ShareThisIf you're talking college football, especially after this season, you'd have to be crazy not to want more of the same next year. Minus, of course, the embattled Bogus Championship Series. In a season distinguished by upsets, some of them downright amazing, unprecedented Top 10 turnover and the downfall of some of the game's mightiest programs, the quest for college football's Holy Grail has been the most incredible journey probably ever.In all, a record 13 Top-five teams -- six of them ranked No. 2 -- lost to unranked opponents. Three times, the top two teams in the polls fell on the same weekend. The Unbalanced Line recaps the craziness that defined 2007 and made it the most unbelievable season of modern times:-- Appalachian State of the former Division I-AA shocked the college football world by knocking off No. 5 Michigan, 34-32, Sept. 1 in the Big House; Stanford, a 41-point underdog, followed suit five weeks later, stunning No. 1 USC, 24-23, in Los Angeles; and Pittsburgh, a four-touchdown underdog, capped off the season's amazing upsets with a 13-9 victory over No. 2 West Virginia in Morgantown.-- Notre Dame, college football's most tradition-rich program with 11 consensus national championships, had its worst-ever losing season at 3-9. And the Irish still have a longer winning streak (2) than both teams playing for the BCS title. No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 LSU lost their next-to-last games.-- The Buckeyes and Tigers have each occupied the top spot in the polls twice since Sept. 30. LSU has been ranked No. 2 three times since the season began.-- LSU lost two triple overtime games - to Kentucky and Arkansas. But after capturing the SEC title with a victory over Tennessee, the Tigers climbed from No. 7 to No. 2 in the BCS standings and became the first two-loss team to play for the national crown in the BCS era. -- Florida's trash, Ron Zook, turned out to be Illinois' treasure, leading the No. 13-ranked Fighting Illini to a 28-21 victory over No. 1 Ohio State Nov. 10 in the Horseshoe and to a Jan. 1 Rose Bowl berth against No. 6 USC.-- From Nov. 18 to Dec. 2, Ohio State climbed from No. 5 to No. 1 in the BCS standings without even playing a game.-- No. 3-ranked Oklahoma (11-2) beat then No. 1-ranked Missouri by 21 points in the Big 12 championship game, but failed the pitifully flawed BCS test for a spot in its title game.-- Nebraska, Notre Dame and Miami, with a combined 21 national titles between them, are not among the 64 bowl teams. -- On.Oct. 14, South Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky occupied the Nos. 2, 6 and 8 spots in the Associated Press poll. By season's end, Kentucky and South Carolina had fallen from the polls altogether, and the 6-6 Gamecocks failed to get a bowl. -- Kansas and Missouri -- two teams that were unranked to start the season -- played in one of the season's biggest games on Nov. 24, after climbing to Nos. 2 and 3 in the AP poll. For the 11-0 Jayhawks, which lost to the Tigers, 36-28, it was their best record and highest ranking ever.-- What can you say about Florida State, other than what a tremendous shame? Thirty-six Seminoles -- the bulk of them caught in an academic cheating scandal -- won't be playing in the Music City Bowl against Kentucky. As crazy as it's been in Division I this season, the wildest and most unbelievable finish ever happened in a Division III game Oct. 27 in Jackson, Mississippi. Trinity (Texas) College's 15-lateral touchdown play with two seconds remaining to beat Millsaps (Mississippi), 28-24. The play lasted 62 seconds. Ring in the new?Not without ringing out those coaching revelations of 2007:-- Courted by his alma mater, Michigan, Les Miles chose to stay at LSU... Maybe it was an easier decision than some think. If LSU wins the national title, it would trigger a clause in Miles' contract that would make him one of the three highest-paid coaches in the country. He's already made $400,000 in postseason bonuses on top of his $1.8 million salary, according to Bloomberg.com.-- As for Rich Rodriguez leaving his alma mater, West Virginia, to coach Michigan for a reported $2.4 million a year... Pretty hefty reward after the lame fight his Mountaineers put up in the Backyard Brawl with Pitt, which cost West Virginia a shot at the national crown. Ohio State must be loving this.-- Don't give nomadic coach Bobby Petrino more than three or four years at Arkansas, even at $2.85 million a year.-- Lowly Duke just signed David Cutliffe - Tennessee's offensive coordinator the past two years - to a contract worth an estimated $1.5 million a year. The bar is so low at Duke, if the guy goes .500, he's a major success.-- After a prolonged court battle that went all the way to the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court, legendary coach Joe Paterno's salary at Penn State University was revealed. The ruling also revealed there is still some sanity at some institutions of higher learning, or at least at one. Penn State pays Paterno a little more than $500,000 a year. The average base salary for Big 10 coaches a year ago was $1.4 million.(Contact John Tucker at jtucker@unionleader.com)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
College football craziness never gets old
Submitted by administrator on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 15:56
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