Goal Line Stand: Polls look ridiculous

Yeah, we’re all ready for a national championship game between South Florida and Boston College. Isn’t that what everybody figured from the beginning of the season on? Forget this LSU-USC stuff. Don’t even think about Oklahoma, Ohio State or any of the other big names. This is all everybody was figuring anyway.

Okay, so I jest. But you have to admit, the way this college football season is going, it won’t surprise anybody to find Arizona State squaring off against Missouri for all the marbles. Think about it. If Appalachian State can beat Michigan, and Stanford (a 41-point underdog) can beat USC, what else is possible?

Well, how about Cincinnati over Rutgers? Again. Or Colorado defeating Oklahoma? There’s so much crazy stuff going on this year, you’d imaging the Farrelly Brothers were writing the ’07 season script. About the worst thing you can do right now in college football is grab a spot in the top 10, because that means you’re headed for trouble. Second-ranked California, which hasn’t been rated that high since ’51, when the Bears hit number one on the charts, is a big surprise. Even LSU, which was considered one of the legitimate national title hopefuls at the start of the year, is in rarified air, having reached the polls’ pinnacle for the first time since its 1958 national championship team pitched four shutouts and held six other teams below 10 points.

Look, Boston College has a long football tradition, although most BC fans would complain that the recent incarnation of that history has included at least one loss a year to a team to which the Eagles had no business losing. South Florida is a great story. So is Oregon, which was a half-yard away from an overtime shootout with California. The Old Ball Coach has ‘em playing pretty darn well in Columbia, S.C. Mizzou is going crazy on offense behind Chase Daniel. And ASU is threatening to overcome its annual fast-start-ugly-close under new coach Dennis Erickson.

In a way, we have seen this coming for a while. Parity is a rather overused term, and it doesn’t really apply, because until Louisiana-Lafayette has the same resources as Florida, there won’t be real gridiron equality. But there is a much greater egalitarian sense among the I-A ranks, and that is bad news for those who like the polls. With every passing week, the antiquated system of choosing a champion becomes more and more ridiculous. Relying on the musings of coaches, writers, broadcasters and retirees to sort the best teams in the nation is often proven to be unreliable and sometimes comical. This year, the weekly reshuffling of the nation’s “best” has reached nearly absurd levels.

Think about it. We were all convinced USC was the best team in the nation, or at least among the top two. Then the Trojans lost to a 41-point underdog. Imagine that, a team that was outclassed bumping off a leviathan. Stanford beat the number one team in the country. Well, no it didn’t. The Cardinal defeated the team ranked number one. Because the Trojans lost to the likes of Stanford (not to denigrate the Cardinal’s effort, but come on), they couldn’t be the best team in the nation. That’s just a fact. And it’s another reason why the polls are a joke. That’s why nobody pays any attention to the basketball polls. They are proven dead wrong nearly every year.

Meanwhile, football is beholden to a system that looks more stupid with every game played. Forget that at least three times a year a team which beat another is ranked below its victim, even if they both have the same records. It’s a disgrace to have the polls pull so much weight in the championship chase and even more shameful that proponents of the big-money bowl system try to pollute fans’ minds with proclamations like: “Every week is a playoff.” Hey, why not declare next week’s New England-Dallas NFL game the Super Bowl and get it over with? That’s the kind of logic with which we are working.

If college football weren’t governed by a balloting system, like figure skating and boxing, we would be able to enjoy the carnage and wait for it all to shake out during the tournament. But that’s not the case. Instead, we get to laugh at the weekly hits and (mostly) misses the polls bring us. So, enjoy LSU at the top, Tiger fans, until it loses, and we learn it really isn’t the best team in the country.

We think.

GAME OF THE WEEK: Oklahoma at Missouri
The Tigers are flying high after their 41-6 pounding of Nebraska and its gray-shirt defense, but Oklahoma’s win over Texas proves the Sooners are a formidable championship contender, despite their second-half nap against Colorado. Chase Daniel has put up some ridiculous numbers the past two weeks, but he won’t be able to do that this week. Meanwhile, OU quarterback Sam Bradford seems to get better every week, which is scary.
Oklahoma 31, Missouri 20

BUMPS AND RUNS:
I don’t want to brag too much, but who was it who said Notre Dame would beat either UCLA or Boston College? That’s right.

Stop the QB carnage in the WAC. Idaho’s Nathan Enderle is out for three weeks. Nevada’s Nick Graziano is out for the year. Hawaii’s Colt Brennan can’t get his ankle to heal. And San Jose State’s Nick Trafralis was banged up last week. Red practice jerseys all around for these guys.

This is J.D. Brookhart’s fourth year as head coach at Akron, and in each of his four seasons, the Zips have won a game on the last play. The most recent came last week on a wild kickoff return that beat Western Michigan.

Slowly but surely and without any real help from the offense, Virginia Tech is making its move. The Hokies scored TDs on kick, punt and interception returns last week.

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