Friday, January 2, 2009

Screw USC

I am getting pretty sick and tired of people on Tee Vee trying to make the case that USC should be in the National Championship game. Both Oklahoma and Florida beat two teams in the top 15 of the final BCS ratings to get in to the game including wins over teams in the top 5 at the time. USC beat only one of the teams in the final BCS standings during the regular season. Florida's only loss was to a an Ole Miss team that is number 25 in the final standings and they beat the former number 1 team, Alabama, to end the season. Oklahoma's only loss came at the hands of Texas which is then number 3 team in the final rankings. USC lost to Oregon State which isn't even ranked in the top 25 of the final rankings.

Give. Me. A. Break.

Look they had a great season and they won a Rose Bowl game yesterday where Penn State decided to turn the ball over repeatedly. Good for them. But trying to argue that they should be one of the two highest ranked teams in the nation is patently ridiculous. The SEC has 8 teams in bowl games and the Big 12 has 7. The mighty PAC 10 could only manage 5. Next time maybe they should schedule better competition out of conference since the Pac 10 is so weak but other than that they should just STFU and stop trying to detract from the Championship game. Period.

I am as big of a proponent of a playoff system in College Football as anybody but honestly I would give Texas a shot to play the winner of the Orange Bowl before I would USC. And thats real.

7 comments:

  1. SGWhite, we're gonna have to agree to disagree about this one. USC is, to me, the best team in the country and it's not even close.

    That said, college football's national champion should be Utah. It's a traveshamockery that the nation's only undefeated major-college team won't even be able to make a claim on the BCS title. Texas, OU, Florida and USC should all take a seat behind Utah.

    The Utes did it the hard way too: beating Michigan on the road, Oregon State, BYU, TCU and SEC West champ Alabama. It's not impressive enough, I don't know what to tell you.

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  2. Notice I posted this before the Utes beat Bama down. I hadn't had a chance to watch much of them this year but I would definitely say they deserve a shot if there was a +1 game. They are all the way legit and I love their defense.

    Now as far as USC you can kill that noise, if nobody can beat them how did Oregon State pull it off? Answer that question and you got something, but if you can't then I stick with the facts as I have presented them. Hell they didn't even beat Penn State all that bad the other day. If Penn State doesn't act like charity just giving the ball away I don't know if USC wins that game. And make no mistake USC didn't do much in the way of forcing those turnovers, Penn State just had the yips.

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  3. You gotta be kidding me, and hear I was adding you to my favorites with Ezra, Coates, Krugman Roissy and McCardle, and you pull something like this???

    DUDE USC IS AN ELITE (and by elite I mean perenial Top 5) they don't have weaksauce, they are not panty waste and they would not get trucked by the SEC.

    What do you have against SC, any good football fan would readily admit they be grouped with FL, LSU, Tejas and OK for top teams this decade. This must be personal dude, was it John David Booty giving LSU the thumbs down? Yeah that must be it, okay I forgive you.

    k1

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  4. k1

    Thanks for stopping by, it is much appreciated

    The truth is I don't hate USC. Hell if Tennessee isn't playing them, there will be days you will see me cheering on the Trojans. I love good football no matter who is playing. But my problem is that this is like the third time that Pete Carroll has pulled this bullshit where he loses a game then bitches and moans about not being in the championship game and wanting a playoff system. Funny thing is when he IS in the championship game and someone else is perceived to be getting screwed you don't hear all that rhetoric.

    I have an old school mentality when it comes to that. If USC was undefeated then I would join them on a picket line say "We Wuz Wronged". But if you lose a game then to me its time to just STFU and let the chips fall where they may. Especially when you lose to Oregon State. I just don't think anybody should be trying to detract from the Championship game just to pull away some of the attention those two teams have earned and to try to somewhat delegitimize the game. Thats WEAKSAUCE to me man, and its even weaker when ESPN takes up the cause and starts running with that meme.

    BTW I remember a couple of years ago when people were also saying USC was unbeatable and then Vince Young straight made them eat those words.

    Anyway, disagreements on USC aside I hope to see you back here often. Peace

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  5. You know turnovers, penalties and general sloppiness are often an indication of a talent disparity, too. When you get out of your comfort zone or you're pressing, things like turnovers happen. After the Nit Lions' first TD drive, they weren't remotely playing what JoePa likes to call "Penn State football." That's mainly because they weren't playing Purdue.

    That USC-Penn State game wasn't close, and you know it. They could have played that game in Joe Paterno's backyard and the Trojans would have won by a couple of touchdowns.

    And as far as arguments for the title game, you can't just judge the one-loss teams based on their defeats. You've got to look at their quality of wins, strength of schedule, track record of postseason success and, essentially, what your eyes are telling you.

    Don't believe the hype. If you look at USC, the Trojans just seem different. They've got more talent up and down their roster than any of the other one-loss teams.

    Pete Carroll is just shilling for his team the way Mack Brown and Bob Stoops and Urban Meyer did for their guys. It's not weaksauce; it's called believing in your team. Whining can get you into the championship game; it worked for Meyer two years ago and it worked for Brown four years ago (the Rose Bowl berth over Cal).

    Also, losing at Oregon State on a Thursday night is not a bad loss. The Beavers, especially under Mike Riley, have been perenially one of the most overlooked teams in the country. Check them out.

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  6. The last time USC was in the Championship game they got PWNED by Texas and VY. Thats not much of a track record. The SEC and the Big 12 have more bowl teams so there goes your strenght of schedule argument. AND USC lost to Oregon State who while good aren't close to being in the top 15. And I should also point out if they were all that special then nobody except the NYGiants should have been able to beat them.

    Sorry not buying

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  7. Maybe you forget that it took a superhuman effort by V.Y. to defeat USC in that game. Or maybe you forget that game came down to the final minute. Or maybe that USC really controlled UT's defense in that game; the Trojans' D just happened to be extremely overrated.

    As far as track record, since Pete Carroll came to L.A., the Trojans have won a record six BCS games. The only loss came in the aforementioned title game to an undefeated Texas team. That not impressive enough for you?

    Bob Stoops, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer and Mack Brown would kill for that sort of success.

    As for SOS, here's how I argue against that: the PAC-10 went 5-0 in its bowl games, and thus far, the Big 12 South has allowed an average of 44 points in its two bowl defeats. Not to mention, Mizzou just edged out Northwestern (a truly awful bowl team).

    SOS, as you're using it, is a crock of shit. The Big 12 South teams ran up their SOS mostly by avoiding tough non-conference games, getting highly ranked in the polls and then playing each other. But once they left the comfortable and familiar environs of their league, they haven't done quite so well. Examples: Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

    Having more bowl teams isn't an indicator of much. Big 12 and SEC schools are notorious for scheduling patsies in the non-conference and then needing only one or two league wins to qualify (see Vandy, Kentucky, South Carolina and LSU). For the most part, PAC-10 schools take on more ambitious non-conference games.

    I mean, maybe USC isn't your No. 1. But, yo, they've got as much a claim to the crown as any of those other teams save Utah.

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