Has there ever been a national championship game that felt less like a national championship game? The week layoff between games (or at least games of any significance) has crushed the momentum that the New Year's Day games started last week. Now that the NFL playoffs are underway, college football is taking a backseat, yet another reason why the BCS is an utter catastrophe for anyone who thinks that, unlike figure skating, championships ought to be decided on the field of play.
The weeklong layoff just added days to an already interminable break between games. Ohio State has not played since the track meet against Michigan in November. Florida's layoff has not been much briefer. It seems obvious that this extended break might make a difference -- will the teams come out flat? Will they be sloppy, or tentative? Will their timing be off? Obviously both teams face the same dilemma, but it seems possible that Florida has been able to use their slightly longer break to build up a healthy dose of the respect card -- as in, no one respects us, everyone favors Ohio State, we'll show you all.
Ohio State deserves to be favored -- they have earned that much. But many of Florida's strengths will neutralize Ohio State's strengths. Florida brings more team speed than any team that Ohio State has played this year and the Gators are certainly used to playing great athletes. At the same time, Ohio State has been relatively more dominant than Florida has been this season and plays in the Big Ten, which, while not as strong as the SEC, provides almost as good a conference test. Ohio State has the best player on the field, but Florida has shown a knack for stopping very good players this year. Both teams have great coaches. Both teams have loud, obnoxious fans. Both teams and programs are accustomed to big games. For all of these reasons, this should be a close game. I don't know how much I trust Chris Leak in a game of this magnitude, but at the same time, I'm not so certain if Ohio State fans can entirely trust their defense after the Michigan shootout.
So I am going to go with my heart: I hate Ohio State and I hate the BCS. I've been an ardent voice in favor of Boise State's claim to a share of the national title absent a national championship tournament. So I am going to make mine a protest prediction: Florida 34-Ohio State 27
6 comments:
Dude:
You got the 34 points right so far.
Yeah -- my prediction worked out ok, though obviously like everyone else I had no idea that Florida was going to kick the crap out of OSU like that. Just complete dominance -- especially when we take into account the uncalled holding on the Ginn return. Florida deserves a lot of credit.
But more importantly, how can anyone say with a straight face that the BCS worked? LSU, USC, and of course the Peoples' Choice, Boise State, all deserve a shot as far as I am concerned. But since they will not get one, which of those teams went undefeated and won their bowl game against a BCS opponent. Yup -- that would be Boise State's Broncos. Let's hope that the AP does the right thing.
dcat
You are on crack if you think Boise is getting a share of the national title
Completely agree on the BCS farce. Been obsessing about it since Boise State, blogging about it here and over here, and finally in this blog post
NextBlitz --
Great stuff. I encourage all of my readers to look at your stuff. i am disappointed with the AP not necessarily for voting Floida #1, but for voting Boise State an absurd 5th. In my mind, the polls ought to read Florida/Boise Stae 1-2 in some order, then Ohio State, LSU, and USC. It's insane and something must be done.
cheers --
dcat
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