College football 2007 post mortem
Date: Friday, January 11, 2008 @ 05:20:08 UTC
Topic: Sports: Athletic Contests


I lost interest in the college football season as soon as the bowl pairings were announced. I wanted to see USC play Ohio State, not USC vs. Illinois and Ohio State vs. LSU. Also, why did Hawaii have to play in the Sugar Bowl? It would seem that the BCS really did set up the bowl pairings so that there would be no threat of controversy. Imagine a one loss Kansas team beating USC or Georgia if Missouri and Oklahoma win out too. Who’s your number one now? The BCS made the perfect pairing in the 2006 Rose Bowl, but otherwise I contend that it is actually worse than the original conference alignments. Bring back the Big Ten/Pac-10 Rose Bowl!




The Las Vegas Bowl and the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces bowl had a couple of the post season highlights with exciting finishes. The USC - Illinois thrashing was just no fun to watch. In the end, the Stanford upset of USC was bigger than the Appalachian State upset of Michigan. Lloyd Carr hit the road to retirement. But Pete Carroll kept his job and is getting work done on his Manhattan Beach house while in Hawaii.

I hate the idea of a playoff. I could care less who the number one team is. The current national championship game has no pageantry and no tradition. It is a big corporate hootenanny just like the NCAA basketball tournament and the Super Bowl. The NCAA basketball tournament started under the radar. The NCAA Division I football championship is going to be a brutal fight with probably a lot of fun taken out of college football. That is what we are really all afraid of. It is about the money, and the TV, but it is really about enjoying college football.

UCLA settled on Rick Neuheisel as coach going forward, when they really had no plan after firing Karl Dorrell. The Bruins are probably lucky to have him, as he actually has good coaching credentials and a Rose Bowl win under his belt. I have groaned at each UCLA head coaching choice starting with Jim Harrick. Jim was from Pepperdine as was the last chance coach after Jim Valvano and Larry Brown blew in and out of town. Paul Westhead from neighboring Loyola Marymount was seen as a better fit. Then Steve Lavin replaced Harrick. He actually had some good seasons and wins, but his teams were inconsistent, just like a number of UCLA coaches following John Wooden. I groaned again when Ben Howland was hired, here was a young guy with experience in the lower rounds of the NCAA and that was it. He surprised me by bringing the Bruins to two final fours. This year might be a clam out in the Western Regional Final. Bob Toledo was another groaner. He was an assistant coach with no experience. Yet, he brought the Bruins within a touchdown of the BCS championship game. One parking scandal later and he was gone. In comes Karl Dorrell also with no coaching experience. I give Karl the benefit of the doubt because of his Hail Mary and In your Face play against USC in 1986. But Karl only wins one game in 5 tries against USC and does not get within 2 places of the PAC-10 championship. In the end, Karl may get two more victories over USC after the fact when the Reggie Bush investigation is complete. So now the Bruins have Rick.

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