BCS Championship Observations

Two years ago, Urban Meyer went undefeated as coach of Utah, and they weren't even in the national championship debate, let alone the game. Now, his Florida team got to play for the national championship despite a loss, and absolutely throttled Ohio State.

Congratulations, Urban. That was a good career move. Some coaching moves I don't get, like when coaches of good college teams jump to the NFL, but this won I understood.

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Why did Ohio State's marching band play the theme from Titanic in the halftime show?

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I didn't make any predictions, but I wasn't surprised by the Florida victory - the score, maybe, but not the victory. Ohio State didn't seem to me to be jaw-dropping awesome like some college teams of the past, and if you're not jaw-dropping awesome, you're beatable.

Aside from Texas and Michigan, they're schedule wasn't much. They put up 17 on Illinois, demonstrating that it is possible to stop them, and allowed 39 to Michigan, indicating it is possible for a highly-ranked team to score on them. It seems that every year in both the NCAA and NFL a very strong defense will give up thirty or more points a couple of times.

And I usually expect southern schools to do well against northern schools in warm-weather bowl games. Southern schools - from California to Florida - seem to have faster and quicker athletes and don't have to adjust to the climate.

But in any case, Florida was better prepared for the game in every way. Who knows how much better Ohio State would have played if the game was held a month ago. Fifty days is a long time between football games. I suspect the late date of this BCS championship game will be re-examined, as will the early date of the Ohio State - Michigan game.