Sitting here watching USC and Notre Dame and clearly USC will be going to the national championship game, provided they beat an overmatched UCLA team. There's a number of things that bother me and mostly it involves how much Kirk Herbstreit is completeley infatuated with a couple of teams (mostly USC) and doesn't seem to grasp what is actually going on. That, and that Brent Musberger apparently has no idea about anything involving college football, but interjects his opinion anyway.
With five minutes left in the game, Musberger used his expert opinion to say that Notre Dame sooo deserves a Rose Bowl rematch against Michigan. Yes, the Irish two losses are to two of the top three teams in the country. But they were waxed in both. Other than that, Notre Dame's biggest win is over Georgia Tech, which after tonight is probably going to be unranked again. Of course Herbstreit agreed. Earth to pundits, LSU has beaten two top 15 teams on the road in the last month.
Hebrstreit is drooling over the chance to watch USC and/or Ohio State again. He can't seem to get enough of any top team not in the SEC. Granted those teams are consistent 10-win teams. But there's no such thing as a consistent 10-win SEC team. If there is, the coach becomes a God. See Steve Spurrier. Since then, he's taken over a 6-5 team, gone 7-5, then 8-4 and is somehow still the greatest thing since sliced bread. I don't even think the Geico caveman is fooled on this one. Don't even bother with anything other than talking about the top five. He's not interested.
I'm so sick of the people that form the opinions of college football fans (and probably many voters) just flat not doing their homework. Yeah, USC beat Arkansas 50-14. But the Hogs used a quarterback who now plays wide receiver and didn't have Darren McFadden. Oh yeah, Pete Carroll ran it up with 27 points in the final 18 minutes. It's things like this that completely slip their mind. All they know is USC beat Arkansas by 36. Listen I'm not saying that USC isn't deserving of playing for the national championship, but at least try to put every game in perspective.
Right now? They're lauding Brady Quinn for his exceptional 21-for-42 performance. And why on earth are they just giving Notre Dame the Rose Bowl bid. Amazingly Musberger brings up LSU. Herbstreit acts like that's blasphemy and only Notre Dame-Michigan would be acceptable. Apparently Knute Rockne is a major factor in deciding this year's Rose Bowl. Hey Kirk, how about two national powers meeting for the first time ever instead of the second time this year. How about the only two Bo Schembechler head coaching prodigies in the nation face off six weeks after his unfortunate death. For the love!!!
You can't completely blame them though. You talk about what you know. And the SEC's contract with CBS, while lucrative, is killing them with ESPN. Because ABC and ESPN are intertwined, everyone that works for them is wrapped up in the Big 10, the Pac 10, and in years past the Big 12. They just don't get to the heart of college football very often. For all the top 10, top 15 match ups this year, there were only two (I think) College GameDay's from SEC country this year. They managed to see Ohio State four times (Texas, Penn State, Iowa, Michigan). They got USC and Notre Dame twice each. Yet the whole SEC, which has five top 15 teams had four visits (Florida vs. LSU, Auburn vs. Florida, Tennessee vs. South Carolina (why?), Arkansas vs. Tennessee). A top six matcup between LSU and Auburn was passed up for Nebraska-USC. A top 15 LSU-Tennessee battle was skipped for Oklahoma-Texas A&M. Are you kidding me? Don't tell me those weren't about the ratings. Even Chris Folwer apologized.
Anyway, enough with my rant, time to get back to having fun tonight. Tomorrow's BCS rankings will be very interesting. We can only hope Cal didn't move us as much as I think they did.