|
| ||
Sport Sections |
||
|
|
||
| | |||||
| Thursday, November 9 OU gets first real test as No. 1 against A&M By Chris Fowler Special to ESPN.com | |||||
I guess electing a president is a lot like selecting BCS title game contestants. Tight race. Every vote counts. A two-pronged process, one part easy to understand, the other hard. Everybody weighing in with half-baked opinions. Eventually, it all comes down to a controversy in the state of Florida. A recount is Tallahassee? They may be asking for another one in December.
In college football terms, Miami has the popular vote edge over their rivals from upstate, namely the two polls. The BCS standings are like the electoral college. It's a bit tougher to fathom how it works, but it's the system of record. Florida State still has the edge there, thanks to heavy support from the precincts in Silicon Valley (the computers).
We may very well have different winners in the "popular" and "electoral" counts. That might send somebody scrambling to Palm Beach County to look for hidden ballots. Or maybe somebody will send the whole mess to court: sue the AP, the coaches, ESPN, USA Today, Jeff Sagarin, Richard Billingsley, and the rest of the computer gurus!
I, for one, must admit that I was confused by my AP ballot. I completed it on a bumpy commuter flight following two hours sleep and could not read my own scribbles when I phoned it in. If I placed Pat Buchanan's name anywhere on there, AP must call an immediate recount.
By the way, our little parallel even includes someone to play the Tom Brokaw roll, declaring and undeclaring winners by the hour. That's Lee Corso, of course. Last Saturday, as we jetted around the Sunshine State, Coach called Miami the best team he'd seen. A few hours later, he switched his vote to FSU and dropped Oklahoma to third, defying his logic a few weeks ago that he'd vote for undefeated teams over once-beaten ones. Never, ever try to put logic in the way of a steamrolling partisan agenda.
Sooners on upset alert
This is the 10th anniversary of college football's version of Gore-Bush. In 1990, Georgia Tech won the coaches' poll national title over AP champ Colorado by a single point! The story I got from a reliable source at the time was this: the final vote was cast by then-San Diego State coach Al Lugenbill. The total was deadlocked with only Al's ballot outstanding. Finally, the vacationing Lugenbill was located. He was not in Palm Beach County, by the way. When he put the Yellow Jackets at No. 1, the tie was snapped and the first of two consecutive split polls was sealed. Tech's co-title team is back in Atlanta this week to be honored at the Virginia game. It's fitting since the Yellow Jacket's key win that year -- on a late Scott Sisson field goal -- came against the Cavaliers. Top five The only change in my AP top five this week was to obviously drop Virginia Tech and move up the Gators and Huskers. No real surprises. I'd really consider ranking Washington higher than No. 7 if the Huskies could just take care of business and put somebody away. Six of their eight wins are by less than a TD, six against teams not ranked. They could really use a consistent, complete performance. Coach Rick is aging quickly. Do you realize how bizarre it is for a team to be 8-1 while being outscored by opponents through the first three quarters, 154-137? Trust me, it's real unusual. The Huskies are winning the 4th quarter by an astounding 130-61. Good omen for Saturday: UCLA has fallen behind early in all its' games and is 1-7 in the last eight away from Pasadena. Anyway, the top five: No. 1 -- Oklahoma. See above. No. 2 -- Miami. Canes will stay ahead of Noles on my ballot if they keep taking care of business. Three more wins are far from automatic, though. No. 3 -- Florida State. Semis are scary now. BCS Misconception #428: smacking around people like Clemson by 47 points will not hugely help FSU in the BCS big picture. Computer ratings have rapidly diminishing returns for margins like 54-7. Most of the formulas have some built in component recognizing that scores like that against respectable teams are aberrations and don't reward the winner as much as you'd think. There's little difference in almost all of the formulas between a three TD and a six TD win. No. 4 -- Florida. Gators could get a real tussle from South Carolina, even though Lou Holtz is setting a modern day personal record for poor-mouthing his team's chances in the Swamp. God, it's good to have Lou back on the map! No. 5 -- Nebraska. Huskers have to prove they can win a big road game. It's simple: 1-4 away from Lincoln against top ten teams is no disgrace for most programs, but Nebraska lives by a higher standard. Time to show up in a big road game. "Bottom" five I'll again include the bottom of my AP ballot, which is always a lot tougher to fill out than the top is. No 21 -- Colorado State. Rams finally pounded someone (OK, it was BYU) and there isn't a group that plays harder and squeezes more out of its ability than Lubick's crew. Beware the upset bid at Air Force, though. If CSU survives this, it should be 10-1, heading back to the Liberty Bowl. No. 22 -- Texas A&M. Aggies don't need a win, just a good showing to stay on my ballot. No. 23 -- Georgia Tech. Jackets are young, eager, still fresh and improving. This team should be in the top 15 in the preseason 2001 polls. Only losses were to FSU (by five) and at N.C. State in OT. No. 24 -- TCU. I'd warned everybody about the Frogs' potential trap at San Jose. Maybe that's why I was crazy enough to sit up (very) late after our Colorado-to-Miami-to-Tallahassee marathon last Saturday and catch the ball game. Kudos to the Spartans for playing their guts out, but the Frogs are way too talented to be whipped in that way. Bye, bye BCS shot. The Frogs can still fashion a nice 10-1 season, though. No. 25 -- Auburn. After two straight sluggish efforts, the Tigers will make a big jump in my poll if they handle Georgia at home and then Bama. They should. Only two losses were at Starkville and Gainesville. Battered QBs All season, I've mentioned the epidemic of injuries felling quarterbacks. The roll call of wounded warriors this week includes Virginia Tech's Michael Vick, Georgia's Quincy Carter, Texas' Major Applewhite, Washington State's Jason Gesser (the Pac-10's leading passer), N.C. State's ACC freshman star Philip Rivers and Boston College's Tim Hasselbeck, among others. Woody Dantzler needs ankle surgery, but he's going to play on for Clemson. Wish list We're all ecstatic about taking Gameday to Kyle Field for the first time. I haven't seen a game there in about ten years. Now that College Station will become the 6th Big 12 campus to host our show, here's my wish list of future locales, ranked 1-6: No. 1 -- Clemson. Tradition, color, and a program on the mend. Maybe FSU at Death Valley next year. Gotta be better than 5-7. No. 2 -- Washington. Beautiful setting, great city, 4:30 am wake up call. Two out of three ain't a deal-breaker. No. 3 -- Mississippi. Would love to do a show from the Oxford campus. The Ole Miss belles would flock to see Kirk in person. No. 4 -- Army. If the Cadets could claw back to respectability, we'd love to do a show at West Point in the mid autumn. At least I would. No. 5 -- Mississippi State. The Bulldogs rowdy fans are a treat. Bring on the cowbells! Just build a new hotel in town, please. No. 6 -- Hawaii. OK, this will probably never happen. But we can dream. Shameless promotional plug Hope to see you Saturday morning from A&M, and if you have a chance listen to Kirk and my radio show Friday night on ESPN radio from 7-9 Eastern. Chris Fowler is the host of College Gameday and his column appears every Thursday. | ALSO SEE College Football ... On Campus with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit BCS rankings eliminate Virginia Tech and Clemson The good hands people Big 12 notebook | ||||
|
Copyright ©2000 ESPN Internet Ventures. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information are applicable to this site. Click here for a list of employment opportunities at ESPN.com. |
