Fiesta Bowl (P)Review

Well, back from Dallas. Bonus Cotton Bowl stuff is forthcoming, along with reviews of the myriad games I've missed reviewing. But for now, hours before it happens, the Fiesta Bowl (P)Review!


Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Boise State vs. TCU

I figure that this matchup was determined at BCS headquarters. I imagine that BCS headquarters is a place wreathed in shadow and intrigue, located high atop a mountain next to Dracula's castle. Jimmy Hoffa's body is hidden in BCS headquarters. Oh, I've digressed. Let's move on down...

Look, the BCS is a joke. A joooooooooooooke. No one who likes college football to any degree would disagree with this statement. But the BCS isn't happy to be merely hated. No, they seek a greater degree of disgust. I'm talking abject loathing. Hatred that most people are incapable of feeling. To do that, they must not merely mess up the chances of 10 conference champions who don't get to play for a bowl, but also mess up the seasons of 3 teams who bought the "you must be undefeated to go to the championship" racket, only to get screwed in the end.

But, here in 2009, the BCS wasn't content with just doing that, either. No, they decided to give us all an extra good screwing by placing the two little teams safely away in Arizona, where they couldn't upset Iowa, Georgia Tech, Florida, Cincinnati, Oregon, Ohio State, Texas or Alabama. Heck, we all know that couldn't happen anyway...Oh, wait:

2008: Utah-31, Alabama-17
2006: Boise State-43, Oklahoma-42
2004: Utah-35, Pitt-7

The only non-automatic qualifying team to lose its BCS bowl? Hawaii, who was actually overrated. So, basically, we've had non-AQ teams in 4 BCS bowls prior to this, and they're 3-1. That's really good. But we're being played to swallow that "the season is the playoff." Bull crap. If the season were the playoff, then we'd give out 5 championship trophies to the 5 undefeated teams! Because in a real playoff, undefeated = championship. In college football, however, undefeated = stuffed into a corner where you can't hurt any of the big boy schools. Puh-leeze. The BCS has become nothing more than a schoolyard bully, and it needs to be gotten rid of. Immediately, if not sooner.

Should I watch this game? Yes, if only as a protest. The Boise State/Oklahoma game is one of the lowest rated BCS games ever. The reason? People didn't watch it because they figured that Oklahoma would kill Boise and because only one team (Oklahoma) had any pro prospects at all. The fact that the game turned into an all time classic is irrelevant, because people assumed that they would see the OU players in the pros and the Boise State players growing potatoes.

People treat college football like a training ground for the pros. I hate these people, because these are the people who think that because a guy went to Southern Cal he is more likely to be NFL-ready than someone with similar stats who went to Alcorn State. Will someone please call Ryan Leaf, Ki-Jana Carter, Akili Smith, or Matt Leinart and tell me how that philosophy's treating them right now?

These are also the people who have helped to kill the integrity of college sports. Will many TCU players play in the NFL? No. Same with Boise State. But we can appreciate them for what they are (What they are = student athletes) instead of considering them non-pro worthy and therefore not worth our time. Plus, TCU has an awesome defense that shut down 4 teams from automatic qualifying conferences. Now, none of those teams was very good, but that's still a little bit impressive.

CFR Pick: Gotta go with TCU. I know I've provided very little in the way of football analysis here, but I really think that the Horned Frog defense is something to contend with. TCU held Clemson's CJ Spiller of Clemson to 4.3 yards per carry and 112 yards of rushing on the day back in October. Spiller ripped off one big play, and if you remove that one outlier (yes, I'm cheating, I know, but stick with me here) then he carried for just 78 yards. I have trouble believing that Boise's offense can score that much, especially since Boise comes from a pretty weak conference. Top to bottom, the MWC (TCU's conference) could have stuck with the Big 10, Pac-10, Big East, Big 12, and ACC this season. The WAC (Boise's conference) could have stuck with none of them. The Mountain West is 4-0 in bowls, and only one of those games came against a non-AQ foe. The WAC is 1-2 with its lone win coming against Bowling Green. So, yeah, I'm picking TCU based on strength of schedule...

That's all for now. See you later on...