LARGETONY Blog

No matter how it finally all falls out at the end, 2007 is going to go down as the craziest (and greatest) season in college football history.

It started off normally. It was a pretty common belief that when the BCS National Championship game comes up in January, it was very likely going to be USC vs. LSU and it was going to finally (at least for one year) lay to rest the debate over which conference is stronger, the PAC-10 or the SEC.

But, by mid-afternoon on that first Saturday of the season, #5 Michigan’s loss to slaughter by unranked Appalachian State (WHO????) foreshadowed the theme of the next thirteen weeks: UPSET.

There are always upsets in football. That’s what makes it fun. I know I’m only 32, but never in my memory have so many high-ranked teams fallen week after week. I’m not talking games where # 5 loses to #12. I’m talking where #2 loses to a team not even on the polls. Every single week, at least one Top Ten team lost to an unranked.

The bloodiest week was probably Week 5 when #3, #4, #5, #7, and # 10 all gave it up to an unranked. But at least # 1 and #2 held on.

They didn’t lose their footing until two weeks later on the wackiest day of all.

Thousands around the country filed into stadiums that day (and millions tuned into TV’s) when LSU was # 1, CAL was #2, and Ohio State was #3.

First LSU was upset by Kentucky (WHAT????), a team that had not been ranked in 25 years.

Cal was sitting pretty. They knew before their game even started against unranked (and pretty terrible) Oregon St. that LSU had basically handed them the #1 spot.

But, by Sunday morning, Ohio State was # 1 instead, despite the fact they had not played a ranked team so far all season, because Oregon St. upset Cal. The same Cal that had whipped up on the Vols back in Week 1.

If that wasn’t enough, Week 7 was capped off with South Florida (WHO???) and Boston College (WHAT????) taking the # 2 and #3 slots by virtue of having not lost a game. Nevermind they both played cupcake schedules.

So just past the mid-point of the season, #1, #2, and #3, with 18 games down between them had played only one high-ranked team.

But, it didn’t really matter. Following the pattern (the only thing you could bet on this season was that a high ranked team was going down) South Florida fell to unranked Rutgers (HUH??) the next week, and to unranked Connecticut (a basketball school) the following.

Then in Week 10 Boston College took a hit from unranked Florida State. (You know it’s a sign of the apocalypse when none of the major Florida schools -U of Fla, Fla St., and U of Miami- is in the National picture and unheard of South Florida is.)

And finally in Week 11, Ohio State took its jump from #1 after losing to unranked Illinois.

This put LSU back in the #1 spot and order was restored to the football world. (At least one half of the pre-season prediction was right.) All they had left was Ole Miss (laughable) and Arkansas (who even Tennessee beat handily). I would have said then book your flights for the National Championship except for the fact that the game is going to be in New Orleans this year so all they really needed to do was fill their tanks.

But, I forgot, this is the craziest season ever…down to the end. No one stays # 1 this year.

Naturally Arkansas took LSU into triple overtime and WON.

No National Championship for LSU this year. But they will at least go to the SEC Championship, which if they win, they play in the Sugar Bowl.

That will probably be a bitter pill to swallow for LSU…to play a bowl game at the same location as, and just a few days before, the National Championship game everyone expected them to be in. And right in their backyard.

And what about that National Championship??? The one that was supposed to be LSU vs. USC. Well, LSU is #7 now and USC is #8. The National game is #1 vs. #2. If it happened today, it would be # 2 West Virginia (#2) vs. #1 Missouri (WHO? WHAT? HUH??)

Missouri was not even ranked at the beginning of the season. They have not won any kind of championship (division nor conference, let alone national) since 1969. And now they could be going for it all.

But there are still the conference championship games. One more week of bizarro ball.

If West Virginia is upset by Pitt and Missouri is upset by Oklahoma, then Ohio State and Georgia jump up to #1 and #2. Both are historically major programs. Both have won National Championships. But before you think it’s too normal, consider the fact that in that scenario Georgia is playing for the National title when they were knocked out of the chance to play for their conference (SEC) title.

Why? Because they were upset by Tennessee.

Not only was Georgia upset when it was thumped head-to-head by then unranked Tennessee in mid-October, they were emotionally upset by Tennessee last Saturday, when, after letting a strong halftime lead slip away, the Vols took Kentucky into QUADRUPLE overtime to pull off a win and secure a spot in the SEC Championship game. A spot that would have gone to a much higher-ranked Georgia if Kentucky had won.

So, now Tennessee vs. LSU for the Southeastern Conference Championship. (Think of it as LARGETONY vs. BRETTCAJUN, because we are each teams greatest gay blogger fans).

LSU has, in my opinion, a more talented team. LSU has played more complete games than Tennessee all season. LSU has a very strong defense (although not as strong as the beginning of the season) and Tennessee has a struggling run offense. LSU will have something to prove after blowing their chances at the National Championship. Tennessee, truth be told, sort of backed their way into the conference championship game because of Georgia’s and Florida’s losses (not so much Tennessee’s wins). So, everything indicates that LSU is going to take the conference crown.

But, stranger things have happened. They have all season long.

So, fate, hook a Vol up. Don’t stop having fun now.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 1:40 am and is filed under football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.