AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 29
Saturday, December 29, 2007
The Bowls are big for these teams
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans—I hear it all the time during bowl season.
Only one game (the BCS championship) has any meaning. The rest of the bowls, goes the argument, really don’t need to be played.
And if you’re a college football fan, you can make that argument. But for some players and coaches, there is a lot riding on the outcome of the bowl game. Here are just a few schools that will really benefit with a win in the post-season:
1. LSU, Ohio State: This one’s obvious. LSU would win its second national championship since 2003 and give the SEC its fifth title since expansion in 1992. Les Miles would get a huge raise to over $3 million per season. Ohio State is in the NC game for the second straight year and would win its first bowl game ever against an SEC team (0-8).
2. Florida: The Gators are already talking about next year when QB Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner, and WR Percy Harvin will be juniors. A young defense will be a year older and better and Urban Meyer’s recruiting classes will really start to kick in. Florida wants an impressive win over Michigan in the Capital One Bowl to launch its bid for the 2008 national championship.
3. Georgia: Ditto for the Bulldogs, who are very up front about why they really want to beat Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. A victory gives Georgia a top five finish and likely puts the Bulldogs in the preseason top five for 2008. Georgia knows it will be on a collision course with Florida for the SEC and the national championship next season. The road to the BCS championship is a little easier if you don’t have to slug your way up the rankings (ask Auburn).
4. Tennessee: The Volunteers put together a nail-biting finish to get to the SEC championship game. But the entire tone of the off-season will be different if Tennessee loses to Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl. Coach Phillip Fulmer knows that he’s losing just about all of his offensive staff. He knows that last year’s loss to Penn State in this game created a lot of questions going into 2007. If nothing else, this is a quality of life game for Fulmer. His quality of life between now and the 2008 season will be a lot better if he wins.
5. Alabama: There really is no difference between 7-6 and 6-7, right? Actually, there is when you’re in the process of building a program, which Nick Saban is trying to do at Alabama. Yes, the Crimson Tide had a total collapse after losing to LSU on Nov. 3. The lack of talent in Tuscaloosa finally kicked in and something was ripped out of that team after the gut-wrenching loss to the Tigers at Bryant-Denny. In short, Alabama has now seen rock bottom and now comes the process of building the program from the ground up. It helps if the first building block is a win going into the off-season conditioning program.
