Why I'm Rooting For Satan, aka Notre Dame

This morning Kris gave his reasons for rooting for Alabama tonight. Well I'm here folks to tell ya that Kris is just flat out wrong and why everyone should be rooting for Notre Dame.

Like Kris I would normally have no interest in this game. Unlike Kris though I still might not watch it. In truth I hate both of these teams. I hate Notre Dame, their "tradition", their ability to pretend Declan Sullivan wasn't killed on that scissor lift, or that girl who was raped and then killed herself, Brian Kelly, Lou Holts, all of it. I hate Notre Dame. Why I'm rooting for Notre Dame tonight has nothing to do with me liking them and everything to do with my white hot hatred of Nick Saban and Alabama fans. 

And that's the catch. I don't mind Alabama the team. There's no one on that team that I look at and hate. In fact I kinda like a couple of players on that team. This probably has more to do with the fact though I can really only name about three players on Alabama. 

No it comes down to Saban and Alabama/SEC fans. First of all I just don't want to see Saban win another national championship. Do you realize if he wins tonight it will be his third national championship with Alabama and fourth overall? If he wins tonight he'll be in the same class as John McKay and one behind Bear Bryant. 

Really you want a notorious dickhead to win his fourth national championship? Yes I'm well aware that Saban isn't the only prick to win a national championship. Saban though is the ultimate prick. When the NFL was running those excellent "Football Life" shows they did an episode on the 95 Cleveland Browns, a team that Saban was on. During that episode it was revealed that Saban made future Lions coach Jim Schwartz mow the lawn around a pond at the Browns facility even though Schwartz was a coach on the staff. That's the perfect Saban story. He probably didn't even know Schwartz was a coach on that team. 

I'm sorry but no matter what Notre Dame's track record is, I just cannot pull myself to root for a Nick Saban team. I just can't. Rooting for Saban is like rooting for that one asshole at work that has everyone do his dirty work and then he takes all the credit and is rewarded the most. 

And then there is the fans. What a loathsome group of individuals. Their elitism needs to be knocked down a few notches. I can't stand the thought of Alabama or SEC being able to gloat once again about their superiority in college football. 

I'm rooting against Alabama and not for Notre Dame. As you should to because Saban winning another title will be unbearable. 

Why I'm Rooting For Satan, aka Alabama

(Note from 49er16: This post is written by my friend kt1000. I'll have a rebuttal up before the game.)

In a normal times, I would have absolutely no interest in tonight’s BCS National Championship Game. I would blissfully ignore the game and go see Zero Dark Thirty again (a great movie once you get past Scott Hatteberg as a part of Seal Team 6). Two douchey coaches, two uber-arrogant fanbases; a pox on both their houses I should be saying.

And yet, come 8:15 pm, I’ll be in front of my TV like most other sports fans, ready to enjoy another championship coming weeks after both team have fallen of the rhythm of the regular season.

I’ll also be rooting harder in a neutral game then I maybe ever have in my life.

See, while Nick Saban is evil genius, and he has turned Alabama into a school that seemingly stands for nothing but turning out NFL first round picks; the Crimson Tide are by far the lesser evil playing in tonight’s game. In fact, I would go on to say that Bama taking their 3^rd National Championship in 4 years would put a smile on my face and more than make up for the three touchdown loss my Ravens are going to experience in Denver this coming Saturday.

I fucking hate Notre Dame.

Somewhere, buried in these archives, is a story I wrote concerning a game I saw at Notre Dame Stadium years ago, one tinged with nostalgia and a longing for good times gone by. Basically, I fell under the spell of what is known as” Notre Dame Exceptionalism.” Keith probably should have banned me for writing it.

This holds that the school is the bastion of all that is right and pure with college sports, people that only play there to uphold the Notre Dame tradition. That the priests who run the school only accept the best student-athletes, with the emphasis on the student, as opposed to the football factories like, say, Alabama. It is all a sham.

It is a place where rape has been covered up, and led to thesuicide of a young woman. It is a place where a coach sent a young man to deathon a windy afternoon, and somehow managed to escape any repercussion for it because he has been won more games than the previous three coaches. It is a place that is as dirty a place as Alabama, where the secret shady  money from boosters that flows throughout all of college sports runs just as deep and just as hard as your Ohio States, your USC’s, your Floridas. Besides, if you hate the idea of Syracuse being an ACC team, Rutgers in the B1G, or Alaska-Anchorage in the New C-USA (aka Big East), you can blame Notre Dame for that as well. Their decision to blow up the CFA in order to make their own NBC TV deal in 1991 was the starting gun for the conference realignment shitstorm, that is making a mockery of the entire idea of college athletics. And don't get me started on secrets of the dudes who wear that leprechaun costume. 

But, somehow this image never sticks at Notre Dame. It’s still a place where people want to imagine Ned Beatty weeping in gratitude the first time he steps off the bus at the main gate to the stadium, where people want to pretend that there is still an innocent side to college football. That it’s all about a sunny, cool October afternoon. That somehow they are above the seedy underside of the game, and the lowdown grubbers of the SEC, the B1G, the Pac-12 that are only in it for the money.

Notre Dame is no different than the worst of them. But, Notre Dame will look you in the face and try to convince you that it’s about something deeper. It really is not.

Roll Tide. 

Poking Holes in The First BCS Standings

I was going to talk about Roy Oswalt showing a red ball down the Giants mouths and introducing them to the gimp until I saw the first BCS standings of the year. Now look at the BCS standings compared to the AP poll and the coaches poll. Oregon and Boise State are ranked 1 and 2 in the AP poll and coaches poll with Oklahoma ranked 3rd. The BCS standings have Oklahoma ranked 1st with Oregon and Boise State ranked at 2nd and 3rd. Check out where Auburn is ranked in the AP poll and coaches poll compared to the BCS standings. No wonder people complain about the BCS.

I've stayed away from complaining about the BCS for two reasons: so many people already complain about the BCS and I like the bowl system. If you live on the West Coast or in the Midwest you know where I'm coming from. The Rose Bowl means everything in these areas. It's the goal that Pac-10 and Big Ten teams shoot for every year. I guess I love the tradition and pageantry of the Rose Bowl. I love sitting down with my father on New Year's Day and watching the Rose Bowl with him. It's my single favorite game ever year. I don't want to see the Rose Bowl disappear for a playoff. The same goes for the rest of the bowl games. I enjoy the bowl games, especially since it's winter when they're played and you usually can't go outside that time of the year.

Yes I'm that sappy. I'd rather watch the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange bowls than watch a college football playoff because of tradition. There are though several reasons to be hopeful about this year's BCS standings because you can poke holes into the first BCS standings.

National Championship Preview: Florida

Florida has came out of the heap that is known as the SEC, to reach the National Championship.

They were not even favored in their own division, Georgia was. They were not favored in the SEC championship game, Alabama was. And not only did Florida win their division, they won the SEC championship.

Like Oklahoma, Florida experienced an early season loss. The Gators lost at home to Ole Miss in on September 27. Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow then gave one of the best speeches of all time. He apologized for the loss and said Florida will work hard every week to accomplish their goals.

Now they get to play against Oklahoma in the BCS national championship game in Miami. This will be the classic match up of a great offensive team(Oklahoma) versus a great defensive team(Florida).

Oklahoma is the number one ranked offensive team in the nation. The Sooners average 54 points per game. Florida is the Fourth ranked defensive team in the nation only allowing about 12 points per game.

As seen in previous bowl games, Big 12 teams have been stopped on offense. Ole Miss stopped the great Texas Tech offense in the Cotton bowl. This could be a pre -cursor to the national championship game.

Player to watch: Chris Rainey, RB The Florida running game has been one of the few weak links of the Florida team. Rainey ran for 655 yards and 4 touchdowns. Florida will have to establish a running game if they want to eat up a clock and keep Oklahoma off the field. Rainey, Tebow, and Jeffery Demps will have step their games up on the ground to keep the Sooners in check.

Impact player: Percey Harvin, WR Harvin, who didn't play in the SEC championship game, has been sidelined with an ankle sprain. He says he can go on Thursday, but he is only about 90 percent ready and making cuts is a little awkward. Harvin is what makes the Florida offense goes. His speed and versatility makes him one of the most dangerous players, a player the Oklahoma defense has to keep in check. He is a threat by taking hand offs and the patent bubble screen passes.

Can the Florida defense stop Oklahoma? While we all know Florida can also score a lot of points to, but can the Florida defense keep Oklahoma off the field. Oklahoma can go down the length of the field and score a touchdown no problem. The Florida defense though must stop Oklahoma from sustaining long-quick scoring drives.

A lot of experts have picked Florida because of their defense and the schedule they have to play in the SEC. Oklahoma on the other hand has looked like a fraud because of the poor play by the rest of the Big 12 teams.

I personally like Oklahoma. They can score quickly and their defense can pick up enough stops to keep their offense on the field. Also Florida's running game has been average, while the Oklahoma running game produced two 1,000 yard rushers. DeMarco Murray, a 1,000 yard rusher, won't be playing, but he didn't even lead the team in rushing(Chris Brown).

Final Score: Oklahoma 35 Florida 28

Texas Didn't Do Enough

Texas blew their golden opportunity last night in the Fiesta Bowl. They had a chance to claim why they should share the national championship with the AP vote, and blew it.

Texas had to make a come-from-behind scoring drive to beat Ohio St. 24-21 in the Fiesta Bowl. Yes Texas the team that claims they are better than Oklahoma and Florida, had to come back to beat an slow, overrated Ohio St. team.

Lets call it what is was, a lucky win. Ohio St. took the lead with to much time left on the clock, they left about 2:05 remaining in the game. Then Texas received a favorable spot on a key fourth down play. And then they once again exposed a weak defense by beating the blitz and throwing a quick strike for a touchdown.

Texas played one of the worst first half's ever seen. Going into halftime Ohio St. lead Texas 6-3. Then finally Texas exposed a slower-than-pancake syrup Ohio St. defense. But with seven minutes left in the game, Texas only lead 17-9.

If this was Texas's statement, it didn't work. They were suppose to blow the doors off of Ohio St. Instead they played mostly UN-inspired.

Florida has already beat Ohio St. in a BCS game, Oklahoma would have easily scored 60 on them, and Utah would have spanked them.

Ohio St. is just not that good.

Texas had a chance at splitting the national championship before the Fiesta Bowl. They should have blew the doors off of the Buckeyes.

Instead they just blew it.

College Football Links

- The Spread offense turns decent quarterbacks into statistical legends (KC Star)

- UCLA showed against USC that there are better days ahead (LA Times)

- Saban accepted responsibility for Alabama's loss yesterday (Scarblog.com)

- The Willingham era is finally over in Washington (Seattle Times)

- The Final weekend winners and losers (Rivals.com)

College Football Links

- What went wrong before Tuberbille walked away (Scarblog.com)

- Still don't know if Percy Harvin will play for Florida on Saturday (Gainesville Sun)

- Washington named USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian as their new coach (Seattle Times)

- Oklahoma is on the verge of winning their 6TH Big 12 Championship (The Oklahoman)

- Nate Davis has been the focal point of Ball St. football since 2006 (Muncie Star Press)

- USC football has not been the same since Norm Cow left (LA Times)

- The Big 12 Championship game has always been unpredictable (SI.com)

College Football Links

- Defending the Florida Gators (The Huntsville Times)

- The running backs will be the star's of the MAC Championship (Muncie Star Press)

- Boston College expected to play in the ACC Championship game (Boston Globe)

- The annual Pete Carroll to the NFL rumors have started (LA Times)

- The Big 12 needs to get rid of their divisions, so you wouldn't have this problem next year (CBSSports.com)

- The coaching carousal (Rivals.com)

College Football Links

- Whitlock's thoughts on Texas being shafted by the BCS (Kansas City Star)

- As you can imagine, they are not happy at Texas (Austin American Statesman)

- Bob Stoops didn't need to politic, for the Big 12 South (The Oklahoman)

- Remember when Texas leapfrogged Cal in 2004, I bet it doesn't feel so good now (La Times)

- The Burning questions on Monday mourning (SF Chronicle)

- A reason to be happy about the BCS computers (SI.com)

- Breaking down the conference championship games (Rivals.com)

Thoughts on Oklahoma passing Texas

(Not even Obama can figure out this mess)

As I said earlier, I thought Oklahoma deserved to pass Texas in the BCS ratings.

Oklahoma broke through the three-way tie between them, Texas, and Texas Tech when the BCS decided that Oklahoma did more to earn the Big 12 South than Texas.

Oklahoma in my opinion did deserve the Big 12 South over Texas. After the Sooners lost to Texas at a neutral site, they quickly climbed back into the top of the BCS. After their only loss, they won six straight and never scored less than 45 points.

Also they beat up a very good Oklahoma St. team 61-41, while Texas blew out an Texas A&M team they were expected to blow out.

What does this mean for Texas?

Texas still has a chance at the BCS title. They are ranked 3RD in the BCS standings and if Oklahoma loses to Missouri next Saturday, they will play in the National Championship game.

This is surly a mess and more talk about college football needing a playoff will be in full force. Which means Fox, BCS management, and sponsors are loving every moment of it.

Breaking News: Oklahoma Jumps Ahead of Texas!

The BCS Standings just came out and Oklahoma jumped ahead of Texas in the standings. What that means is the Sooners will be the Big 12 South champions and will play Missouri next week in the Big 12 championship game.

This is definitely going to cause an outcry by BCS haters and Texas football. I give you my thoughts on the outcome shortly.

The Mourning After

Game of the week: The Missouri-Kansas game was one for the ages. Kansas was down to Missouri 37-33 with about 1:00 remaining in the game. Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing drove the team down the field with a coolness to him that reminded me of Joe Montana. With 27 seconds left and a 4Th-and-7 Reesing felt the pressure, stepped up in the pocket and threw a floater to Kerry Meier for a game winning 26-yard touchdown. This was the best game of the week, in a week full of great games.

Coach of the Week: Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson gets my vote. Tech hadn't beat Georgia since 2000. Georgia took a 28-12 lead into halftime, and it looked over for the Yellow Jackets. But you should never count out Georgia Tech now that Johnson is the coach. His old fashioned Flexbone Offense, tore up the Georgia defense 472 yards on the ground. Georgia knew what was coming and they couldn't do anything about it.

Paul Johnson in my opinion is one of the best coaches in college football. While at Navy, Johnson's teams always preformed very well despite being smaller than their opponents. Georgia Tech was smart by making him their head coach, because Tech will be a force to be reckon with for years to come.

Goat of the Week: Norte Dame was routed by USC 38-3 and all the blame will fall on their coach Charlie Weis. There has been chatter all week that Weis's huge buyout will not affect Weis future with Norte Dame. In all likely hood, the pressure will be to much for Norte Dame officials to keep Weis around and they will be forced to buyout his contract.

The Norte Dame offense only accumulated 91 yards of offense for the entire game. This does all fall on Weis. He is suppose to be an offensive genius. Norte Dame was never going to be out schemed in a game. The offense and developing his young players is where Weis failed. This is the reason why he should be fired.

The debating begins: With Oklahoma winning last night their is a three-way tie in the Big 12 South between the Sooners, Texas Tech, and Texas. The BCS standings(which come out latter today) will determine who is the winner of the Big 12 South.

My vote would be for Oklahoma. They played their best game yesterday, beating their rival Oklahoma St. The Cowboys would not go away last night, so Oklahoma had to keep on scoring to put them away.

Texas also played their rival Texas A&M but they blew them out, in a game they were expected to win big. Oklahoma gets my vote because their win was more impressive. My gut feeling though Texas will get more BCS votes and will win the Big 12 South.

Going out in Style: While former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer didn't have the year he wanted, he went out in style by beating the teams Tennessee has always beat up on. They beat Vanderbilt last week, and this week the beat up Kentucky(a team he has never lost to). Fulmer is a classy guy and we wish him luck in his future endeavors.

Burning Questions: College Football

Well another Saturday gone and another confusing Sunday. Oklahoma just had to confuse everyone by beating Texas Tech. Which brings me to my first question.

Who from the Big 12 South plays in the Big 12 championship game? Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech all have one loss. They all own tie breakers over each other. Oklahoma still has to play a very tough Oklahoma St. team in Stillwater. So they could possibly lose. So then who plays in the championship game against Missouri? Well we all thought the political season was over right? Wrong. There will be a lot of politicking by Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, and Mike Leach. In the end though the team with the toughest schedule will play in the Big 12 championship game. And right now that would be Oklahoma.

What happens to Charlie Weis now? After Norte Dame inexcusably lost to Syracuse yesterday, the hot seat just got a lot warmer for Chuck. Norte Dame only produced 41 yards on the ground against the 107-ranked rushing defense. I thought Chuck was an offensive genius? Once again Weis was exposed as a fraud of a college coach. He has not developed his talent. It is time for Norte Dame to dump Weis.

So you thought Joe Paterno lost it? You were wrong. Joe Paterno just won his second Big Ten championship in three years and is headed to the Rose Bowl. And the Nittany Lions did it in style. They beat a very good Michigan St. team 49-18. If Penn St. didn't slip up against Iowa, they would be headed to Miami not Pasadena, for the National Championship Game. You can never turn your back on Paterno and you should never do it again.

The Big 12 Problem

Well it's that time of year again when we all debate why the BCS has to go and why college football needs a playoff system. Just ask Texas Tech coach Mike Leach.

If Texas Tech loses to Oklahoma this week then there will be a three-way tie in the Big 12 south. And then coaches would have to do a whole lot of politicking. Coaches in the Big 12 would have to talk about how their schedules were tougher than the other teams, just to get into the Big 12 championship game.

And Texas Tech could be the odd man out in the Big 12. Yes, it is time for a major college football playoff.