By: The Young Bartender
The Beach, FL- After a week off trying to get over my week-long holiday hangover, its back to work. This past weekend showed us some great moments in college football and also some interesting observations from the bar.
O-H-I-O
Just A. Bartender mentioned in his column yesterday that 40% of BCS teams this year are from Ohio or Texas. That really only tells part of the story of how great these states are in producing football talent. Call me prejudice, but Ohio had a really good showing this past weekend as it seems to every weekend. With the Rose Bowl bound Buckeyes off this weekend, Ohio University played in the MAC Championship, Cincinnati played in what was basically the Big East Championship, and a pair of Division III teams, Wittenberg and Mt. Union played in the final eight of the Division III playoffs. Although, Ohio University and Wittenberg lost, it is amazing watching so many teams from Ohio having success.
And it’s no secret where all this talent is coming from when you look at each roster. Ohio State has 79 players on their roster from Ohio, Ohio University has 57, Cincinnati has 51, Mt. Union 62 and Wittenberg 73. That means 322 former Ohio High School football players were playing playoff level football this weekend or in the case of the Buckeyes, waiting to play in the Rose Bowl.
You don’t have to look just to Ohio to see the reach of this great state when it comes to football. The SEC Championship game pitted two coaches (Urban Meyer and Nick Saban) who either grew up in Ohio, or in the case of Saban, spent a lot of his childhood there. Bo Pelini, who came close to having the upset of the weekend, also a former citizen of the great state of Ohio. The list does not stop there, Bob Stoops, Les Miles and, of course, Jim Tressel all learned the game of football within the borders of Ohio. Ohio truly is the Heart of it all when it comes to football.
Championship football
The past weekend showed us why we do not have a playoff in college football, the season itself is a playoff. You want a quick fix to the BCS/Playoff debate? The Big Ten adds Notre Dame and splits into two divisions with a championship game. East Division- OSU, Michigan, Michigan St., Penn St, Notre Dame, Indiana; West Division- Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin. The PAC 10 adds BYU and Utah splits into two divisions and adds a championship game. North- Washington, Washington St., Oregon, Oregon St., BYU, Utah; South Division- USC, UCLA, Stanford, Arizona, Arizona St, California. The Big 12 adds two teams as well, TCU and Boise St, with one being placed in each of the divisions. And the Big East adds Navy, Temple, ECU, and Army splits into two six team divisions and adds a championship game. East- Navy, Rutgers, Temple, Connecticut, Syracuse, Army; West- Cincinnati, West Virginia, South Florida, Pitt, Louisville, ECU. With just a few minor changes, and without alienating the bowls, we now have a true playoff system that everyone would be happy with. Too bad it would never happen.
Tebow Cries
I just like writing that! For most of the year here at barobservations.com we have been explaining that Florida is not that good, and Saturday night it was obvious. When you play no competition all year, and survive against bad teams, you are bound to lose when you do play a good team. Florida had the benefit of being ranked #1 at the beginning of the year, and when you play nobody if you keep winning you are set for a run at the national title. Too bad we never see Florida travel north to play non-conference games. In the last ten years Florida has never traveled out of the state to play a non-conference opponent! Are you kidding me? Go play somebody Gators, if you a truly proud football program, then travel outside of Florida. And oh by the way, does Chris Leak ever get pissed when everyone mentions that Tebow has two national championships? Just curious…