^{Championship Week}

^{Rivalry Week was fun as usual.  “You can throw the records out the window”, that was certainly appropriate this year.  Rivalry Week and Championship Week are the best thing about college football.  Enough I-AA games and OOC mismatches, it was time to just line up and try to knock off your big brother or kick your little brother when he’s down.}

^{Championship Week is an ever evolving week.  The PAC-10, WAC and Big East keep playing games while SEC, CUSA, Big 12, MAC and the ACC have conference Championship games.  The MWC is done, as is most of the Big 10, save a few WAC OOC games.  It’s weird, really.  So many meaningful games mixed in with…whatever games.}

^{It would really be nice to see the Big Ten, PAC-10 and Big East go to a championship format, where we just had 10 or so big games this week and that was it.  Ratings would be through the roof.  We have heard recently about potential MWC expansion to 12 teams.  I really think the Big East will go to 12 eventually as well.  Maybe the remaining Sun Belt and WAC teams can form together and play two divisions with a champ game (if you have more than 12 teams).  The Sun Belt Division plays the Western Athletic Division.  10 Conference Championship games.  10 winners go to the D-1 Playoff along with 6 at-large’s.} 

^{Some conferences have neutral site Conference Championship games, but I don’t think they should.  I’d like to reserve those sites for playoff sites after round 1.  I think we should use these monstrous stadiums we have in college football.  Florida goes to Alabama, where Florida gets the right to buy half the tickets for the Conference Championship game.  Or vice versa, depending on who hosted last.}   

^{I’d like to see the college football money stay in college football towns.  I’d like to see the Big Ten championship game at Penn State, the MWC championship game in Provo, the PAC-10 championship game in Seattle.  I think it would bring more meaning to college football.  Let’s keep the money at home and stop requiring our fans to travel all over the place to watch their team play.} 

^{When is college football going to look out for the fans?}

^{The Prominent Afterthoughts(Non-AQ)}

^{Best Rivalry Game:  Utah @ BYU…turned into a slugfest that needed overtime to settle it.  It doesn’t get much better than OT in a Rivalry game.  BYU QB Max Hall shook off a terrible day (12 for 32 for 134 yards) to connect for the winning score.  This game is a true rivalry with both teams having a chance to win almost every year.}

^{Honorable Mention:  Southern Miss @ East Carolina…these teams go back a long way.  But for some reason Southern Miss has owned ECU in Greenville, while ECU has pulled out a number of good road victories in Hattiesburg over the years.  ECU couldn’t put Southern Miss away, and the Golden Eagles had a chance to pull ahead in the 4th quarter when they scored to make it 20-20 but USM has missed 9 extra point tries this year and lo and behold, all conference DE CJ Wilson shot a gap, blocked the kick, ran over the holder, scooped up the ball and rumbled 90 plus yards for a two pointer the other way.  22-20 ECU.  USM never recovered.}

^{Conference Standings:}

^{Mountain West:  TCU is going to its first BCS game, although even though it went unbeaten and blew out most of its’ opponents, college football doesn’t allow for them to play for any titles.  They won the MWC, that’s it.}

^{Sun Belt:  Troy has its’ ticket punched to the New Orleans Bowl.}

^{WAC:  Boise State hosts New Mexico State.  They have already won the WAC and are playing for style points to try to get a big payday in a BCS game.  Another team that had no chance for a title beside’s a WAC title, as the BCS intends.}

^{CUSA:  East Carolina hosts Houston for the championship where two styles will collide.  Case Keenum has an amazing stat of 38 TD’s and only 6 INT’s.  Winner plays Arkansas in the St Jude Liberty Bowl.  Of course, I like the Pirates.}

^{MAC:  Central Michigan hosts Ohio for the title.  Winner goes to the GMAC Bowl where it is projected to possibly play Notre Dame.  I like Central Michigan this week.}

^{Big 10}

^{Does the Big Ten get to practice during these weeks off?} 

^ACC

^{Best Rivalry Game:  North Carolina @ North Carolina State…put another notch in the “Butch Davis is overrated” column.  He did beat ECU this year for the first time, he’s now 1-3 all time, but he’s now 0-3 against NC State while at UNC.  A 28-27 loss in Raleigh just made NC State’s season as did it’s blowout of UNC last year in Chapel Hill.}  

^{Wow, the ACC took it on the chin this week.  O for the SEC.  Even worse, its two teams, Georgia Tech and Clemson, that will play for the title this week, lost to middle of the road SEC East teams.  I guess that means Georgia Tech and Clemson would finish about 4th and 5th in the SEC…East.}  

^{I’m picking Clemson this week in Tampa where they will have more fans.}

^PAC-10

^{Best Rivalry Game:  USC versus UCLA…so Pete Carroll doesn’t like it when you run the score up on him.  But he doesn’t mind doing it on others.  Throwing a 48 yard pass with 45 seconds left in the game, when he’s already up by 14 points.  Yes UCLA is going to call a timeout, why wouldn’t they?  You can’t take them home with you.  But in truly Pete Carroll classless fashion, he can’t just run out the clock, he has to make a statement.  He questions Stanford, he questions UCLA…why is he so defensive?}

^{Conference Standings:  Oregon State at Oregon on Thursday will decide who plays in the Rose Bowl, essentially a de facto PAC-10 Championship game on primetime.  I’m thinking Oregon rolls….}

^{BIG 12}

^{Best Rivalry Game:  Oklahoma State @ Oklahoma.  Bedlam??  It’s been more like Massacre lately where the Sooners run all over Ok State. This is what I wrote last week.  And it happened again, to the tune of 27-0 Sooners.  No matter how much money T. Boone Pickens gives to OSU, they will still be second fiddle in their own state.} 

^{Honorable Mention:  No not Texas A&M versus Texas, that’s been pretty one sided lately.  The Missouri versus Kansas game was wild as usual.  Played in Kansas City, Missouri sacked Todd Reesing for a safety in the 4th quarter and kicked a field goal to win it on the ensuing drive to come back from 3 down to win it 41-39.  Kansas most likely will fire their coach after losing his players and finishing 5-7 this year.  It’s seems a long way since that Orange Bowl victory just two years ago.}

^{Conference Championship:  Texas and Nebraska are set to meet for the Big 12 title.  I just can’t see Texas losing this game in Cowboys Stadium.  Colt McCoy may give us his best Heisman push and vault his team into a BCS Championship game appearance.}

^{Big East}

^{Best Rivalry Game:  Pitt @ West Virginia.   West Virginia owes Pitt one for what happened a few years back.  Last week’s quotes and the Mountaineers delivered in a defensive battle, 19-16.} 

^{Conference Standings:  Pitt plays Cincinnati for the de facto Big East Championship.   I like Pitt’s chance at home, where Pornstache will have his team ready on defense.  Cincy is giving up way too many points for an unbeaten team and will completely fall out of the BCS if they lose.  Think about it, if you’re a Bowl Committee, are you taking Cincy over an unbeaten Boise.  Boise fans will travel better than Cincinnati.} 

^SEC

^{Best Rivalry Game:  Alabama @ Auburn…another great rivalry game where you could tell that Bama players felt the pressure.  It shouldn’t have been surprising that this game was this close, Bama plays most of its games close.  But it also wasn’t surprising that Bama drove down the field and scored the winning TD.  Auburn’s defense is worse than Alabama’s offense.  However, they did expose overrated Mark Ingram, which was nice to see.  The one thing you have to hate about the SEC is all the HYPE they throw around, first Jevan Snead, now Mark Ingram, who’s next Crompton?} 

^{Conference Championship:  Florida and Alabama are set to meet for a winner gets their ASS handed to them by Texas.  Kidding…maybe.   I think Florida will win again and we can be done with the Tim Tebow era.  Great kid, way too much hype.  I’ll be in the tailgate fields in Greenville either drinking in celebration or drinking in sorrow when this game starts.  Knowing that unless you are the best team in the SEC or Big 12 or your name is Ohio State or USC, you have virtually no chance of competing for a BCS championship…just as it is intended.} 

^{The BCS is set up to match 1 versus 2.  That’s it.  We don’t care about 3, 4, 5, or whoever else, we don’t care about other conferences or their champions.  Why are college fans accepting of this?  These programs are built on the backs of our money and we continue to support our programs.}

^{But I’m not going to a Bowl game.  Not until this changes.  I’d rather spend my money and my time with my family or give it straight to St Jude hospital.  Bowls are slotted now by conference anyway, it doesn’t matter if fans go.  I don’t have a problem with the concept of having teams play in different cities around the Holidays, but it’s completely outdated to not allow us to play it off because of it.  Neutral Field sites for playoff games can function the same way as Bowl sites.  I don’t know why we have to even have this stupid argument every year.} 

^{If college football gives us a system that lets the best teams play it out on the field after Conferences award their champions, then I’ll participate in it.} 

^{Until then…Boycott the Bowls.}