Thoughts on the College National Championship

Well, that was fun.  If you are a Georgia Bulldogs fan.  Otherwise, the Bulldogs won by a score more typical of a top-rate FBS school normally defeats a mid-level FCS school.  TCU was supposed to be a better opponent.  But they didn't bring their A game.  When the final gun sounded, UGA had a 58 point game.  Was it a true National Championship?

At the risk of being a critic, I must point out that the TCU Horned Frogs were not even the champion of the Big 12 Conference.  Kansas State was.  But the Wildcats didn't do so well against the SEC in the Sugar Bowl.  There were weaknesses found in the TCU armor before the end of the season.  November wasn't so good.  Beside the loss to KSU, the Frogs fended off upset bids from Texas Tech, Texas and Baylor.  They struggled in all phases of the game, but maintained their high ranking.  A 12 team playoff likely would have eliminated the Frogs in the round of 4, if they had gotten past Tulane in the first round.  (See this link.)

I suspect that if this game were played again, it would be a close one.  TCU now understands that there is a difference between preparing for a bowl game and preparing for a playoff.  In the final analysis, it can be said in short that TCU wasn't prepared.

The Big 12 finished 2-7 in bowl season.  They did not have a good showing at all.  One of those wins was TCU's shootout win over Michigan as well as the blowout loss to Georgia.  The other was Texas Tech's win over Ole Miss in the Texas Bowl, which started with a touching tribute to the late Mike Leach.

If you include the future four of the Big 12, the conference adds 2 wins and and 2 losses to the conference with BYU's narrow win over SMU and Houston's win over Louisiana.  (Go/Geaux Cougars)  While Cincinnati and Central Florida found themselves on the wrong end of not so close games.  Those departing the Big 12 for the SEC didn't fare so well either.  Texas and Oklahoma both lost close games.

The American, ACC, Independents, MAC and SEC had winning bowl records by conference.  C-USA was .500.  The other conferences lost more than they won.

I am not putting too much stock into bowl performances.  With players opting out, focusing on finals, accumulation of injuries, and coaching changes, bowls don't mean what they used to.  But I will have more on that in future posts.