So last week I made my case for why I haven't been able to get into college football. That bellyaching ends now. In fact, I'm going to retract that column - have it stricken from the record.
If you're still not watching college football and the ridiculous upsets and storylines taking place, you need to start. How can you stay away from a sport with this much drama and controversy?
Saturday was flat-out ridiculous. No. 22 Texas A&M went into Austin and took out (literally) Colton McCoy and the No. 17-ranked Texas Longhorns, 12-7. The loss keeps the Longhorns out of the Big 12 Championship game, as Oklahoma, tied at No. 8, has a better conference record and will meet the No. 18 Nebraska Cornhuskers this Saturday for the conference title.
My Texas friends, though, will probably resort to the Uncle Rico argument, saying that the Longhorns are better than the Sooners, the Aggies, the Cornhuskers, and even the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes and they'll say Texas only lost to A&M because of McCoy's injury. With McCoy in there in the fourth quarter, they would have taken state. Too bad McCoy won't be chilling in a hot tub with his soulmate anytime soon.
The ACC resembles a storyline out of the WWE with the championship match having an undeserving competitor. Boston College's 17-14 loss to unranked Miami has cleared up the championship picture, dropping the Eagles from No. 18 to No. 25 in the polls.
Both BC and No. 16 Wake Forest had the same conference record heading into Saturday, but Wake Forest was able to down Maryland 38-24 to advance to the title game. The Demon Deacons will meet No. 23 Georgia Tech, who lost to unranked Georgia this weekend, 15-12. Virginia Tech - or for our purposes Bret Hart - gets left out because of its two conference losses even though the Hitman is ranked higher than both Georgia Tech (Shawn Michaels) and Wake (Triple H) at No. 14.
In the SEC, Vince McMahon would have declared a Royal Rumble by now. No. 4 Florida will take on No. 8 Arkansas (tied with Florida) in the championship game, with No. 5 LSU and No. 11 Auburn watching on television, even though Auburn beat both Florida and LSU while LSU beat Arkansas. Confused? A few steel chairs would clear up the picture.
It's the same crazy situation in the Big East. West Virginia dropped from No. 7 to 15 after a loss to South Florida and will meet No. 13 Rutgers this week, who beat No. 6 Louisville three weeks ago but lost to unranked Cincinnati a week later. Rutgers will win the Big East outright with a win on Saturday, but a loss and a Louisville win over UConn will give Louisville the conference title.
The conference questions are secondary to the question of who should play undefeated Ohio State for the national title. No. 2 USC made its case on Saturday as the Trojans creamed Charlie Weis and No. 6 Notre Dame, 44-24, silencing 40 percent of the Daily sports columnists. With a win this weekend over unranked UCLA, USC will finish 11-1, having beaten five ranked teams this season.
But what about Michigan?
The Wolverines are idle, having ended their season with the 42-39 loss two weeks ago to Ohio State. Michigan also handily beat Weis, Brady Quinn, and Co. in South Bend in September, 47-21, and beat No. 7 Wisconsin earlier in the year. People seem to forget that Michigan's only loss came against Ohio State and only after the team mounted an incredible second-half comeback on the road finished a field goal away from beating the Buckeyes.
The Big, Bad BCS will have the final word, though, and apparently "what have you done for me lately?" is more important in college football. Michigan, currently third in the BCS rankings, will likely be left out. And if the Trojans get beat in the BCS title game while Michigan wins its bowl game, fans will (once again) decry the BCS computing system as a sham.
Now I'll be the first person to argue that college football needs a true playoff system. Teams should not be left to the mercy of a computer to decide who has more grit and mettle to fight for the national title. Additionally, how many people actually watch the third place game in the World Cup or the Olympics? Nobody wants to see who is better between the third- and seventh-place teams and so on, so why make bowl games based on those matchups?
But if you let that reasoning dissuade from watching some exciting football over the next few weeks, shame on you. This sport gets more dramatic everyday, and sports fans need to start paying attention.
