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Dan Shanoff writes a weekly college football column for Deadspin. Email him to let him know what you think.
For some reason, the angry emails from Ohio State fans have dried up, sort of like the Ohio Stadium scoreboard clock in the 4th quarter. But I'm not here to gloat or say "Told you so" about the Buckeyes ... well, not really.
Obviously, I can't now take back any of what I have said previously about how overrated the Buckeyes have been, but there is one thing I would like to take back, from a post earlier this season — that first insane Saturday of upsets throughout the Top 10:
"For fans of a team like Illinois, an unexpected win over a ranked team like Penn State is, in its temporary way, as sweet as winning a championship."
That's still true (infinitely more so in beating Ohio State in Columbus), but in the topsy-turvy six weeks since then, expectations for the have-nots and also-rans can — and should — have changed:
• Sylvester Croom took over the worst program in the SEC and four years later is bowl-eligible, beating Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky along the way this season — something even LSU can't claim.
• Ron Zook took over the worst program in the Big Ten and three years later has the Illini winning in Columbus and on track for a New Year's Day bowl game.
• Mark Mangino took over the worst program in the Big 12 and has them playing more successfully than they have since the 19th century, with a legitimate shot at the national-title game.
The common factor: Brutal programs mired in vicious cycles of ineptitude not only reversing them under the toughest of circumstances, but actually excelling — and in short order.
Vision matters (Croom). Recruiting matters (Zook). Scheme matters (Mangino). But whatever the root causes of turnarounds: Thanks to what we have seen this season, fans of other programs — from the downtrodden to the mediocre to the best — all have the right to demand Croom/Zook/Mangino-style results.
Going back to that original point six weeks ago, your bar could be simple bowl-eligibility, the thrill of New Year's Day relevance or just a wild once-in-a-lifetime ride to the top of the BCS, but if this season has taught us nothing else, it's that your team should have just as good of a shot as anyone.
The slogan is simple: "Why not us, too?"
So take heart, Notre Dame faithful: Your epically terrible 1-win, 9-loss mockery of a football program is positioned perfectly for a "Cranginook"-style turnaround.
Just think of that, Irish fans: If you are extremely lucky, you can aspire to be Illinois, Mississippi State or Kansas.
At the very least, you should demand as much.
Bowl Clusterf*** Series Update: Despite finally elevating into the Top 2, Oregon is in trouble, and you can see it coming:
Provided that Kansas goes into its game against Missouri unbeaten (and Mizzou still has only that one loss, at Oklahoma) and Oklahoma maintains a single loss until the Big 12 title game, the winner of that game will deserve — and probably get, from human pollsters and certainly the computer polls — the "conference championship game bump" ahead of Oregon, much like Florida did over Michigan a year ago.
As they should.
Leagues with a conference-title game deserve that bonus when all other factors are equal, commensurate with the extra risk they put their top BCS-contenders through by even playing a conference title game.
Given the remaining schedules of LSU, Oregon and the Big 12 title-game winner, the Ducks look like the odd team out, even though they might not lose between now and BCS Selection Day.
Maybe at that point, the Pac-10 will lose their notorious self-righteous indignation toward conference title games. (Either that, or secede from the BCS entirely.)
This Week's BlogPoll Ballot Top 10
1. Kansas
All they have to do is keep winning.
2. LSU
SEC title game will clinch for them.
3. Oregon
BCS shut-out is foreshadowed
4. Oklahoma
Looking ahead to Big 12 title game?
5. Missouri
Could beat Sooners on neutral field.
6. West Virginia
Jumped by Big 12 impressiveness.
7. Georgia
Best 2-loss team in the nation.
8. Ohio State
Lost at home to an unranked team.
9. Virginia Tech
Vanquished the FSU curse, finally.
10. Cincinnati
You'll see when they beat WVU.
Click here for the full ballot.
More Notes From the Weekend:
(1) Play of the Year: Juice on 4th and Inches.
(2) America's new most must-see team: Navy.
(3) Vote Tebow: 300+ pass, 100+ rush, 7 TDs
This Week's Bandwagon: Unexpected uniform changes.
Georgia warmed up for Auburn at home wearing their usual red jerseys; when they came back out to play the game, they were in non-traditional — but entirely bad-ass — black jerseys, the first time UGA had worn black since anyone could remember.
Fired up by the stunt, the team rolled over Auburn and is playing as well as any team in the SEC, if not the country, with a shot at getting to the SEC title game in Dawg-friendly Atlanta, in what would be UGA's first meeting this season with LSU. Here's hoping they bust out the black jerseys for that, too.
Looking Ahead to Next Week's Schedule:
BCS Top 2! LSU at Ole Miss, OREGON at Arizona (Thursday): Both have to win impressively in order to use the human polls to keep fending off whoever emerges from the hard-charging top of the Big 12.
Pick: LSU, Oregon
Big 12 Mania! Iowa State at KANSAS, OKLAHOMA at Texas Tech, MISSOURI at Kansas State: It's all about setting up an unbeaten Kansas-1-loss Missouri winner facing 1-loss Oklahoma in the BXII title game.
Pick: KU, OU, Mizzou.
Upset Special! West Virginia at Cincinnati: No need for 'Eers fans to gripe about being shut out of the BCS title game after they lose to the highly underrated Bearcats. Brian Kelly should be coaching Michigan next season.
Pick: Cincinnati
From Big to "Big": Ohio State at Michigan: Suddenly, just a really great Rivalry Game, nothing more. Big Ten title? Meh: Illinois is a better Big Ten story than either. Rose Bowl bid? Meh: Second-tier bowl this year.
Pick: Michigan.
As usual, send any comments or questions to danshanoff-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.
Comments
Tim Tebow could beat Kansas by himself with one arm tied behind his back and his nuts in a bear trap.
Kansas is in the SEC now?
Mark Mangino says the cupcakes served their purpose.
Dave Wannstadt took over a competitive program in the Big East and three years later has the Panthers missing yet another bowl game. Ineptitude matters.
Buffets matter (Mangino).
@Im a people person. Who drinks.: His mustache, however, is up for a Heisman.
I'm not a huge college football fan, but there really is nothing more entertaining than listening to the commentators during garbage time of a Notre Dame rout by a service academy.
Cincinnati #10? God bless you sir.
Say it with me. The pac 10 doesn't need a championship game, because EVERY TEAM plays EVERY TEAM.
Dadgummits matter (Bowden).
So, is UGA the best two-loss team in the country because they play in the SEC or is the SEC the best conference in the country since they have the best two-loss team in the country?
how about UConn not even having a division I football program ten years ago? That not make this list, Dan?
@Im a people person. Who drinks.: And poor Charlie Weis still can't get up and down the sidelines at a reasonable pace... successful gastric bypass surgery matters.
@Chicago Jones: Good question. The answer is both.
@Sarcastro: Weak field - strong mustache - I like it's chances.
Randy Edsall took over a pretty putrid - some may say non-existant - Uconn program and, despite their unfortunate loss this weekend, still has them atop the Big East standings.
@Im a people person. Who drinks.: Like I said a week ago, and I'm a Pitt season ticket holder: The highlight of Pitt's football season was seeing my friend knocked horizontal in a Port-o-John in the Heinz Field parking lot. Three years ago, they played in the Fiesta Bowl. You can't overstate that kind of incompetence.
Um Dan, I really hate to break this to you but, the NCAA rules say that you can't have a conference title game unless the conference has a minimum of 12 teams. The Pac 10 and Big 10 couldn't have conference title games if they wanted them.
"Mark Mangino took over the worst program in the Big 12..."
Baylor would like to thank Mr. Shanoff for his kind words.
"What's NOT the matter with kansas?"
I could think of a few things...
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.
/Domer who loves Bizarro College Football season.
So Shanoff, you're saying that UGA proves that once you go black, you should never go back?
@BloggyMcBlogBlog: Shanoff has never allowed logic to interfere with his assertions - why start now?
Dan, while normally I like your writing, call me sometime and tell me how kU did when they played Okla...
Oh wait, they didn't? Or even a non-conference opponent with balls, like Mizzou did with the Fighting [NAME REDACTED]i?
Let's just put it this way: a lot of eyes in the media will be opened to the real story (not just the Cinderella one) on November the 24th.
That's a college basketball top-ten, right?
Thanks for never failing to point out the obvious Dan. I bet you were the only one in the country who thought the Buckeyes weren't number 1. We educated Buckeye fans (insert oxymoron joke here) knew the Bucks weren't the best team in the country. However, it is better to see them get beat by an up and coming Illinois team then get waxed in another BCS title game (or worse yet, lose to Michigan). This is a nice wake up call to get them ready for the Big House next week.
By the way Dan, conferences with less than 10 teams can't have a conference championship. ( See the Pac 10 and Big 11.)
*less than 12 teams
/fact check myself
This column is like our own little slice of ESPN every monday.
Just because Unky Rob's point bears repeating: the Pac-10 teams play each other every year.
If a non-undefeated team from the Big 12 jumps over them, it'll be laughable.
It's only a matter of time before Larry Bartels publishes a "What's the Matter with What's NOT the Matter with Kansas?".
Conference Championship games are a sham. Really, they should just be gotten rid of. 10 team conferences play EVERY TEAM. The Pac 10 and Big 10 shouldn't compromise tradition by adding a random twelfth team.
The Big Ten is going to go and get some ridiculous school like Iowa State to be our chew toy while we have a conference championship game, which instantly diminishes Ohio State-Michigan. If we're not getting Notre Dame or West Virginia, we shouldn't do it and we should let Penn State go to the Big East where they really belong anyway.
The Pac 10 doesn't have anybody to add. Hawaii? Boise State? They don't need a title game because they aren't as stupid (and greedy) as the Big Ten.
Those two conferences are linked at the hip, and the Pac 10 is the one that's showing all the class and tradition. When you see Rutgers in the Big Ten in a few years, remember that money means more to Jim Delany then tradition.
/rant
@Boy Howdy: +1
@Signal to Noise: So if Kansas finishes the season undefeated, having beat #5 Mizzou and #6 Oklahoma in consecutive weeks, they shouldn't jump a one-loss Oregon team?
Now that's laughable.
Or vice-versa...whatever they're ranked.
The black jerseys looked really good at the start of the 4th, when everyone in the place was doing the Soulja Boy
[www.youtube.com]
@PeteJäyhawk™:
He said non undeafted Big 12 team.
@Unky Rob: Thank you, it's not the difficult to figure out.
@BloggyMcBlogBlog:
My google-fu didn't find any mentions of a NCAA rule against conference championships. where'd you hear that from and what rule is it?
Two comments:
1) @Abe Froman's Sausage: To add to your Pac-10 bandwagon, it's the only conference where you play every team in the conference. So the least the Big-10 could do is do a true round robin like the Pac-10. There's a good argument to be made that team at the top of the Pac-10 is a more legit. conference champion than any conference where a team doesn't play every other team in the conference.
2) NCAA doesn't allow conference championship games for conferences with fewer than 12 teams. This is why the ACC had to wait till BC joined to divide into two divisions. Standing at 10 and 11 teams each respectively, this is why the Pac-10 and Big-10 can't have a sanctioned conference championship game even if they wished.
FUCK TIM TEBOW
And not one word about the sad, depressing end to the orange bowl...
(HA HA HA!)
It is good to see Shanoff's HTML classes are going well
@ Abe Froman's Sausage:
When "every team" includes Arizona, Washington State, and Oregon State, I'm not that impressed.
Additionally - that one team that Oregon lost to, at home mind you, has now lost 4 in a row.
Meanwhile...that team Kansas lost to...oh, wait.
The Big Ten could go to a 14 or 13 game schedule and play every conference team. I'd actually prefer that to what is on the horizon for them. Didn't Ohio State do that once anyway?
The biggest problem with college football over the past 20 years is the loss of tradition. Look, I'm not going to call it the Capitol One Bowl. It's the Citrus Bowl. And the game in Atlanta is the Peach Bowl. Can't you just sponsor the game and not rename it? But I can take all of that, really. I can even take them messing with the Rose Bowl. But, when they start threatening Michigan and Ohio State, something is wrong.
@The Gentleman Masher:
Central Michigan, South-Eastern Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International are bad as it is, but then in conference they play Baylor, Iowa State and very crappy Nebraska and TAMU teams. Call me when they play Tex- oh wait.
@The Gentleman Masher: 4 losses in a row to Pac-10 teams. In the SEC that would be accepted as proof of the toughness of the conference.
Speaking of which, the team that LSU lost to, by blowing a big lead, now has 4 losses as well.
I must have missed that lecture... I thought the Shanovian response to the Illinis's upset of TOSU would be the removal of the latter from Shanoff's Blogpoll Top 25. Then again, I also saw LSU leap-frogging Kansas (even as KU is still undefeated ("& you must have an undefeated team at no. 1 in the country" (see South Florida, three losses ago, four weeks ago))) 'cause, y'know, the Tigers looked really good beating La. Tech (plus LSU is in the SEC).
Can't we just cut the Big XII out of the BCS? (insert conference champion here) is just going to get blown out anyway if they make the national title game. Is it possible Oregon can get absolutely screwed out of a title game two times in the same decade?
@PeteJäyhawk™: It will be nice to see kansas finally come to the big boy table here in late November and finally play real college football teams.
I think this season has the most SEC knob-polishing I've seen in a long time. I'm really not convinced they're that much better this season than the Big 12 or the Pac 10.
@elwood: You don't watch enough SEC football then. The fact that so many teams are getting beaten, and then the winner of that getting beat by another team who lost to the loser of game 1(I.E. LSU/FL/KENTUCKY, GA/UF/S.Carolina or GA/FL/TENN) just shows how competitive, week in and week out, the SEC is. Oregon is very good, USC, pretty good, Cal good, and after that PAC 10 has nothing, while the SEC boasts schools that would wipe their asses with most of, if not all, of the PAC 10. I would love to see LSU eat Oregon for the nat'l championship.
@3championshipsandwich:
Arizona State?
@3championshipsandwich: Cal is "good" in your view. Cal has lost to 4 straight Pac 10 teams, three of which make your list of horrible teams which would get clobbered in the SEC. How is this any different than your SEC free for all situation?
The Big 10 plays every team? Remember when Ohio State beat up on Iowa? Oh, wait. Didn't happen. Iowa not on their schedule (neither is Indiana) just like Wisconsin wasn't on their schedule last year. OSU plays 8 games in conference with a few non-conference cupcakes thrown in.
The Big 10/11 just needs to add Notre Lame and go to a championship game. They'd actually benefit from it because, if for some reason a Big 10/11 team actually makes it to the BCS championship game bowl Tostitos thing, they don't have to wait an ice age before they play it.
PLAYOFFS?!?
@Crash Davis: Kentucky has 3 losses. So there goes that theory.