Don Alexander
Two more years of the BCS! Then another imperfect college football national championship formula will be invented. Oh, well, so far so good.
USC is the top dog in the preseason forecast by most polls. LSU and Alabama share the top in some other polls. But how much do preseason polls mean anyway? How in the world can you predict what a whole new bunch of players will do? Arizona and Arizona State will be unwrapping new secret spread offenses. Arizona is rated number 43 out of 124 division I teams. State is rated number 55!
I’ve heard nothing but good things about UCLA. Jim Mora, the new coach, has this team paying attention and there is a “new culture” on the football field. They are in a very tough Pac-12 conference so maybe that’s why they are rated number 43. Tonight (Thursday) UCLA plays at Rice, rated number 107! Number 107? They should phone their games in.
The Bruins are 15-point favorites. And they have to travel to Houston, Texas. Apparently they should win if they had to travel to Mars.
Then next week the Uclans host Nebraska who are notched in at 14. Then they host Houston ranked 70th! At least they are now. I wonder where everyone will be ranked by September 15th?
Meanwhile the USC Trojans are ranked number 1 in most polls. (Not to be confused with the Troy Trojans of Alabama.) Luckily the real Trojans are also ranked number one in the Pac 12. It would be embarrassing if they weren’t.
So the Trojans host Hawaii on Saturday afternoon. They are 108 in the top 124! When the Trojans scheduled them, they were a powerhouse, at least on offense. USC is favored by 40 points!
Then USC must travel to Syracuse to play the number #67 team in the country. Then the Trojans will be tested against #21 Stanford, #38 Cal and then #33 Utah at Utah. I’m going to Utah. Jim Tortolano doesn’t have my expense account yet but they will be tough!
The Trojans play other very tough teams like Notre Dame, at home, and UCLA at the Rose Bowl. If they can beat these teams they will be a legitimate number one. But things happen. Remember when Spain almost beat the USA team in basketball in the recent Olympics? They played great but the Americans pulled it out by 7!
Scheduling is not easy. Teams want a couple of soft games in front for a variety of reasons. But when you get LSU favored by 43 over North Texas in Saturday’s game, you wonder.
One year USC scheduled San Jose State to give them a big payday at the Coliseum. S.J. State upset them.
My alma mater, Cal State Fullerton, scheduled big time games for the paydays. To me, it was at the expense of the kids playing much better and bigger players. They finally dropped football. I told them, either compete or get out. They showed me!
As far as the rankings go, at least after a few games you can get an idea of how the teams are playing and take into consideration who they are playing against. Meanwhile, I hope Hawaii and Rice play each other. It’s only fair!
I just have to say something about that USA World Series championship game. Wow! Petaluma was behind by 10 going into the 6th and final inning. They scored 10 runs and tied it! Never have I seen something like this.
This doesn’t have a storybook ending. Tennessee came back with eight runs in the overtime inning to beat Petaluma 24-16 in a three-hour marathon in South Williamsport, Pa.
So Goodlettsville faced Japan for all the marbles, so to speak. But what a game. Goodlettsville’s (Tennessee) Lorenzo Butler had nine RBIs and three home runs to lead the town with the odd name.
Contact Don Alexander at Journaldon@aol.com.
