Man Bites Blog

BCS, NFL, NHL thoughts below…

BCS “Mess”
I’m convinced that the BCS exists to give sports columnists an easy target to fill column inches. Here’s my local example — I’m sure your local newspaper has a column about what a travesty it is that the national football championship is being decided based on style points and computer algorithms rather than the novel ideal of being settled on the field.

Baloney.

First of all — it will be settled on the field — Ohio St. will play Florida, and the winner will be the national champion. Michigan had their opportunity to make it to this game, and the lost it on the field!!!! I’ll agree that it is hard to say that Michigan is not the No. 2 team in the country after they lost on the road to the No. 1 team by only 3 points, but they were aware of the stakes, and didn’t get the job done.

Second, it’s not like the BCS is spitting out a completely nonsencial championship match-up. Really, there were two reasonable outcomes — Ohio St. - Michigan or Ohio St.- Florida (I suppose someone could make a case for Ohio St. - Boise St.), They’re not deciding that, say, Louisville should be in the champioship game in spite of their loss to Rutgers because their average margin of victory was so large.

Finally, I don’t know when we decided that the object of the college football season is to determine a national champion. College football used to be about rivalries and tradition, and now it’s about positioning yourself for the national championship game. Michigan gets to go to the Rose Bowl and take on USC — that used to be a dream, but not anymore. I think it says something about our society that we’ve made this shift — maybe it’s not anything bad, maybe just the nationalization of the media with ESPN. Before ESPN, a Big Ten fan wouldn’t know much about the SEC or Big 8 (now 12), and probably wouldn’t care to. But now we do.

Anyway, it’s always good for a cheap column — the BCS tries to fit a round peg in a square hole — to determine the two teams that will play for the championship, when there aren’t always 2 clear contenders. It makes for easy pickings.

UCLA defeats USC
If you’re a senior at UCLA, you must have been getting damn tired of hearing about the Torjans across town, so that victory must indeed have been sweet.

And that tip and interception in the 4th quarter was one of the best plays I’ve seen.

Rutgers loses in triple OT
And so instead of the Orange Bowl, the Scarlet Knights head to the Texas Bowl. Can’t like that.

I do hope this was not a fluke. It would be a great thing for the Northeast to have a college team to get behind, and going into Morgantown and taking the Mountaineers to 3 OT’s proved they were not a fluke.

No. 16 to be retired
The Blues will retire Brett Hull’s No. 16 tonight, it what may be their only sell-out of the season.

I went to what I think turned out to be Hull’s final home game in the playoffs against the Red Wings. He left the ice to a chorus of boos, and that always bothered me. So he didn’t get along with Mike Keenan — who did? This guy was The Franchise, and he gets booed out of town.

In any instance, I hope the Golden Brett gets a warm reception tonight, and that this is the beginning of a renewed partnership between the Blues and their greatest player.

Cowboys defeat Giants
So, I guess putting Tony Romo in was the right move, huh?

Say what you want about Jeremy Shockey, the guy goes out there to play, and gets the crowd going. That’s more than you can say for then hangdog Eli Manning.

Cards defeat Rams; Bulger rips team
It seems that since Orlando Pace went down, the Rams’ offensive line has pretty much packed it in. And Marc Bulger is getting killed back there. I’m surprised he’s made it this long. When he trotted out there with 2 minutes left and the Rams down by 21 and took a sack, I was screaming at the TV for Linehan to take Bulger out of the game before a stretcher does it for him. I don’t see how he’ll last through next Monday night’s game against the Bears.

So, I can completely see where he’s coming from.

I think the team misses Marshall Faulk in a lot of ways, which is why I was excited to hear that he wants to come back, and wants to come back as a Ram.

I’m not expecting him to put up 2500 all-purpose yards again, but I think he would help the culture of the offense. His rant on Sunday aside, Bulger isn’t really a rah-rah guy. Torry Holt and Stephen Jackson don’t strike me as leaders, either. But if a rookie offensive lineman sees a guy like Marshall Faulk, with his place in the Hall of Fame already secure, going out there every day and working his tail off, I think it would make a big difference.

Eagles defeat Panthers
Didn’t see this one coming — the Panthers are the hardest team in the league to predict, and have been for some time. And now the Eagles have playoff life.

Coming attractions
Brace yourselves for my upcoming series on Mark McGwire’s Hall of Fame candidacy.

Michigan Loses to Ohio St.; Remains No. 2

That seems about right. Ohio St. won the game, so they deserve to be number one, and it’s had to think there’s another team in the three-pont difference between Michigan and Ohio St.

That being said, I do have a problem with that No. 2 ranking translating into a rematch in the BCS Championship Game. Michigan had their crack at the Buckeyes; they didn’t take advantage of it. None of the other teams may be “as deserving,” but Michigan definitely isn’t.

To put my cards on the table, I’ve never thought that a college football season ending with some ambiguity over who was the “national champion” was a tragedy. The BCS has resulted in some great games — last year’s Rose Bowl, the Ohio St.-Miami game from a couple years ago — so I like it as far as it goes. But I never thought it was a grave injustice if the two best teams didn’t match up with each other in a bowl game. It’s nice to know what your ceiling is, but if you need to be declared “national champion” in order to feel good about an undefeated seaon, there’s something wrong. It’s not enough to win all your games — you must be declared better than everyone else.

So I’ve also never been in favor of a playoff system. It would remove the last semblance that these guys are supposed to be students, for one thing. Also, as last year’s baseball season demonstrated, a playoff does not guarantee identifying the best team.

I also think the BCS has concentrated too much attention on the teams in contention for the No. 1 ranking. For example, last year’s Heisman nominees were Reggie Bush, Matt Lienart, and Vince Young, all of whom were in the national championshop game. Lienart one the previous Hiesman. The year before, Leinart won it for #1 USC. The year before that, Jason White won it for #1 Oklahoma. Now, I know there’s usually a correlation between outstanding individual performances and team success, but this seems beyon conincidental.

I propose one change to the BCS system — you must win your conference in order to be in the champtionship game, and each conference must declare a champion. This would prevent re-matches, and things like Nebraska getting to the championshop game despite not even getting to its on conference title game. It would also return some focus to winning your own conference instead of positioning yoursel for a national title.

Panthers Shut Out Rams

Stick a fork in the Rams — they’re done. Without Orlando Pace, the Rams couldn’t protect Bulger, which takes away their two Hall of Fame-caliber receivers. This will not end well. I don’t see Bulger making it through to the end of the year.

McNabb out for year

The Eagles are done, too.

I had high hopes for this year. I thought that with the Owens thing in the rear view mirror, the Eagles could be poised for a good year. But things never quite came together, and you wonder if their window has close.

Miscellany

• Not too worried about the Colts, despite their Rutgers ride was fun while it lasted.
• This was one of the oddest endings I’ve seen, with Denver seeming to want to blow the game, and San Diego not quite letting them.

  These odd endings seem to happen a lot in prime-time games, by the way.

• If you don’t have the NFL network, you will miss NFL games! I like how they worded these ads to make you think you’ll miss games you would have seen in previous years, and try to make you think you’ll miss playoff games.