(My lovely wife, a razor-sharp college football fan in her own right, herewith holds forth with her perspective of The Season So Far. One of the many many reasons I'm lucky enough to be married to her, of course...)
A couple of Virginia Tech fans in my office were upset yesterday about their 14-10 loss to Boston College. As I walked in they looked at me and screamed "Don't say a word; you are only a BC fan because you married into it." And while that might be true, I got to live through the hell of a bad season last year that on paper sounded better than it was with a 10-3 record. The coach last year, Tom O'Brien, was about as inventive as a worker ant. He gave away a win to NC State playing a very poor version of prevent defense. This year, with many of the same players, Coach Jags is undefeated and his previously unknown quarterback will at least be invited to the Heisman ceremonies at the end of the season.
Back to the VT fans: they were claiming that BC was overrated because they did not play consistent football the whole game, and they don't deserve that #2 ranking because VT supposedly "gave" BC that win. (Ed. note -- Hubby says thanks.) They also claim that BC wouldn't be ranked #2 if everyone else was consistent, and that now BC belongs in that crowd. But the difference is BC only played inconsistently for about 56 minutes, and then who they are came out with a vengeance and VT showed their typical weaknesses.
Everyone who watches SportsCenter or reads the internet knows this has been a crazy college football season. There is more parity in college football this year than there has ever been, and unfortunately the SEC, to its detriment, is beating itself up better than usual this year. While always being the best football conference in the country, the SEC is even better than usual. Kentucky and South Carolina are no longer gimme games and are actually at the top of their divisions. Hell, even Vanderbilt is beating people, and that never happens.
It is difficult to make a National Championship run when you are playing National Championship-caliber teams eight times a season. Because the fact is that if Ohio State or Boston College actually had to play in the SEC they wouldn't have winning records. So yes, my dear Hokie fans, BC is overrated, but that's only because no one will vote the 12 teams of the SEC 1-12 in the rankings. LSU cleaned VT's clock in September, and everyone says LSU doesn't look as good now as it did then -- maybe that is because they have been playing other good SEC teams for the last 4 weeks who most likely would kick VT's ass right back to Blacksburg.
Ohio State is no better. They know what it is like to get their asses handed to them by the likes of the SEC after losing their locked up National Championship to the underrated Florida Gators. I am quite sure they would prefer not to visit there again. The rest of the Big Ten is a joke; the PAC 10 has offense but no defense; and USC, the most overrated team in history, lost to Stanford (you know, the folks with a tree for a mascot). The Big 12 has a couple of decent teams, but they are big and slow and would not match up to the speed of the SEC. Everyone else would like to be able to play this game, but trust me, you really don't. No matter what their ranking, this year, don't mess with the SEC, because they will end up playing you in which ever second-tier auto-part bowl they get resigned to -- since they can't all go to BCS bowls but they travel well -- and they will win, and you will be shaking your heads in resignation.
I generally don't care about who plays for who and who had the better recruiting class; what I do care about is that those who show up, play. And this year, on any given Saturday a lot of young men are showing up, and proving to the world that any team can have what it takes to win. Thursday night, Boston College showed that to Virginia Tech, and on Saturday it will happen approximately 50 times around the country, and win or lose, it is a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
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