BCS, Heisman, and Capital One

So for the next few weeks, we are going to have our hands full. The BCS picture is complete, the Heisman is not really the Heisman, and a big match-up in the Capital One Bowl. So for the next few weeks we are going to focus on these items and possibly break down some of the BCS match-ups. As for a little side project, as bowl season progresses, I am going to keep a tab with each conferences bowl record, I will update it every few days throughout bowl season.

As for today, we are solely going to focus on the Heisman Trophy. The Heisman trophy historically, is presented to college football's best player each year. This year has been a little bit difficult because no one contender has separated themselves from the rest of the pack, but the truth is that college football is becoming more and more competitive and this is a great problem for the sport of college football. However, this problem does have a terrible effect on the significance of the Heisman trophy.

This year, the winner of the Heisman trophy, and even some of the most recent winners of the Heisman trophies are not even going to be the best player in college football. So by definition, they are not deserving of the crown. The truth is that this generation is ruining the reputation of the Heisman and actually redefining its significance. The Heisman now stands for the best player on the best team, in college football for that year.

Take last year for example, when there were three cut throat candidates for the Heisman trophy in Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow, and Sam Bradford. Last year, they all put up ridiculous numbers, but the voters from the Southwestern region of the country wanted a representative from one of their region's teams to win the Heisman. They believed that Texas and Oklahoma were the best teams in the country and some intentionally left Tebow off of their ballot in order to ensure that one of those guys would win. In the end, Sam Bradford won the Heisman trophy, and Tim Tebow became the first Heisman candidate to receive the most first place votes but lose the Heisman trophy. (Don't believe me, take a look for yourself at the bottom of this page for the voting breakdown http://www.heisman.com/winners/s-bradford-08.php)

By the way, how can Bradford be the best player in his conference if McCoy beat him head to head? Yes, Bradford threw for 4800 yards and 50 touchdowns, but the best player in college football last year was Colt McCoy. He was the most well rounded player running and passing the ball. He passed for 3900 yards and 34 touchdowns with a 77% completion rate, but also ran for 560 yards and 11 touchdowns. Bradford simply got the nod because his team was playing in the National Championship.

This trend is going to continue into this year, I would be strongly suprised if it doesn't. This year, the Heisman finalists include:

Toby Gerhart, RB, Stanford
1736 yards rushing, 26 rushing TD, 5.6 yard average, 150 yards receiving, and 1 passing TD.

Mark Ingram, RB, Alabama
1542 yards rushing, 15 TD, 6.2 yard average, 322 yards receiving w/3 TD.

Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
2413 yards passing, 18 TD, 859 yards rushing, 12 TD

Colt McCoy, QB, Florida
3512 yards passing, 27 TD, 348 yards rushing, 3 TD

Ndamukong Suh, DT, Nebraska
82 tackles, 23 tfl, 12 sacks, 1 int, 10 pass breakups, 1 Forced fumble, 3 blocked kicks, and 24 quarterback hurries.

The top player left off of the list of finalists:

CJ Spiller, RB, Clemson
1145 yards rushing, 5.7 average, 11 TD, 445 yards receiving w/4 TD, 1 passing TD, 918 combined return yards w/5 TD. Approximately 200 all purpose yards per game.

Take a look at the statistics yourself, see if any of the players standout statistically. Take into consideration their position, the impacts they have had on big games, and look for yourself as to which player was truly college football's best player this past year.

Now all of these players listed above are game changers, but there are three that stand above the rest, but neither will win the Heisman this year. The Heisman this year will go to Mark Ingram, simply because he is the best player on the best team in college football according to the rankings.

The truth is that the three that deserve the Heisman above the rest are Spiller, Suh, and Toby Gerhart. Each of their teams have four or more losses, but that has nothing to do with them being the best player in the country. The media needs to stop with their input and stick to the foundation of the Heisman trophy, which is ultimately the best player. For these players to put up those numbers on four loss teams should be even more impressive, as it shows that they had little to no support, hence the fact that they were gamebreakers.

Either way, my Heisman winner is CJ Spiller with Suh coming close in second. By the media's standards my opinion does not really matter, but Spiller deserves a shout out for his historical performance in college football this year. Last time there was a player that was as great of an all purpose threat and put up similiar numbers to Spiller, Reggie Bush, and he won with flying colors. Either way, CJ Spiller, you are the best player in college football today, enjoy the offseason and good luck in the draft.

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BCS Picture still a little blurry

Here we go again, the season is coming to a close, and we still will have to wait until selection Sunday to find out what bowls are going to be the most anticipated. Throughout this article, I am just going to lay out what the selection process is going to look like, and what our chances are of going to a BCS Bowl game.

To start off, to be eligible for a BCS bowl game, you have to satisfy three requirements. The three requirements include being ranked in the Top 14 of the final BCS standings at the end of the season, win your conferences automatic bid, and have no more than two losses to be considered for an at large selection (you may however have more than two losses and automatically qualify for a BCS bowl if your conference has an automatic bid).

After that, the breakdown of automatic bids includes that each of the Big Six(Big East, ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Pac Ten, and Big 12) conferences receives an automatic bid. If you are not a member of one of the Big Six, than one of your conference champions is guaranteed an automatic bid only if they are ranked higher than one of the Big Six conference champions in the final BCS standings.

So with that being said, what does the BCS picture currently look like? We're going to first start off with the 5 BCS bowls, and they consist of the National Championship Game(NCG), Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and the Orange Bowl. So overall there are ten positions available to participate in a BCS bowl. The NCG is automatically decided by the final BCS standings, with number one playing number two. As for the rest, the pick their conference affiliates which I have listed below:

Orange Bowl: ACC vs. At Large
Rose Bowl: Pac Ten vs. Big Ten
Sugar: SEC vs. At- Large
Fiesta: Big 12 vs. At-Large

***With the exception that one of those at-large bids is actually the Big East Champion.

Should one of the conferences affiliate champions be chosen to play in the NCG, then they will be granted with a replacement pick or what we call an at large selection. Below I have also listed the current BCS standings, and based on that I am going to lay out

1.	Florida	12-0
2.	Alabama	12-0
3.	Texas	12-0
4.	TCU	12-0
5.	Cincinnati	11-0
6.	Boise St.	12-0
7.	Oregon	9-2
8.	Ohio St.	10-2
9.	Iowa	10-2
10.	Georgia Tech	10-2
11.	Penn St.	10-2
12.	Virginia Tech	9-3
13.	LSU	9-3
14.	BYU	10-2

Based on the current standings and current conference champions alread crowned, I am going to list what the BCS games are going to look like. Following that I am going to break down the three scenarios that would most likely affect the Nittany Lions chances of getting into a BCS bowl game, and the final BCS picture is solely dictated on the following situations. The selection process is also listed in order that they bowls would get to choose their matchups this year.

Once again, these are the most probable situation based on the following scenarios, not exactly whats going to happen if those scenarios are satisfied.

If Texas wins:

NCG: Florida/Bama winner vs. Texas
Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oregon
Fiesta Bowl: TCU vs. Iowa (65%)/Penn State (35%)
Sugar Bowl: Florida/Bama loser vs. Cincy
Orange Bowl: GT/Clemson winner vs. Boise State

Left Out: Penn State

If Texas loses/Cincy wins and moves past TCU in standings.

NCG: Florida/Bama winner vs. Cincy
Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oregon
Sugar Bowl: Texas vs. Florida/Bama loser
Orange Bowl: GT/Clemson winner vs. Penn State
Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs. TCU

Left Out: Boise State and Iowa

If Texas loses/Pitt Wins or Cincy wins and remains behind TCU in standings:

NCG: Florida/Bama winner vs. TCU
Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oregon
Sugar Bowl: Florida/Bama loser vs. Texas
Orange Bowl: GT/Clemson winner vs. Penn State
Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs. Cincy

Left out: Boise State and Iowa

That should give you quite an idea on how things will shape up for the remainder of the season. I believe our best chances of going to a BCS bowl game are in the Orange bowl gets to satisfy its selection first; however, we still stand a chance for the Fiesta bowl if Texas goes to play for the NCG. But for the time being, just keep your fingers crossed and hope that we don't get looked over by the selection committee as we have been looked over by the computers the past couple of weeks.

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Floyd is Out, Coxson stirring up trouble

To keep this one simple and short on the recruiting front, we have big news from two of the top five guys on our recruiting list.

The bad news:

Sharrif Floyd, the top rated defensive tackle in the country from Philadelphia, PA, has recently informed the coaching staff at Penn State that we are no longer in the running for his services for the next four years. Floyd will look to chose between the Gamecocks, Ohio State, and Florida.

On top of that news, Adrian Coxson, the second rated wide receiver in the country by Scout, recently took a visit to Florida. Coxson, who was one of Penn State's first verbal commitments of the 2010 class, says that he is still committed but that he is just taking his visit just to be certain. On top of enjoying his visit to Florida, Coxson has one more official on the table to Georgia, and after that he is not certain if he is going to take any other officials.

The good news:

Coxson has said that he will take an official to Penn State, and that he stays actively in touch with Larry Johnson. If there is anything that is great about this situation is that we will be that last school to leave an impression on him. Look for Larry Johnson to continue to establish a strong relationship with Coxson, and look for him to stay committed to the Nittany Lions.

Finally, my advice to Adrian Coxson would be to commit to Penn State, as the team is in great need of an impact player at wide receiver. The team is looking to bolster its special teams and raw talent at the receiver position. With our spread "pass happy" offense, Coxson also has more of an opportunity to develop into an NFL prospect, rather than sit back and rarely be a factor in an option style offense for Florida. For your own sake, and for the sake of Nittany Nation Adrian, don the Blue and White.

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Double Standards Abound

For the past few years, college football experts have taken a plunge off the deep end. Since the inaugural season of SEC dominance, where Florida smacked Ohio State in the National Title game, sports writers and BCS computers alike have been eating, drinking, and sleeping with the SEC. Apparently that game was a significant turning point in the minds of sports experts nationwide. Since then, hands down the SEC has been the "number one" conference in the Nation.

What I'm here to do is dispel those thoughts, bring to light the truth of college football. The truth is that every year is completely a new year in college football. The opinions of the voters, the ranking system of Rivals and Scout, and success of the previous year means next to nothing. The preliminary polls are what establish the attitude for the upcoming year, and they are purely based on speculation and potential. So what I am saying is that there is a great level of inconsistency in college football, year in and year out because we'd rather guess who is going to do well, and stick to that perception all year long.

Why is it that if everyone in the SEC, except for the top two go 7-5 or 8-4 that everyone proclaims the great balance in that conference. The standard here is that each of these teams or well balanced, great athletes, most speed, etc. However, if the standings are mirrored in the entire ACC, everyone speaks about how soft the conference is, and how much they are lacking a dominant team to assert themselves.

Are the only players being taken in the draft from the SEC? Are the all the playmakers in the NFL, the fastest guys from the SEC? Here's a list of some of the fastest players in the NFL and their respective schools:

Desean Jackson: Cal
Devin Hester: Miami
Chris Johnson: ECU
Percy Harvin: Florida
Adrian Peterson: Oklahoma
Deangelo Williams: Memphis
Steve Smith: Utah
Calvin Johnson: GTech
Ted Ginn Jr: Ohio State
Josh Cribbs: Kent State

Does anything about that list scream out the SEC? The only cut I will take at the SEC is that they produced the single largest draft bust of all time in JaMarcus Russell, far worse than the Chargers taking Ryan Leaf and the Lions combination Charles Rogers and Mike Williams.

Anyways, this bias has got to come to an end, because this bias leads to an unfair advantage in the initial polls for college football every year. The automatic assumption of the SEC's supremacy each and every single year could lead to a one loss SEC team playing for the National Title for the next 50 years. It is said every year, whoever wins the SEC will play for the National Title game. From that point on and that presumption, all of the other conferences strengths are tainted before the season even starts.

So what am I getting to? The point is that each team has its match up, and college football is beginning to even out across the country. Athletes have never been stronger, faster, or smarter than this day and age. The only way to get rid of this political and media bias, is to institute a playoff system. We will never know which conference holds supremacy, who knows if 8-4 SEC team can beat an 11-1 Pac-10 team. How do we know, unless we institute a fair system, and give the top 16 teams in the country a chance to win it all. In order to keep preseason bias out of it, I say give the Big Six conference champs automatic bids, and let the rest of the field be chosen by the voters. Keep the computers out, the Bowl committees out of it, and let the teams play their ways in.

Unfortunately though, due to greed, conference refs blowing big calls in big games (so they don't ruin their conferences chance at a representative in the Title game), and national bias, there will always be an SEC team in the National Title game. So get used to it, watching one of the Big Three (LSU, UF, Bama) vie for the Title every year, people with peanut butter on the roof of their mouths screaming of their SEC dominance, and the lack of integrity in college football for years to come.

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Upcoming News

Sorry for the delay in posting these past couple of weeks. As the Big Ten has come to a close, I have taken a little break from writing. Throughout this week, I will be touching base on where we stand for the BCS picture, Bobby Bowden retiring, and where we stand wrapping up our recruiting class of 2010. I will also begin to breakdown our current commits, about one to two every week including the impact that each will have on the Penn State program. Keep an eye on the blog, as it is going to pick up steam for the next couple of weeks.


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