Is anyone else cheering as hard as me for the Horned Frogs of TCU to bulldoze the BCS system and land in the National Championship game? I would rather be forced to listen to Sarah Palin’s new book on tape and preside over her fan club, than have to deal with yet another year of undefeated team chaos. There’s a strong chance that at least five teams will finish the season with zeroes in their loss columns, further stimulating the belief that a playoff in college football is not only necessary, it is imperative.
I’m not saying you need to make it in an all-inclusive “all-you-can-eat-buffet’s†worth of teams, but more so, a systematic format that pits the top 12 or so teams against each other. Do a round robin, bye weeks, whatever, but do something. Anything. When the Auburn Tigers were burned some five years ago after finishing undefeated in the toughest conference in the country, in addition to four other teams that had perfect seasons, the stirs began. But this is the year where the sirens will be whaling come bowl season if all stays as planned. Speaking of things going as planned, is there another highly paid coach whose teams have consistenly folded like origami under pressure more so than Charlie Weis’ Notre Dame?
Another embarassing loss for the team, formerly known as “The Fighting Irish,†left coach Weis and Co. with the same winning percentage (35-25) as his predecessors, Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham. Unfortunately for both, neither received the same mega pay deal as Weis did when he was granted a $10 million deal a few seasons ago. Honestly, I blame this sheerly on karma and the fact that Notre Dame was due for a fall into the depths of mediocrity, after monopolizing NBC every Saturday in the fall for as long as anyone can remember. In his press conference this week, he said he didn’t think his “future at Notre Dame had been decided.†But let me do him a favor and fill in the blanks. You’re done, sir.
Two years ago, I made the statement in a column that if you ever lose to Stanford in football, you should be kicked out of your respective conference. Four semesters down the road, I find myself absolutely stunned, stupified and shaken from the realization that Stanford University football (AP No. 14) is ranked higher than Clemson in the AP polls. A giant thumbs up to Jim Harbaugh and his squad’s complete shalacking of the USC Trojans last weekend and running up the score on Carrol’s crew. It’s hard to feel sorry for a Trojan team that has routinely done the same against the rest of the Pac-10 throughout the last eight seasons. During Harbough’s first year, his team went 4-8, then 5-7 and is now sitting pretty atop the Pacific Pac-10 at 7-3, with a Rose Bowl birth in their sights.
Our very own C.J. Spiller should have a trip to New York City in his immediate future if he continues his all-world performances through the conference championship game. Spiller has the unique ability of making the unfeasible seem ordinary as he provided yet another remarkable explosive cocktail of power, pace, and panache last weekend against N.C. State. If you haven’t read ESPN’s ACC Football blogger Heather Dinch’s Heisman article on Spiller, I suggest you do so as soon as possible.
She makes the time-old argument of the Heisman trophy winner being one who is an all-around package that is not only excruatingly essential to the success of their respective program, but is close to if not hands down the best player in all of college football. Seeing Spiller just get invited to New York as a finalist, would do wonders for our school’s reputation by bringing in plenty of positive publicity that the academic and athletics sides could reap benefits from.
After scoring 15 touchdowns this season in five different ways and racking up eight plays of 50 yards or more, what more can he do to keep impressing us? The answer lies in the beauty of the question, C.J. Spiller never, ever disappoints.
