2008 NCAA Football Thread

[AYHJA]

Hey man..! Gotta show some love to the HBCU's..! I thought the change of pace was great...I went to an HBCU, the atmosphere is awesome, good to see it get a little national exposure...And any weekend with a Horns blowout win is a good weekend for me..! I wish it was cold enough for me to justify trying to find and buy one of those Longhorn Letterman jackets... :p

Things will be back to normal next week for sure though, OK vs Tech...This is one of the few times I'll be pulling for Oklahoma to grow a pair for once and stand up to all this dick riding the get right before they loose big games...

[AYHJA]

Lets all hope Tech looses this week, and then Oklahoma looses next week... :D

[Skinny Bastard]

the way things are looking... I just might get to watch UT face UTah in the Fiesta bowl.... damn BCS.....

I'd still rather watch the horns playin' for a championship....

[AYHJA]

Well, we can hope Mizzou is feeling like they need to kill OU, still an outside shot at a championship that way...

I think everyone agrees we got fucked...

[Skinny Bastard]

slim chance at best.... I hate to say it, but OU is playing very well these days....

[trashtalkr]

BCS sucks ass. How can it put OU ahead of UT when UT beat them earlier in the year? I hate the fucking BCS

Oh....but Oregon beat Oregon State!!!

[Skinny Bastard]

so.... just mulling over some BCS possibilities for my UTES....

Thanks to Oregon State's devastating loss to Oregon Saturday night, Utah's chances for a repeat appearance in the Fiesta Bowl have gone up considerably. If the Beavers had won, they would have been Rose Bowl-bound to play Penn State with USC almost certainly headed to the Fiesta Bowl to play a Big 12 team, most likely Texas. However, now USC has the inside track for the Rose Bowl if it can defeat lowly UCLA this week, which shouldn't be too difficult.

So the Fiesta Bowl choices will come down to Utah, Ohio State, Cincinnati or Boise State.

First let's eliminate Cincinnati, which just clinched its first Big East title. The Bearcats are only ranked 13th and have less football tradition than the others. They should be headed to the Orange Bowl to play the Virginia Tech-Boston College winner in what looks to be one of the bowl season's biggest stinkers.

Boise State won't be picked ahead of Utah if it ends up ranked behind Utah in the final BCS standings, which shouldn't change much from from the current ranking that puts Utah No. 6 and Boise State No. 9.

That leaves Ohio State, which was blown out in the National Championship games by SEC schools the past two years. For that reason alone, you wonder why a bowl would take a chance on the Buckeyes, who also have two losses this year. However, Ohio State has done very well in the Fiesta Bowl, winning in 2006, 2004 and in 2003, which gave them the national title with its upset win over Miami.

But wait. There's another intriguing possibility.

How about the Utes and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl?

Fiesta Bowl President John Junker was quoted in the New York Post last week as "mulling" the possibility of the matchup of the two undefeated non-BCS teams. This was even before USC was taken away as a possible Fiesta Bowl participant.

The Fiesta Bowl has an agreement with the Big 12 Conference, but with Oklahoma likely headed to the Championship game (though I hate to admit it), the Fiesta Bowl would be able to take two at-large teams.

Why would the Fiesta Bowl even consider such a matchup as Utah and Boise State?

• It would match two of the four unbeaten teams in the country and what could be three unbeatens if Alabama loses in the SEC title game.

• It would match two of the past four Fiesta Bowl winners.

• The fan bases are both in relative close proximity and would surely fill all of the seats.

• A Utah-Boise State matchup would probably be a better game than Texas-Ohio State.

As exciting as it might sound, one drawback from the standpoints of Utah and Boise State is that such a matchup wouldn't allow either school to show what they could do against one of the "big boys." Detractors would still say the Utes and Broncos can't beat schools from the BCS conferences.
But perhaps the main reason it will never happen is television ratings.

Whether we like it or not, ratings play a part in these bowl decisions and the non-BCS schools have not fared well.

Of the 41 BCS bowl games played since 1998, the 2005 Fiesta Bowl between Utah and a lack-luster Pittsburgh is tied for 38th place with last year's Kansas-Virginia Tech Orange Bowl game with a 7.4 rating.

The lowest rated game? That would be last year's Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Hawaii, which garnered a 7.0 rating.

Even Boise State's exciting win over Oklahoma in 2007 only received an 8.4 rating, putting it at No. 36 on the list (the highest-rated BCS game was the thrilling 2006 Rose Bowl when Texas defeated Southern Cal 41-38 — a 21.7 rating).

So three of the six lowest-rated BCS bowl games involved schools from the non-BCS conferences. The average football fan doesn't seem to be as interested in watching the Utahs, Boise States and Hawaiis of the world.

So, for the Utes' sake, I hope TV ratings won't keep the Fiesta Bowl from choosing them to play Texas in a game matching the No. 3 and No. 6 teams in the country. Granted, it would provide me with quite the dilema in choosing who to cheer for....
Regardless of whether UCLA shocks USC or Missouri upsets Oklahoma this week, it looks like Utah will be playing its biggest game in history in early January, either against Texas in the Fiesta Bowl or Alabama or Florida in the Sugar Bowl.

By Sunday night we'll finally know.

[AYHJA]

Great write up st4...

I still don't have the courage to be a college football fan right now...I love my teams too much man...I know they're going to rape Colt w/the Heisman...The powers that be can smell their cocks and know what Stoops ate for Thanksgiving...We are already going to an absolutely MEANINGLESS bowl, when at the very least, we should be calling ourselves Big 12 Champions...I want us to win, but if I see Ohio State get slaughtered in one more game, I think I'll puke...

And st4, Texas vs Utah...Love the Utes, but it would be wishful thinking to believe they can keep up w/Colt...I'd love to see that game though, I bet it would be a doozy...I want Oklahoma to lose so bad, I think I may conduct a seance...I wish Mizzou would back out and let Texas whip OU again just so I can see Sooner fan faces wincing...

I'll still be wearing my burnt orange, whatever I fate may be...

[Skinny Bastard]

My fear is boise v utah.... I would rather see the utes loose to texas but earn some respect than watch a battle of the undefeated underdogs.

Keep in mind, however, the last time the Utes were undefeated they played Pitt.... and though having the better record, they were underdogs then.....

hmmmm

here is the write up on that game...

January 1, 2005. The "little guy" could not be ignored. The University of Utah Utes found themselves among the nations elite in a BCS matchup with the Big East Champion University of Pittsburgh in warm Tempe, AZ. Utahs dazzling offense kept Pitt guessing all night and the Utes dominated the Panthers en route to a 35-7 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl win.
The Mountain West Champions became the first team outside the six-conference BCS alliance to force its way into a BCS game. The Utes brought to the desert a high powered offense and dominating defense to go along with the tens of thousands of Utah fans in the sellout crowd that enjoyed their first unbeaten season since 1930. The Utes scored on their first five of seven possessions baffling Pittsburgh with spread formations, shuffle passes and option plays. Quarterback Alex Smith set a Tostitos Fiesta Bowl record with a 78% completion rate and threw for four touchdown passes. Not to be outdone, the Ute defense sacked Pitts quarterback a staggering nine times, also a Fiesta Bowl record. Utah had arrived, remained undefeated and claimed the 2005 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl Championship.

[Skinny Bastard]

to be sure... I'm not comparing the '04 panthers to the '08 longhorns.... clearly the horns are a much stronger team... I'm just saying the Utes deserve a little respect... which is hard to come by from a system that favors large fan based conferences...