SunBelt Conference: 1 – 0
Invitees: Florida Atlantic
Bowl Invitations: R+L Carriers New Orleans
Bowl Invitations Rank: 11th
Overall Rank: 7th
I don’t have much to say about Florida Atlantic, who earned the SunBelt’s conference championship by defeating rival Troy in the last week of the regular season. Yes, I will call them a cupcake in the SEC nonconference buffet line (more on that later). Yes, their bowl game is dreadful. The prize was the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, a bowl game so awfully named that they felt the need to include the host city’s name in an effort to generate interest. Which for sure worked. You’d think that, with R+L Carriers as the sponsor, the game would have been in, say, Texarkana. But New Orleans is a legit bowl destination and now, thanks to Florida Atlantic defeating Memphis handily 44 – 27, they alone can brag that their conference finished the bowl season undefeated. Take that SEC! And compared to Navy, they won, so they get the coveted 7th spot in the rankings.
Big-12: 5 – 3
Invitees: Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
Bowl Invitations: PetroSun Independence (Colorado), Pacific Life Holiday (Texas), Insight (Oklahoma State), Konica Minolta Gator (Texas Tech), Cotton (Missouri), Tostitos Fiesta (Oklahoma), FedEx Orange (Kansas)
Bowl Invitations Rank: 7th
Overall Rank: 6th
This is the problem, in a nutshell, of the Big-12 Conference. Because the conference is split unevenly (in terms of strength and national recognition), the whole conference sucks and can lead to idiotic events like Oklahoma earning a national title appearance despite not making their conference championship, as they did in the 2005 FedEx Orange Bowl. This year, the Big12-South (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State) was again the powerhouse, but a couple of schools got a little frisky up in the Big12-North (Kansas, Mizzou, Colorado) and messed things up since their records somehow or another don’t determine who gets to the conference championship. And go figure how it all turns out. The “mighty” Big12-South winds up going 3 – 2 while the weaker Big12-North goes 2 – 1. So, all in all, it looks pretty successful for the Big12 as a whole, right? Wrong!
The Big12 was the most uneven competitors for a conference that finished their bowl season above .500. Colorado beat Oklahoma early in the year, yet in the end, Oklahoma waxes Mizzou (38 – 17) in the Big12 championship game for a second time (the first win was 41 – 31). Yet Kansas, who lost to Mizzou in the last week of the regular season 36 – 28, magically earns a FedEx Orange bowl bid, over Mizzou. So you know, if you follow the Big12 at all, what this means. Mizzou is going to murder their bowl opponent and Oklahoma, Big12 “Champion” will choke in their BCS game (they remain winless in BCS games). As I often quote, “you can’t spell rout without OU”. Or this gem (admittedly not mine): “Why does OU coach Bob Stoops eat his Cheerios on a plate? If they were in a bowl, he’d lose them!” The one question mark? Kansas, my 2007 “Most Overrated Team in College Football”, who fortunately got to play ACC Jeckyll - Hyde team Virginia Tech.
Of course, Oklahoma loses to West Virginia in a great Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. To recap, the “vaunted” OU defense gave up 4 touchdowns over the 3rd and 4th quarters in 12 plays, covering 263 yards in 5:31 seconds of time. 525 yards total offense (349 yards rushing!). They went from being down 20-15 to losing 48-28. Awesome job, Big12 chump… uh, champ! What is that, 4 BCS losses in a row, Coach Stoops? Meanwhile, conference also-rans Kansas and Mizzou (both from the Big12 North) both take their opportunities and win their own games. I admit, I was surprised by Kansas’ 24 – 21 win over VaTech, since I thought they’d get clobbered. But when you read the highlights, you discover that it was a combination of a bad VaTech offense and some timely turnovers, including an interception return for a touchdown. So the Jayhawks offense wasn’t anything special. But their defense? A+. Given how Mizzou was snubbed by the BCS committees as Big12 runner-up (or, alternately, Big12-North Champ), I wasn’t surprised at their performance. They crushed SEC whinger Arkansas (who beat LSU… more on the SEC in a bit) in the “How Dare You Pick Kansas Over Us, FedEx People?” Bowl (also known as the Cotton Bowl, which, like the Capital One Bowl, dresses like a BCS bowl game but is not). So, in the big name games, they go 2 – 1, but (again) the Big12 Champ loses. Perhaps Oklahoma should just perform a few rules violations (again) and become bowl ineligible. For the good of the conference.
In the second-tier games, the Big12 was a little more solid. Though it pains me to say as such, Texas looked good against Arizona State in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, played in beautiful San Diego. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech picked up some nice wins in some crappily-named bowls (the Insight and Konica Minolta Gator Bowls, respectively), but that effort was spoiled first by the idiotic cheer by some Aggie yell leader to get a casket for Joe Paterno, and then cemented when JoePa and his Nittany Lions of Penn State slapped Texas A&M silly 24 – 17 in the Valero Alamo Bowl, played just a scant 145 miles from the A&M campus in College Station. Add in the awful 30 – 24 loss by Colorado (who beat Oklahoma) to Alabama in the hideous PetroSun Independence Bowl and the big doozie made by Oklahoma’s Olé Defense and the Big12 is shown to be large. And mediocre. To recap: 2 nice win (Texas and Kansas), 1 throwdown win (Mizzou), 2 okay wins, and 3 bed-crappers.
Mountain West Conference: 4 – 1
Invitees: Air Force Academy, BYU, New Mexico, Utah, Texas Christian
Bowl Invitations: San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl (Utah), Pioneer Las Vegas (BYU), New Mexico (New Mexico), Texas (TCU), Bell Helicopter Armed Forces (Air Force)
Bowl Invitations Rank: 5th
Overall Rank: 5th
"You put the MWC fifth?!! You are crazy!" I know, but hear me out. They won 80% of their bowl games. They had the best record of any conference with at at least 5 invitations, and matched the Pac10 for total bowl wins. The MWC has some real football teams, especially TCU. We don’t need to return to the Utah win over Navy. BYU, undefeated conference champion has their season every few years and the Air Force Academy recently sported a high-scoring spread offense. Only the Air Force failed, coming up short 42 – 36 to a strong Cal team looking for redemption from a dreadful season (they finished 7th in the Pac10) in the dreadful-sounding Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. Air Force was a logical fit for such a sponsor and indeed was perhaps the intended market, yet Cal proved too strong. Unfortunately, nobody cares about the New Mexico or Texas Bowls and so the MWC will have to wait for next year before getting another shot at a stronger invitation.
Big East: 2 – 3
Invitees: Cincinnati, Rutgers, University of Connecticut, U. South Florida, West Virginia
Bowl Invitations: International (Rutgers), Papajohns.com (Cincinnati), Meineke Car Care (UConn), Brut Sun (South Florida), Tostitos Fiesta (West Virginia)
Bowl Invitations Rank: 4th
Overall Rank: 4th
In reality, the Big East should be ranked lower. Ever since Virginia Tech, Boston College and U.Miami left the Big East, football in the northeast has been spotty. After all, the Big East is, like its ACC counterpart, a basketball conference. Football-wise, they have 8 teams. Basketball? 16 teams! But 5 of those 8 teams were bowl eligible. Not bad! And when the spotlight is brightest, they rise to the challenge. So West Virginia’s win over Oklahoma is enough to call the bowl season a success throughout the conference. UConn made it to a bowl game (though they lost to Wake Forest). And Cincinnati sucked up their pride and played well in the papajohns.com Bowl, defeating former CUSA mate Southern Miss 31 – 21. But they had a real laugher in the Brut Sun Bowl, where U.Miami replacement South Florida got smoked by the same Oregon team that was hemorrhaging starters a month ago 56 – 21. And yes, it was the Brut Sun Bowl, played in gorgeous El Paso, Texas. Since cheap men’s cologne and football make such a perfect pairing. Or didn’t you get the memo?
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