The Politics of College Football

With the country buzzing after a wild Saturday in the world of college football, little was said about the major hiccup taking place right before our eyes. In an environment where most teams are forced to do their talking on the field, reputation and politics is currently becoming more relevant than accomplishments and records. Most of the country agrees that Notre Dame belongs at the top of the college football world, but the envied spots just below are coveted by many one loss hopefuls, leading to a disturbing end to another controversial season. Yes, there are in fact remaining games to be played, but for the most part the minds have been made up who should play for the title. After Kansas State and Oregon, the top two ranked teams in the country, both lost on Saturday, many teams moved up and gained a new life. That’s where the controversy really begins. As we all know Alabama is the poster child in college football right now, and the SEC is considered the closest thing to the NFL as we’ve ever had. As dominant as they have been over the years, reputation doesn’t win games, and shouldn’t affect ranking either. Alabama somehow gets a pass on these things, and gets ranked and talked about strictly by reputation rather than results. Right now you may not believe what I am saying is true, but when you look at the Alabama schedule it is less than impressive. This season Alabama has ONE top ten win, which was against LSU. The only other win Alabama can brag about is a week one win over Michigan. For those of you that don’t follow college football, Michigan is currently ranked 19, and after this weekend will probably be knocked out of the top 25 once again this season. That will leave Alabama with one win on the season against ranked teams. They also have a loss, against a team that lost to both Florida and LSU previously in the season, and both these teams are currently ranked behind Alabama. Here’s where things get even more interesting. Florida is also a one loss team with its only loss coming to 3rd ranked Georgia at a neutral site. Florida beat LSU worse than Alabama did, and was able to beat Texas A&M in College Station. Of all the ranked teams, Florida is probably being cheated the most. The final issue I have with Alabama being ranked number two in the country comes in the coaches’ poll. Last week Alabama was ranked behind Georgia, but after a win against Western Carolina they jumped nearly 50 points and passed the Bulldogs. I don’t know how or why this happened, but it sure stinks from where I am sitting. Yes we all know the Tide can play with and beat anyone on any given Saturday, but the way college football goes so can anyone else. If the season ended today the Irish would be underdogs in a game against Alabama, and would probably get beat. That doesn’t mean Alabama deserves to be in the game. Florida plays its fourth top ten ranked team this season on Saturday against Florida State, and in my opinion a win there should push them forward. Last season our nation's champion did not win their conference, or play in the championship game for that matter. This season should be no different, and hopefully voters can put away history and start going by facts. Follow me on Twitter @DFWsportscreed

It's the Cowboys, what did you expect?

What started out as another hopeful Sunday gone terribly wrong for Cowboys fans turned into an overtime win, but more importantly a half game closer to the first place Giant’s and a possible playoff berth. From the outside, this looks like a promising step forward for a team haunted with December meltdowns, but even a feisty Cleveland Browns team was no match for Tony Romo’s November heroics, who now holds a 21-3 record as a starter during this thankful month. That leaves merely one final game that statistically the Cowboys can win before they head down the long road of late season failures. December has been nothing but headaches for the Dallas Cowboys nation, but this year’s team and the games remaining could possibly be the right ingredients to finally get over the hill. If you watched yesterday’s game then you probably believe I am drinking the blue Kool-Aid, but numbers say otherwise. The schedule makers were no friend of Dallas the first eight games of the season, but heading into the final six games leaves the Cowboys in a position they typically don’t excel in, controlling their own destiny. As true as that may be, today I will still break down the remaining schedule, and hopefully we can find a way to slide the Cowboys into the end of the season tournament. But first, we can dwell on yesterday’s win, because a changing Tony Romo has the Cowboys on its first winning streak of the season. The last couple games Romo has slowed down his play, taking fewer risks, and being much more efficient. He hasn’t been throwing interceptions like before, but rather a high completion percentage, and above all, back-to-back wins. This doesn’t mean the offense is dominating in all aspects, mainly because the offensive line has trouble staying in front of their own shadows. Yesterday Romo was sacked a career high seven times, and hit ten. Even someone as cool headed as Romo was caught yelling at his offensive line during the first half of yesterday’s game, during a time when a first down was seemingly impossible. This has been a constant battle for Dallas this season, and injuries have not helped. With players being shifted from one position to the other, and left tackle Tyron Smith leaving with a high ankle strain, Romo had no choice but to go 35-50 with 313 yards and a touchdown. As good as a 70% passer rating is, the most impressive number that isn’t in the stat line is the zero interceptions. More often than none, a quarterback that gets sacked seven times typically throws a couple interceptions, but the fact that Romo avoided those throws inevitably kept Dallas in the game. The other star that has been blanketed with criticism by many including myself was Dez Bryant. His twelve catches for 145 yards and a touchdown were just enough, and hopefully a jumpstart to the remainder of the season for Dez. The defense once again was the silver lining, keeping the team in the game when the offense couldn’t move the ball. After thirteen first half points, Dallas shut down the Browns until Dallas was able to take the lead in the fourth quarter. This isn’t the first time we have seen resiliency from a much improved defense, giving Dallas the chance to hang around in any game. All these stats and pats on the back look good, but in the end it was a very sloppy game, but in the NFL, a win is a win. Now Dallas has a short week to finish off their favorite month against a hot Washington Redskins team led by rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III. This will be no easy win, but at home I think Dallas will be too much for even the Redskins passing attack, leaving us with a 27-17 win, and even better a 6-5 record. After a much needed few extra days rest, the Eagles will come to town lead by a rookie quarterback and a locker room full of issues. Andy Reid is probably coaching his final days in Philly, making things even worse for a spiraling franchise. These factors are too much for even the Cowboys to screw up, giving us a 24-21 nail biter at home. Next, we jump over to the AFC to play a local DFW quarterback in Andy Dalton. Cincinnati is starting to heat up, which could make things very hard for the Cowboys. The Bengals are best when throwing the ball, but the Dallas secondary has proved itself most of the season, giving the edge to the big blue. Dallas 21-17. This is the week on the schedule that everyone made plans and decided to miss this one. The Steelers have been a pain in the neck of Dallas faithful for decades, and this season will be no different. At this point in the season I have Dallas winning five straight, but the Steelers seem to be too much for the Cowboys, edging us out 24-21. After a tough game against Pittsburg, things won’t get much easier for Dallas as they face a surging Saints team. Drew Breese has things turned around in New Orleans, but an inconsistent defense will be too much to overcome, giving Dallas a 31-27 win. The final game of the season will be in our nation’s capital, playing a Washington team that has nothing to play for, and even more importantly, nothing to lose. This game will be a trap game for the Cowboys, and looking at past history, the exact recipe for another Cowboys letdown. This game was the hardest to pick, a must win situation will help Dallas prevail, pushing us to a 10-6 record, and most likely division champs. These games all look very good on paper, but as I have stated many times before, no team can break your heart like the Cowboys. We could just as easily lose four of six, but how much fun would that be to write about? Instead, we will stay positive and let the numbers speak for themselves. Dallas played an awful schedule and prevailed winning as many as they lost. Now the division and playoffs are back in sight, and this may be the season we get over the hump and back on the NFL radar. Follow me on Twitter @DFWsportscreed

Final Days of the BCS

With playoffs already set for a future date, college football can’t do anything but wait until the new championship tournament goes into effect. This means the BCS gets to ruin the hopes and dreams of many deserving athletes and their opportunity to represent their schools as National Champions. Yes, a team will be crowned and many times the best team in the country does in fact win, but this season, just like many before, the BCS did not and will not get things right. Like many other critics of this flawed system, we don’t have a special insight on how to select the top two teams, or a formula or equation that puts the best two teams in the spotlight. What we do agree on is the fact that no one besides our savior himself could predict how a bunch of 19 year olds will react to millions of viewers and earth shattering pressure. That is the main reason playoffs were implemented many years ago in other sports, and continue to be the only format used. If you don’t follow college football or don’t really care, then you may wonder why this league sets itself apart from everyone else, or why it took so long to come from the dark side. In 2009 the BCS and other bowl games made $261 MILLION. If that doesn’t answer your question, I don’t know what will. The BCS is no doubt a money making machine, but at what cost does money prevail in college athletics. We must remember that these young men and women are not paid, but given scholarships instead. Players don’t make money on uniform sales and popcorn prices, which makes one wonder how much is enough. I do realize many universities use their profits on football and basketball to fund all the other sports, and if that offers a few more scholarships each year to someone that wouldn’t have received one otherwise, then so be it. But I have a feeling it goes much deeper than that. This excess money is now going into the pockets of others, and that’s when the competitive side steps up. Imagine the last ten years with an 8 team playoff. Auburn would have never been snubbed a decade before, Utah beating Alabama and staying undefeated would have pushed them closer to a national championship game. Boise and TCU could no longer play the “what if” card, and all those 10-2 teams that played tough, out of conference schedules would be able to show up in December to play against the big boys like they deserve. No more three way ties for first in the Big 12 when all three teams rank in the top 10, no more high ranked SEC schools missing out for being in the wrong conference. The best teams would be matching up, and what a year this could turn into if we had playoffs now. If the season ended today, three undefeated teams would be fighting for two spots, and a big group of one and two loss SEC, Big 12, and PAC 12 conferences would have plenty to play for with a few weeks to go. I’ve always been told that the best way to prove your point is to convince your audience that it’s the best idea. Imagine what it would be like watching Notre Dame play Georgia, or Alabama against Oregon. These types of matchups could be at our disposal for a few weeks during the time people spend most of it at home, December and January. At the moment, teams are forced to take a month, or sometimes even six weeks off between their final regular season game and their bowl game, something that plays a major disadvantage to a team getting hot late in the year. College football has so many great attributes that other sports would kill for. Players are giving it there all for a game they love, not because they are paid. Crowds are as loud and rowdy as ever, and most of us know what a game day tailgate can be like. I’ve never seen a sport that draws people together like college football. Recently I was at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Orlando, hoping to catch the Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma game. It took until halftime to get it put on one of the fifty TV screens because the place was filled to capacity with Ohio State fans, decked out from head to toe. Since when do Ohio State fans migrate to Orlando anyway? This kind of atmosphere takes place in no other sport, and the BCS takes away from that. Playoffs won’t be the fix all like we hope, but it’s a step in the right direction. This holiday season while we all cuss the BCS, just remember Santa is bringing playoffs soon, and this mess will be behind us in no time!

Taste of a Better Life?

Before you call me crazy or argue my extreme bias for a franchise that has made a career of breaking hearts, give me the chance to convince you why the Dallas Cowboys aren’t out of this thing yet. With nine games played against some of the league’s best teams, things are anything but over in the high profile NFC East. Dallas won Sunday in an unfamiliar fashion. Three touchdowns by the defense and special teams were more than enough to fly past the Eagles on Sunday afternoon, starting a stretch of favorable matchups for Dallas heading into the second half of the season. Dallas held the second hardest schedule in the NFL over the first eight games, but that is over and things begin to get much easier. Yes we will must travel to Cincinnati and host the Saints and Steelers, but those are very winnable games. We also play two games against a struggling Washington Redskins team and another home game against an Eagles team that is at the brink of total destruction. The Giants have left the window open, and yes I will say it. The Cowboys will be tied with the division lead two weeks from today. That probably seems all but impossible just a week after many proclaimed the season as lost, but back to back losses by the Giants heading into a bye week speaks differently. A win over struggling Cleveland Sunday puts Dallas just a game back of first, with a Thanksgiving matchup with Washington following. The Giants on the other hand get a week to talk about this losing streak and what they will do when Aaron Rodgers and the Packers show up the following Sunday night to possibly tie the division once again. Sure I am probably sugar coating things way too much, as most know the Cowboys are the best around at breaking hearts late in the seasons, while the Giants pose as the typical Cinderella story each December, but things are different this season. Cowboys fans are used to blown leads and offensive let downs in the past, but the 2012 Cowboys are different, they play defense. Now speculation usually does one of two things, makes one look very smart or oh so dumb, and we will know soon enough which side I fall on. Being a Cowboys fan enables me the ability to believe every year we are title contenders, and this year is no differently in a league with so much parity. The Cowboys will also bring back a much needed running back in Demarko Murray, which will hopefully lead to a sustained running game now that Tony Romo has slowed down with the turnovers and is playing a more conventional type of quarterback. Last night’s 19-26 with 206 yards and two touchdowns is exactly what the Cowboys need when they are playing this type of defense. In the past Romo was needed to win the game, but this season simply making the right throws and staying out of trouble gives Dallas the chance to win any ball game. Jones also had success running the ball last night, going 71 yards on 16 carries, sporting an average of about 4.5 yards/carry. Jason Garrett is also beginning to improve as a game manager, although going any direction but up was almost inevitable. The entire team is beginning to look more like a team to be contended with in the NFC, but much will need to be proved with 7 games left. I’m not calling championships or Super Bowl appearances, I’m just saying look out for the Cowboys down the stretch in this anything but conventional NFL season. Follow me on Twitter @DFWsportscreed