Headed To Cali

After two weeks of wrangling, arguing, scheming, checking, and planning I am officially bound for the BCS National Championship Game to see my beloved Tide play the Texas Longhorns. It’s been a crazy journey to get to this point.

To make a long story short, I got one ticket and needed two so that my wife could go as well. We were never able to get another one at a reasonable price and tried to sell mine with its mate, which was possesed by my best friend – whose spouse also did not have a ticket. Our reserve price was never met and in the meantime my buddy  got clearance from his significant other. I never got the blessing from my wife, but after I was assured that my stuff wouldn’t be on the lawn I made the executive decision to go. Game on.

In order to keep costs low, we are driving to Nashville next Tuesday (Jan 5) and flying to Phoenix. We’ll crash there Tuesday night with a buddy who is then going to ride with us six hours across the desert to L.A. on Wednesday. We’re picking two more friends up at the airport Wednesday afternoon and all five of us are staying at the same hotel and going to the game together on Thursday. Friday we’ll head back to Phoenix and fly back to Nashville on Saturday. It will be a whirlwind trip but it should be completely worth it.

I couldn’t be more excited.

I’ve created a Twitter account and plan on updating that from my mobile along the way. Check it out.

If Everyone Hates It So Much

If the BCS is so horrible then what’s up with the media frenzy today? Why is Robin Mead telling me over morning coffee what a great game it’s going to be?

There will certainly be debate after tonight, regardless of the outcome, about who deserves a share of the national championship. Some will argue for Southern Cal, some Texas, and some Utah. Either way there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the winner of tonight’s game with Florida and Oklahoma will deserve a major share of it. Plus they get the opportunity to hoist a trophy that declares them champions.

This has the opportunity to be a great game between two powerhouse teams. I could go on and on about how good these teams are.

In the old system, this might not have happened. In fact it probably wouldn’t have.

The BCS has many, many faults. One of the major is that the four bowl games don’t always make for exciting matches. A tournament would, in all likelihood, do the same thing. Just look to the NCAA basketball tourney or pro-football’s playoffs for verification.

But what the BCS does is create highly anticipated football games between two teams with at least some legitimate claim to the title. Are some teams with a claim left out? Absolutley. Is it always their fault that they are left out? No. Would a playoff fix this? Not in any way.

The point here is that with the nature of football, the number of teams completing at the FCS level, and the range in disparity amongst them in both individual and team competitiveness, there is no way to field a tournament and crown a champion that will be completely without controversy.

In light of that, what we have is pretty damn good. Not perfect – present me a system that you think is and I’ll shoot holes all the way through it – but good enough.

Think I’m wrong? Then prove me so by not watching the game tonight.

That’s what I thought.