With Oregon, Auburn, Boise State and TCU at the top, has college football become boring?
I wrote this article -- detailing how Alabama was going to come from the back of the pack and get into the BCS title game -- last week. Obviously, I was wrong. They fell at LSU. Two-loss teams, even two-loss teams with a pedigree like Alabama, don't get into the BCS title game.
Then my friend told me this: last weekend, he went to a movie with his girlfriend Saturday. This weekend and the weekend of Nov. 20, he plans to do the same.
Has college football become boring?
In short answer, no. Not really. It's always going to be exciting because while we think this weekend is a dud, California could stun Oregon, or UGA could drop Auburn, and suddenly it's treemendous.
People think this season is boring for a few reasons, insofar as I can gather. Feel free to add your own if you stumble upon this and wish to comment:
1. Comparisons to 2007: Ever since stuff started getting weird with this season, people have been comparing it to 2007. In 2007, stuff was legitimately crazy week-to-week. At Halloween that year, the teams that would eventually meet in the BCS title game were ranked No. 4 and No. 9; Halloween to the end of the season is three weeks, basically (maybe a month). To think a team can go from 9 to 1/2 in that span seems insane. Right now, Ohio State is No. 9 in the BCS. They are a one-loss team, true, but they have no wins over elite teams (no Top 25 wins, actually) and Wisconsin holds the Big Ten tiebreaker over 'em. Even if they beat Iowa next weekend in Iowa City, are they going to the BCS title game? No. A lot of crazy junk would have to happen, and you just don't get the feeling it's going to.
2. Deep involvement of TCU and Boise: Even when TCU goes and blasts Utah, or when Boise opens the year rallying over Virginia Tech, these teams don't get ink. People are diminuitive of the very town Boise plays in; most people consider it an ultimate flyover. TCU is on Versus every week. That's where you can find NHL games and cycling. People don't get these squads, and by design, feel they don't want to watch them. There's also this feeling that both these teams are eventually going to get screwed, so why bother worrying about them?
3. Big-name programs dropping off: Texas is in a f'n tailspin. Florida is top 25 again, but probably shouldn't be. Miami. Notre Dame. Michigan, aside from the Illinois win, is doing exactly what it did last year. PSU. Even OSU -- who lets Wisco win a big game? Oklahoma's even dropped two after looking good. Nebraska coulda been themselves of old, and BOOM, they lose to a Texas team that might not make a bowl game. Your big-money, big-name schools are just not elite. That destroys casual interest.
4. Oregon's lack of threats: Oregon hangs 50 on basically everyone they play. Some people -- mostly diehards, because it kicked at 10:15 EST -- may have seen Arizona beat Iowa in Week 3, but very few people know a whole hell of a lot about Arizona or Oregon State, who are perceived to be Oregon's biggest remaining threats. Pac-10 has no title game, so this almost seems like a fait accompli.
5. If Auburn's doing it, is it legal? This Cam Newton thing is a giant mess. (Now, admittedly, this goes against my main point, as the movement of this story has made the game more interesting.) People should have seen this coming, though: Gene Chizik was a crap coach at Iowa State -- Iowa State -- and suddenly he's coaching the No. 2 team in the country? Doesn't add up. He had to embrace the dirty dirty side of the world. Other thing about Auburn, but this may just be me: I feel like they're going to get exposed. Georgia. Alabama. A surging Florida team in the SEC title game. It will happen. That defense, aside from Nick Fairley, just seems eh.
So, is the game boring? Hardly. I could check my phone Saturday at 9 p.m., in the middle of some type of dinner function, see Cal up 13 on Oregon, and immediately need a TV (and quite likely a seasonal draught). That's the pull of, and power of, college football. But with an indestructable Oregon, a cheating-prone Auburn, and two outlier programs as the only four that currently seem to matter, the drama-rama isn't all there right now.
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