Bowl games and playoffs

Saturday, December 17 marked the beginning of this year's college football bowl season. While Division I-AA/FCS, Division II, and Division III are concluding 24-, 28-, and 32-team playoff brackets respectively to find a national champion, the highest level of college football will limit its field to eight possible title-game participants. The Division IA/FBS calendar between now and then is comprised of bowl games – so-called because of their historical placement in locales such as Florida's Orange Bowl and Citrus Bowl, Pasadena's Rose Bowl, and Dallas's Cotton Bowl. These are trophy game exhibitions between teams that would never regularly see each other on the field, from conferences across the country. They're drawn from the best major and mid-major programs across the country in some cases; and in other cases between teams that made it to a .500 (6-6) record.

On Saturday, Appalachian State and Toledo play in the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. New Mexico hosts the University of Texas at San Antonio at their home stadium in the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque. Arkansas State plays Central Florida in the Cure Bowl in Orlando. San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey goes into Saturday 107 yards short of Heisman-winning Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne's all-time NCAA rushing record going into the Aztecs' matchup with Houston in the Las Vegas Bowl, hosted in Pumphrey's home town.

Another very meaningful matchup today is the Celebration Bowl at Atlanta's Georgia Dome. It's the unofficial HBCU National Championship, between SWAC Champions 11-1 Grambling State and MEAC Champions 9-3 North Carolina Central of the second-highest division. Here at home in the Superdome, Southern Mississippi and Louisiana-Lafayette will face off in the New Orleans Bowl – the winner leaves with a 7-6 record; the loser leaves 6-7. There are thirty-five other bowl games before the national title game on January ninth, including Eastern Michigan playing Old Dominion in Nassau in the Bahamas Bowl on December 23 and Hawaii playing Middle Tennessee at their home Aloha Stadium in the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. Pitsburgh plays Northwestern in the Bronx at Yankees Stadium in the Pinstripe Bowl on December 28.

So what?

If it seems like a bunch of “Who cares?” I understand. I have a great uncle who calls the non-major bowls “Reindeer games” and has absolutely no love for the prevalence of these exhibitions. There's certainly an argument that the ever-increasing number of bowl games has made it less meaningful to be selected, but don't make that argument to the players that worked all season for the extra opportunity. Don't tell it to their coaches or families, either. And don't tell it to me. There have been many years where I have underappreciated this phenomenon, but every year I love American gridiron football more, and it's a long seven month offseason between the beginning of January and the end of August.

There's no completely objective way to measure which games “matter more.” As it's a sport, it can be argued that it's all completely frivolous, regardless of which game elevates some mid-major four-year star to a professional prospect, or which game has the most projected NFL draft talent, or who is closest to extending a decades- or century-long program legacy. The easiest thing to do, though, is to look at the traditional so-called “major” bowls, and the playoff.

The major bowls are essentially the Peach Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. After the 2011 season, the Alabama Crimson Tide beat LSU for the national championship despite losing to LSU during the regular season. The poor television ratings that this game garnered catalyzed a restructuring of the former Bowl Championship Series into the new College Football Playoff. The Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl were already seen as top-tier bowls, linked by contract to the major conferences. The once-proud Peach and Cotton were elevated to their former glory in this new system wherein each year two games rotate as the playoff semifinals and the other four pick good teams based off of their conference affiliations.

The Rose Bowl this year is between the #9 USC Trojans and #5 Penn State Nittany Lions, who gave Washington and Ohio State, respectively, their only regular season losses. USC started the season with a 52-6 loss to Alabama at the Cowboys' stadium before closer losses to Stanford and Utah sandwiched a win over Utah State. Since making the switch at quarterback from Max Browne (who is transferring to Pittsburgh) to Sam Darnold, they've won their final eight games. Penn State lost by three to rival Pittsburgh and by 39 in the Big House to rival Michigan before winning their final nine games.

The Orange Bowl is between #6 Michigan and #11 Florida State in Miami Gardens' Hard Rock Stadium. Michigan is 10-2 in their second season under former-Stanford and -49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh. Florida State won the last BCS national title over Auburn in 2013 before losing in the first round of the playoff in 2014. Their coach, Jimbo Fisher, was rumored to be one of LSU's top targets to replace Les Miles. He was offensive coordinator at LSU from 2000 to 2006 under Nick Saban and then Miles.

The Cotton Bowl Classic (played at the Cowboys' stadium instead of the old Cotton Bowl) is between the #15 Western Michigan Broncos and the #8 Wisconsin Badgers. Western Michigan is the only team besides Alabama to finish the regular season undefeated. Their head coach PJ Fleck is known for his catch phrase “Row the boat!” and was supposed to be a top target for schools looking for new coaches this offseason. Wisconsin went 10-3, losing by seven each to Michigan and Ohio State in consecutive weeks before losing by 7 to Penn State in the Big Ten Championship.

The Sugar is between the #14 Auburn Tigers – whose coach was under suspicion of losing his job early in the season after a flawed start – and the #7 Oklahoma Sooners, who lost by 10 to Houston in one marquee nonconference matchup and by 21 to Ohio State two weeks later. Oklahoma beat rival Texas by five at the old Cotton Bowl, and won each of their last three games (over then-ranked Baylor, then-top ten West Virginia, and lastly rival Oklahoma State) by three or more scores. Auburn went 8-4, with all losses coming to ranked teams and only two by more than a single score. They also beat two ranked teams, with the 18-13 win over LSU being their only win under seven points.

The most notable undercard matchup is definitely the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, between #20 LSU and #13 Louisville. LSU is led by Ed Orgeron, former failed head coach at Ole Miss and successful interim at USC and now LSU. Louisville is led on the sideline by Bobby Petrino, who left the school in 2007 to coach the Atlanta Falcons, but left before the season ended to coach at Arkansas, before returning to Louisville after a one-year stint at Western Kentucky caused by unfortunate circumstances. They're led on the field by sophomore phenom Lamar Jackson, who won the Heisman after throwing 30 touchdowns against 9 interceptions and ran for 1500 yards and 21 touchdowns. He becomes the first ACC player that is not an FSU quarterback to win the Heisman.

Is the champ here?

The playoff this year is composed of the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, between #4 Washington and reigning champion #1 Alabama, and the Playstation Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona, between #2 Clemson and #3 Ohio State. Washington is the most inspiring story among the four. Head coach Chris Petersen elevated the profile of the Boise State Broncos' program from 2005 to 2014 before taking over at Washington last year. After a 7-6 debut, they're 12-1 Pac-12 Champions. In the program's history, they've only won 11-or-more games three other times. They did it twice under legendary coach Don James, whose Huskies finished ranked second in 1984 and 1991, going 11-1 and 12-0 respectively, winning the Rose Bowl both years. The only other time was when they finished ranked third under Rick Neuheisel in his second year, winning the Rose Bowl after the 2000 season.

Ohio State has been on a tear since Urban Meyer took over in 2012, winning his first 24 games with the team before losing to Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship and then in the Orange Bowl to – you guessed it – Clemson. The Ohio State Buckeyes were a controversial selection for the 2014 playoff, jumping TCU and Baylor after beating Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship, before pummeling Alabama and Oregon en route to a national title. Last year, they were kept out of the playoff after Michigan State beat them and won the Big Ten title. This year, they were kept out of the conference championship game because of a last-second loss to Penn State, but they were selected for the playoff anyway. If they win the title, maybe we start moving toward a 6- or 8-game playoff.

Clemson's Tigers have enjoyed a steady rise under head coach Dabo Swinney, especially since hiring offensive coordinator Chad Morris in 2011, their first ten-win season under Swinney. The winner of their annual game with Florida State has played in the ACC championship every year since 2009. Morris left to become head coach at Southern Methodist University in 2014, but the Tigers haven't missed a step. They won their first fourteen games last year before losing to Alabama in the national championship. I was in Las Vegas for New Years and I wanted to put money on Clemson, but I guess I'm lucky I didn't. Clemson is led by DeShaun Watson, who finished second in voting for the Heisman Trophy for Most Outstanding Player this and last year. In that time span, he's thrown for 72 touchdowns against 28 interceptions, and run for 1600 yards and eighteen touchdowns.

Alabama is in a class all its own. Including last year's game, the Crismon Tide have won four national titles since Nick Saban took over in 2007, and if he wins this year he'll have gone back-to-back twice. They finished 12-1 with the title after the controversial game following the 2011 season and 13-1 capped by a beatdown of Notre Dame following the 2012 season. Alabama has only won less than ten games once in his tenure – when they went 7-6 his first year. They went 10-3 in 2010 after their first title in 2009, and other than those two anomalies they have never won less than 11 games. New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram won the University of Alabama's first ever Heisman Trophy following the 2009 season, and human tractor Derrick Henry won it again last year. Alabama's got their own dual-threat QB this year in freshman Jalen Hurts, who threw 21 touchdowns and ran for 12 more.

The smart money's on Bama, but I'd be elated to see Clemson or Washington win. If Ohio State wins, maybe my dream of a larger college football playoff can come true. Maybe if they get smacked we'll have the same result, but I find it unlikely they lose by more than a little. According to the eyeball test and advanced statistics, they're definitely one of the four best teams in the nation.

Big Fish, Small Pond

Besides marking the beginning of bowl season, Saturday also marked the conclusion of the playoffs at the lower levels. Mary Hardin-Baylor beat Wisconsin-OshKosh 10-7 for the Division III Championship, known colloquially as the “Stagg Bowl” for basketball inventor and football innovator Amos Alonzo Stagg. Northwest Missouri State and North Alabama, the two winningest programs in Division II history, played for their level's national title. Northwest Missouri won 29-3. It was their second-straight title, their third in four years, and their second-straight 15-0 season.

Fourth-ranked James Madison University beat top-ranked North Dakota State 27-17 to end NDSU's 22-game playoff winning streak and advance to the Division I-AA/FCS title. NDSU's quarterback from last year was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles. They also make a habit of beating-up teams that are supposed to be better than them; they beat Iowa this year, Kansas State two years ago, and are probably going to beat Oregon in four years. They won the last five national titles at their level. In the other semifinal, unranked Youngstown State (coached by former-Nebraska coach Bo Pelini) upset two-seed Eastern Washington on their home red turf.

So to say

College football is a strange beast. It's a varied phenomenon with sociological implications from the east coast to the west coast and across the ocean into Hawaii. Coaches say silly stuff. The players aren't allowed to be paid, so it's done illicitly. This despite the fact that it's a $7.3 billion enterprise that used to have video games. The sport enables hard-working academics with sports ability the opportunity to go to college when they might otherwise not get to go. Some truly personify the term “student-athlete.” Sadly, that term was actually created out of nothing and once used to prevent a widow getting workers' compensation. It also enables a sports-first mentality that reduces the opportunity to get a free education to a formality, or a fraud. Despite controversy and our misgivings, we tune in during Saturdays in the fall, hoping that our problems with the sport – on the field or off – are eventually mitigated so that we can guiltlessly watch a bunch of huge talented young men smash into each other.