AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2006 > December > 04
Monday, December 4, 2006
More coaches will call for playoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Final thoughts before we take a break until the bowl season.
— If you’re Michigan, you are mad today and understandably so. But once No. 2 Southern Cal lost its game to UCLA on Saturday, all bets were off. It didn’t matter who was No. 3 or No. 4 or No. 24. The voters in the human polls basically started with a clean slate and decided who should be No. 2 and play Ohio State. And they picked Florida.
— The decision is not only about who is the BEST team. You can make a subjective claim that Michigan (11-1) is the best team. But you can also make the case that Florida is the more DESERVING team. Florida (12-1) played 10 teams going to a bowl and beat nine of them. They beat Tennessee on the road (21-20) and LSU (23-10) at home. Florida won the SEC. Michigan played a great game against the No. 1 team in the nation on the road. But the rest of their schedule was just so-so. Michigan was the No. 2 team in its conference.
— With yet another controversial finish in the BCS, we will once again hear the clarion call for some kind of playoff. There is no question that some of the coaches are starting to realize that their agenda, which is winning games and keeping their $2 million jobs, is becoming different from their athletics directors and conference commissioners, who believe that the BCS is their best way to maintain control of post-season football while generating a large amount of revenue. That’s why you’ll hear more and more coaches call for a playoff in the coming months.
— The coaches had better be careful what they wish for. If there is a playoff, even if it’s only four teams, that will immediately become the standard of success for coaches. Just like the NCAA basketball tournament, if you’re not one of the 65 teams you can’t claim to have had a good season. All a playoff would do for coaches is exponentially increase the pressure in what is already a high-pressure profession.
— What I’m about to say makes absolutely no sense because there is not a better big game coach in college football than Ohio State’s Jim Tressel. The Buckeyes will arrive at the BCS championship game with the Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Troy Smith. It will be the fourth time in five years that Ohio State has played in Arizona, so they will be very comfortable with their surroundings. Pure common sense says that Ohio State will run through the Gators and win their second national championship since the 2002 season,
But why to I get this feeling that the Gators, as they have all season, will find a way to win this game? Makes no sense.
But here it is:
Florida 21, Ohio State 20.
Merry Christmas.
