Sunday, November 23, 2008

Alabama Crimson Tide versus Florida Gators

I grew up as avid a Crimson Tide fan as ever there was. I worshipped Bear Bryant. Three of my siblings graduated from the University of Alabama. We have Crimson Tide passion in the extended Huck family.

But ...

The Gators are going to maul the Crimson Tide this in two weeks.

That loss that Florida has on the books ... it was a fluke.

I think Florida is hands-down the most dominant college football team this year.

It's not even close.

And I'm not even a Florida Gators fan.

But they will crush Alabama. By more than three touchdowns. Mark my words.

10 comments:

Cara said...

GO GATRORS!

I'm a Gator fan in LSU country, only good thing going for me this week is that LSU fans hate Alabama more then they do Florida LOL

Eric said...

I haven't had a chance to watch any Bama games this year, but have watched a couple of Florida games, and they are extremely good, (although perhaps too centered around Tebow on offense).

I'd like to see Bama pull it off. I've been a closet Bama fan ever since they played a home-and-home series against my Sooners a few years ago. The Bama fans I met at the OU game were some of the classiest big-program football fans I've ever had the pleasure to share a pre-game beer with. Those people sure know how to tailgate! Regardless of the outcome of the Bama/Florida game, it's good to see The Tide emerge as a national powerhouse once again. I hope they can stay there for awhile.

If OU can run the gauntlet in the Big XII, which looks much more likely after our authoritive smackdown of T-Tech on saturday, I'd love to see them play Bama in the NC Game. In addition to the talent, there is a lot of tradition between those two schools that would make such a game a classic match-up.

Anonymous said...

Eric, looks like we don't only disagree on politics!! I'm in Peru...supposed to be doing research, but I'm checking out the polls online after Tech's loss to OU. Texas is still ranked #2 in the BSC (although they're ranked lower than OU in other polls). So thanks to OU for stomping Tech, but HOOK EM HORNS!!!

Eric said...

"Texas is still ranked #2 in the BSC."

Yep, but they have a razor thin margin there. OU plays #12 ranked OSU this weekend while TX plays an unranked aTm team. OU should get a boost for beating a ranked team. Most of the pundits are predicting OU will jump TX and go to the Big XII Championship as long we we win the OSU game (which certainly isn't a given, the OU/OSU game is one of those rivalries where you can throw rankings out the window). I think that is a safe prediction, and if not, thus is the consequence of losing to TX.

The caveat is that T-Tech has to win their game against Baylor (which should be a given) because that keeps the three-way tie for 1st place in the Bix XII South, which means the highest ranked team in the BCS goes the champinship game. If Tech loses, there is no more three-way tie, and it goes back to the head-2-head match up between OU and TX, which OU lost.

(Question: I think I may be the only person in all of college football fandom who actually prefers the BCS system, with all its admittedly glaring imperfections, to a playoff scenario... mainly because I love the way it makes every single regular season game a do-or-die event. Any other takers on this position?)

Huck said...

Eric - I prefer the playoff system for one simple reason: more weeks of college football.

As for your argument that the BCS system makes every game a do-or-die event, I don't see how an 8 team playoff would make every single regular season game a do-or-die event. To make the playoffs, a team would still need to make the top rankings; and a team can't really expect to lose more than one game and do that. That's basically the same threshhold for losing that currently exists within the BCS. Besides, what do you say to teams that come from weaker conferences but manage to go undefeated and still lose out on even the chance of competing for the national championship. Hence a playoff may even be more fair in this regard -- plus we'd get more football!

Anonymous said...

I was just talking to a Peruvian friend about how crooked the World Cup playoffs are. (I was teasing him about an event in 1978 when Peru threw a semifinal game against Argentina for the exact amount of goals Argentina needed to get into the final in exchange for much needed economic aid that came in a few weeks later.) His response - "well at least our system is more straightforward than that f*!$ed up BSC system in your country!"

Huck said...

cynthia - there's something true in what your friend says! One needs to be a statistical magician to be able to figure out how the BCS ranking system works -- which makes it seem all the more randon, though shrouded with the cloak of scientific legitimacy. An example of magical realism at work.

Unknown said...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/3009073968/in/set-72157608716113455/

Anonymous said...

snark on

I like a playoff system because it increases the number of teams po'd because they didn't get into the show exponentially. Just think about the months of bickering by fans of all 2 and 3 loss teams left out and the endless criticism of the system that selects the teams that will fill sports talk.

snark off

Eric said...

celcus,

That's part of my issue w/ the playoff system... without a huge playoff bracket, you just can't get enough teams in to make everybody happy, and you are going to end up with the same types of problems we have now.

Honestly, as long as they don't turn the regular season games into an even more uninteresting version of the NFL, I don't much care how they do it. There will always be deserving teams who don't get a shot at a NC game for one reason or another... that's just he way the world works. People will fight and fight for a playoff system, and then be enraged when their two-loss team doesn't get invited to the playoffs, even while the one-loss team they defeated in regular season goes on to win the NC. There is no perfect system.

To be honest, I just started looking for reasons to oppose a playoff system becasue Obama supports one. ;-)