My Mother-In-Law teaches at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. Their biggest rival is Moravian College, located in Bethlehem, about a 20 minute drive between campuses. (My Mother-In-Law, Marcia, and Marcia’s two sisters are all graduates of Moravian.) As is typical in college football, these games tend to be great games, and with little regard to who’s the favorite.
Muhlenberg had a great season last year, even garnering national attention. They continued that push by heading into this game undefeated for the season, and ranked 3rd nationally in one poll, and 6th in another. Moravian was having a good season, though not as well, heading in with a record of 7-2, yet much the underdog. But as I said, like any good rivalry, that is usually thrown out the window. And it happened here. Moravian upset Muhlenberg, in OT, ending their bid for a perfect season. But here is the beauty of it: Muhlenberg’s season is not “over.” Even though they dropped in the rankings, and lost a regular season game, thanks to a PLAYOFF system in Division III football, they STILL can win the National Championship. It’s situations like this that makes me wish the BCS would take notice. What if Florida and Penn St. were really the best teams in the nation? Or what if Utah was for real? The problem is, we might never know.
What has helped the cause, in some respects, was President-elect Obama even mentioning in his “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday night that the BCS needs to be fixed. You can watch the one minute snippet from the interview HERE, at The Wiz of Odds. And no folks, I seriously don’t want Obama trying to make it happen. He’s got much bigger fish to fry. But it only helps the argument.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:27 am
I HATE college football. Or more correctly, I HATE the college football methodology of picking champions.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:32 am
What’s wrong with “never knowing’? Would a playoff system tell us anything except who got it together in the playoffs? Do we even need a National Championship Game? We did fine without one for a very long time. How much money is ESPN going to pay for the next BCS contract. Money and Greed is killing college sports. Basketball and there 64 team tournament, sweet sixteen, elite eight, final four is all about the money too. Does the “Best Team” always with that? I’m a regular at Division III games at Randolph College and its not about the money at this level, it’s about the kids doing what they love and adding to their college experience.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Go Hounds!!!!!!!!
November 19th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Getting it together for the playoffs though shows just how good a team is. There’s more pressure, therefore the better team should rise to the top.
I understand about greed killing college sports. But if it is insistent that there is a “National Champion”, there needs to be a playoff. Voting on who the two best teams are and letting them play against each other still doesn’t cut it. If the teams finished the season with their bowl games and it was all just speculation in the polls, and not the “say-all-end-all” that it had been, then I am fine with that. But the current system is a farce.