Option 1) The best 8 or 16 teams get in, regardless of conference. The BCS or AP would select who they are.

Option 2) Playoffs are composed of the conference champs, period.

Option 3) Playoffs are composed of the conference champs and a few wild card picks. This is how the playoffs work for any major sport. Division/conference leaders get in automatically, and the best teams left get picked. A variation of this would be that only the champs of the BCS conferences got in, and the rest are at-large (similar to the BCS bowl system now).


The problem I have with Option 1 is that it still allows a high degree of subjectivity in football. The polls and even the BCS rankings are very subjective. I prefer either option 2 or 3 because it allows everyone a shot regardless of the conference. Yes, some conferences are weaker, but if that is the case, it would be proven in the playoffs. Who cares if, say Michigan or Georgia is better than Hawaii? The point is, they aren't better than the best team in their own respective conference, and the whole point of the playoffs is to determine the best team overall.

The problem with option 3 is it still leaves room for some subjectivity. Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel points this out in his blog:

If the NCAA would adopt my playoff plan — an 11-team playoff, with only conference champions involved — think how great would be not just the playoff, but the regular season. That’s the problem with all the 16-team or 8-team playoffs. When you bring in the wild cards and at-large berths, you’ve got just as big a mess as we’ve got now, and you’ve watered down the regular season.

I agree with Tramel, and think that a tournament solely composed of the conference champs would be the best. The top 5 teams would get a first round bye. You would get 4 rounds, a total of 10 games.

When being a sports fan, take it one game at a time

Being a fan of any sports team can be a great experience, or it can be painful. But the experience doesn't have to depend on how a team does. Being a good fan depends on how seriously they take their team's success, to some degree.

One aspect of fandom I think is very important is to have the same approach that a coach or player should have: take it one game at a time.

What I mean is that a fan should focus only on the upcoming game and not the big picture of how the team does. I believe that when fans focus on the overall picture - if they will make the playoffs, how good of a bowl game they make, if they'll win a conference/league championship - then the overall fan experience is less enjoyable.

Why do I think this? Let's look at things in college football terms, since that is my favorite sport. If you don't have a team that typically performs all that well, then from the fan's perspective, they have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Every victory is a joy. Losses are still a disappointment, but they are gotten over more easily.

However, let's say you root for a championship caliber team, Ohio State, USC, Michigan, Oklahoma, Florida, etc... Things change. Fans will believe that the conference championship and a BCS bowl game is theirs to lose. High expectations are set upon the team. Losses are met with people calling for the coach's head. Wins are met with sighs of relief. Even during a victory, fans will analyze the teams performance to see if any weaknesses were exposed that will cause problems later.

So, does this mean we just root for bad teams? No. I think the answer is to keep a short-term mindset even when your team becomes successful. As I said earlier, fans should just look at the value of winning a game, one game at a time. Relish each victory. Don't worry about the postseason. Don't obsess over the fact that your team barely hung on to victory while their pass defense was ripped to shreds; be thankful that they found a way to win.

It's okay to be disappointed after losses, and I think, to even lose a little sleep that night from time to time. But be disappointed because it was a loss, not that the team won't get to go to so and so bowl game or, because they lost this game there is no way they will win the next one.

By approaching games this way, I think fans do a better job in sharing in the emotional highs and lows of the season along with the team.

My apologies to anyone who is not an Oklahoma State fan

Posting about my college team is a tad self-indulgent, because OSU is one of those teams whose fan base consists primarily of locals to Oklahoma and/or alumni, me being at one time the former and now the latter. And OU is winning the battle as far as local fans. But, you have a choice if you want to read this or not.


Why I believe Oklahoma State will do better this season than the last season. OSU just romped Nebraska 45-14 in Nebraska. But the thing OSU fans saw last year is that the team would have a great victory one weekend but not carry the momentum into the next weekend. A great come-from-behind victory last year in Kansas was deflated by a loss to A&M the following weekend at Homecoming. A great victory over Nebraska did nothing to propel the Cowboys at Austin playing Texas. So, based on last year, the victory over Nebraska means swat in predicting future outcomes this season.

However, there are a few factors that makes me think this year's team is different.

1. Better defense. OSU played poorly at the beginning of the season, but they picked things up in the middle of the Texas Tech game, despite the loss to A&M after that. OSU kept a great Nebraska offense to a couple of garbage-time touchdowns.
2. More consistency at quarterback. Bobby Reid, who started last year but is benched this year, is a great athlete and hit great heights as quarterback, but was very inconsistent last year. Zac Robinson, the current QB, has had more consistent production if you neglect his very first starting game at Troy.
3. More overall offensive consistency. Even during the victories last year, it would take some time for the offense to click. Last season, Nebraska jumped to a 17-0 lead before OSU started finally moving the ball. In the Kansas game, OSU came from behind to win, and at Kansas State, they almost had a come from behind victory. This season, OSU's offense is clicking early and jumping out to an early lead.

About Mike Gundy: For those who don't know, Gundy held a passionate, angry press conference when a columnist from the Oklahoman criticized Bobby Reid. In short, I agree with what Gundy did, but I don't agree with the way he did it. I disagree with Gundy in some respects, because I think college athletes are fair game when it comes to both praise and criticism. At the same time, however, Gundy has every right to defend his players in public and say that a column is wrong, although he should be careful not to attack the columnist. I think Gundy was right in talking about the issue publicly, because it was a public column, but he should have waited till he calmed down and collected his thoughts. The news, whether local or ESPN, have shown an amazing amount of bias in showing the negative reactions to his spiel, and not any of the positives from fellow coaches.

Is football just a big chess match?

Colin Cowherd from ESPN radio listed the following 4 things to look for when determining if you have a good coach in football.

1) Team plays better after halftime.
2) Team plays better as the season progresses.
3) Team scores few offensive penalties. Defensive penalties are less importance since they are more reactionary.
4) Team plays fairly consistently. Team does not do awesome one week then totally blow it the next.

The quality of coaching, Colin insists, does not depend on play calling. Or, at the very least, cannot be surmised from the play calling.

I believe those 4 points he mentioned are probably pretty good ones, although 2 and 4 could probably be combined. However, the lack of these qualities could also indicate an inexperienced team, especially on the college level, so that should always be factored in.

So, how important is play-calling? I think people like strong leaders. They like their quarterbacks to shoulder the team, and they like their head coaches to be the mastermind pulling the team's strings. We like to envision football as a big chess match between two head coaches. When a fourth and one is not converted, we may tend to blame the coach for calling the play, not on the players who should have executed properly. So I think we harp on play-calling too much at times.

However, I don't know if we can dismiss the importance of play calling. I'm not talking so much about when a run or pass is called, but an overall play calling philosophy. It is important that a coach utilizes the talent he has. Many people in the area claim that the Denver Broncos performed better when the current coach, Mike Shanahan, took over, simply because he utilized John Elway much more than the previous coach (although there are not a lot of Shanahan fans at the moment). When you have a star quarterback, you want to make the riskier calls and go long more often, and when you have a stud running back, then you want to go for the sure running game.

But I can still see Colin's point in that we often assume that we know what the best calls are, but we aren't in the coaches shoes. We also don't know what is the result of bad play-calling and simply poor execution. But we tend to look at the end result of the game, when the end result is a combination of coaching and players.

Thoughts on the college football scene

People have underestimated Ohio State. While Michigan was losing to I-AA schools and Texas was just barely beating Central Florida and Arkansas State, Ohio State was dominating their opponents under the radar. There is too much of a time lag in rankings in the polls. I would have kicked Texas out of the top 10 after the first 1 or 2 weeks.

Les Miles is a better coach than I thought he was.

Because of the way we crown our national champion, people get involved in imaginary contests about which conference is better. We can only surmise that such and such conference is better than the other one just because of a single game between two schools earlier in the season, or maybe there were no games at all. We don't really know if the Big 12 champ is truly better than the PAC-10 champ, so we make a guess based on strength of schedule, which is primarily within one's conference. It doesn't make any sense.

The best way is to have a tournament of 8 teams. Why 8? Because we want to avoid two things:

1) the have's having two or three more games than the have-nots. Let's say a regular season schedule is reduced to 11 games. Bowl-worthy teams would have 12 games. The top 8 would only have 12, 13, or 14 games. If we have a tournament of 16 or 32, we have the top teams getting 4 or 5 more games experience than a team at the bottom.
2) Injuries.

Big 12 notes:

Analysts said that the Big 12 was rich in great quarterbacks, but things have turned out slightly different than expected. No one would expect Oklahoma's Sam Bradford would lead the pack, not only in the Big 12, but in the nation in efficiency. Texas's McCoy is in a bit of a sophomore slump, although the Red River Game looked promising for him. And OSU's Bobby Reid isn't starting for his team anymore.

The Big 12 champ may very well come out of the North this year. Kansas, Colorado, and Missouri are looking good.

Nebraska should have stuck with Frank Solich. He was a 10-3 coach when they fired him, and if I'm not mistaken, he took them to a national championship game. He was fired because Nebraska wasn't THE team in the Big 12 anymore. However, things change in college football. It wasn't just Osborne leaving Nebraska, it was two coaches by the name of Bob Stoops and Mack Brown that changed things in the Big 12. Now, looking from Nebraska's point of view, they believe someone else could take them to the top rung. Callahan came in, and it was known things would be messy, as their would be growing pains with a new type of offense. But Callahan has had time to recruit. They have not been much of a factor in the Big 12, and the idea of them going to a national championship game anytime soon is laughable. As the San Diego Chargers have learned, you don't fire a winning coach.

Analysis of my fantasy football draft

A quick note: I haven't been posting nearly as often. Part of it is being busy. I'm doing a little bit of work offsite, and overall I've just had a lot on my plate. Also, the little bit of time during work I am engaged in personal stuff, I've been involved with my fantasy football team that I drafted last weekend. Also, I've had a lack of inspiration due to being so busy. When I'm not busy, all sorts of stuff is going through my head, and the focus for some time has been political/philosophical issues. For some reason, having a child, fantasy football, and work stuff has been filling my head. I will try to post when I have the time, but I'm not making any promises. I know it's nice for readers of a blog to have the blogger post on a consistent basis, but I just can't promise that.

Back to my fantasy football draft, here is an analysis of a few of my picks. There are 15 players and 15 picks per player.

1st round - Travis Henry, RB, Denver Broncos. I think Henry has a lot of potential in an offense in which any running back does pretty well. There are injuries to be concerned about. I had a choice between him and Maroney of the Patriots, and upon reflection, Maroney may have been the better choice, but I think Henry has the bigger upside.
2nd round - Cedric Benson, RB, Da Bears. At this point, there were higher rated players who were quarterbacks. I decided to go for two strong running backs. This is a bit of a gamble, as this is his first year as the premier back.
3rd round - Vince Young, QB, Tennessee Titans. I am a huge Vince Young fan. However, this may not have been the best pick. A good rule in Fantasy Football is to pick either a super-elite QB, or wait until the later rounds as their is not a huge point difference among them. I probably should have picked a very good wide receiver at this point. Nevertheless, having Vince will make FF more fun this year. I root for Vince Young anyway, and when he does well, I have the added bonus of my team doing well.
6th Round - Fred Taylor, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars - I think a good pick for this round. I needed a backup RB, and I thought Fred was pretty good to still be hanging around. He typically has injuries at least once during the year, so that probably gave him a low ranking. For a 3rd RB, however, (I have to start 2), I trust his health enough.
8th Round - Patriots Defense - One of the better defenses, a steal at this round.
15th Round - Josh Scobee, Kicker, JacksonVille Jaguars - I don't know much about this guy, but the fact that I waited until the last round is one of the smartest things I have done.

USC top team of last 10 years, according to ESPN

ESPN.com ranked every 119 Division 1-A college football program over the last 10 years. Not surprisingly, the USC Trojans ranked at the top. It's a pretty good list overall, though I'm surprised to see Florida State and Miami in the top 10. However, I have to remember that this is over the last 10 years, not the last 2.

I was glad to see Texas at number 3, and my beloved Oklahoma State Cowboys were tied at 56 with the Air Force Academy. I hope both my old home team and my new home team improve.

The only thing that bothered me about the rankings is they kept mentioning that USC was "a few seconds away from a third [national championship]." Yes, going to a championship game, even if you don't win, should count for something. But when it comes to the national championship game, or any game for that matter, it is either a win or a loss. In my view, closeness doesn't count.

I'm excited for the next football season. I think my two favorite teams, Texas and Oklahoma State, will improve. I was sad to see Texas implode last year near the end of the season, but they have gotten the OU monkey off their back (not to say it is a guaranteed win, but that the psychological blocks of a 5-year slump should be over), so I see their potential as limitless. Oklahoma State will depend heavily on their quarterback, if he can play consistently.

I am not an OU fan, but I thought they got the shaft, having to forfeit their wins from the 2005 season. They dismissed the crooked players as soon as they found out, so at the most, they should have gotten a warning.

I suppose it is early to talk about college football, but what else am I going to talk about when it comes to sports (other than Michael Vick, Barry Bonds, and the crooked NBA ref)?

My prediction for tonight

Not sure who will win the NCAA championship, but if Ohio State wins, no doubt we will hear the usual championship speech from the players, "No one believed in us, no one thought we could make it, but we proved them wrong..." yada yada. No matter what the seed or odds, the winning team always pulls out the "we are the underdog" speech. Even if Florida wins, I wouldn't be surprised to hear the same.

My final four picks

Just in case I happen to be right in my picks, I want to prove how brilliant I truly am.

Final Four:

Oregon
Pittsburg
Georgetown
Ohio State

Oregon will beat Ohio State.

There it is.

College Football: Bring on the playoffs!

Before the season started, I made a few predictions on who the champs would be, and who would go to the national championship. Concerning the conference champs prediction, I was 1 for 6, predicting that Florida would be the SEC conference champ. I didn't expect Texas to have the collapse they did at the end of the year.

Concerning Oklahoma State, I predicted a 7 and 5 regular season record, but they went 6-6 in the regular season, with a bowl win over Alabama for an overall record of 7-6. I suppose that is not too bad. Their marquee win was over Nebraska, and they played most opponents very well and were one last play away from beating many opponents, including OU.

I predicted that the national championship game would be Notre Dame vs. West Virginia. I didn't expect Ohio State to do as good as they did, with so many new people on defense.

The Oklahoma-Boise State game had to be one of the best college football games that I have seen. It was like watching a sports movie. At first, Oklahoma was the hero of said movie, rallying from behind to tie the game, then making an interception return for a touchdown with 1 minute left. However, it didn't take long for Boise State to become the hero of this theoretical film, as they tied the game with 7 seconds left with a trick play, then won in overtime with another trick play.

As many columnists have cried out after this game, college football should move to a playoff system. What if...What if Boise State is good enough to beat Ohio State, or at the very least, give them a good game? Even the USC-Michigan game made people wonder how well USC would do against Ohio State.

The main argument against a college football playoff system is the additional amount of games. But games are being added all the time, as a 12-game regular season was approved this year. Teams with a conference championship game can potentially play 14 games. Furthermore, CF playoffs exist in other divisions. If teams were limited to 10 (without a conf-champ game) or 11 (with a conf-champ game), there would easily be a 16 team playoff system.

There could still be bowls. Teams with winning records could play bowls in the post season right along the top 16 playing in the championship bracket.

As it is right now, the opportunity to play in the championship is based too much on subjective opinions. Sure, Ohio State won all their games, but so did Boise State. And we have already had seasons with three or more undefeated teams. The playoff system is only fair.

This week in college football

I was disappointed that the Texas Longhorns lost last weekend, but fortunately my Oklahoma State Cowboys dominated Baylor in offense and in defense, scoring two defensive touchdowns. USC is ranked 3rd, with Florida 1 spot behind, but I think Florida is better, because I think the SEC conference is better than the PAC-10. Look at the Tennessee-Cal game. A good PAC-10 team got throttled by an average SEC team.

If I get the chance, I'll be watching the Ohio State vs. Michigan game, but that's if I have nothing else going on. The top teams and players of this year just do not excite me as much as last year, or even the year before. This year we have Ohio State as the top team and Troy Smith as the top Heisman candidate. But last year we had USC and Texas which collectively included Matt Leinart, the highlight-reel star Reggie Bush, and the one-of-a-kind quarterback Vince Young. And even the year before, we had those same USC stars, and the running back Adrian Peterson(sp?) from OU. It was exciting to watch these people play, and these teams seemed unstoppable. I know Troy Smith is a great athlete and deserving of Heisman honors, and he is probably just as skilled as many of the previously mentioned stars. I even thought previously this season that if Texas and USC did happen to meet again in the final game, it wouldn't even hold a candle to last year's matchup. Probably the most exciting team this year is Arkansas. I think that's because any time a team comes out of nowhere to do so well, it is always an exciting thing. But the year is not over.

Once this season is over, or at least when the bowl games are announced, I will compare the results to my predictions at the beginning of the season.

Update: I said that the SEC must be much better than the PAC-10. Then again, I remembered that USC routed Arkansas 50-14. Simply early game growing pains? Possibly. But so could Tennessee vs. Cal. Point is, you can't judge two conferences based on one game.

Update 2: I think a team must be the conference champ to compete in the national championship game, with a possible exception for the case where the conference champion is your opponent.

The gods of college football have their vengeance

Since the inception of the BCS in college football, there have been many controversies concerning who is chosen to play in the championship, where some questionable teams are let in, and other good teams are left out.

Berry Tramel from NewsOK.com points out something that happened last Saturday (Sep. 16) in college football. I have to say, this is quite a bit eerie.

Blessed: Oklahoma, LSU, Nebraska.

Cursed: Southern Cal, Oregon, Auburn.

In the last five years, BCS controversy has avoided us twice, with Miami-Ohio State and USC-Texas. In the other three seasons, college football has been faced with a square peg, round hole dilemma: three contenders for the two slots in the ultimate game.

2001: Nebraska, which didn't even make its conference title game, gets in the Rose Bowl; 10-1 Oregon is left out. Oregon routs Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl, and Nebraska is rolled by Miami in the national title game.

2003: OU, which didn't even win its conference, and LSU get in the Sugar Bowl. Top-ranked USC is left out. SC wins the Rose Bowl, and LSU beats the suddenly-flat Sooners for the title.

2004: OU and USC get in the Orange Bowl, unbeaten and untied Auburn is left out. Auburn wins the Sugar Bowl to finish 13-0; USC wins a non-competitive Orange Bowl 55-19.

What is so weird is that, as Tramel points out, 3 matchups last Saturday involved these very same 6 teams. LSU, OU, and Nebraska, formerly blessed teams, all last their games last week, and they all lost in matchups to the previously cursed teams, Auburn, Oregon, and USC, respectively. These matchpus were not in the same pairs as mentioned earlier (i.e. Nebraska playing Oregon, Auburn playing OU), but that actually makes it all the more strange.

As Tramel says

Many reports identify the infamous Gordon Riese [official who blew calls at the Oregon-Oklahoma game] as residing in the hamlet of Portland, Ore. We have found this to be untrue. Riese lives not in the Pacific Northwest, but somewhere in the stars. Somewhere the football gods assemble and right the wrongs of the college gridiron.

Think of Riese as Clarence, the bumbling angel who so many Christmases ago was dispatched to Bedford Falls to save Jimmy Stewart.

[...]
Riese, who apparently makes Clarence seem like an archangel, and his buddies in stripes blew an onside kick call every which way possible, giving Oregon the chance to rally in the final minute for a 34-33 victory over OU.

Some Southern Seraphim in Auburn ruled against LSU on a crucial fourth-down replay in the final minute, and Auburn survived 7-3. The call was less obvious than the Eugene pilfering, but LSU feels no less cheated than do the masses marching down the streets of Soonerville.

Out in Los Angeles, where perhaps Clarence was stationed, having earned his wings and able to fly in from the East Coast, no divine intervention was necessary. Nebraska, wearing surrender white, packed its give-up gear, took a 28-10 beating at the hands of SC and was glad to get out of town with a tour of Universal Studios.

Three big losers in college football's game of roulette exacted a measure of justice. The note came due on three big winners of past autumns.

What truly happened in Oregon? Gordon Riese earned his wings.

Not buying it? I didn't think so. But maybe this will make you feel better. Still, even after Pay the Piper Saturday, It's a Wonderful Game.

A little poetic justice evening out the flaws of the BCS.

College football predictions

Big 12:North Champ: Nebraska will improve, but Iowa State will be on top. Iowa State did decent last year, and they have 10 of 11 starts returning to offense. Colorado will do just as well with their new coach Dawkins, in his first year, than they will with their DB former coach Barnett. (What does DB stand for? Think of Summer's Eve.)

South Champ: Texas, but only because OU loses to OSU.

Big 12 Champ: Texas, but I do picture them losing 1 or 2 games.

What will happen to Oklahoma State: OSU, and I say this as objectively as possible, will exceed expectations. People will be surprised by how much the quarterback, Bobby Reid has developed (he has been hampered by injuries the past couple of years). OSU will win at least 3 games non-conference, probably all 4. I could easily see them beating at least 3 teams in their conference.

I see a 7-5 record overall, with either a 3-5 or 4-4 conference record.

Other conferences:

Big 10: Ohio State will not meet expections; they are just losing too many starters on defense, and analysts seem to ignore that. They will have a great offense, no doubt, but other teams will simply outscore them. They will lose 3 games, but win their bowl game.

Big 10 Champ: I think Michigan will redeem themselves this year.

ACC: I would go for Miami due to the skill, but I think too many new members on the coaching staff will be a problem. I see Florida State winning this conference. Florida State fans will rejoice, except for when they lose to Florida.

Big East: I think there's little doubt West Virginia will repeat. I could also see them going to the championship game, but their schedule may hurt them with the BCS.

SEC:

SEC West Champ: LSU

SEC East Champ: Sorry Michael, but I think this will be Florida's year. Urban Meyer has a record of doing awesome his second year at schools. Their offense will take off.

SEC Champ: Florida

Other SEC news: Kentucky fans will be crying themselves to sleep this year, on many occasions. But I do see them doing better than winning 3 games.

PAC-10: I'll go out on a limb and say U-Cal will be the champ. USC and U-Cal will both lose one game, but USC will have lost to U-Cal, so the tiebreaker goes to U-Cal.

BCS Championship: Notre Dame vs. West Viriginia. West Viriginia will be the only undefeated team. Notre Dame will have lost one game. Notre Dame will be in the championship game, despite some unresolved defensive issues, but no other team is that strong this year. I see West Virginia pulling the upset. Nevertheless, people will continue to talk about how Weis and Notre Dame are God's gift to football, deservedly or not. Whether West Viriginia is the best team or not is another issue. But I see them being undefeated as a real possibility, and that alone will propel them to the championship game. I think they are better than people give them credit for, and their offense runs like smooth machinery, which will outscore Notre Dame.

So there it is folks. Hopefully you will not remember to look back at this post when the season is over and realize I have no idea what I am talking about. Then again, there is the edit button. "What are you talking about? I never said WV would win it all!"

Update: I realize Lee may not actually be a Kentucky fan simply because he is from that state. I will keep the description of him crying himself to sleep in this post nonetheless.

Football Season Approaches

Well, sports fans... The season is nearly upon us, both college football and pro. I am primarily a college football fan, but I have gotten more interested in the NFL when I moved to Bronco Country and when I started playing fantasy football. Speaking of fantasy football, by some miraculous twist of fate, I have both Shaun Alexander and Larry Johnson on my team (For those who don't know - I didn't a year ago - they are both really good running backs).

My main two college football teams are also schools I have attended, the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Texas Longhorns. It is convenient that a team I like also won the national championship last year (Texas of course). Unfortunately, OSU has quite a way to go.

It is nice to be passionate about something that isn't so meshed with politics (with the exception of public funding of stadiums). For the longest time I really never understood how someone could be so passionate about sports, how they would always have to see their team play on Saturday or Sunday. I wouldn't say I am as crazy as some other fans, but I have developed a stronger passion for the sport of football.

I guess it first started while attending OSU, my alma mater. Before then, I felt like I never really had a team for which to root. As I attended the games, I became more involved and more passionate about the outcome. I began to make an emotional investment in the game. The bigger the opponent, and the higher the stakes, the larger the investment.

Sometimes, this emotional investment can take an ugly turn. When OSU had a string of three good years, I got to the point of expecting my team to win. Instead of being in the situation where I was "happy if they win, sad if they lose", I got to the point where I was "mad if they lose, relieved if they win." That is no way to be emotionally involved in a team. I think I have gotten better recently. I was a little bit grumpy when I thought Texas was going to lose the national championship game (when where was about 4 minutes left and they were 12 points behind), but I don't think I would have been as upset as I would have been previously had they actually lost.

Some may think being so emotionally involved in a sport is a little bit ridiculous. I think one should still have sports in perspective to other things, but for me, I enjoy being passionate about something that is, a little bit frivolous. There is something emotionally uplifting about team spirit and rooting for your team, provided it does not get ugly as I mentioned earlier.

For me, it is great to have the memories with my wife (then my girlfriend) when Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma U. twice during our shared college years. The first time I was not with her, but we were both watching the game on TV. I called her on the phone as soon as the game was over, expressing our shock that one of the worst college teams beat their rival, OU. The second time we were both actually at the game together watching the upset happen again. Those are memories we will have together for the rest of our lives.

College football, and really any college sport, is especially uplifting, because of the inequality among the teams, and that there are so many teams (there are no political connotations here, I promise). As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, it is exhilarating to see your team, who no one thought had a chance, pull a major upset of a national power. The suspense is overwhelming knowing that your team is reaching the Final Four, knowing that this is their chance, maybe their only chance in a hundred years, or ever, to reach the top.

Rooting for a team can also unite fans. It doesn't matter if you are Republican, Democrat, whatever... You can be on the same team when it comes to rooting for a common goal.

Again, being passionate about your team, as long as it is kept in perspective, can be a positive experience.