Better Late Than Never for the Supposed Title Game

Rumor has it there’s a big sporting event taking place Monday evening. It’s freezing cold and nasty where I live still so I know we’re not quite to the Spring and March Madness yet. It seems though like pitchers and catchers should be reporting any day now to Spring Training. Come to think of it, the Super Bowl has not been played yet so I guess it’s not quite February. Maybe one last Monday Night Football game? Last I checked though, the NFL play-offs are under way so there is no more Monday Night Football.

Oh yeah that’s right, the supposed BCS title game is Monday night. The calendar showsOregonandAuburnlast played a game about 5 Saturdays ago. I’m pretty sure I’m still pumped up for the game. I watched a lot of college football in December, and then was glued to the TV on New Year’s Day – a week and a half ago. The Rose Bowl ended with a fantastic TCU win. Since then I have had pretty much zero interest in the 3 other BCS games. Not to mention, I was watching a Tom Hanks movie marathon onUSAon Friday evening. During the commercials I flipped through the channels to discover the Cotton Bowl was being played. Seems like the entire time I lived inDallas, this game was a 10:00 or 11:00 am kick-off on New Years Day. I know I may be in the minority as the games have all had decent television ratings but I just kind of transitioned out of college football after the Rose Bowl.

‎The Oklahoma/UCON game on New Years night was the snoozer we all expected and the Sugar and Orange Bowls held very little interest unless you’re a fan of one of the 4 teams involved. The rest of us kind of went back to work this past week, put the kids back on their school-night bed times, pretended to start a new exercise routine, and started focusing on our schools’ basketball chances or local NBA team.

There in lies just one of the many problems with the current BCS system. The college football ship has already sailed and the biggest game is yet to be played. January 10th is a long ways from the sunny September afternoons and crisp October evenings on campus that we all love. The energy has kind of faded. New Year’s Day has always been the perfect winter break culmination of a fantastic fall sport. Nothing is more American than after a long tough year of work, taking some time off to overindulge in food, drink and football. However, that all ended after New Year’s as far as most of us are concerned.

Now of course I am going to watch the game tomorrow night because I’m a fan, but I think College Football is missing the boat. Television producers will say otherwise but trying to string out the party an additional week -10 days only waters the product down in my opinion. Don’t forget, there are actually two mid level bowl games being played today as well. BYU fans, you’ll be playing in one of them in January of 2013 – The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, formerly the Emerald Bowl, inSan Francisco. Cougar fans – are you really going to bolt out of town the first or second week back to work after taking several days off at Christmas to go watch your team play in chillySan Francisco? I know I probably won’t. I’m sure I’ll watch it on TV though.

As for the supposed championship game betweenOregonandAuburn, it’s going to be fantastic. My only concern is the long lay-off may disruptOregon’s rhythm. They play at an incredibly fast pace on offense and I hope the lay-off doesn’t disrupt their timing.

While scoring a ton of points this year,Oregonalso surrendered quite a few. This should be a perfect recipe for Cam Newton to run wild and do his thing. It should be a lot of fun to watch.Auburnis about a 2 point favorite with the boys in Vegas.

I also need to admit that I was wrong on Oregon. Several times throughout the year on Inter-Mountain Sports I predicted they would trip up at least once. They almost did against Calbut survived and went undefeated. Their offense is for real and the Ducks are a ton of fun to watch. I do think I might throw up if I see one more ESPN story on the Duck mascot doing push-ups or the 5th string quarterback holding up a poster board art project with the likeness of a random ESPN television personality, pretending it’s some type of play call from the sideline. Oregon Signs In their defense,Oregon is consideredNikeUniversity and we all know the people at Nike are marketing geniuses. Annoying or not,Oregon’s antics have certainly grabbed our attention.

As for the delay in getting to the supposed title game, there is one person who has taken full advantage – the head coach of the 13-0 TCU Horned Frogs, Gary Patterson. Since his team’s Rose Bowl win, Patterson has appeared on all sorts of media outlets to decry the unfair system and poke holes in what we all know is not a true championship. He’s been a gentleman but outspoken nonetheless. Dan Patrick Interview.

Unfortunately it’s the way the system is.

So although considerably later than we’d all like, and not really a true championship, here’s to a great game Monday evening. It should be wildly entertaining. And if television continues to have its way – which it will – be prepared for the college bowl games to be strung out even more in the coming years.