Jan. 5 Bowl Thread

[Angola!]

I never thought I'd type this, but: Go Ohio State.

Please Buckeyes, continue to show what a fraud the Big 12 is.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

I will never type that phrase. Ever.

 

[Lieslntx]

Nor will I. And I am never speaking to Angola again.

 

[Boom_70]

tonight is a referendum for Big Ten football .

 

[Jake_Taylor]

if Texas and OU win the Big 12 won't look all that fraudulent.

 

[playthrough]

tonight is a referendum for Big Ten football .

It's not fair, but you're right.

 

[Angola!]

if Texas and OU win the Big 12 won't look all that fraudulent.

Correct, but the bad losses by Oklahoma State and Texas Tech definitely took some shine off of that conference.

 

[lone star scribe]

The ship has long since sailed on Ohio State trying to prove its worthiness.

 

[SoCalDude]

My brother made the same proclamation as Angola last night. Damn near floored me.
Don't think it will happen.

 

[Oz]

Dan Wetzel with a great column about Utah and the Harris voters today ...

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-utah010509&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Why didn’t Utah merit consideration to play for the BCS national title?

Why are the Utes, despite their 13-0 record, victories over four Associated Press top-25 teams and the champions of a conference that went 6-1 in the regular season against the Pac-10, watching one-loss teams Oklahoma and Florida play on Thursday?

Just ask some of the voters in the Harris Interactive Poll, which helps determine the title-game matchup.

"I did not see them play (in the regular season)," Bobby Aillet said.

"I didn't see any live games," Lance McIlhenny said. "I just (saw) highlights."

"I don't recall if I saw them play specifically during the regular season," David Housel said. "I don't remember a specific game."

Alliet, McIlhenny and Housel aren’t alone. It turns out there were a number of Harris Poll (and presumably coaches’ poll) voters who never saw Utah play this season.

 

[MCbamr]

Texas Tech had nothing to play for, which is what bowl games are about. As for Utah, maybe winning by more than a field goal at New Mexico would have helped. Yes, everybody has those games, when you're in the MWC, you better take make a statement every time out.

 

[shotglass]

I never thought I'd type this, but: Go Ohio State.

Please Buckeyes, continue to show what a fraud the Big 12 is.

Think how I feel having to wish such a thing.

But I have to...

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Voters who admit they don't watch all the teams. Great. Teams that "have to" murder every opponent, not just win, because of the unfounded opinions of others.
It's a swell system. It's a perfect paradigm of the dark side of American sports. Money and power rule, and honest competition is for suckers.
On tonight's tilt, it would be nice to see the poor Buckeyes not get vaporized, but I don't expect much. Of course, Texas' defense ain't exactly the '85 Bears.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

I'd settle for a good game that's worth watching into the fourth quarter. Expectations being what they are now, every team is ultimately a fraud.

 

[slappy4428]

The ship has long since sailed on Ohio State trying to prove its worthiness.

Yet a win would be a big step toward retribution for the Big 11 and OSU

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

Please, somebody, please, set up a Jan. 6 bowl thread for the GMAC bowl manana.

 

[Angola!]

Please, somebody, please, set up a Jan. 6 bowl thread for the GMAC bowl manana.

I figure if we had a Jan. 3 one for the epic UConn-Buffalo matchup, we'll have one tomorrow.

 

[JayFarrar]

From Wetzel's column

Utah’s championship hopes for this season were dashed on July 1, 1978.

That day the Pacific-8 Conference expanded. Rather than take Brigham Young and Utah, it went one state south and added Arizona and Arizona State.

It cemented the opinion in the media – and thus the public and thus the coaches and Harris poll voters – that the only big-time sports league out west is the Pac-10. If you’re in it, you matter. If not, you might be a cute story, but you don’t.

And, umm, does Wetzel realize that six years later BYU was named the national champion by being No. 1 in both the AP and coaches polls?
Hard to make the argument that football outside the Pac-10 hasn't mattered in 30 years when one of the teams has a national championship in that same time period.

 

[buckweaver]

I never thought I'd type this, but: Go Ohio State.

Please Buckeyes, continue to show what a fraud the Big 12 is.

Think how I feel having to wish such a thing.

But I have to...

I can't do that.

I know I should, for the benefit of the conference. But I just can't.

 

[Angola!]

Texas Tech had nothing to play for, which is what bowl games are about.

I'm so tired of this argument.

These guys are competitors. They get paid to win, in a sense. If they don't have any desire to win, just because they aren't playing who they thought they should, then they were failures to begin with.

If they have competitive fire, they should want to win everything they play, no matter if it is the Cotton Bowl (which I guarantee was a big deal to athletes who play in Texas) or a ****ing game of Uno.