Christmas Season

The 12 Days of Christmas, one of our favorite Christmas carols. It leads me to think I ought to do a 12 Day of Something list. So, in the spirit of the Holidays, I present my 12 favorite memories of the 2006 college football regular season.

1) Texas A&M beating Texas. Yes, as a Longhorn it hurt, especially to run down the street in Aggie maroon in my underwear (don’t ask). But I guess the old saying be careful what you wish for rang true this year in Austin, as the Aggies once again made this game relevant. After the viscous cheap shot administered to Colt McCoy, I’m counting the days to next year’s game. Just like I wanted.

2) Wake Forest winning the ACC, Rutgers 10-2 season, and Rice heading to a bowl game. I’m sure we all had that one picked out in the ACC (to hell with Miami, Florida State, and Virginia Tech), just like we had Rice selected to head to a bowl game. It seems some of the smallest schools in Division I football proved moto – size doesn’t matter. Good coaching, however, does.

3) SEC football. No amount of ESPN/ABC Sports hype could pull me away from constantly tuning into the CBS game of the week. From Auburn’s blowout loss at home to Arkansas, to the thriller between LSU and Tennessee, CBS seems to have a stranglehold on the prime time game of the week, regardless of the time of day. It’s no coincidence that ESPN pushes so hard with promotions to compete – they have a lackluster offering. When you have two top 5 teams playing in one week, and the sports’ premier program show (ESPN’s College Gameday) goes on location at another game, you can be sure the folks at Sportscenter are damned sure worried about ratings.

4) Boise State. Sure, they will likely get hammered in the Fiesta Bowl against OU, but it will be nice to see the mid major schools be represented in one of the years big bowls. That is, of course, if anyone tunes in. We all remember the last time a BCS buster made the Fiesta Bowl – Utah rolled over Pittsburgh (I can hear the ratings numbers now!)

5) The BCS bowl busts – how many of us are dying to catch that Boise State / OU game. Or how about the yawner in the Orange Bowl – Wake Forest / Louisville. The focus has been on tweaking the BCS to get the sure fire number 1 and 2 teams to play each other. We should also work out some kind of system to avoid such sorry matchups as the ones we have coming this year.

6) Ohio State playing three teams in one year ranked #2. Should the Buckeyes defeat the Florida Gators in the BCS Championship, they will be the first team in college football history to play, and defeat, the #2 ranked team in the country on 3 separate occasions. Regardless of whether you think those #2 teams matched up with Ohio State, it can still be a feat to admire.

7) Coach Chuck Amatto (sp?) at NC State getting fired. It seems appropriate that with the fall of the head of the Sicilian mob recently that the Italian bred, mobster looking coach of the Wolfpack was canned at the end of the season. I guess he can go back to whacking people’s knees in NYC.

8) The most recent – The University of North Texas hiring Todd Dodge, the coach of Southlake Carroll High School. Yes, you read that right – the Mean Grean is putting their program into the hands of a high school football coach. Granted, his offense has been one on which many of the major schools pattern the now popular spread option after, but still – only in Texas I guess!

9) The last two minutes of any close game. The NCAA’s new clock rules seemed to play a major factor during many games which came down to the wire, requiring teams to spend timeouts sooner, as well as costing teams plays at the end of the game. To me, the casual fan, it sure didn’t seem like the average of 4 minutes saved per game made a large difference in a game which lasts over 3.5 hours. Perhaps those jackasses at the NCAA will review and expunge this silly new rule. College football is about the college football fan, and should not be tailored to television networks like the NFL. If the game takes 6 hours because Texas Tech throws on every play, then so be it. Leave our game alone!

10) Both of USC’s losses this year. Classic games, each. The Oregon State game was one where you had to watch the Beavers pulling away in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. Had that score been reversed at any time during that game, folks would have switched off. When you see a favored team getting destroyed, however, folks seem gripped. And this game, with the failed USC two point conversion at the end of the game to cap off a furious Trojan comeback, was one of the better games of the season. The UCLA game was even better – not only had the media, computers, and Trojan fans nationwide assumed USC was in the BCS Title game after the beatdown of Notre Dame, but no one thought the UCLA team who had blown a game against the same Fighting Irish earlier in the year would stand a chance. It is, as they say, why they play the games. The tip and pick of John David Booty’s last pass attempt by the UCLA defensive lineman deep in Bruin territory with the game on the line was arguably the play of the college football season.

11) Michigan vs. Ohio State. Sure I think both teams are overrated, as they have played a cupcake schedule in the Big Ten. However, the hype and hoopla in the weeks leading up to the big game was enough to make even the most jaded of fans tune in, and for the defensive powers to put up 79 points was incredible. It was a great game, and a great spotlight for the college game.

12) Notre Dame exposed as the most overrated team in college sports history. A shellacking at home to Michigan. A miracle comeback against Michigan State, a team who failed to make a bowl game. An even bigger miracle at home against UCLA. The teams other wins? Army, Navy, Air Force, North Carolina, Stanford, Penn State, Georgia Tech. Yikes. And let’s not forget the egg laid by the Irish in their matchup with USC. I am counting the days to the Sugar Bowl, when Notre Dame will be handed their 9th straight bowl game loss.