Friday, December 12, 2008

Random Thoughts

I was pleasantly surprised that the Utes went undefeated this past year in football. The team found a way to win each game. The most impressive thing to me is that it never did anything in the big games to beat itself. The team was simply patient, waiting for the other team to make mistakes, and then capitalized. It was very impressive especially since in Utah’s football history the past 10 years it seems to be the opposite on so many occasions. Now we have the golden opportunity of playing Alabama in the bowl game. I have no idea what to expect out of this game but I’m excited about it. Hopefully, Utah will find a way to pull that one out.

As for the basketball team, I’m somewhat optimistic about the progress that has been made but what troubles me the most is that we now lose quite often at home. That is not a good sign at all. That just didn’t happen during the Majerus era and it bothers me to no end that we are no longer dominant in the Huntsman Center. I still like Boylen but I miss the dominance we enjoyed for so long under Majerus.

The BCS is as messed up this year as ever. Texas got the shaft! How could anyone ever give the nod to Oklahoma over Texas when Texas beat Oklahoma? It reminds me of Florida St’s national championship back in the 90s when it and Notre Dame each had one loss but Flordia St.’s loss was to Notre Dame yet Florida St. was still voted National champ. That was before the BCS but it is the same problem. How can anything mean more than head to head competition? I’ll never understand that.

The 2nd BCS problem this year that has been overlooked is that fact that Ohio St. was selected as an at-large team. We depend on this system to determine who the two top teams are to play for the national championship but Ohio St. gets a bid when it is rated below an undefeated Boise St. in the standings. It doesn’t make any sense.

One major improvement to the BCS would simply be to remove the automatic bids. That would have eliminated non-deserving schools this year like Virginia Tech and Cincinnati and given the chance to teams like Boise St. We all a playoff is more likely than that though. Why would the major conferences give away that power? It has a monopoly.