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| Monday, December 6 Where fans come to sound off ESPN.com |
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Get out your bowling shoes. The matchups are set, now it's time to play the games. But first, we'll start with a sampling of what's being said around the country. Listen up -- The Fans Speak
The Bowl Championship Series
This is a disappointing Sugar Bowl. These are not
the two best teams in the country. Rather they are two very
good teams that played cake schedules. It is not just chance
that no team from the Big Ten or the SEC finished with less
than two losses. These teams play a schedule which is something
which allows us to evaluate the teams.
There should be no complaint about the two teams selected to play in New Orleans this year. Both finished the season undefeated, and dominated their competition. Granted Virginia Tech didn't have the strongest schedule, but at least they did not play down to the level of their opponents. They absolutely smoked everyone they played, including Syracuse, Virginia, and Miami. I am just glad they are not going to get the shaft like Penn State did in 1994, when they finished undefeated, but still did not take a piece of the national championship. The BCS did it again, although I do not know how.
It irritates me when people say the BCS worked. The top two teams in the polls will meet for the second straight year, which means the rest of the junk in the standings didn't matter a bit. Using the system before the BCS would have given the same results. The BCS can only be considered to have worked once a No. 3 or No. 4 or No. 10 team gets into the national championship game. Of course they should just go to a playoff. If it is good enough for other divisions that care about academics, then it is good enough for Division 1-A.
I think it is going to be a great game between Virginia Tech and FSU. Although I think FSU has the win "in the bag", I have been careful not to be very boastful because I don't want to jinx them. I don't think Virginia Tech has enough postseason experience to beat FSU.
And you doubted Virginia Tech? I think there will be some
mighty upset FSU fans after this game is over and done with.
My prediction: VT wins 24-17. I'll see all you Hokie fans
in N'awlins!
I am glad that the computers finally put the two best teams in the nation together to play in the Sugar Bowl. I was getting sick of hearing all of these Nebraska and Tennessee fans complain about their team not being in the position to play for the national championship. Well guys, it's all your fault. You lost a game during the season. You cannot expect to play for a national championship if there are other teams out there that have a better record. No matter what their, or your, schedules are. If you are the best, you will beat anyone you play. Tech did that this year. So did Florida State. They deserve to play each other for the championship.
Great job Husker players and coaches. Tennessee had better watch out.
I am from Nebraska, and despite being a Husker fan, I feel that Virginia Tech deserved to be in the Sugar Bowl, and not the Huskers. Plain and simple, they were undefeated and we weren't.
It is nice to see Michigan and Alabama, the teams with the No. 1 and 2 ranked schedules in the country, rewarded with BCS bids.
The time has come for a Division I-A college football playoff. This year the only true bowl matchup that has any meaning is the Sugar Bowl with No. 1 vs No. 2. The rest of the bowls are about money and greed. Teams with great records that deserve a quality postseason matchup are passed over in favor of teams with better drawing power (read Kansas State passed over for Michigan, Marshall to the Motor City Bowl). Some conferences have nearly half their teams playing in the postseason, not because they have had stellar seasons, but because of bowl tie-in agreements (SEC, Big 12, Big Ten). It's all about selling advertisements, tickets, and merchandising. It's way past the time for coaches, sports writers, and bowl committees to decide who the best teams are. Let it be decided on the field -- head to head competition in a single elimination tournament.
I think that Nebraska should be playing for the national championship for the simple fact that they play a much tougher schedule than Virginia Tech. Even though Nebraska only lost one game and Virginia Tech didn't lose any, they both struggled against a weaker opponent. Nebraska struggled with Colorado and Virginia Tech struggled against West Virginia -- a team that they should have blown out, just like Nebraska should have blown out Colorado. Head to head, I think that Colorado would beat West Virginia, therefore giving the edge to Nebraska.
Watch out, SEC: 'Bama is back! This year's Alabama team has just gotten better and better as the season has progressed, and Saturday night it all came together. With the SEC back in order again ('Bama on top -- everyone else fighting for second), next year DuBose and the team can concentrate on the real prize: the national championship.
Florida State is a great team that hasn't played up to its ability yet. With Chris Weinke as the team leader and Peter Warrick as his go-to man, the Seminoles are going to rout Virginia Tech.
Isn't it about time for the Rose Bowl to open up its process of selecting teams to play in the "Granddaddy of all bowls"? The '90s have shown us that the Rose Bowl has to be becoming the most boring bowl of the big 4 and it reached its peak this year. It seems every year that one of the teams involved shouldn't really be in a game where the "top 8 teams" are supposed to play. Who are we rewarding for good efforts -- teams and college athletes or their conferences? That's the question that truly needs an answer!
Bowl beefs
Why is Georgia going to the Outback Bowl over Mississippi State? Georgia may have a good program, but the record clearly shows that Mississippi State should have received the bid to play in Tampa.
Hello! Do the rankings and the BCS mean nothing?!?
Kansas State loses one game all year -- to the No. 3
team in the nation --on the road, no less -- and now they're
completely out of the big four bowls. Last year it was unfair,
this year it seems horribly spiteful. Back-to-back 10-1
regular seasons, and the BCS has no respect. It just
forces one to shake his head in disbelief.
I'm tired of listening to Kansas State fans whining. Tennessee and Michigan are in the BCS because of their strong schedules, not because of popularity. If Kansas State played those schedules, and still had a 10-1 record, it would be in.
I find it disgusting that Kansas State was left out of the
BCS bowls once again this year. Those who argue that they
had too weak of a schedule are dead wrong. Their weak
schedule is what would keep them out of the national
championship game had they gone unbeaten, but they did
deserve a BCS bid.
The Big 12 needs to end its affiliation with the Cotton Bowl.á For the second consecutive year, the bowl has chosen a University of Texas team for its local interest over a more deserving team from Kansas State.á I didn't like the decision last year, but at least I understood it.á Last year Texas had the Heisman winner in Ricky Williams and Kansas State had played in the bowl two years previous. But this year, the decision makes no sense at all.á UT was there last year, both teams lost to Nebraska (only KSU lost in Lincoln), and KSU has one loss to UT's four.á I'm a Texas Tech grad, so the Cotton Bowl's bias could conceivably work in my team's favor someday, but the conference members deserve to be rewarded for their achievements, not their locations.á If the Cotton can't do that, the Big 12 needs to send their No. 2 to a bowl that can.
K-State has absolutely no right to gripe about bowl placement. They play one tough game every year and get abused by the Huskers. The rest of their schedule is seriously minor league. How can you argue for a BCS bid when their best squad ever got beat by Purdue, a middle-of-the-pack team from the Big Ten? If you want a big bowl bid, try beating a good team one of these years. It would also be in your best interest to leave UTEP, Temple and Utah State off the schedule. Those wins don't impress anyone.
Kansas State fans should stop complaining about being in the Holiday Bowl. That is exactly what you get for playing such a weak schedule. Washington would be 9-2 if they played a similar non-league schedule. The Huskies are going to beat you and your sorry run-defense, anyway. So stop complaining and just be glad to be getting out of Kansas for a week.
The thought of a 10-1 or better team not playing on Jan 1 sickens me. Even though the non-conference schedule for a particular team may not have been that strong, teams like Marshall and Kansas State deserve better. Give them the same opportunity that the other more popular schools get. It seems that the BCS is more about politics than it is good athletics.
Here is how the SEC West finished based on the bowls.
Michigan State finished 9-2, Michigan finished 9-2, Michigan State beat Michigan, yet Michigan is going to the Orange Bowl and Michigan State to the Citrus. Do you see the logic here? I don't. Sure, State lost big twice, but to ranked teams and with Purdue they were in the game up until the final two minutes. Michigan blew a huge lead while losing to unranked Illinois. You may say that they only lost to State by 3 points, but the score doesn't reflect how badly they were beaten. Michigan has a larger national following, but that should not matter because Spartan fans are loyal and would sell out their share of tickets. MSU gets no respect in Michigan or anywhere else, and that's bull.
How in the world can the Music City Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, and the Peach Bowl give Ole Miss such a snub? Nothing against the Indpendence Bowl -- Oklahoma will be an extremely worthy opponent -- but Ole Miss deserves better. Kentucky, at 6-5, should be the SEC team at the end of the line that waits for the bowl crumbs as they fall. Instead, Ole Miss, probably the best 7-4 team in the country, gets the last choice for bowl spots, losing out to Georgia, Kentucky, and Arkansas, whom they blew out in Oxford -- remember?
This and that
I think Steve Spurrier's words a few years ago have really come back to haunt him. Those words of "You can't spell Citrus Bowl without UT." Tennessee has since won a national title and fans in Knoxville will surely remind the Citrus Bowl-bound Spurrier about it.
I watched Steve Spurrier rub more skin off his face in this loss to Alabama than I had ever seen him before. His team looked like a high school team, losing its third game of the season by a count of 34-7 -- and it's still No. 10? Penn State has lost 3 by a total of 12 points, all to top 15 teams, and is still ranked lower than Florida. Get you heads out pollsters.
I think Louisiana Tech deserves a bowl before some of these overrated teams. They have the best offensive team out there.
Chad Pennington in a late thriller to win the MAC title -- I think he can still win the Heisman; he is hands-down the best QB in the country.
Marshall will have a great game against BYU because they come to play when it matters. They struggled at first against Western Michigan, but Chad Pennington showed that he belongs in New York at the Downtown Athletic club when he took over the second half and brought the Herd back to victory. He will take control in his final game against BYU in the Motor City Bowl. Prediction: MU 49 BYU 24
To all of the "experts" in the media who said that we couldn't beat the Gators twice in one season, have a Dr. Pepper with the crow you're eating. Look out next year, we should be competing for the national title.
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