Starting Things Out Right... College Football

With the Ohio State-Michigan game ending in a 3 point victory for the Buckeyes, the question to ask is what now? Do the Wolverines get another chance at OSU? If there is a rematch and Michigan wins a close, do they win outright or do the two share the title (AP could still vote OSU)? If not Michigan, who?

Now, I have no doubt in my mind that Ohio State and Michigan are the two best teams in the country (I've thought that since early on and Saturday didn't change things), but I do have mixed feelings about a potential rematch between the two in the National Championship. On one hand, being a HUGE fan of the Big 10 as a whole, it would be awesome for it's two biggest schools (from a football standpoint) to play in the National Championship and guarantee the conference a title. But, I would also like to see each school take on somebody else and win to demonstrate to the rest of the country how good they truly are, which isn't entirely possible with a rematch.

So, who should line-up opposite Ohio State in the National Championship? There's still a lot of football left to be played, but right now I think that honor is gonna reside with USC. They still need to beat Notre Dame and UCLA, but with non-conference games against Arkansas, Nebraska and Notre Dame they at least tried to make-up for the fact that most of the country views the Pac-10 as a weak conference. That's not saying that I want them to be in the game, just that I think they will end up there.

So what about Florida or Arkansas? Well, if Arkansas get past LSU and then beats Florida how do you let them in ahead of the team that absolutely dominated them earlier in the season? The answer is you can't, so that eliminates them. As far as Florida goes, with the exception of "big" games against conference opponents they haven't played ANYBODY worthwhile in the non-conference and that includes their upcoming game against FSU. So they beat Georgia, Tennessee, LSU and Alabama with the exception of Tennessee beating CAL none of those teams played ANYBODY out of conference either so the supposedly tough SEC is based on the fact that they beat up on each other. I would buy into the SEC as a great conference if it's great teams played stronger non-conference opponents.

And don't get me started on the Big East, ACC or Notre Dame.

Here's how I see things shaking out:
Rose Bowl: Michigan vs. Florida
Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. West Virginia
Fiesta Bowl: Texas vs. Boise St.
Sugar Bowl: Arkansas vs. Notre Dame
National Championship: Ohio State vs. USC