Lesson Learned From Bowl Season

Three weeks after the last Gator danced off into the night in Glendale, there is nothing for the college football addict to do but salivate over spring ball, signing day, and the buildup of August practice before the college football season breathes life again. They are left scouring the Internet for a new preseason poll, as if the next expert will say something the last didn't think of in his wild guess of which yet-to-be-fully-assembled team will be better than the other.

I will not waste your time with such a stab at a top 25 more premature and unfounded than a Mike Nifong accusation. And unfortunately, I can't create a time vortex to carry us into fall. But I can offer momentary relief after the first of two full weeks of painfully redundant Super Bowl hype. (Seriously, by the end of it, people just want the game over. People who love football.)

I can tell you, however, with the dust finally settled, what December and January taught us about college football:

1. First and foremost, Florida was the best team this year. Terrifyingly fast defense, brutal schedule, veteran quarterback, stud freshman quarterback in a running back's body, and another stud freshman that can out-run sound. Now, no one will ever be able to explain to me why Ohio State's linebackers felt the need to play Downey-soft zones; eight-yard slants shouldn't be completed underneath seven defenders. And it wasn't as if Florida was burning the Buckeyes deep, with a long reception of 20 yards. But that said, it was an impressive display by the Gators, and Urban Meyer has officially created a machine down in Gainesville that may finally separate from the masses of quality SEC programs.

2. The only team that has recruited better than Florida in recent years has been USC. And after the Trojans took Michigan to the woodshed during the second half in Pasadena, anyone with those three pesky letters scrawled onto their schedule should be as terrified as ever. The already-stout defense loses next to nothing. The offense has holes at center and wide receiver, but plenty of talent on deck. And John David Booty comes back with pressure at quarterback from the talented Mark Sanchez, despite having a very solid season.

The Trojans will start the season No. 1, and rightly so. A more road-heavy schedule is the one downside for 2007. Losing offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin might stunt the offense momentarily. But not having rookie quarterbacks and running backs with training wheels should make up the difference. (See: scoring machine during Norm Chow's first year gone in 2005.) And opposition might never find the end zone against this team next year anyways, so it might not matter.

3. Coach Chris Petersen has a pair of cantaloupes, and it rubbed off on the rest of the team (figuratively, of course). Boise State's win was simply surreal. I really don't have to say more. If you just crawled out from under a rock and are still unaware of what happened at this point, go find someone who taped the game. Now.

Oh, and sideline reporter Chris Myers flapping his big mouth before Ian Johnson's proposal to his girlfriend was painful to watch, like a sitcom scene so incredibly awkward you squirm in embarrassment for people you know don't really exist. As he blurted, "And now I will let you propose to your girlfriend," I swear I could hear all of America slapping its heads in unison. I honestly hope he lost sleep over that faux pas.

4. Notre Dame can't win bowl games when the media keeps overrating it and bowl promoters keep putting the Irish in games they have no business being in. There is a reason they have lost nine straight, seven of them by at least two touchdowns. Every top-20 team that played them dismantled them. Is anyone paying any attention? And although Charlie Weis is bringing in some top talent, virgin blood at quarterback will single-handedly keep them from being elite next year, to say nothing of a secondary that can't cover senior citizens and other positions hit hard by the graduation of 35 seniors.

5. Five-and-oh. Rag on it all you want, at the very least, it is underrated — the Big East was the big winner of the bowl season. Louisville and West Virginia were true top-15 teams. Rutgers probably was, too. South Florida has quietly built a reputable program, and Cincinnati was no cupcake. Don't get me wrong, they are still probably the fifth best conference at best, just ahead of the ACC. (Heck, the WAC might be better than the ACC). The bowl slate was not as rigorous as some other conferences', so the record doesn't tell the whole story. But this isn't the patsy conference everyone thinks it is. And even though Bobby Petrino fled Louisville, that Rich Rodriguez and Greg Schiano stayed loyal to West Virginia and Rutgers in the face of serious job opportunities grants the conference even more legitimacy.

6. The Big 12 and Big Ten, meanwhile, had their hats in hand, losing 10 of 15 bowl games between them. Wisconsin, Penn State, and Oklahoma State wins over the SEC were the only thing either conference had to celebrate. Ohio State, Michigan, Purdue, Texas A&M, and Kansas State were all drilled (by Florida, USC, Maryland, Cal, and Rutgers, respectively). Texas and Texas Tech got the other two wins against the Big Ten's Iowa and Minnesota, so the two conferences' collective record in games against the rest was 3-13. And the jury is still out as to whether it was worse for Texas Tech to let Minnesota jump all over them 38-7, or for Minnesota to let Tech come back and win 44-41, riding 31 unanswered points in the final 20 minutes into overtime.

7. The SEC is the best conference in the country. I have ragged on it for years for its pathetic out-of-conference scheduling, but somewhere deep down, I know that no conference is deeper. But the gap still isn't as big as some believe, and certainly isn't as big as Ohio State's goose egg in the title game. The only team the SEC beat by more than a score in bowl games other than the Suckeyes (different from the Buckeyes that played in the regular season) was Notre Dame, and we already went over what a feat that is.

They aren't playing a better brand of football, they just have a larger pool of teams with a healthy dose of talent. Some argue that every time an SEC team has been in the BCS Championship Game, they have won it. But look at the SEC champs that didn't. USC or Texas would have throttled Georgia much worse than West Virginia did last year. Auburn may have given the Trojans a better run than Oklahoma in 2004, but no one would have stopped USC that year (before that defense fled to the NFL for 2005). Georgia was simply not a national title contender in 2002. And as if anyone could beat Miami in 2001? The SEC is, and has been, good. It is not dominant. And I will continue ragging on its offenses and out-of-conference schedules.

8. Darren McFadden will win the Heisman next year. He might have been a better choice this year. Just as it was with Reggie Bush, when you watch him run, you just feel like the Razorbacks are cheating. And although McFadden was hobbled for the game, the Capital One Bowl taught us that anyone who can make Felix Jones second fiddle is special.

There you go, eight things learned from the last month or so of college football. Of course, eight happens to be the number of teams many would put into the playoffs. You know, those playoffs that are never coming. Again, I provide a small pittance to fill that gaping hole in your soul with a few scenarios some of us would wish we could have seen, with the bowl results used as a general predictor of events:

Eight-Team Playoffs, BCS Standings

No. 1 Ohio State, face-plant in Glendale and all, was better than Oklahoma. Sadly, a playoff costs us the magic of No. 8 Boise State's miracle finish. The Buckeyes don't suffer the 51-day layoff with a game in December, and come out sharper. Boise State surprises, keeping it a close game into the fourth, but Troy Smith handles the Bronco defense and slips the Buckeyes past. Florida is too much for the Big Ten this year, as we all saw in Glendale, so they dispatch No. 7 Wisconsin.

No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 6 Louisville is an intriguing matchup. I'll take Louisville in the upset before being derailed by Florida. LSU and USC might be even more intriguing, and merits more thought because either could beat Ohio State. USC has lost one out-of-conference game in four years despite playing two Big 12 champs, an SEC runner-up, eventual ACC champ, and a Big Ten champ and runner-up. It has also won four straight against the SEC, so they get the nod. Besides, Tiger fans...

Four-Team "And One" Playoff

Ohio State falls to LSU, Florida takes out Michigan. LSU/Florida in the title game. This is the system that should be. USC should not have a title shot with two shaky losses, even though they can play with anyone in the country. I love that every regular season game means so much, where games are never rendered meaningless by watered-down playoffs existent in every other sport where a third of the teams make a tournament to crown a champion, blemishes and all.

The UCLA-Doesn't-Beat-USC System

USC beats Ohio State for national title. Florida cries self to sleep after winning Sugar Bowl and getting nothing. World ain't fair. Luckily, it was the last couple seasons.

Old Traditional System

USC beats Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, Buckeyes exit stage left from national title picture. Florida goes off to the Sugar Bowl to play Notre Dame. Gators pound Irish mercilessly. Louisville plays Wake Forest in the Orange, wins 24-13 again. Oklahoma has a Fiesta with Michigan. Michigan beats Oklahoma. Michigan feels it should have as much right to a title as Florida, since each lost just once to a tough conference rival. Louisville, confused, can't get any respect as a comparable one-loss team. Boise State, stuck in the Liberty Bowl, beats West Virginia in a wild shootout, secures a perfect season. No one seems to notice. Fight between Michigan, Florida, and Louisville ends with an earthquake in Los Angeles, tsunami on the eastern seaboard, and volcano eruptions in Washington. Complete chaos briefly reigns before Earth collapses into itself and explodes.

Maybe the BCS isn't quite pure evil after all...