Monday October 15, 2007

Ashley or Wynonna?

Ashley or Wynonna?
Mathematics is one of the many subjects I had trouble with in my school years but I did understand the transitive relation of numbers and the idea that if:
A > B and B > C, then A > C.

That is not a revolutionary thought or an idea that I have a difficult time with. That is until you try to relate this to college football.

Someone please explain to me how this crazy, wacky college football thing works. I think I am close to sending back the 2007 version because I can’t figure it out and I don’t want to read the manual.

Southern Cal is a 41-point favorite against Stanford. The Cardinal’s starting quarterback has a seizure six days before the game so Stanford has to use a quarterback that had thrown only one pass in his career. Result-Stanford 24 Southern Cal 23. (Side note-Stanford lost to TCU this past weekend. So much for momentum.)

LSU looks dominant and clearly the best team in the country through the first half of the season. They had destroyed Virginia Tech and looked impressive against South Carolina and Florida. Kentucky got off to a great start before looking like the old Kentucky team in a loss at South Carolina the previous week. LSU’s defense looks like the ‘85 Bears going into the game. Result- Kentucky 43 LSU 37.

The national scene says it every week. Colorado beats Oklahoma. Mississippi State beats Auburn. I am not sure if you have heard it a few thousand times but Appalachian State beat Michigan.

The ACC gives us the same wackiness. Virginia looks pathetic in a loss at Wyoming but has not lost since. Granted they had a last second field to beat Middle Tennessee State and then beat UConn 17-16 but they are 6-1 despite Cavalier fans painting “Groh Must Go!” signs on campus after the loss to Wyoming.

Miami got pounded at Oklahoma 51-13 and looked like the Cane teams we had seen the last few seasons. Then they upset 20th-ranked Texas A&M 34-17 and look like the 2001 Hurricanes. So they have things figured out and the win propels Miami back into the national picture right? Wrong. The Canes lay an egg in Chapel Hill and then drop another game at the OB to Georgia Tech.

Speaking of Tech, the Jackets start out like gang busters at Notre Dame before dropping back-to-back games against Boston College and Virginia. But wait, Tech saves their season with a momentum changing win against Clemson. So, Tech is back right? Wrong. They lose the next week at Maryland. So, Tech is in the tank right? Wrong. They beat Miami this past weekend.

Maryland was coming off of a two-game losing streak and their season was on edge before they upset then 10th-ranked Rutgers and followed that up with the nice win over Georgia Tech.

Florida State seemed to turn its season around after losing to Clemson by winning four in a row. Xavier Lee was the new quarterback and Jimbo Fisher looked like the man. Insert loss to Wake Forest.

Clemson looks great after going 2-0 with a 600-yard performance at NC State only to drop its next two conference games.

Like George Jetson said, “Help! Jane! Stop this crazy thing.”

What does all of this mean?

For Clemson it means the Tigers can win any game left on their schedule and they can lose any game left on their schedule. I would find it terribly difficult to accept if the Tigers lost to Central Michigan or Duke but any of the other four teams remaining can beat Clemson. I think even the most pessimistic Clemson fan would admit that they can see a scenario where the Tigers could beat every team left on the schedule on any given Saturday.

On the national scene it also means we could see the BCS mess blow up in our faces again. I can see at least one team in the game with a loss and maybe both teams in the BCS game with a loss. I can even see a scenario where a two loss team like Florida can make it to the BCS title game.

It also means perception can change each and every week without reason. We had a couple of angry Gamecock callers and e-mailers on this morning’s radio show get on me about not given South Carolina any respect. They said that I gave Kentucky no credit and said Kentucky was still Kentucky after the USC game but said Kentucky played great LSU. They said I was singing the praises of Georgia before the USC game then said Georgia was not that good after the game.

My response was that Kentucky played bad against South Carolina and played great against LSU. I thought Georgia was ready to be a top ten team but since losing to the Gamecocks I have seen them get blown out against Tennessee and kick a last second field goal against Vanderbilt.

One e-mailer said I was not consistent in my evaluation of teams this season. In the words of the great comedian Steve Martin, “Well Excuse Me.”

How can you be consistent in your evaluation of teams if the teams are so inconsistent themselves? Try walking into work today with a bright, positive attitude and be ultra-productive only to arrive at work late tomorrow with an awful attitude and play solitaire on your computer all day. Tell me how confused your boss would be. Better yet, try walking into the house tonight after work and tell your wife how great she is and then at the dinner table tell her how she is a bad wife and give a list of areas of her body where she needs to lose weight. See how that one would work out.

That is exactly what has happened in college football this season. In the LSU game Kentucky looked like big Wildcat fan Ashley Judd but in the South Carolina game they looked like even bigger Kentucky fan Wynonna Judd. Unless my eyes betrayed me that was the same football team with the same helmets. But were they the same team?

I will become more consistent in my evaluations when the products become more consistent but I have a feeling that neither will happen anytime soon.

864-834-6060

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency