Deadspin
Dan Shanoff, college football columnist for Deadspin, reflects on LSU's big win over Ohio State last night in the BCS championship game. Email him to let him know what you think.
Let me say this once and for all, to all the Ohio State fans out there:
Thankfully, mercifully, finally... S.T.F.U.
Dan Shanoff Is the Bandwagoneer
Stop yapping, stop emailing, stop commenting. After your season of bitching, we don't want to hear from you. Certainly not today. Let's throw in next year, too, as a penalty for last night's bed-shitting.
For the second straight year, your team has shown up in the national title game ranked No. 1, boasting the sport's "best" defense (at least on paper, which let's all agree was bullshit) and gotten shellacked.
After those consecutive personal-foul penalties that effectively ended the game, I actually had this thought, only half-sarcastically:
If Ohio State really wanted to win the national championship this season, the Buckeyes would have been better off turning down the BCS title game and playing USC in the Rose Bowl, hoping for a win against the Pac-10 and salvaging a split title. Because it's obvious this "winning a title outright against an SEC team" BCS Championship stuff doesn't really work for them.
Congratulations to LSU fans, on a championship performance so dominating that it made me think twice about yesterday's well-intended but half-cocked assertion that Georgia deserved a national title split.
And to Ohio State fans, I would say better luck next year, but the rest of college football fans would like you to stop wasting a slot in the national title game. Unbeaten? One-loss? Doesn't matter: Stick to the Rose Bowl. Give a chance to another team that might not suck... again.
This season's final Top 10 ballot:
1. LSU
2. Georgia
3. USC
4. Missouri
5. Kansas
6. West Virginia
7. Ohio State
8. Virginia Tech
9. Texas
10. Oklahoma
Split the Vote! Campaign: As you see above, even I backed down. But three AP voters picked Georgia as their champ. (One each picked USC and Kansas.)
There WAS one split... for No. 2: The AP picked Georgia; the coaches picked USC. Chalk it up as a moral victory for everyone.
Playoff Watch: There will be a ton of talk about the "Plus-One" idea this offseason. And the idea STILL sucks.
Consider its two manifestations, applied to this season:
(1) Match up the top two teams after the bowl season. OK, after watching all the bowls, who would you pick today? LSU and...
Georgia or USC? UGA was 2nd in the final AP poll. USC was runner-up in the final coaches' poll. It's intractable.
In a season as muddled as this one, the bowl season did nothing to clarify a single pair of teams ahead of the rest.
(2) Pick 4 teams and have them play in two "semifinal" bowls, with the winners advancing to a championship game.
Here are the four teams that would have likely been picked heading into this year's bowls: LSU, Ohio State, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma.
In hindsight, with bowl season to use as a litmus test, three — THREE — of those four choices now look ludicrous. USC, UGA and KU were clearly more "playoff-worthy" than OSU, VT and OU.
This season was frustrating to those who want some sort of playoff system, but here's what this season WAS good for: Exposing the flaws of the Plus-One concept.
Unless a Plus-One proponent can explain how it would work in a season as crazy as this one, the Plus-One is even more flawed than the current system.
In the end, almost every fan who watched the game last night can agree that LSU is the best team. USC lost at home to a 41-point underdog. Georgia didn't win its conference. Kansas played a flimsy schedule. Ohio State, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma all lost their bowls. Missouri couldn't even beat Oklahoma once in two tries.
Once the season played out to its very last game, there was a clear champ — or perhaps the least-flawed team, which in sports is often the same thing.
Looking ahead to 2008: Back in August, I predicted that the BCS would implode this season, because multiple teams would go unbeaten - not, of course, because NO teams would go unbeaten.
I was right in theory, wrong on the execution. I think we'll see a correction next season: College football will be top-heavy with some overwhelming powerhouses. The game of the year will be USC and Ohio State: The winner has the inside track on one of the spots in the national title game; the loser needs help.
The rest is a jumble: The survivor (if any) of Georgia, Florida and LSU in the SEC. The survivor (if any) of Texas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma in the Big 12. And God help us if Ohio State makes it back into the national title game. Let's hope poll voters have finally learned their lesson about putting OSU there when there is any doubt about their viability. Ranking inflation — preseason or otherwise — based on "reputation" is an insult to fans, teams and the sport. Now let me undermine that...
Here's a preliminary 2008 preseason Top 10 ballot to keep you feeling warm and fuzzy until August — or at least Signing Day:
1. USC
2. Georgia
3. Florida
4. Texas
5. LSU
6. West Virginia
7. Ohio State
8. Missouri
9. Kansas
10. Virginia Tech
As usual, send all comments and questions to danshanoff-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.
Comments
No more love for Tebow?
Ummm Cheaux-ke?
What, no Tebow on the end-of-year poll?
This was less abortive than the SSW. For once.
The best thing about the 2008 college football season is that there will be no more Dan Shanoff. PLEASE, for the love of God, hire SMQ.
Thankfully, mercifully, finally.....the end of college football season.
@Dany Heatley Speedwagon: Those memory erasers the Men in Black have?
Imagine I'm using them.
@SlickBomb: SMQ or Orson Swindle. Most everyone here reads one or the other anyway, but Orson's funnier.
Maybe switch off, week by week?
Bandwagoneer Wars Part Deux: Shanoff Strikes Back.
Congratulations to LSU fans, on a championship performance so dominating
The fans had a dominating performance too?
No mention of Florida crapping the bed against UM?
In their home state no less?
/hoping shanoff is from FL
@Miguel Cowbrera: Shanoff recognizing Florida flaws? C'mon.
I must ask: How does a NATIONAL CHAMPION lose to two teams that end the season unranked?
@Zach Parise's Shorty: Obviously, because any time a team has success, it's all because of the fans.
@Chicago Jones: Including its last regular season game. At home.
@Miguel Cowbrera: Went to HS in Bethesda, MD, and then switched to UF fandom because of his wife?
[en.wikipedia.org]
Dan Shanoff Is The Bandwagon Bitch.
Least surprising thing ever: Florida fans turning on Shanoff yesterday and today after seeing him get beat up for weeks.
And now I can go back to watching The Simpson's before bed. Fucking BCS pre-emptions...
Shanoff didnt put Florida #1? Blasphemy
@Chicago Jones:
You're missing the point: College football is an absolute joke.
That being said, I still like it.
shanoff, as always, is a man of titanic wisdom.
@SlantedAndDisenchanted: Putting it that way does make it seem better.
I must ask: How does a NATIONAL CHAMPION lose to two teams that end the season unranked?
I believe this is covered in Philosophy 103. (Although you think the math majors would have figured it out by now.)
Is Florida importing a defense that none of us know about, resulting in their #3 ranking?
Most meritless selection of a champion in sports in the entire world. Boxing included.
Hey, Shanoff, turn off the lights on your way out.
Margaret Cheaux?
I will not miss this weekly peek into the wilderness that is Asperger's Syndrome.
@Yinka Double Dare: #1 safety coming in (Will Hill), another year of seasoning for Major Wright, Joe Haden, touted D-line recruits, Brandon Spikes, Dustin Doe, Jermaine Cunningham all returning...
But it all boils down to whether they can get Jacques Rickerson off the field.
He sucks a lot.
@RockYouLikeAnIracane: But, still, I wouldn't put 'em higher than #4 or #5.
Georgia, USC, West Virginia, Missouri, and LSU might all be better.
This is why I watch MAC football. Diminished expectations are always met with flying colors.
S.T.F.U. = "Start Touching areas Formerly covered by your Underwear"?
/mikecooperized
To his credit, people, Dan showed stunning aptitude in closing his HTML tags, switching countless times between bold and italicized fonts.
wow, Shanoff-WfingV above tOSU?
I'm no Ohio State apologist, but this was a rebuilding year for them as it was. This is just further proof that the if the Big Ten wants to remain relevant, it needs a conference championship game, and to not have such a long layoff between the regular and bowl seasons.
@RockYouLikeAnIracane: you gotta be kidding me. Who hands out the pink slips around here?
They are who we thought they were.
@RockYouLikeAnIracane: And Texas, too, after the beating their defense put on 'Zona State.
The e-a-u-x thing is really starting to bleaux. It just geauxs to sheaux that some jeaux are seaux overbleauxn that they get beauxring to the average Jeaux.
(That is, to say, overrated)
"Thankfully, mercifully, finally... S.T.F.U."
Nope. I don't think I'm going to do that. I'll take OSU's returning crop of sophs and frosh to get back to the NC next year as well. All we need now is to find a QB. Ahem, Mr. Pryor.
@Marth: jeauxkes?
103. Army
104. Notre Dame
105. Baylor
Figured someone had to fill in the rest of next year's ballot.
For some reason I wish this was written by Weintraub.
@public enemy #1: Well, I was basing that off the logic of "cheaux = chokes" in the title of the post. Possibly confusing, yes. I also could've used "eauxverbleauxn". But whioux kneauxs.
I belatedly read the Frau Shanoff Gelf interview and that emasculated pile of fucking steaming crap that precipitated some of the Madchen Shanoff bashing, although I was aware of its genesis from his days as Mrs. Quickie -- "fandom"? ingratiating oneself into ine's in-law-inner-circle via douchebaggoneering their favorite fucking college football team? -- and I can only come to one conclusion: God bless the Seminoles!
@Marth: Eaux neaux.... this could come to bleaux.
@Juancho: Starting in 2009, the last conference game is being pushed back a week to allow for a bye week and to reduce the downtime before the bowls. Michigan/OSU will be after Thanksgiving.
@Marth: eaux.
Shanoff acts as if everyone expected OSU to win..or that it was favored at all. So what if they were #1. The rankings matter..um..not at all in the title game.
Hopefully, Shanoff isn't back next year.
I got an idea: Don't name a national champion. It's fucking college football. Do we really need to know which school has the best accumulation of talent between the ages of 18 and 22? To quote Alec Baldwin in "The Departed": "You're one of the health freaks, aren't ya? Go fuck yourself."
@GorgeForeman: You mean "assburger" syndrome.
@Phatty: Hell, I'd rather this be written by Zirin. Or Slocum.
This is why pro football is always better than college. March Madness is another story, that shit is the tits.
"so dominating", "blowout", "shellacked". ummm, it was pretty much a 2 TD game the whole second half, right? i wonder what he considers a 5 or 6 TD game. a "Nagasaki"? i'd say LSU won "going away". or "convincingly." SB XX was a blowout. 73-0 is a blowout. 38-24 with some garbage late scores...probably doesn't officially qualify as a blowout. i bet when the Bucks were up 10-0 Shanoff started his "on their way to a travesty" article.
@Crookednose: Holy crap. That just might work.
I wonder why there isn't any controversy or anything in Canadian national football championships.
No love for Tim Tebeaux?
Screw You Shanoff! Where was Teboner and the mighty Gators last night? That's right, out jort shopping you cumbucket.
Will, please spare us this crap next season.
@koivutoakill: While I have you hear, can you please explain why the hockey team spells it "Canadiens," while the rest of the country spells it correctly? Is it a French thing?
Forget college football. There's no solution, so stop working on the problem.
@koivutoakill: Canada's a nation?
/Just kidding
If we're replacing o with eaux, let's go all the way. I think Eauxhio State was Eauxverrated.
Yeaux heaux heaux, and a bottle of rum. (And a little bump of bleaux)
/it's aux-ver