College Football Update

It’s early August and you know what time it is! The College football season is less than 3 weeks away; time for the first USA Today poll.  The top 10 includes several established programs with big-time reputations:

1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Southern California
4. Oklahoma
5. Oregon
6. Georgia
7. Florida State
8. Michigan
9. South Carolina
10. Arkansas

One thing, rather, one conference sticks out from that list and it’s a movie we’ve all seen before. And like Hollywood executives, this conference didn’t even bother to change the name of the movie (bet you've never heard of Total Recall (2012), Robocop (2013) or Dirty Dancing (2014)).The last 6 national championship winners hail from the SEC (2011 - Alabama), SEC (2010 - Auburn), SEC (2009 - Alabama), SEC (2008 – Florida), SEC (2007 – LSU), and SEC (2006 - Florida). Scripting the national championship never seemed so easy. Pick the best team from the SEC and crown their ass!

The SEC appears formidable in 2012; this year, the conference is home to 5 of the top 10 teams with last year’s national championship contenders, LSU and Alabama, ranked number 1 and 2; respectively.  The spoils of conference realignment expanded the SEC to include Big-12 defectors Missouri and Texas A&M. Will a 14-team SEC continue to run riot on the other conferences?

Death to the BCS! Once the most lampooned judging system this side of figure skating, the BCS will make way for a 4 team playoff starting in 2014. Although this playoff will upgrade you from the BCS, it is still far from ideal. I’m already suspicious of the currently undesignated committee that will select and seed teams for the playoff. It’s usually a nightmare when strange men act under the cloak of secrecy.  

University of Southern California QB Matt Barkley is the early Onions! front-runner to stiff arm the competition en route to the Heisman. Barkley, a senior, elected to return to USC for his final year and a chance at redemption for a national powerhouse mired in scandal from bowl bans and NCAA investigations.Using plenty of elite talent at the skill positions (it’s still USC), Barkley and the Trojans will impregnate supple defenses with an aerial assault that will ask Heisman voters "who's your daddy?". Look for Barkley to add to the legacy of USC Heisman trophy winners that did or did not win

And it wouldn’t be a college football post without a Fulmer Cup update. For the uninitiated (and those that don’t click the links), Onions! favorite everydayshouldbesaturday.com awards the Fulmer Cup to the Division I program that demonstrates the worst criminal record during the offseason. Highlighted by ex-coach Bobby Petrino’s best Benjamin Button impersonation, the University of Arkansas is running away from the competition like Usain Bolt.

While athletes and coaches misbehaving is sure to dominate the sports news cycle, these individuals don’t commit more crime than the general population. Either way, the Fulmer Cup remains one of my guilty pleasures.