Hopefully, that’s an end to all the “Big” 12 caterwauling about what a great conference they are, how their offenses are the best in the world, how they really do play defense but it just doesn’t look that way because they are JUST! THAT! AWESOME! – well, three of their top four teams have just gotten the beatdown in bowls, and the fourth struggled and needed a last-second TD to beat the second-place team from a Known Not Good conference, and none of them blew the roof off scoring, and – more to the point – none of them could stop anybody. Yes, Virginia, the Big 12 has overrated offenses and plays less defense than the WAC.
And please, please, please lay off Ohio State. The Sooners have now shit the bed in five straight BCS bowls, including THREE title tilts, and will be known as Chokelahoma in perpetuity, or until such time as they can actually avoid taking the beatdown on national TV. That’s not bluster, or message board yammering, that’s MATH.
Your final rankings:
1) Florida. Look, Ole Miss – much as it pains me to say it – is just a good team, better than Oregon State (see below). They beat the top team in the country in each of their last two games, and convincingly. I know they’re the damn Gators, but what can you do. They didn’t back into it, they didn’t stumble into it, they just went out and took it.
2) USC, with a bullet. The Pac-10 was a lot better than we thought, and as a result, USC is better than we thought, and if you saw the Rose Bowl, or the Ohio State matchup – those weren’t games, they were autopsies. I still think there’s a certain measure of hype there, and the soft underbelly of the Pac-10 was softer than one can imagine (Washington and WSU, anyone?) but with the departures at Florida and Georgia, you have to think that USC will be the consensus preseason #1.
3) Utah. I know, I know, but look: it wasn’t a championship schedule, but they did beat everyone put in front of them, and looked plenty convincing against Alabama (their offensive line issues notwithstanding). I don’t think they’d beat either of the teams above them, but I bet they would hang just fine. Getting the first legitimately convincing BCS win for a non-BCS-conf team deserves something.
And therein lies the rub: the bowls mean that you get a whole month to wargame your final opponents. A month to scheme and watch tape and find the holes. There’s a reason that #2 almost always beats #1 in these title games, or that a middling team can suddenly look like a million bucks against their bowl opponents: prep time is everything. If, in 1992, Alabama had played Miami the week after beating Florida (barely) in the first SEC title game, they probably would have gotten their clocks cleaned. Instead, Brother Oliver had three weeks to solve the ‘Canes, and the resulting beatdown was one for the ages. (I own the DVD.)
BTW, the Heisman curse is real, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.
One of the highlights of my Alabama formative years was watching Gino Torretta get a massive beatdown on national TV. The game of He. Just. Stole. The. Ball. It was like Christmas, but better. Hearing Keith Jackson describe the perceived festivities in Eastaboga… shivers. Just.. shivers.