BCS Selections
The BCS Selections will be interesting as the the strangest of College Football seasons came to an end. The madness continued this weekend as both the #1 and #2 ranked BCS teams went down to defeat on Saturday. The recent developments opened up the flood gates for all of the “expert” opinions on who should play in the Title Game . Even the coaches of the top teams got into the action looking like Washington lobbyists trying to position their teams for the ultimate prize in College Football . Well, other than the second guessing, the final pairings in each of the BCS Bowl games are finally set. So, let’s take a look at three of the top BCS games.
BCS Title Game
Just a few weeks ago, it appeared as if Ohio State and LSU had both blown their shot at playing in the BCS title game with losses to unranked opponents. But with the loss of both the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the standings it opened the door for both teams to get back in the hunt. Just recently the Buckeyes were in 5th place after winning the Big-10 title over Michigan back on November 17th.
LSU got back in the hunt beating Tennessee in the SEC Championship game that allowed them to vault from seventh to second in the standings. The Tigers also were able to leapfrog ACC champion Virginia Tech and a pair of idle teams in Georgia and Kansas. Ohio State had been criticized since the beginning of the season, after losing players from a team that was heavily favored in last year's title and got blown out. Now they will face a team who’s argument to get into this game was that they were undefeated in regulation play this season. It looks like it worked but this matchup might be the most lopsided of them all with the weak Big-10 playing the tough SEC.
Rose Bowl
The Rose Bowl gets stuck with its traditional Big Ten versus Pac-10 matchup, with USC (10-2) playing Illinois (9-3) who got in by virtue of Ohio State being named to participate in the Title Game. USC, thought to be playing as well as anyone in the nation right now and looked to by many to possibly play LSU instead of Ohio State more then likely was taken out of consideration after their loss to 41point underdog Stanford in October. Their last win over UCLA was only impressive enough to move the Trojans up from eighth to seventh in the standings. Certainly you can’t take anything away from Illinois as they improved by 7 games from last season. But one has to wonder if it wouldn’t have been a better matchup for the Rose Bowl to scrap with tradition and matchup Georgia with USC. Look for the number in this one to be at least low double digits. Illinois might have pulled off the upset of Ohio State but don’t look for a repeat in this one.
Sugar Bowl
I wonder what Mark Richt is saying now about the BCS process. Earlier he was asked about the BCS and his response was …."I like [the BCS system] the way it is-I really do. They've tweaked the BCS every year. That's all right, so long as we know what the rules are when the season begins. I think there's enough integrity in those human polls that I think everybody's gonna vote what they think is most fair." Now the Bulldogs get to play in the the Sugar Bowl versus Hawaii. The Bulldogs reeled off six wins in a row to end the season at 10-2 and were fourth in the rankings but idle going into the final weekend – behind Missouri, West Virginia and Ohi State. Unfortunately for Georgia they didn't automatically gain two spots the way coach Mark Richt thought they should. Instead they get to play Hawaii who is the nation's only undefeated team at 12-0. However, they were never really considered a title contender due to them playing a relatively weak schedule. This matchup however could be one of the surprises of the Bowl season as Georgia will be coming out of a tough SEC Conference to play a Hawaii team who throws the ball as a way of life while averaging over 45 points per game. Don’t be surprised if Hawaii pulls this one off against a deflated Georgia team who will be thinking that a title shot got away from them.
So the unpredictable college football season comes to a close before it’s time to go bowling with LSU winning this sports version of the lottery to play for the National Championship while leaving about a half-dozen other teams with plenty to complain about.
Don’t forget to visit Michael Alexander at Alexandersports as he has all of your GUARANTEED BCS Bowl selections .
