It’s a good thing I didn’t bet on the BCS national championship game, because like many I thought Notre Dame would keep it close and find a way to win. No chance.
Instead, well, we all know what happened. It was a beatdown, except I don’t think that accurately conveys what happened in Miami on Monday night. It was too lopsided to be a beatdown.
Alabama played from the start as if it was in a league of its own, or at least one in which the better teams are known as the Patriots and Packers, and in doing so rolled the Irish 42-14. From what I saw of it, the game wasn’t even that close.
I admit I didn’t see it all, though. By 9:30 p.m. my wife, also a football fan, and I had flipped over to catch “Mike and Molly.” It’s a funny show, sometimes. It was definitely funnier than watching Alabama make Notre Dame look like Brian VanGorder had suddenly become the Irish head coach.
If you’re keeping count, and I suspect most of us college football fans from the South are, the Tide title is the seventh straight for the Southeastern Conference while Alabama is celebrating its third national championship in four years and second straight.
I expect one streak to end next season and one to continue.
South Carolina, not Alabama, will win it all and make it eight straight for the SEC. Go Gamecocks.
One can dream, right?
Onward:
Six-time national champion Georgia Southern finished third in the FCS rankings this season after getting to the semifinals for the third straight year under third-year coach Jeff Monken.
Looks so far like Monken and company will get another shot at the school’s seventh FCS title next season in spite of misguided efforts to push the program into FBS. Georgia Southern needs to move to FBS the same way Richmond Hill needs even more traffic on Highway 17 and 144 at rush hour.
In other words, it doesn’t.
That isn’t saying I think Georgia Southern can’t compete at the FBS level. I just don’t think GSU can compete at the same level in FBS it does in FCS. And there’s a world of difference between national titles and everything else.
Finally:
Fans of local sports radio may have noticed high-powered 102.1 FM is no longer under the ESPN flag and is now a CBS sports station.
Unfortunately, the change in direction hasn’t led to the departure of “local” talk show host Seth Harp, a transplant from up North who might grow up to be a pretty good radio host if he’d learn to relax, be a little less condescending and let other people have an opinion.
Even worse, now we get Jim Rome. Two reasons I’m glad my car has a CD player.