I’m really glad I was too lazy yesterday to write the post I had in mind about how ridiculous it was to have a #21 team in a BCS bowl game, let alone against a #3 team.
Wow. They get shit-stomped the entire game, but it doesn’t stop them from woofing and shit-talking and celebrating routine plays like they were game winning TD’s, not to mention racking up 100 yards in penalties. Well played, Florida and the SEC.
Just one aside.
WTF has college football come to when Northwestern, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Duke can all win bowl games in the same season? These teams have a history of being perennial doormats.
Never underestimate motivation in these bowl games. Many times there is one team that is tickled to be there and excited about the whole thing, while the other is sulking about a game that they blew that cost them a chance at a bowl they’d rather be in. In those cases, the happy team will generally cover the spread and often win outright.
Please let Charlie Strong stay at Louisville until Spurrier is ready to retire! We’re going to need you back in Columbia one day, Coach Strong!
And all excellent academic institutions. They might actually put student-athletes on the field!
Don’t know about the other 3, but Stanford has been in 3 straight BCS bowls, winning 2. The news may not have reached the East coast.
And Northwestern’s long reign of mediocrity ended in 1995 with that Rose Bowl season. They haven’t really been doormats since then, having won three Big Ten championships in the interim. Sure, they’ve had some poor seasons in there, too, but they’re 114-106 in those years, so they have a winning record.
These are not your mid-70s Wildcats (where there was one six season stretch from 1976-1981 in which we won three games total, ending with two consecutive 0 win, 11 loss seasons, and amassing a 34 game losing streak from '79 to '82.)
There are 34 bowl games, which means there are slots for 68/~120 DI-A teams. Plus the big conferences may have slots for 7-8 of their 12 members.
It feels like it’s harder NOT to get a bowl invite these days.
2 things:
1 - Scholarship restrictions have somewhat leveled the playing field
2 - Coaching
It is harder not to get an invite. Even Georgia Tech, with a losing 6-7 record, got a waiver to play in a bowl. Won it, too. On the flip side, La Tech at 9-3 screwed up by waiting for a better bid and didn’t get a bowl invite.
My own alma mater, lowly Rice U, with a 6-6 season got one this season (winning 33-14) and has 3 bowl invites (2-1 in those games) over the last 6 seasons. But in 2001 before there were quite as many bowls and while in the WAC, they didn’t get any invites with an 8-4 record.
You can aim for mediocrity and usually make it into a lower tier bowl these days. It’s a bit more of a trick if you hold out for better or if your conference doesn’t have too many tie-ins, like the Sun Belt.
Damn straight we have. I was at Fiesta, watching our kicker choke twice against Oklahoma State. Made it to the Rose Bowl, had a great time, even if it might have been boring for those watching at home.
Much as I would love to claim that we are still the plucky little underdogs, after 3 BCS bowls we are building one heck of a machine once again. Hard for me to understand (I attended when we were fighting Cal for the bottom of the Pac 10).
So an SEC team loses yesterday annd it weasn’t even close. I was listening on the radio and some guy asked some other guy if this meant thhe SEC is not all that. The guy countered with he still thought the SEC was head and tails above every other conference, after all Florida beat 4 ranked teams this year…failing to mention that three of them were SEC teams. It is all sort of circular, SEC teams are great because they beat other SEC teams that are great.
Now don’t get me wrong, the SEC is the best conference, 7 straight NC highlight that, but I think folks get carried away into thinking that the SEC is so far and away the best conference that every team is special… The SEC has been far from special so far, LSU Florida and Miss St all losing to what were believed to be inferior opponents. South Carolina and Georgia not exactly dominating supposedly inferior opponents.
I was in a discussion recently with a quasi-relative / 'Bama fan, who took the position that Notre Dame’s narrow win over Pitt indicates that they are unworthy to face 'Bama. I asked him flat out if losing to aTm is better than beating Pitt, and he said “yes”. So, there you go. Can’t argue with someone like that.
If only ND had lost to aTm also, then 'Bama fan would have nowhere to go with his argument 
I love to hate the SEC, and it’s valid to disagree with your pal, but I don’t think it’s fair to imply he is completely devoid of logic. I’m sure it feels better to beat anyone than to lose to anyone, but as far as indicating which team is better, a close loss to a strong team could very well indicate more strength than a close win over a weak team.
And at least some people who are supposed to be informed agree with me. I don’t remember the team or the year, but I recall a situation where a team was undefeated against a bunch of weak opponents, and was ranked around 16th. The next week, they lost a close game to a strong opponent, and jumped up several spots in the rankings.
My point wasn’t that those fine academic schools all made it to a bowl game. It’s that they all won in the same year and each one purged a demon. Stanford’s Rose Bowl drought, NW’s first bowl win since 1948, Duke’s first bowl win since 1960 and Vanderbilt’s first 9 win season since 1915.
I like it.
Duke lost their bowl game.
Sorry about that. And I watched the game. I guess it was too painful and therefore suffered some amnesia as a result.
Comcast is telling me right now that ESPN is showing LIVE Pregame analysis of the Fiesta Bowl between Boise State and TCU
That’s practically a necessity for anyone who has been a Duke football fan for any length of time. I’m not a huge fan, but I have a relative who played for them (and subsequently went pro) and have attended many games in Durham over the years.