Football follies

[cactuswatcher]

Nebraska, Texas, LSU
The best fan-held sign I saw on TV football yesterday was one that read "Colorado Supports Bill Callahan."

Ah, well. I imagine the meeting with Tom Osbourne this morning amounted to a polite version of "Pack up your crap and get out!" Dennis Franchione had the decency to take a buy out and quit. Of course the win against Texas allowed him to do that with a little dignity.

65-51? In regulation time? It's hard to understand how big scores are supposed to make the game exciting. How is this better than a 24-10 game unless you are making up highlight reels? I watched only bits and pieces of the 2nd half. LSU-Ark was a big score, too. But, you expect that with 3 overtimes. Much better game. I honestly thought LSU was going to win when the game went into overtime. I was a little shocked at the end of the first overtime when Arkansas was running the ball well, and didn't try to end the game then and there by going for two. It's the one advantage a running team has over a passing team. Given three downs, passing usually gets you farther these days. But if you need three yards on one play, and your offense is designed for it, the run is a better bet. LSU supported that thought with the interception in the 3rd overtime.

My final pre-game thoughts on the big MU-KU game? Well, with Texas losing yesterday, the loser tonight will almost certainly get at least the Cotton Bowl. At my age, getting upset because you didn't get better than that is silly. If Mizzou does not get murdered tonight, that would be nice, too! I'm actually a little embarrassed that OSU has an excellent chance of being in the BCS title game for the third year in a row. I'm a fan, but this is getting ridiculous.

Arizona State's loss Thursday and LSU's loss yesterday hurt Hawaii. The BCS bowls were worried about having enough good teams to qualify. Now that they have to seriously consider all teams with two losses, there should be plenty of those without Hawaii.

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

65-51? In regulation time? It's hard to understand how big scores are supposed to make the game exciting.

Scoring is nice, but there's a point beyond which it gets ridiculous. See this year's Navy squad with it's unstoppable offense and impotent defense regularly recording 46-43 games. I prefer games in the 20's. Even the most dramatic 7-3 game will be boring for lengthy stretches.

I was a little shocked at the end of the first overtime when Arkansas was running the ball well, and didn't try to end the game then and there by going for two.

I too am shocked by how few teams take the 2-pt conversion option. If I can take a shot to win the game on offense on one play, I'll generally do it. Win or lose, you are dictating the outcome. You'd think more folks had learned from Boise State-Oklahoma.

Arizona State's loss Thursday and LSU's loss yesterday hurt Hawaii.

Did it? Won't being the only undefeated team left push their BCS Ranking high enough that they can't be excluded? In a year when a two loss Georgia has a legitimate shot for the Title Game, excluding an undefeated team from the BCS games altogether isn't going to get good press.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Low scoring games can certainly be boring, but the best pro game I ever saw was a 3-0 game between the Vikings and the Rams probably before you were born. I think the Vikings went to the Super Bowl that year. Both defenses and both offenses fought as hard as they could. All you could ask for. The only bad thing was that the TV announcers cried the whole game about the lack of scoring.

Hawaii's problem is that late in the season, voters tend to vote to protect their local favorites down the line. If too many voters vote Hawaii below #12, they are out. Hawaii won't play a team from a BCS conference until next week, and then it's Washington. Even a big win again the Huskies won't impress that much. Voters favoring conferences with no break-out champions have more teams to look out for.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Re:Hawaii, I think they're going to get a lot of respect for beating Boise State. Folks are going to take that seriously. In addition, in a year with all these upsets - it's going to be hard to pass up an undefeated team in favor of a three loss team.

There's also the BCS rule on no more than two teams per conference. There are four at large slots, and only one per conference. That means, there need to be three BCS conferences without a #2 option:

1. ACC - the second place team (Boston College or Virginia Tech) will have three losses

2. Big East - Connecticut/Cincinatti/South Florida all have three losses and aren't getting in.

3. Big Ten - Second place Michigan went 8-4, so that's out. Maybe if Ohio State is in the title game, the Rose Bowl reaches for 3rd place Illinois (also a three loss team)

4. SEC - Georgia's a lock for the BCS.

5. Big XII - Win or lose, Mizzou is a lock for the BCS. If Mizzou wins loses, they might take Kansas instead of Oklahoma.

6. PAC-10 - Barring a loss to Arizona, Arizona State is a lock to go in with USC.

Hawaii is a pretty safe bet as long as they win next week.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

OK, OK, get to the good stuff and tell us about ASU vs. USC!

Knowing how much you love sports.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

ASU and USC have the same team colors. Back in the days when ASU wore red helmets instead of gold, they were hard to tell apart. Did you know that before they became the Trojans, USC the team was once know as the Fighting Methodists? Is that what you wanted?

;o)

Re: Knowing how much you love sports.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

My mom was the biggest ever USC fan back in the days when we lived in So Cal. I was teasing her, "Who *ever* will you root for?" when I found out the two of them would be playing.

I didn't get mom's sports fan gene.


; )