give it the ol' college try...

if you don't enjoy college football, dont read this post... so let me preface my writing about NCAA football by stating that i am a Georgia fan and subsequently an SEC fan as well. you see, i went to a small school in north Georgia that did not have a football team (Berry College) and so UGA became my surrogate football school. i went to Athens every once in a while to see games and watch games on tv while in Athens....the atmosphere on game days is electric. we got student tickets from friends and then sold them to middle age men who were about 20 years removed from even being mistaken for students but could afford to pay out the ass for tickets. however, all of this aside, i do appreciate that there is excellent football played in every corner of this country and that the teams that play that football are some of the best in the nation. anway, proceed with post... ok, pay attention .... everyone who deserves to go to a BCS bowl game please step forward ... Pitt, where are you going? alright, i get that an 8-3 record and a conference championship are great accomplishments, and not to take anything away from the student-athletes who busted their asses to get there, but the fact remains that the conference in question is the Big East and the record was against teams like Furman and South Florida, and a loss to a (5-6) Nebraska team that could barely bust a grape in a fruit fight this year. there were much more deserving teams that were left out of the BCS picture, such as Cal or Georgia, hell I'd even take Boise State over Pitt, at least they went undeafeated. for that matter, how about any of the 12 teams ranked above them in the final BCS standings that aren't going to a BCS bowl. i know, if you really break it down then you could argue why Texas doesn't belong(what with the whole "changing votes" issue) or even Michigan(being as how Iowa is ranked above them), but those arguments are mostly scholastic and depend a little more on technicalities and interpretation. Pitt is just way out....period. the conference tie-ins to the BCS bowls are in desparate need of examination, in fact the whole BCS needs to be over-hauled and/or done away with. don't get me wrong, i love the fact that every saturday is like a playoff day, that a team's season can be unmade on any given weekend...it definitely takes the excitement to a level above the NFL. but when it gets to the end of the season and the bowl race ends up like this, you have to wonder if it is actually worth it. let there be a clear winner, a team with an unblemished claim to the national title... anyway, the Big East is not what it was, but money and politics will assure that they maintain their automatic BCS bid... and continue to keep more deserving teams from the recognition and, to be honest, the payout that they and their conferences deserve. so, having said that and assuming that the Big East champion gets to go to a BCS bowl regardless of record or their standings relative to the rest of the nation, let's at least use some marketing sense in putting together the bowl match-ups instead of just blindly following the tie-ins. as of now the BCS match-ups look like this: Orange - Oklahoma vs. USC Sugar - Virginia Tech vs. Auburn Fiesta - Pittsburgh vs. Utah Rose - Michigan vs. Texas as it stands, there are 2 bowls that i would watch, the Orange and Rose(even though Cal should be there instead of Texas). let's assume for just a second that i actually could have some sway in who goes to which bowl... obviously, as i said before, the Orange and Rose would stay the same. i don't know of anyone who's not excited to see Oklahoma take on USC in what should be a very tight and hard-fought game, and, aside from my stated objection, the Michigan-Texas game will be very entertaining to watch...fans rarely love their teams with the intensity that the Longhorn and Big Blue fans do. however, i look at the Sugar and Fiesta match-ups and just kind of shrug my shoulders and watch with a half-interested resignation. so here is the marketing sense of which i spoke earlier: Sugar - Virginia Tech vs. Pittsburgh Fiesta - Auburn vs. Utah now we're talking!! i would make room on my schedule, invite friends over, and watch with rapt attention as Alex Smith and his Ute's take on a "for real" undefeated major opponent in an opportunity to prove himself, his team, and their accomplishments. talk about a game, you now have a nationwide audience watching to see if Utah can hold itself up against an SEC powerhouse....a regular David vs. Goliath match-up. along with the increase in viewership goes an increase in the price for ad space, am i the only one that sees the economic sense in this? (as this seems to be the only factor that bears any influence on this whole BCS mess) the Sugar bowl now has at least some regional interest for those who watch Big East football(or used to, at least), the old Big East powerhouse vs. the standard bearer of the new now-decimated conference. one could even put a little bit of a "revenge" spin on it: Virginia Tech left for the ACC(which it proceeded to win) while Pitt was left behind to fight for respect in a conference that barely deserves any. so there are now 3 bowl games that would draw heightened national hype and, with the right spin, possibly a fourth. with a little common and marketing sense, the bowl season just got a lot more exciting. i'm just sayin'....