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Del.i.cious
BREAKING: BCS unpopular; more Designated Reads
• Oh, NOW you don’t like the BCS. Not before. Just now. Northern Illinois is bound for the Orange Bowl as the first team from the MAC to earn a BCS bowl bid. We, as you might imagine, are delighted. Others are not. In other words, it’s just like every other BCS selection reaction ever.
Herbstreit calls NIU’s BCS berth “A sad state of college football.”
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 3, 2012
Herbstreit on #BCS selection show: “To put Northern Illinois in the BCS is a joke.” — Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) December 3, 2012
Say what you will about NIU, its bid was automatic, just like Wisconsin’s and Louisville’s. NIU ranks ahead of both in every poll. — Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) December 3, 2012
“I can’t believe they let NIU into the sacrosanct Orange Bowl.” <—someone who has never watched the Orange Bowl — edsbs (@edsbs) December 2, 2012
Rule that got NIU in was established to help defend BCS from anti-trust lawsuit. ESPN acting like it’s a football decision — Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) December 3, 2012
Is there any other sport in America where people DESPISE the underdog? Any sport in the world? — Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 3, 2012
Again, according to every current human poll and a consensus of the BCS computers, NIU’s not even the worst BCS bowl team this year. — Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) December 3, 2012
To steal a @billsimmons metaphor, a lot of the NIU whining seems like people who are also mad the house doesn’t win more in blackjack.
— John Infante (@John_Infante) December 3, 2012
For takes longer than 140 characters, see Samuel Chi’s “Deal with it” and Matt Hinton’s “Blame the Big Ten and Big East.” The final regular-season BCS standings can be found here; the tell-all Coaches’ Poll results are here. For our full bowl schedule, click this way.
• Now let’s talk about who’s pointedly not going bowling. That would be Louisiana Tech, 9-3 and operating the nation’s most prolific scoring offense this season. The Monroe News Star reported last week that the Bulldogs turned down the Independence Bowl. Conflicting reports cite an ongoing feud between Tech and Louisiana-Monroe and/or some ill-fated gambling on the part of the athletic department, but all we can think about now is that the Warhawks are bound for Shreveport and the Liberty Bowl gets to make googly eyes at the Big 12, but the Bulldogs’ 31 seniors are, quite suddenly, finished with their college careers.
Long snappers get straight to the point. RT @jdb51me: Oh yeah and way to go athletic director #yousuck
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) December 3, 2012
As a party with no ties to LaTech or Ruston, we simply hate that we’re not going to get to see this offense play again this season. We absolutely hate it. That is all.
• Coach firin’ (and hirin’) season! Mike London fires three more assistants … Mizzou’s David Yost steps down … and this Purdue administration has a lot to learn about covert coaching searches.
• Roster blotter. Speaking of Virginia, it’s about to lose a quarterback.
• Misc. Just answer “Bill Belichick or nobody,” Auburn types, because you never know … how hurry-up offense affects the band … should Georgia have gone for that spike … and a reminder to follow the Russell Athletic Bowl Twitter account, like, immediately:
We’re gonna take a chrome Rutgers helmet and that Va Tech pro combat jersey with the circuits on it and we’re gonna make ourselves a Cylon
— RussellAthleticBowl (@RussellAthBowl) December 3, 2012
I can usually deal with Herbie's take on things despite his uncanny ability to waiver toward the "team du jour", but this time he's gone overboard. With the B1G sucking the big one this year and FSU coming out of an extra weak ACC, it's a perfect opportunity to get a different team into the mix. So what if they haven't played or beaten the same caliber of opponents as some of the other brand name schools. As the "experts" like to say, it is extremely difficult to go undefeated in NCAA football...let alone win a conference title. The Huskies were only one game shy of doing both. The real travesty is the Big East AQ status getting Louisville into the Sugar Bowl and a 5-loss Wisconsin team going to the Rose Bowl. There should be more exceptions allowed with more at-large teams able to be selected to make better games.