Once again, last night, the BCS announced its bowl line-up to a resounding audience of boos and derision. I wish that instead of ESPN trotting out the same analysts contractually obligated to promote the system, they could present the BCS bowls to the Dancing with the Stars judges, just to hear that one guy not only mock a Virginia Tech vs Michigan Sugar Bowl but, while doing it, find a way to make a sexual joke involving Bud Foster and Brady Hoke.

Creating a national championship between 2 teams that have already played when there are other equally deserving teams is one thing. A remaining BCS bowl line-up that doesn’t include the #6, #7, #8, and #9 teams from the BCS’s own ranking system truly eliminates any value from this system.

If we end up with a game no one wants, that we have already seen and then nearly half of the 10 best teams in the country don’t even make a BCS bowl, what exactly has this sham accomplished?

Beside make the member conferences and Bowl games rich of course.

The BCS was instituted in 1998 to try and remedy a college football bowl system that repeatedly faced situations in which the widely agreed two best teams couldn’t meet to play for a national title, due to conference tie-ins with bowls.

Just the year before, Michigan and Nebraska split a national title because the Wolverines had to play in the Rose Bowl and the Huskers had to play in the Orange Bowl.

In 1996, Steve Spurrier won his only national title because Florida gained a re-match against FSU solely because #2 Arizona State was contractually obligated to the Rose Bowl (where they lost to Ohio State).

But in an attempt to serve multiple masters, the BCS has ultimately failed to achieve any of its goals and in the process with its constant masterbatory approach to trumpeting its ‘championship’, it has become the biggest running joke outside of the U.S. Capitol building.

The BCS obviously has a million flaws that have been discussed exhaustively, but in the end they all come down to one common thing: it attempts to serve too many masters. It tries to make member conferences happy. It has been forced to account for non-member conference members. It wants to use polls to account for ‘the eye test’. It wants to use computers to remove the bias of coaches with long held grudges that are often a little too busy on Saturday to watch other teams play. It wants to maintain the Bowl system. It wants to ‘definitely’ identify a national champion.

Like me watching Tim Tebow lead my Broncos, the BCS is as conflicted as a Log Cabin Republican.

In the end it isn’t any inherent evil or greed that makes the BCS a joke. It is the compromises. Which is why it needs to go. And there are 2 options to replace.

A true playoff. Or, the option never discussed, a return to the pre-BCS system.

There are a million playoff systems out there, from the simple Plus-One to a full march madness style 16-team bracket (December Delirium?). The people that argue against a playoff always say something along the lines of ‘a playoff devalues the best regular season in sport; in college football every week is a playoff’ but that pretty much goes out the window when our ‘national championship’ will be contested between 2 teams that played a month ago.

While I am in favor of the playoff there are so many ardent proponents, I don’t need to pile on here. Rather, let’s look at an option rarely discussed: a return to the true Bowl system.

What was so wrong with the old system? There was little controversy. There was tradition. The worst thing that could happen was a split national title. Is both Nebraska and Michigan claiming to be 1997 national champions really any worse than the mess this year if Alabama beats LSU? Do we really need to be forced to sit through another horrendous ACC/Big East Orange Bowl just because the BCS tells us there must be a Big East team represented? Would the Big Ten teams that, for years, missed out on playing for national titles because of their Rose Bowl commitment really complain now that they get exposed every time they do play a southern team in a bowl?

In its 13 years of existence how many times has the BCS been able to create an undisputed national championship match-up that couldn’t have existed under the old system? I can think of three times (Miami v Ohio State, USC v Oklahoma, USC v Texas). Every other game was either perfectly do-able under the old system or involved such a jumble of equal teams, declaring a split national champion (or no national champion) would have been preferable to declaring a team ‘undisputed national champion’.

If the BCS and NCAA is unwilling to go to a playoff for whatever reason (no matter what they say just overlay every 3^rd word with ‘money’), then we need to return to the classic bowl system.

The BCS is a poorly designed compromise that has made a worse mockery of the best sport on Earth than any split national title ever could.

ESPN has declared 2011, “The Year of the Quarterback”. Quarterbacks are the most popular athletes in the country, so it is a smart move to pre-emptively frame an entire football season to drive as much as interest as possible. You can both cater to hard core fans (see: new QBR stat) and the larger number of casual fans at the same time (see Brady and Tebow hagiographies), all in the name of reporting the news.

While ESPN has used this as a way to drive ratings (as they do with all decisions), they have also affected the perception of how we watch football and over-inflated the importance of this position relative to reality. But ESPN is used to deciding what is news and how we should look at it.

ESPN has recently come under deserved attack for their decision to not pursue a story of much greater significance than a guy who sticks his hand under another guys’ bum. In this case it is important to remember the key fallacy underpinning whatever defense ESPN puts forth – ESPN doesn’t just report the news it shapes what becomes news.

When you develop a de facto monopoly on being the sports news source for millions of people, you shape the news. If you lead with a story, it is NEWS. If you ignore it is, just a crazy conspiracy theory on par with aliens and Elvis sightings.

I don’t mean this to be an attack on ESPN’s questionable journalistic ethics – when you run a business that tries to market a product while at the same time act as independent journalists reporting on the same product your ethics are always going to be about as clear as tax laws.

Rather it is an attack on a foundation underpinning their entire ‘Year of the Quarterback’ marketing push. In the NFL, there is no doubt the quarterback is the key to a team’s success (see: Colts, Indianapolis). However in the college game it just isn’t the case.

College quarterback may be the most overrated position in sports.

Look at the national champions of the last decade. Every team that has won a title over the last decade has done so with only one of two quarterback types under center: Superman or Jimmy Olsen. The teams that have Clark Kent inevitably fail.

To clarify.

The Supermen are the rare individual that can put a team on its back and single-handedly, through sheer physical attributes, leadership and desire win the national title for their teams. Tim Tebow, Vince Young and Cam Newton exemplify Supermen. You can point to games that were won by Superman almost wholly by himself; either the national title game itself or a pivotal game on the way to the title game.  While being the most exhilarating, decorated players, and the ones that are most likely go on to be legends, Supermen are also the most rare.

The Jimmy Olsen is the care-taker who is simply in place to not make mistakes and let the players around him win games for him. His goal is to not lose the game. Make the right decisions. No interceptions. No fumbles. Get the ball to better players and let them win it. Greg McElroy, Matt Flynn, Matt Mauck, Craig Krenzel. All have national titles on their resumes yet none would have been considered one of the 5 best quarterbacks in the country in their title winning year.

The most dangerous quarterback to have on your team and the one that nearly guarantees disappointment is the Clark Kent. This is a talented player, who shows flashes of being a Superman but in the end can’t do it by themselves. Fanbases laud these players in the pre-season and NFL teams drool over their talent; yet as talented as they may be they don’t have a cape on underneath that uniform. They are the perennial tease. Their team’s fans and their own teammates want them to become Supermen but they can’t quite do it. Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Troy Smith, Colt McCoy even Andrew Luck and Landry Jones are all seen as nearly Supermen by their boosters and fellow teammates. Yet none have or will win a national title. Their team is too reliant on them but alas they are mere mortals.

Arguably there are 2 players that could be called Clark Kents that did win national titles since Y2k: Ken Dorsey and Matt Leinart, but I would say that hindsight (and their subsequent pro-careers) have defined them as talented Jimmy Olsens with other-worldly talent around them.

It should be no surprise then this year that the BCS title game will (apparently) feature quarterbacks on both offenses that are simply asked to not screw it up. Jarrett Lee was the quintessential Jimmy Olsen; continuing a long line of Jimmy Olsens at LSU (with his only differentiating factor that he didn’t have the first name Matt) until he made the cardinal sin of making mistakes. 2 interceptions against Alabama and Lee was sent to the bench and in stepped Jordan Jefferson, who may make mistakes at bars but not on the football field. For Alabama, Greg McElroy has given way to AJ MaCarron, whose turnover against LSU may have cost his team the game.

(Though, in the nonsensical world of the BCS had no impact on Bama playing for the national title).

All of the teams with better known and higher profile QBs have slipped up this season. There is no shame in being a mere mortal – most of us are – but when you carry the burden of a team’s expectations it is hard to stay perfect for an entire season.

The Supermen of college football become legends who will be discussed for decades. But the pursuit and false pre-emptive deification of Clark Kents is the fastest route to disappointment.

For a team in search of a national title, it is a much safer route to find a smart quarterback that doesn’t make mistakes and instead focus on putting playmakers around him and a stout defense opposite him.

Yes, I fell for ESPN’s marketing hype as much as anyone in my pre-season prognostications. But it is never too late to learn.

Next year, I am picking the team with the best defensive tackle.

Saturday night’s LSU vs Alabama slugfest was not a fun game to watch or, I imagine, even play in.

It was brutally hard hitting, low-scoring and dominated by the defenses. You got the feeling with NFL overtime rules, we might still be waiting for the breaking of that 6-6 tie. With the inside track to the BCS title game on the line as well as the bragging rights for thousands of drunk southern kids, this was a serious contest, with serious ramifications.

Yet, there is a pretty good chance that treating it like the game it was, keyed LSU’s win.

Les Miles is not your traditional football coach. He is not an over-bearing tyrant that lives in his office all fall, doesn’t recognize his own children and treats a player that fails a 3^rd down conversion like Vladimir Putin treats journalists.

You know, like Nick Saban.

Miles is best known for wearing his hat high on his head, eating grass and his on-going battle with sentence structure during post-game press conferences. He is also known for what is perceived of as luck bailing out his questionable decisions. The perfect bounce on a fake field goal. A touchdown pass on the last play of the game when a field goal would have won it.

But maybe there is more than luck at work.

When you have shaky quarterback play, a suffocating defense and rivals built the same, you are going to play a lot of close games. And in close games, the teams that can maintain calm and play with the joy they did as kids will inevitably have an advantage. With Miles under the headset, that mindset is re-enforced every day. LSU comes into any close game with advantage of being able to stay relaxed.

Two weeks ago, Alabama was not playing well in the first half against Tennessee, tied at 6-6. Clay Travis jokingly (ok, half-jokingly) said that Nick Saban would kill a walk-on during halftime as motivation for his team. Whatever he did, it worked as Bama rolled to a 37-6 win. But in the long-run is that the right way to get the best out of your team?

A team playing scared plays poorly. When Bama missed their first 2 field goals against LSU, you don’t think the inevitable reaming by Saban wasn’t going to start going through his kickers’ minds? After AJ McCarron threw a Tebow-esque interception in the 3^rd quarter and then took a horrible sack in OT, don’t you think, he had the passing thought of what Saban would say later?

A team scared to make a mistake is also not going to make a play.

Beyond the ability to keep his team loose during games, Miles’ reputation has to help in recruiting.

If a kid is going to Bama, it is basically a business arrangement with Saban: If you win me games (and get me a rich contract), I will get you to the NFL where you can get a rich contract.

But going to LSU, you know you are going to have some fun too. While that may not seem very important, you need to think about the mentality of these kids. They all have the inherent confidence to know they are going to the NFL. So, might as well go have fun and win games doing it.

If some of these guys are considering how cool the uniforms are that they are going to wear (see: Oregon, Maryland), doesn’t it seem reasonable that knowing you are going to have some fun while playing for titles would be a consideration for the country’s best players?

If you don’t think that this generation of athletes is more interested in fun than an authoritarian boss, just look at the Heat. When LeBron was given the opportunity to have fun, play with his buddies, live in South Beach and still win games, no other offer stood a chance. No matter what it ultimately does to his reputation – any asterisk was worth it. And, frankly, re-reading the above sentence I can’t argue too much.

Les Miles is a different kind of head coach. He actually tries to spend time with his family. He occasionally smiles. He takes risks during a game that actually put the responsibility on him for his team’s success, rather than his players’ failure to execute his perfect vision. But maybe in this case, different really is better.

While I watch Bo Pellini and Will Muschamp scream and stomp around the sidelines like teething 2-year olds, I can’t help but appreciate Miles laid-back approach.

What LSU supporters appreciate is the fact that, unlike those other coaches, his team is still undefeated and #1.

I should start by stating a simple fact. I love football. Even when my teams are nearly as disappointing as Two Broke Girls. I say this so you know that this criticism comes from a place of love.

Football fans are not good with time.

Maybe it comes from enjoying a sport where 60 minutes last over 3 hours, I don’t know. Whatever the reason, the football world just doesn’t seem to understand how time works.

The century is now almost 12 years old. It is still pre-pubescent. If it were a child, it still might be listening to its parents. While many twelve-year olds feel like events that occur each weekend are THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT HAS EVER OCCURED, over time they will learn that little Bobby not asking them to the winter dance wasn’t the end of the world (especially when he doesn’t quite finish the 11^th grade and ends up picking up trash for the county). Most college football fans have now lived in 2 separate centuries. Heck, they have even lived in 2 separate millennia. They should understand the concepts of time. But apparently they don’t.

All of this is a long way of saying, that I am getting tired of all fo these ‘The Games of the Century’.

The media is tirelessly building up this weekend’s game between #1 LSU and #2 Alabama as the most important football contest ever played. Naturally, it has earned the moniker Game of the Century, which makes it at least the 8^th or 9^th Game of the Century, since the turn of the century.

Can we please just stop. Are you really telling me that in the next 88 years there won’t be another game of equal import? Is this game more important than the USC/Texas national championship game of 2005? The Florida/Alabama SEC title game in 2009? The 2000 FSU/Miami game? Nebraska/Oklahoma game of 2002?

No, of course isn’t, but in a world where anything that happened last week is now ancient history, the here and now is always more important.

100 years is a long time. Less than 100 years ago, the Titanic sank and Theodore Roosevelt ran as a 3^rd party candidate for President. If TV is right, 100 years from now, we will be living in pod-like sky-scrapers, robots will wear aprons and be programmed with sarcasm and our clothes will come with unattached rings around the ankles.

In 1993, #1 FSU visited #2 Notre Dame for another Game of the Century. The game ended with Notre Dame winning 31-24 with FSU’s Heisman trophy winning quarterback Charlie Ward’s pass to the end zone broken up by some anonymous Notre Dame player that later was drafted too high by the NFL, was subsequently cut and ended up helping cause the 2008 financial crisis after landing a cushy job on Wall Street (some of this is speculation).

This game was truly a game for the century. Yet, less than 20 years later, we have already have at least 10 other Games of the Century.

If we are all puttering around our flying cars in 2099 still talking about the epic 2011 LSU/Alabama game, I will gladly acknowledge how wrong I am. But until then, let’s pour some Spike 80DF on all of this Game of the Century talk and kill it before it can take root further.

Coincidentally, I think there is at least one Alabama fan that can help us with that.

Shadow: It has really been an up and down year so far with THH.  Turner has yet to make his inaugural appearance…..perhaps he is waiting for the OU-OSU matchup when we should know if OU is firmly back in the National Championship picture…or not.  I haven’t managed to turn in entries for even half the weeks.  Lucky for the two of us, SuperDave still more than ably fills up this space each week with wit, wisdom, and carefully crafted reflections on football, society, and life.  Since this is the month of Thanksgiving…I am thankful SD doesn’t kick the two of us out for lack of activity.

In honor of all of these Games of the Century, THH this week found 4 separate match-ups that at one time or other was named a Game of the Century. This weekend we will cheer on the team we cheered on in that original match-up.

College:

LSU vs Bama (2011)

SD: Let’s start with this year’s Game of the Century. Really the only college football game that matters, and, even though I have an aversion to SEC over-hype that rivals my aversion to sitcoms on CBS, I have been looking forward to this game for weeks.  On one hand I have friends who went to Bama that live and die with the Tide and my all time favorite college football book focuses on Bama. On the other hand, I have always held an affinity for LSU; it feels almost like a cousin to FSU. It is in the top two of my college football game experience bucket list (1a and 1b are attending games at LSU and Ole Miss). For me this comes down to the coaches. Like any right thinking American, I can’t get enough of the Les Miles Crazy Train. Nick Saban is a humorless, loyalty-free mercenary that happens to be a very good coach. As I am reminded every day while sitting in a conference room surrounded by ambitious, arrogant Type-A’s, I will take a sense of humor over professional success any day. Geaux Tigers!

<Postscript: I wrote the entire preceding paragraph before reading this but I am now more confident in this decision than any I have made since I advised Mike Leach that the best way to deal with the spoiled, entitled son of a TV broadcaster is to lock him in a shed.>

Shadow: In 6^th grade I read a biography of Bear Bryant.  It was the first time in school that I had to read a non-fiction book of that length, and it was the only book on the list to choose from that had anything to do with sports.  Years later (last year in fact), I read Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer.  This is the last non-fiction book I have read.  There is nothing significant in these two facts, other than the fact that they seem to be telling me I should root for Alabama.

Texas Tech vs Texas (2008)

SD: For those that live in west Texas it is easy to feel lost in the shuffle. While you spend days worried about the government coming to steal your small patch of dust and weeds, and fending off waves of illegal immigrants invading your homeland to take jobs you have no interest in doing for less money that you would be willing to accept, the rest of the world just goes on spinning. But on one day in 2008, you were the center of the universe. #1 Texas, from that fruity, weird city of Austin came to town. In the end a dropped interception, a short out-pass and a missed tackle led to the upset few expected. For one day, west Texas was more than the place where a village was missing its idiot from 2001 to 2008. Being a loather of all things Burnt Orange (including the pretentious use of the word Burnt), I cheered on the Red Raiders that day. As I will again on Saturday.

Shadow: While watching this game, I felt the same way I feel anytime I am watching a game with two teams who have the word “Texas” as part of their name…..is there some way for both these teams to lose?  In matchups where I don’t really have any vested or passing interest in, I tend to pull for the underdog, so I was most certainly rooting for Tech and watched with dismay as they kept letting Texas back into the game.  When the Texas DB had the game handed to him and he dropped the interception I swear I had an inkling that something special would happen….and that special something would be the hearts of Texas fans breaking when Tech completed their own game winning drive.  That it happened in an unnecessarily risky manner with the pass to Crabtree with time almost expiring…well, that was just icing on the cake.

NFL:

Giants vs Patriots (2008)

SD: At Super Bowl XLII, the Patriots arrived undefeated on the season, while the Giants had won one improbable game after another just to get an invite. On paper this was a mis-match greater than heart disease against the menu from KFC. America may be the greatest favorite in global history, but we still love the underdog. I, however was cheering on the Patriots that day. As I said at the time, I like seeing historical greatness. Nothing about Eli Manning’s hail mary throw pinned to David Tyree’s helmet or the subsequent pass to gun and sweatpant enthusiast Plaxio Burress makes me think of greatest team ever. However, in hindsight, if I had known that this game would give us Michael Strahan yelling ‘More Meat!’ in a Subway commercial and that Tyree would be out of the league and working at a Subway 3 years later… I would have cheered even harder for the Patriots.

Shadow: I loved the Pats when they were underdogs and beat the Greatest Show on Turf (aided by the fact that I boldly predicted the win at a Super Bowl party where literally everyone else said there was no way the Rams lose).  I loved them being the first team in my memory to shun the ego-driven stylized individual introductions and asked to be announced as a team that day.  And then….as their success bred more success…and the head Hood Rat made his fashion statements….and they found a diamond in the rough QB late in the draft while the Broncos continued to fumble trying to find the heir to Elway….I began to hate them.  Really hate them.  And then came the perfect season.  And all through the season I hated them.  And in the playoffs I hated them.  And, truth be known, outwardly during the Super Bowl, I still pretended to hate them…..but secretly, and this is something I have never admitted until now, I was rooting for the perfect season.  Don’t know if it was because I was tired of seeing the ’72 Dolphins popping champagne every year….don’t know if it was because this could be something I would probably never see again in my lifetime….I can’t explain it.  But for that Sunday, I wanted Tom and Randy and Bill to finish the quest.

Denver at Oakland (1977)

SD: An AFC championship game may not be the Game of the Century for everybody but when a football-crazy town enjoys its first real success and plays its arch-enemy for a championship at the same time, it quickly becomes all consuming. Now, I was 2 years old at the time, living outside Kansas City, so I was most likely much more interested in finding out why Oscar was such a Grouch than this game. But I am confident that if presented carefully reasoned arguments for each team I would have been an early convert to Broncos country. I mean, their defense was named after a soda. What 2 year old doesn’t like the sugar rush of a soda?

Shadow: SD- you suck.  I didn’t think you could top the fact that you just made me admit to rooting for the Patriots….now you have uncovered my darkest NFL secret.  When this game was played, I had just turned 6, and I was still 18 months away from moving to Colorado from Iowa.  My mom was dating someone new (who would become husband #3 for her, and the person I still consider “Dad” for me).  I remember nothing from the game….I really only have spotty memories of much of the NFL prior to about 1981-82.  But here is what I do know.  When we moved to Colorado, my dad, and me by extension, were Houston Oiler fans..and this was due to the original “Snake”.  He was a big Stabler fan.  I could call my Dad for confirmation, but I have a feeling we were rooting for Stabler and the Raiders in this tilt with the Broncos.  There.  Are you happy?  I may have rooted for the Raiders against the Broncos. 

The football world is upside down. You could argue that this is because I am on the wrong side of the globe from the rest of the football world sort of like those old cartoons when Bugs Bunny tunnels through the world and comes out of the ground upside down in China but I don’t think it is. I just don’t know what happened to the football world while I sat on planes for 20 hours the other day. Look at the developments:

- The Buccaneers and Chiefs are both 2 and 0.

- Jay Cutler is playing well and acting more like a leader than at any other time in his life outside of when he picked the bar to hit with his boys on Friday night.

- Mark Sanchez just out-played Tom Brady and then went home that night with a hotter woman (2^nd part is conjecture)

- Kyle Orton has shut up Broncos fans from pining for Tim Tebow to start. This ranks just behind that Koran burning guy getting charged $200k by the Gainesville police in the list of most disappointing developments for Alachua county evangelicals this week.

- Brett Favre is not playing well. Oh wait, nevermind a nearly 41-year old with a bad ankle and an unmatched history of turning the ball not playing great is the most obvious development this side of Wade Phillips and Tony Romo failing in a crucial moment.

- Boise State and TCU are either overrated or on the shortlist of real national title contenders.

- The Pac-10 looks surprisingly strong and one of their apparently weaker teams is USC. I think we have finally found Lane Kiffin’s greatest strength: making traditional powerhouse programs bad.

The world as we knew and understood is no more. I am at a loss. And not just because I just woke up to go to work and my computer says it is 7:26pm.

College

Alabama @ Arkansas

SD: The biggest battle in college football is between these two neighboring states that are mirrors of each other. Their unlikable coaches were embarrassing NFL failures that came crawling back to the college game yet retain an aura of invincibility and egos only slightly smaller than their new home states. The team colors are the same and they have very similar cursive A emblems on their ball caps so you can never tell which bandwagon high school baseball players have jumped on. Basically there is no difference between these teams other than one likes to run and one likes to pass. I will go with Bama only because when you have questionably intelligent fan-bases I think it is smarter to go with a state that can be shortened to a simple 4-letter name as opposed to a state name with a silent ‘s’ on the end of it. That is just begging for a confused fan to butcher your team name after 14 Busch Lights. Know your people Hogs.

South Carolina @ Auburn

SD: Another battle of ranked SEC teams. Since I picked Auburn last week I will go with the Ole Ball Coach and Gamecocks this week. Call this the Kenny McKinley Memorial pick. Kenny’s suicide this week casts a pall over both USC and the Broncos. The Broncos will struggle with the football factory known as the Colts so let’s hope the Cocks come through.

NFL

San Diego @ Seattle

SD: There are many reasons for me to cheer for the Seahawks over the Chargers. Broncos rival vs. my second hometown. Phillip Rivers versus Matt Hasselbeck. The ghost of Vince Jackson versus the ghost of T.J. Houshmandzadeh. But to me the difference is the coaches. Not only does Pete Carroll show more emotion on his way to the bathroom than Norv Turner in a playoff game but Pete is willing to do anything to win – just look at his time at USC. Maybe if Norv was willing to go the extra mile and look the other way when his players cheat he would do better in the playoffs. Oh wait, he did look the other way back when his entire defense was using more steroids than the Bash Brothers in 1992. Coincidentally when the Chargers were good. Norv, get on the phone with BALCO stat!

Detroit @ Minnesota

 SD: I can’t believe I am about to say this: I love the Lions. Not only is my entire fantasy team riding on Calvin Johnson and Jahvid Best (yes, I did well last week) but I love the resurrection of the Lions for one simple reason: Thanksgiving. For the first time in years, we may have an entertaining game on Thanksgiving – just in time because the Cowboys now look like they could be take the Lions place as the annual Thanksgiving memorial sacrificial lamb. Add in Favre fatigue and this one is more lopsided than a game between Boise State and USC would be.

Upside down, indeed.

Tomorrow morning, Turner and I jump on the private profootballblogger.com jet and head down to OKC, so my hatred is a little focused on one particular team this week, even if certain Hawkeye fans didn’t join me on this bandwagon. It is hard to worry about any other games or teams around the country with this epic collision less than two days away.

Anyway, with my eyes set on the Game in Norman on Saturday, I am having trouble spreading the hate. So, let’s turn that frown outside down and ac-cen-tuate a positive. You may be able to discern my picking criteria barring you didn’t go to the only school laughed at by the remedial classes at DeVry. Also known as the University of Oklahoma.

Turner: I’m sorry but I can’t do an intro tonight.  Besides my physical ailments, I’m just depressed heading into this weekend of football.  Painkillers, the fear of alcohol and my team sucking, it is just draining.  I really just look forward to a good weekend with my dear friend Super Dave and may the best team wearing Crimson and Cream win.

Shadow: Well, after rendering “The Decision” I have found myself to be on an island of solitude and have become an object of hate myself for SD and Turner.  Perhaps next year they will simply let the game in Florida be picked by “Bubby the Wonder Rat”.  Looking forward to a big second weekend of college football with Iowa having its annual rivalry game with those Cyclones, and watching the OU/FSU game trying to catch a peek of our intrepid blogster and his pal in the stands.  I asked SD to go to the game in full Chief Osceola regale so I can pick him out easier, but not sure if he is going to comply.  Especially after I did not pick his Seminoles.  On to this week’s slate of hate.

College:

Penn State @ Bama

SD: Alabama last played Oklahoma in an early season game in 2002. OU won and featured both Nate Hybil and Jason White playing quarterback for OU (an eerie preview of the afternoon shift at the Norman Best Buy this Sunday afternoon when Jason will manage the registers and Nate will oversee big screen TVs). Penn State played my Noles in two bowls in the last couple decades. Losing to the Noles in 1990 and then beating the Noles in triple-OT in the 2006 Orange Bowl. I would hold a grudge but FSU didn’t deserve to be in a BCS bowl that year and they nearly (should have) beat a Penn State team whose fans until a late season loss thought they deserved a shot at the national title. That kind of naivety is kind of endearing. Go Fighting Paternos.

Turner: Painful choice, dislike for Jo Pa and Saban, dislike for fan bases and generally every category.  Let’s just go to the default, if I were to attend a game in January at either location, which would I prefer?  Bama of course.  Blondes in white / red t-shirts vs. Brunette’s in large puffy jackets.  Roll Tide.

Shadow: Pretty easy to believe that Joe Pa probably thinks he is heading down to face Bear Bryant.   At least Bobby B. left with a little dignity intact.  Joe Pa really should have stepped down years ago.  But, as easy as it is to hate on a Big-10 rival of the Hawkeyes, I always reserve a healthy dose of hate for whomever the current champion is, and so the Crimson Tide and their slimeball coach make me see crimson this year.  I will put my support in Linebacker (and RB bust) U.

Oregon @ Tennessee

SD: In 2006, Oregon beat Oklahoma thanks to the worst piece of officiating ever seen not involving a World Cup referee. At the time, I was appalled; today, I love it. Tennessee on the other hand beat my Seminoles in the inaugural 1998 BCS title game. Go Ducks!

Turner: How can a Dooley coach the Volunteers?  That is like saying a Stoops brother is going to coach at FSU. Oh, wait, hmmmmm.  Traitor.  The fluorescent Yellow is always better than that shade of orange they parade out in Knoxville. Duck go quakkkkky this weekend.

Shadow: Ducks jettison a QB of questionable character and the Vols lose a coach of questionable character.  I think only one of these teams is truly improved by these changes.  I also have a healthy dose of hate for Oregon because I think they leaped way too many spots in the polls this week, just by beating up on a crappy New Mexico team.  Looks like after I get done singing Boomer Sooner, I will need to break into Rocky Top.  Go Vols.

NFL:

Falcons @ Steelers

SD: The Steelers have 2 Seminoles on their roster. The Falcons also have 2 Seminoles but balance that excellence with 2 Sooners. Nice try, Falcons. I can respect balance but not as much as the Seminole love emanating out of Pittsburgh. My guess is that Big Ben likes having all those Seminoles around just to introduce him to FSU co-eds but I find it is best to not too many questions of Big Ben lest I too get dragged into a backroom. Go Steelers.

Turner: How can one not like ATL? I use to hate on Vick but those dawg-days are long gone.  I’m so sick of Head and Shoulder’s commercials and listing to the apologies and now the revered Big Ben who has transformed himself into the future Tim Tebow is sickening.  Matt Ryan, America’s stereotypical QB has to get the love this week.

Shadow: I think SD teed up this week’s NFL THH so I don’t have to write anything.   I hate Pittsburgh.  For more info, please see 2010 THH Intro Blog.  Thanks.

Bengals @ Patriots

SD: The Bengals have two Sooners on their team. The Patriots initially appeared to have no Sooners or Seminoles on their roster but after the Broncos grievous mistake of waiving Seminole and PFB favorite Tony Carter, the Patriots picked him up. The team to pick up TC versus a team with two Sooners and no Noles? No contest. If this game were a car accident, the Patriots would be a multi-millionaire married to a super model who walks away and plays in a football practice that afternoon while the Bengals would be a dude with a bloody head that had to be pried from his car by the jars of life and taken to the hospital.

Turner: Not sure how SuperDave put Cincy on the list.  I feel an explosion with Moss, TO and Ocho on the field together this week.  Thank goodness that Wes Welker (product of Oklahoma City) will be there to display real character.  The real question is how long till the explosion occurs, 3 quarters, two games, the whole season?  I put it at 3.25 games.  I have a bit of love for NE this year, only due to one word (ok two words)… FANTASY and BRADY. I need to ride that pony all season long and I can’t start it out with Hate. (just like Brady shouldn’t hate the Jets, that is not nice to use that H word).

Shadow: Please see above entry.  I hate NE.  The only thing stopping me from wishing Mop Top had actually broken his leg in the car accident today is the fact that Turner drafted him in fantasy, and I don’t want him to face the same thing I faced 2 years ago with wasting a pick on a Brady who saw no real action.  Pretty sure Cincy’s egos can’t possibly all fit in their locker room, but will cheer them on this weekend anyway.

Well, that is the end of our abbreviated THH to celebrate week #1 of the NFL and week #2 of the college kids so Turner and I can head on south to Oklahoma. If you are in Norman, let us know (unless your name is Nate Hybil or Jason White). If not, check back next week for a re-cap of our big weekend. You can also get real-time updates (and more frequently, real-time Oklahoma jokes) from me all weekend on twitter (@pfbsuperdave). For the Sooner perspective you can check in with Turner (@jturn91). He has one of those fancy phones so he might even be able to Tweet pictures as the tears stream down his face into his Landry Jones Memorial moustaches at the end of the game.