Upsets And The Jets On Fire

Looks like Favre wasn't the only thing on fire in the Meadowlands. There's some strong language on there, so rid your computer room of the little ones before watching.

Last Saturday's upsets got me thinking. Were any of these games truly upsets, or were they creations of the fanatical college football media? So much preseason hype was thrust onto the L.A. schools and Georgia that it put them onto a pedestal they - UCLA, certainly - weren't capable of staying on. UCLA was a bad team before its QBs were hurt and it beat an over-hyped Tennessee with its third-stringer running the show. Florida is the same Florida it was last year; Tim Tebow still makes mistakes and still can't carry a team to an undefeated season by himself, much like Knowshon Moreno. It's the same thing every year: over-hyped players create over-hyped teams that get into conference play and lose to teams that know them like a book - read OSU/USC, or Stanford/USC. There is too much talent on any team in the country to write them off in any game. Sure, the Pac-10 was hurt by its play out of conference, but non-conference games ONLY matter when determining the BSC standings. Last time I checked, the winner of the Pac-10 still goes to the Rose Bowl, second place still goes to the Holiday, and so-on and so forth. As far as the Ducks are concerned, a USC loss to OSU meant a lot more than its own loss to Boise State. Obviously no team wants to lose, but in terms of winning the Pac-10 title - which, other than the fleeting dreams of a national title, is the ultimate goal - a USC loss in conference sets Oregon up with a realistic opportunity to snag the title. And IF, IF, IF Oregon does win out, and doesn't worry about what happens around it, a national title might not be out of the question as well. Just a thought, not a prediction, so don't get crazy!

And by the way, anyone who says anything about SEC superiority and Ole Miss in the same sentence has already blown his or her credibility on college football, so don't bother going any further than that. Not sure what the numbers are, but if the west coast ratings for the national college football TV shows are slumping, that might be a reason for it. You're dumb, so stop talking.

I added some radio highlights from Saturday's game onto the player at the bottom of the page, so look down there and listen away.
-Alex