Football notes

I don't follow football quite the way I used to, but I still like it -- especially the college game. Hence, I figured I'd offer a few thoughts on the college bowl season thus far.

First, I'm pleased that Notre Dame lost another bowl game. I don't like it that I root for someone to lose, but I just do not like ND. I think it's the whole "birthright mentality" that keeps getting them more respect, higher rankings, and better bowl games than they deserve (based on their performance). Hmm, think getting invited to bowls above their ability level has anything to do with the fact they've now lost 9 bowl games in a row? Mark Schlabach, over at ESPN, does:

Even without record-setting quarterback Brady Quinn, receiver Jeff Samardzija and many more of its best players next season, Notre Dame will finally end its postseason drought, now the longest in NCAA history.

The Fighting Irish will end the postseason losing streak that dates back to 1994 because next season they'll be playing in some second-tier bowl game in a non-descript place like Shreveport, La., which is where they should have been playing during much of the last two decades.

On a related note, I'm already anticipating being upset at the soon-to-begin talk of which conference was strongest this year. See, I expect some "experts" will look at the bowl season and crown the Big East king because of its stellar bowl record -- 4-0 now, could go to 5-0 Saturday. A closer look, though, shows the Big East was the opposite of Notre Dame this year. They were playing in bowls below where they should have been. Okay, two of their bowl games are/were second- or third-tier games and I really have no idea about the parity of the matchups. Let's look, though, at the big 3 of the Big East. Louisville, West Virginia, and Rutgers all were vying for a spot in the BCS (and perhaps the title game) until the very end of the season. Now who did these jugernauts match up against in the bowl season?

5th ranked Louisville was the BCS representative, but they were matched up against what I think was pretty clearly the weakest of the automatic BCS teams, 15th ranked Wake Forest. Louisville won.

16th ranked Rutgers, which was headed to the BCS until the final game of the season, was matched up against an unranked Kansas State team. Rutgers won.

Finally, 13th ranked West Virginia squeaked by an unranked Georgia Tech team playing wtihout its star quarterback.

As I said, I can't comment on the other two Big East bowl berths (South Florida vs. East Carolina and Western Michigan vs. Cincinnati), but it's really going to chap me that some will tout the above games as proof of the Big East's superiority this year. Maybe it was the best conference this year, but I think its marquee teams needed better bowl matchups to test that hypothesis. Note, I'm not blaming the Big East. I think they got ripped in the bowl matchups -- especially Rutgers.

Finally, how about Boise State and that Fiesta Bowl? That may have been the most exciting college game I've ever seen.

Well, that's about it for me and the bowls. Oh yeah, I hear Bama finally hired a new coach. Though not really a Bama fan, I think this was a great hire. I'll go ahead and extend my sympathies to the Vol Abroad. I think this is going to make it tough on y'all the next few years.