College football’s current system encourages teams to play creampuff opponents and until that changes, more and more teams will continue to… play it safe

SCOTT JACOBS

“Take a chance!” — some random lady in Eddie Murphy’s classic movie, Coming to America.

We’re always told to “take a chance,” to put ourselves out there.  Nobody comes to you, you have to go it, seems to be the common battlecry.

Unless you participate in big time college football*

*=and you play in a big six BCS Conference school.

Take a chance?  Why?  College football’s big wigs will reward you for keeping your hands on your hips and doing nothing.  As long as you knock out your mediocre conference brethren.  I know, I know, I sound like a broken record.  Schedule strength this, schedule strength that, but the truth is, college football has moved to a situation where teams that take a chance put themselves in position to ultimately lose.

So who can blame a team like UF or Texas for feasting on creampuffs.  No one is penalizing them for that.

I understand putting one appetizer on your schedule.  Those lower schools need the money, you need the tune up, everybody wins.  But two?  Three?  Four?  College football’s pool of exciting out of conference matchups basically goes like this: there are rivalry games which for years have been set in stone, and then there are a few select few who go cross country and “take a chance.”

Those teams could be feasting on the FIU’s and Troy’s of the world. Or they could try to make themselves better, and make college football more exciting by really turning up the heat and giving us some out of conference top 25 tilts.

Off the top of my head, there were maybe a handful of top 25 showdowns out of conference this year.  These are the ones on my count*

*=again, it should be noted that natural rivarly games do not count.  Key word: do not.

13 Georgia at 9 Oklahoma State (at the time it featured two top 15 teams to start the year.  Though Georgia ultimately lost and then forgot to show up for most of it’s 2009 rebuilding year it was nice to see a highly thought of  SEC team travel cross country and put their quality ranking on the line early on in the season).

16 Oregon at 14 Boise State (looking back it would have been awesome if this game came closer to the end of the year, but the Ducks took a chance, went out to Boise’s blue field and ultimately lost.  It’s been Boise State’s only really, really good win, but at least Oregon had the guts to make the trip.  Though we’d love to see Boise State travel somewhere themselves).

20 BYU vs. 3 Oklahoma (in Dallas.  Looking back this season set the tone for Oklahoma’s forgettable season, but it gave us intriguing theater and COugar fans delusional BCS title hopes for a few weeks.  Beating a top 5 team week one created a lot of excitement.  Would it kill teams to do the neutral non conference road game thing more often?)

7 Virginia Tech vs. 5 Alabama (in Atlanta.  Gave us an exciting top 10 match-up, the only one by my count that came out of conference all year, and put two quality teams in the spotlight early on.  It’s the only reason Bama gets a mulligan from me for their otherwise mockery of an out of conference schedule).

8 Oklahoma at 17 Miami (Give the Sooners credit: a year after making the BCS title game, they schedule two very tough out of confernce games.  Unfortunately for them they lost both.  But hey, they gave us two intriguing games, and every college football fan one with that).

And that’s it…

Feel free to chime in if I forgot any.  Again out of conference top 25 matchups: please enlighten me.

So again, I revisit the discussion.  Why play tough teams when you don’t have to?  UF is going to the SEC title game and is firmly entrenched as number one in all the land and they played… Troy, Charelston Southern, FIU and their usual in-state rival, You Know Who.  Texas is one Nebraska win away from going to the title game.  They played an out of conference schedule that looked like this: Louisiana-Monroe, UTEP, UCF, and Wyoming.

Maybe SEC and Big 12 schools get the benefit of the doubt because they play a conference championship game.  Great.  But why did college football go to a 12 game schedule if the intention was to add one more game of hollow nothing.

Check out this brief excerpt from a somewhat recent Naples News article.  The writer, David Moulton compares college football’s so called elite teams to pro football’s so called elite teams.  It’s a fascinating comparison that is rather sickening when you really, truly, break it all down.

Is this really what college football wants? A final month of the season where only three schools (Florida, Alabama and Texas) will be playing games considered meaningful? Everything and everyone else is merely window dressing.

Imagine if only the Saints, Colts and Vikings played games with any meaning over the final month of the NFL season. The Colts in the role of Texas. If they don’t mess up too badly, they go to the Super Bowl. Then we’ll pit the Saints (Florida) and the Vikings (Alabama) against each other (SEC championship) to determine who plays the Colts in the Super Bowl.

As for everyone else, like the Bengals (in the role of TCU, Cincinnati or Boise State) or Georgia Tech (representing the Cowboys, Chargers or Cardinals) … you guys got real potential, but we’re not interested.

It feels like this season has been almost fixed from the start.  Florida has played a watered down SEC slate that didn’t even include Alabama and they go into the SEC title game number one.  Texas plays no one whatsoever in a year Oklahoma stinks, Texas Tech sulks, and Oklahoma State doesn’t live up to it’s potential, and they’re number three. TCU, Cincy, and friends?  Thanks for playing, I guess.

Let’s take a look at the SEC and Big 12 standings.  Shall we?

SEC East
Florida 12-0 (8-0)
everyone else:
Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt (all have 4 wins in conference or less)

SEC West
Alabama 12-0 (8-0)
everyone else:
LSU (5 wins), Ole Miss, Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State (all have between 3-4 wins in conference)

Translation: the SEC is mediocre.  Even vaunted LSU lost three games in conference.  And keep in mind they played NO ONE out of conference.  If college football truly wanted to make things ‘fair’ they’d force their so called conference titans like UF and Bama to play some quality teams outside the mediocre SEC.  I don’t think that’s asking too much.

How about the Big 12?  Let’s take a gander over to the west and dissect them.

Big 12 South
Texas 12-0 (8-0)
everyone else:
Oklahoma State (6), Texas Tech (5), Oklahoma (5), Texas A&M (3) and Baylor (1)

Now, let me ask you something: Is it more impressive to beat up a bunch of mediocre teams, or is it more meaningful to beat a few quality teams with some creampuff conference teams thrown in the mix as well?

I’d argue the Big 12 was a tougher conference, especially when you compare UT’s division to UF’s.  Still, the only notable game between the two was Georgia-Oklahoma State, which the Cowboys won in week one.

My point here is this: how impressive is it, to go through a gauntlet of mediocre teams?  You taking notes Alabama and Florida?  I keep hearing how great the SEC is, but what makes them great?  That they have two powers at the top feasting on the has beens, could bes, and never have beens?

College football is better off when teams take chances.  But aside from non-BCS busters, no one really has to. Let’s take a further look at each team in the top 10’s best out of conference game and the result. (Based on BCS standings)

1. Florida (beat FSU)
2. Alabama (beat No. 14 Virginia Tech)
3. Texas (beat UCF)
4. TCU (beat No. 18 Clemson)
5. Cincy (beat No. 16 Oregon State)
6. Boise State (beat No. 8 Oregon)
7. Georgia Tech (lost to UGA)
8. Oregon (lost toNo. 6 Boise State, beat No. 21 Utah)
9. Pitt (beat Notre Dame)
10. Ohio State (beat Navy, No. 20 USC)

Oregon gets my respect.  They took on two out of conference heavyweights.  And keep this is mind: the Pac10 plays nine conference games, so they have three out of conference slots open.  They filled two of those with the Broncos and the Utes (who bare in mind beat Alabama last year in the Sugar Bowl).

Why can’t we have matchups like Ohio State-Cincinnati?  You know, games that challenge both teams and really prove their validity.  Why can’t Pitt take on Penn State?  Why can’t Iowa travel to Texas or vice versa?  So many teams could give us unforgettable matchups, but nine times out of ten in the new age of college football we’re instead left with mediocre bowl matchups and an even drier out of conference slate.

Could you imagine if the Patriots played their AFC east foes twice and then feasted on teams like the Rams, Lions, and Chiefs the rest of the year?  That’s kind of what it’s like.  Sure, the AFC East is okay, but those out of division teams afforementioned are awful.  People would be outraged if the NFL became that.  But why is it no big deal that college football has ventured down that path?

That’s all I want to know.  So please, somebody, anybody, explain it to me.  Why does college football allow their top teams such a free ride through their non-conference slate?  Games are planned years in advance.  That I get.  But when you schedule teams that have never been good, well how can you look anyone in the eye and say it’s not your fault? I’m not looking at anyone in particular.  College football is to blame.

What happened to the idea of taking on all comers?  Where did the guts go to?  To be the best, don’t you want to challenge the best?

Only a few teams are taking those chances.  The others are just floating down college football’s lazy river to a big profile BCS game or even worse, the national championship.

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