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1. Yes, the Hawkeyes vs. the Bearcats really would be good.
By Pete Fiutak
If you think Florida is the best team in America, fine. If you think Alabama is the second best team in America and Texas is third, that’s fine, too. Those three have survived so far while other big names fall by the wayside, and they appear to all be worthy of being in the national title discussion. But don’t just assume that they belong in the BCS Championship because of the conferences they play in, and that could be the debate for the next six weeks.
Why, exactly, does the Big 12 champion deserve any benefit of the doubt? More to the point, what, exactly, has Texas done to be considered a sure-thing to be in the BCS Championship game besides having a great name and a lot of sympathetic feelings after what happened last year? So the Longhorns beat Texas Tech. Yippee, Houston did that, too. So the Texas defense was great against a Sam Bradford-less Oklahoma. BYU and Miami had few problems keeping the Landry Jones Sooners under wraps. Again, if you want to think Texas is one of the three best teams in America, that’s great, it might be, but you can’t just do that without explaining why Iowa and Cincinnati, at the moment, don’t belong in that discussion.
Boise State is its own problem. There comes a point in the national title talk when deserve enters into the equation, and it doesn’t matter if the Broncos are 1995 Nebraska; the schedule is too weak. But that doesn’t work for Cincinnati or Iowa. I don’t think either team will go unbeaten, but let’s say for the sake of argument that they will. That means Iowa will have beaten Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Ohio State, the four other top teams in the Big Ten, on the road. Throw in a win over a nice Arizona team that’s not playing all that poorly, and the Hawkeyes will have the résumé. If Cincinnati finishes unbeaten, then that would mean it beat Oregon State at Oregon State, won at South Florida and Pitt, and beat UConn, West Virginia, and Illinois (fine, the Illini stink). That’s not that bad, but it’s not like winning the Big 12, right?
Oklahoma lost to BYU and Miami, Oklahoma State lost to Houston, as did Texas Tech, Nebraska lost to Virginia Tech, Texas A&M got whacked by Arkansas, Missouri has become extremely average, Colorado stunk it up before beating Kansas, who played no one before losing at Boulder, and no one else is even worth discussing. So based on what you can prove, and not what you believe, make your case for the Big 12 champion deserving anything this year just because of the conference it plays in.
I know, I know, we’re not supposed to speak ill of the almighty SEC. After all, if Sports Illustrated says that no one plays football like they do in the southeast, then it must be true, but there’s a whole bunch of mediocrity happening outside of the world-beaters at the top. The SEC has done its part in non-conference play to be the best in a bad lot of conferences, but watch Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Auburn, Kentucky, and South Carolina play a few games and then bet the house, the car and the kids on any one of them against a mid-level team from one of the other BCS leagues on the road. They're good, but they're not so good that the SEC automatically deserves every benefit of the doubt. Florida and Alabama do, and the winner of the SEC Championship, if it really is between those two, deserves to play for the national championship, but it gets interesting if the SEC champion has one loss. More on that in a moment.
The SEC has been great out of conference … at home. The best road win was Auburn over West Virginia. Wait, that was at Auburn. Georgia over Oklahoma State … no, that was a loss. Georgia over Arizona State? That was a home game, as was the Tennessee loss to UCLA, the Kentucky win over Louisville, and the Mississippi State loss to Georgia Tech. Every decent SEC non-conference win either came at a neutral site or was at home, with the two exceptions the South Carolina snoozer over NC State and LSU’s win over a Washington team that won’t go to a bowl.
Does the SEC have a non-conference road win as good as Cincinnati’s 28-18 over Oregon State? How about a road win as good as USC over Ohio State, TCU over Clemson, or Houston over Oklahoma State? In other words, don’t just assume it’s the SEC’s world and we’re all just taking up space, even if Florida and Alabama are the two best teams in college football. Utah proved last year that there's always a balloon out there waiting to be popped.
But perception does matter, and right or wrong, the SEC is the top dog and the Big 12 is considered No. 2. So if all things are equal, what’s the pecking order for the national title? Whether you believe this is true or not, here it is (going on the current records and perceptions) …
No. 1 – Undefeated SEC champion
No. 2 – Undefeated Texas
No. 3 – One loss SEC champion
No. 4 – Undefeated Iowa
No. 5 – One loss Big 12 champion, Texas
No. 6 – Undefeated Cincinnati
No. 7 – One loss USC or Oregon (yes, even with the loss to Boise State, and no, it’s not fair)
No. 8 – One loss ACC champion
No. 9 – Undefeated Boise State
No. 10 – Undefeated TCU
But if this really is the case, ask yourself this: would a Cincinnati vs. Iowa national championship really be so bad? For Fox, yes, for college football, no.
