Growing up in Kentucky I was not (as you can imagine) much of a college football fan. UK was never any good and while I loved the NFL, watching the college game never made any sense to me. There seemed to be a handful of teams wildly better than their pitiful opponents which made it not much fun to watch and the system to determine the champion just seemed capricious at best. Somewhere in the last 10 years or so I changed my tune. I guess I just grew up and had nothing better to do on Saturday than watch 'amateur' football. I grew to love watching the contests and I embraced the changes to the old system. Personally I dug the BCS, for all its flaws I think it generally did a pretty good job of filtering down to two final contestants. And we all knew that it would eventually lead to a tournament. Its a 4 team tourney now (all I need) but soon enough it'll get to 8 teams and I think in the end it'll get up to 16 (a long slog through the month of December).
In the old BCS system we would've ended up with Alabama and Florida State in the final, neither of whom survived their playoff tests. I watched a lot of Florida State this year (thank you, ESPN3) and they never dominated, doing only enough to come out on top, the most uninspiring undefeated team since that BYU team that won championship back in the 1980s (which is kinda where all this BCS stuff came from, if you think about it). So I'm glad Oregon and Ohio State were matriculated into the system especially since it feel like we've been waiting 10 years for an Alabama-Oregon final...well, that didn't happen this year either.
Oregon ripped through the Seminoles just as I thought they would. Some games are predictable, some games catch you by surprise, but Oregon's semi-final win over Florida State was in the latter camp. If I was a betting man (which strangely enough I am not) I would've thought nothing of putting money on the Ducks in the game. I'm not as confident in tonight's tilt because Ohio State has been surprising me non-stop lately. I didn't think they'd beat Wisconsin with a 3rd string QB and they won 59-0! I wasn't sure they'd be able to get past Alabama in the trenches but they handled themselves just fine. I feel like the Buckeyes can't hang with Oregon's team speed and the onslaught of the Duck attack...but, I dunno, maybe.
This game should be a good one, a great kickoff to the college football tournament we all knew was gonna happen someday. Both offenses look unstoppable, its a matter of which defense can plug the dyke long enough to compile more points. It'd be interesting if this turned into a sludgefest, a good ol' fashioned field position battle, but I don't see that happening. These teams both score a lot of points and I think they'll both score a lot tonight; I can easily see the losing team scoring 35 points. I've been going against the Buckeyes and losing but I'm gonna do it one more time: I'll take Oregon (-6.5) and the over (74.5).
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Nope and nope. The Buckeyes stifled the Oregon attack in a way I didn't think could be done. At the end even though the Ducks were down by 15, you still expected them to come out and play scrappy right to the final second, they're used to winning games; but, no, that did not happen. The Ducks looked spent--I mean, motherf'n spent--by the end of that game. Hell if Ohio St didn't give Oregon the ball 4 times, that game would've been not even close! Wow! Urban Meyer whooped Wisconsin (who whooped Auburn), whooped Nick Saban, whooped the vaunted Oregon attack...with a 3rd string QB...damn, man. Didn't even notice Ohio State for most of this year, then they end up being one of the most dominating champions we've had in eons. How...how did...? What just happened?
Glad I got into the NCAAF habit, its good stuff.
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