The BCS is out and nothing of importance has changed. With a win over Miss. State, Alabama stays in the number one spot. In second, with a week off, is still a surprising Texas Tech team waiting for a chance to play in the FedEx championship game. Still in third place is a Texas team wishing it had been able to finish against that same Texas Tech team comfortably in second. In fourth place, a fired up Gators team coming off a big win against South Carolina. Giving the Old Ball Coach the worst loss of his career. either as a player or a coach. I was surprised not to see Texas and Florida swap spots in the final rankings, but it makes for good drama these last few weeks. And before I forget, Oklahoma still has a good shot at screwing everything up for these top four teams. If they can beat Texas Tech this weekend and Oklahoma State the following week, then they’ll be right there at the end, possibly playing in the title game.
The BCS is out and there has been a little change in the rankings. The top spot is still held by Alabama who narrowly escaped with a win own in Baton Rouge. Les Miles almost pulled the upset as the Tigers eventually lost in overtime. Number two is still occupied by a surprising Texas Tech team bent on playing for a national championship. They killed an OK State team that was supposed to make a game out of it. They didn’t. Then we get to number three Texas, which takes over for the missing Penn State team that lost a heart breaker to an unranked Iowa team. They fall all the way down to the ninth spot. Florida moves up a spot to number four with an easy win over Vandy. Oklahoma rounds out the top five and with just a couple weeks to go, anything can happen.
The Gators have put themselves into a good position for the final stretch of the season. With their thumping of rival Georgia this weekend, beating them 49-10 in Jacksonville Saturday. It was payback for the beating the Gators received from the Bulldogs last year. When the Georgia players danced in the end-zone after scoring the first touchdown of the game. The Gators players and coaches have a long memory and did not forget the disrespect. But, bigger than that, they have put themselves in the top 5 in the BCS, if they can run the table with three winnable games coming up and presumably playing Alabama in the SEC title game, they could play for the national championship if everything falls into place.
The BCS rankings will be coming out next week, and like every other year there will be controversy and discontent. It is a mixture of three polls each worth one-third each. The coaches poll, the Harris poll and a computer generated concoction the makes almost nobody happy. I know that they are student athletes and they can’t be playing all sorts of playoff games to find out who the best team is, but you’d think that they could come up with something a little better. With a good schedule, a decent team and a little bit of luck, your team could end up as a top two ranked team and get to play for the championship. But what about third place which might have just as good a record, but the computer ranked them lower because of some obscure tiebreaker? The teams should be ranked on how good they are against the competition that they play against if this system is going to continue. They shouldn’t just be ranked by wins and losses. A two loss Florida team is almost always better than a one loss Boise team. A two loss USC team is almost always better than a no loss Missouri team. Right? Otherwise, if they are going to be ranked by wins and losses, it would not be a problem setting up a 16 or 32 team playoff schedule over the course of three weeks at the end of the season. I think then that a real winner could be found and the computers could be left to more important things like Metal Gear games and Grand Theft Auto games.
I thought that it was all hype. There was no way that HDTV was as good as everybody was saying. That was my thinking last week. Before my new best friend, the cable guy, hooked up my new HD receiver. I didn’t think that it would make such a difference, but I really don’t think that I can ever go back to the way it was. Sorry regular t.v, no disrespect, but your time is over. The new king of watching sports is HD. I say new king, because I didn’t jump on the band wagon sooner. Oh, all the games I’ve missed being so naive. I could have watched the Gators trounce the Ohio Buckeyes in the championship two years ago. I could have watched the miracle Giants beat the Patriots last year in the Super Bowl. It is 100 percent better in HD. I can see the sweat and dirt and grime and feel like I’m on the field. Even NASCAR looks exciting. It would have even made the Olympics bearable. It would have been glorious. It should have been glorious, but I was stubborn. After all, why should I get a new fancy television when the one I bought ten years ago was still working? It didn’t make any sense. I was wrong. Big time. I know that now and I take full responsibility for my actions. Now, that I’ve forgiven myself and moved on; let the MLB playoffs start, let the NFL continue and hockey season can’t get here soon enough. All hail HDTV!
After three weeks, the college football season is just heating up. No big surprises in the rankings. With USC, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida and Missouri at the top of the list. There were some upsets this weekend. #21 West Virginia got pounded by Colorado. This loss should officially knock them out of the top 25 for the year, with little hope of climbing back up. They just aren’t very good. Florida and Georgia both with, with Florida putting a whupping on Tennessee. Alabama keeps rolling along, with a couple more wins like the butt kicking they put on Arkansas, they should be in the top 5 soon. South Florida and Wake Forest remain undefeated, both winning on the road. Wake Forest’s win at Florida being just a little more impressive. I think it might be time for Bobby to retire down there in the panhandle. There were no huge upsets or any real surprises this weekend, just a solid bunch of games that make me hungry for bowl season.
The NCAA March Madness teams have now been selected. The four top seeds are as follows: North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA. Unlike other years, there were no apparent bubble teams that were left out. Anyone who had a good case at getting into the tournament had made it. Also unlike other years, there was no defending champion in the tournament. Florida was out a long time ago especially from losing its last four games and losing in the first round of the SEC tournament.
The North Carolina Tar Heels (32-2) are considered to be the favorite as they are led by Tyler Hansbrough. The Tar Heels, if they make it this far, will have their first four games played in their home state. Having the crowd behind your back seems to be favorable.
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