Bowl Anxiety

With the ND-LSU game looming tomorrow night, I'm starting to get a little nervous for my Irish. After watching USC thump Michigan last night with a lightning-quick defense and potent passing attack, I could only wonder how ND would handle LSU's own lightning-quick defense and accomplished senior quarterback. And, like the Rose Bowl was for USC, the Sugar Bowl is pretty much a home game for LSU, which won't help any.

In all, it's been a relatively dissatisfying bowl season so far. As a Big Ten fan, I was happy when Wisconsin beat Arkansas and Penn State took care of Tennessee. Down here, all you ever hear about and see is SEC football. SEC fans believe that no other conference can equal the quality of their teams or the spirit of their followers. All season long, I've listened to people talk about how the SEC powerhouses have hurt their national title hopes by beating up on each other. In other words, the lack of an undefeated team in that conference has been brought up as a sign of strength for the conference as a whole. But when put up against the Big Ten so far, the SEC hasn't been able to hold up. Sure, the lower-ranked Big Ten teams stumbled against their foes, but so did a few of the SEC bottom feeders.

I'm still a little peeved, by the way, about Iowa and Minnesota both stumbling in the end of their bowl games. Iowa was a huge underdog to Texas (and the game was played in Texas's back yard), so a win in that game would've said a lot about the strength of the Big Ten. And if you watched the game, you know there were two BIG calls in the fourth quarter that turned the entire game. So it was less of a choke job than it was a referee snow job. Speaking of choking, though, Minnesota's record-breaking blown lead not only cost head coach Glenn Mason his job, but it also cost the conference some respect on the national stage. I don't think Mason should've been fired--he pretty much built that program from nothing, and should've earned a flier on any single loss--but it was an unbelievable stumble.

Michigan getting destroyed by a talented USC team last night didn't really mean anything as far as the national title goes. A two-loss USC team won't steal any title votes, no matter how good they looked--and they did look like they could've beaten any team from any conference. But I guarantee the Michigan loss won't help the SEC vs. Big Ten argument. Even if Ohio State kills Florida (and there are certainly more OSU doubters now than before Michigan lost), there won't be a clear winner in the conference debate. If Michigan had beaten USC, Notre Dame beat LSU, and Ohio State beat Florida, the SEC would have to shut up for a while. But as it stands, the debate will rage on. SEC fans will trumpet the wins by South Carolina, Kentucky, Auburn and Georgia as a sign of depth in the conference, and a win by either LSU or Florida will add to that fire. So far, only the win by Georgia means anything to me, and that should just make Georgia fans mad about how the team underachieved in the middle of the season. So they beat three top-twenty teams in a row for the first time in school history...in the same season in which they lost to Vanderbilt AND Kentucky? That's gotta be frustrating.

Speaking of conference debates, will people stop talking about how the WAC belongs in the BCS, after Boise State beat Oklahoma yesterday? Allowing 42 points and winning in overtime against possibly the worst BCS team (from what's turned out to be the worst BCS conference) doesn't prove anything--except maybe that the Big 12 shouldn't have had a BCS slot this year. Texas and Texas Tech narrowly slipped by two Big Ten underachievers (who were both ranked 6-6 and were double-digit underdogs, by the way), and Oklahoma State won a squeaker against an Alabama team in transition. Beyond those games, the Big 12 went 0-5 in their other bowl appearances. Hardly a power conference. I would take any of the top five teams in either the Big 10 or SEC, or the top two teams from any of the other major conferences (PAC 10, Big East, ACC) over Boise State. That puts about sixteen teams above BSU in my own rankings, which makes them as unlikely a BCS candidate as ND should be.

See how I brought all of this wandering back to talking about Notre Dame? No, I don't think ND should be in the BCS. In fact, I was rooting against them going to a BCS bowl. I think Boise State and ND should've both been left out of the hunt this year, and West Virginia and Wisconsin should've been included, instead. I was hoping ND would get a New Year's Day bowl against a more manageable opponent, instead of a game in New Orleans against LSU. I think ND has a chance, but they're definitely deserving of underdog status. If they can find a way around the LSU defense, and can actually get a rush on the LSU QB, they can keep the game competitive. But I've seen quick defenses knock down and stymie Brady Quinn before...and we all know the ND defense can be shredded like paper by a decent offense. So it will be a nail biter, at least until we see what ND team shows up. If it's the team that played Michigan earlier in the year, I may have some free time to do other things in the second half.

Anyway, here's to hoping ND and Ohio State can pull off wins. One for my hometown team, who needs to break a thirteen year bowl skid, and the other for my conference, constantly disregarded and disrespected in SEC country. Go Irish! Go Buckeyes!