Florida State Wins The National Championship or, The BCS is Dead and Buried

By Justin Cates

The final five BCS football games were all wonderful.

This season's games were exciting, evenly matched and generally without controversy. The national championship game between Florida State and Auburn was for my money the best championship of the entire BCS system—save for the first three quarters of the title game in 2000.

For the most part, the results of the BCS actually turned out to be the "right" ones pretty much every time. There was some healthy debate regarding the participants on occasion, but almost every national champion crowned under the system was considered the best team in college football.

But that's all no more.

Now we can all look forward to a future where we sit in our post-apocalyptic bunkers regaling the youth with tales of this antiquated system.

"When I was growing up computers decided the national champion in football."

"You mean like Skynet?"

"No, no. This was back before the machines became self-aware. Humans fed a bunch of data into a formula we created and the machines spat out the two teams allowed to play for the championship."

"So the computers didn't even design the formula?"

"Nah. Actually, most of the data we used was based on subjective human observations too. It was really one of the last times we controlled the machines..."

"This is a bad story Grandpa. Tell us again about telephones that plugged into the wall!"

Pictured: A visual approximation of the BCS computers.

Right. Where were we? Ah yes, FOOTBALL! 'MURICA! CHAMPIONS!

Some general thoughts about game:

Florida State is here to stay. I knew he could recruit, but now we know Jimbo Fisher is a full-on football coach which is scary. He also seems pretty classy and humble.

Even seeing him cowed by old age, I still had an uncontrollable desire to punch Bobby Bowden in the neck. I hope he spends his days sitting on a fishing boat staring wistfully into the distance muttering "dadgummit" under his breath.

Brent Musberger gets worse with each passing moment.

I'm sure there was a time before I was born when Musberger was cogent and delivered crisp calls without fawning over hot coeds in the stands or accidentally announcing himself as Kirk Herbstreit.

That being said, I want him gone before he does to Kirk what Tim McCarver did to Joe Buck. This can't end well.

ESPN kept billing their "mega-cast" as some revolution in broadcasting. I found it annoying as it really just amounted to dozens of their analysts—some of whom have no particular football expertise—clogging their various platforms with half-cocked observations and hooting and hollering. I did all that on my own thank you kindly.

On the bright side for ESPN, Nick Saban was terrific and Tim Tebow was actually pretty tolerable.

Both were impressive in their game predictions with Tebow calling for a 35-31 FSU win and Saban saying Auburn would need to score 35 points to win. Bravo gents.

Florida State's win ties a nice bow on this college football season and now we can all look forward to the new college football playoff.

Anticipation is one thing but please, pace yourselves friends! There's still 233 days until the opening game between Ole Miss and Boise State.

Reflections On Beers and Bills Fans

 By Justin Cates

I spent this past Sunday embedded at a bar in upstate New York watching professional football with a particular focus on the Patriots-Bills game.

I've not witnessed Buffalo fans truly in their element, that is to say drunk in a bar convinced against all odds of a victory.

To be fair, for most of the afternoon they looked like they were onto something. Much to my surprise rookie E.J. Manuel performed quite well and the Bills—as they often do in September—looked like a team with promise.

And this is why every fall just as sure as the turning leaves, Bills fans flock to their local watering holes to load up on Labatt products and chicken wings in the hopes that these timeless fuels will propel their boys to victory (Ed. note: I legitimately counted at least thirty gallons of Frank's RedHot in the kitchen of the particular bar I was sitting in. I would assume there was an additional oil drum somewhere in the back in accordance with New York state law).

It's admirable and depressing that a group of such passionate fans continue to subject themselves to the same kind of torture every season.

We all make mistakes, but...damn that's a poor choice.

'It's a new era,' they tell themselves. Indeed, there's a new coach and a new quarterback and maybe this time will be different. Right? I mean, it can't happen every time can it?



I do like E.J. quite a bit. I remember laughing at the remarks of the fans on the other end of the irrationality spectrum last year when he beat the Hokies in Blacksburg.

A group of very pleasant Florida State fans sat behind one of my lawyers and I, and we had lot's of good discussion throughout the game. The weird part was, they couldn't stand their quarterback or their head coach Jimbo Fisher because they weren't always perfect.

I kept thinking to myself that I would love to have either man leading my team (Ed. Note: No disrespect to Frank Beamer or Logan Thomas, I just think Manuel and Fisher and both very good) and that these fans were crazy.

And that's what I'm driving at here. Fans are supposed to be crazy. As you've likely heard many times between binge drinking sessions, the root word of fan is fanatic.  

Fans are people so fundamentally committed to their causes that they are in no way governed by logic or reason. They can't be persuaded or cajoled to believe they are even remotely wrong and this is fine.

It's why I excused the comment by a lonely Raiders fan consoling a group of Bills backers when he said, "You guys are alright, C.J. Spiller is the best running back in football."

It's also why I found nothing out of the ordinary when grown men were screaming at the TV wondering aloud in complete seriousness, "How does Brady always do this? He SUCKS!"

Fandom rots your heart from the inside out and turns your brain to jelly. Accountants paint their chests and go shirtless in December winds while the innocent little octogenarian down the street turns into a subhuman beast when her hate-filled eyes spot a Wes Welker jersey at the mall.

While I might prefer a little less vitriol, I must also embrace it. It's part of what makes being a fan so much fun.

There's nothing quite like being showered with insults as you walk into an opposing stadium only to emerge three hours later having witnessed your team win by seven touchdowns.

So here's to the diehards! Fans of the Bills and Browns and Rams and Jaguars. These hearty souls deserve all the support they can get.

But really, they probably need a beer.
  

College Football Quick Picks: Week 13

It's almost Thanksgiving, and that means excessive amounts of food and rivalry football.

This week is a football fan's dream as there are games Thursday on into next week if you include the NFL.

Rivalry's are one of the best parts of college sports. In college football in particular, rivalry games provide for all kinds of added excitement. I'll be watching a whole lot of the stuff this weekend, and I find a lot of cool games out there so I give to you the gift of many many picks.


No. 2 Alabama defeats Auburn

No. 3 Texas defeats Texas A&M (though I'm really pulling for the Aggies in this one)

West Virginia defeats No. 9 Pittsburgh

No. 18 Clemson defeats South Carolina

No. 7 Georgia Tech defeats Georgia

No. 19 BYU defeats No. 21 Utah

No. 20 USC defeats UCLA

This Week's Irrational Upset Special


Florida State defeats No. 1 Florida

This is based on the Bobby Bowden factor, so it may be a silly pick.

I personally think Bowden will get one final season, and he should, but there are still rumblings that the boosters want Bowden to step aside and let offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher start being the head ball coach (probably so someone else can start calling plays).

If this is indeed Bowden's final game against Florida, his team knows about it and will play out of their minds for him to get one more big win.

Of course, if he's coming back next year, the 'Noles sans Christian Ponder will probably just get steam-rolled by little Timmy Tebow on his senior day.