Pretend Playoffs - Championship Game

Last week we saw Alabama knock off Texas in the BCS championship game and now this week we’re ready to crown the Crimson Tide as our 2009-10 NCAA Football Pretend Playoff Champions. While the BCS agreed with our champion the runner-up was a different story. We had a team from the state of Texas in the championship game but it was the one from Ft. Worth and not Austin. Granted TCU’s real life loss to Boise State hurts our formula here but we still have to finish the process.

In our system TCU reached the championship game by knocking off Florida in the Rose Bowl and then sneaking past the Longhorns in an Austin upset. Bama reached the championship game virtually unchallenged after crushing Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and then Boise State in the semis. Now we’ve reached the championship game and we find the Tide still driving on cruise control.

Pretend Playoffs Championship	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
TCU Horned Frogs	0	6	3	3	12
Alabama Crimson Tide	17	3	7	6	33

College Football Pretend Playoffs – Semi Finals

Teams Remaining
#4 TCU
#1 Alabama
#2 Texas
#6 Boise State

The four teams to survive our first round of the pretend college football playoffs were #1 Alabama, #2 Texas, #4 TCU and #6 Boise State. The playoffs now move to the home sites of the two remaining top seeded teams which means #6 Boise State will travel to Tuscaloosa to take on the top seeded Crimson Tide while #4 TCU travels to Austin for an instate showdown with the Longhorns. Who doesn’t think that would be fun?

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#6 Boise State Broncos	0	16	3	0	19
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide	7	17	10	16	50

Boise began their season with a major upset over the eventual Pac 10 champion Oregon Ducks but they'd be no match for the SEC champions at the end of the season. Mark Ingram runs wild through the Broncos' defense in leading Bama to a rout and punching a ticket to Pasadena for the college football championship game.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#4 TCU Horned Frogs	7	0	6	0	13
#2 Texas Longhorns	0	7	0	3	10

Austin becomes upset city as the Horned Frogs kick their way to Pasadena to face the Tide. After playing to a draw in the first half TCU kicks two third quarter field goals to stun the Longhorns and the college football world.

College Football Pretend Playoffs: The Seedings

The way it looks now it will literally take an act of congress to get a college football playoff and with a little more than a week remaining until Texas and Alabama face off in the BCS Championship Game we’re still left wondering what if. What if teams like Cincinnati and TCU were given opportunities to play for all the marbles? Would they get trampled over by a champion from a BCS or would they actually have a punchers chance at providing a March Madness like shocking moment? Unfortunately we’ll never know and instead we have a series of bowl games that look like this;

Rose Bowl – Ohio State/Oregon

Sugar Bowl – Florida/Cincinnati

Fiesta Bowl – Boise State/TCU

Orange Bowl – Iowa/Georgia Tech

BCS Championship – Texas/Alabama

Honestly, unless you’re a fan of one of those teams which game are you just nuts about watching? The Texas/Bama game should be fun for a championship but we’ve got to deal with Boise State/TCU before we get there. Really?

I’ve always argued that you could use the current BCS formula to select the top eight teams for a playoff and things would be much more exciting during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. How about this for the first round?

Rose Bowl - #4 TCU/#5 Florida

Sugar Bowl - #1 Alabama/#8 Ohio State

Fiesta Bowl - #2 Texas/#7 Oregon

Orange Bowl - #3 Cincinnati/#6 Boise State

Come on, you can’t tell me that doesn’t look like a better BCS Bowl lineup. Can you imagine the ratings for these match-ups? Advertising revenue would be through the roof with excitement and anticipation off the chart. The next round would move to the home sites of the two remaining top seeded teams and then finally a BCS Championship game that rotates sites as normal. It would be a lot of fun but we’ll never see it. So in the meantime we’re going to use imagination and computer simulation over the next week to play through our pretend playoffs.

Bowl Season Kicks-Off Tonight - Poinsettia Bowl Preview

The first of 32 bowl games begins tonight when TCU and Northern Illinois face off in the Poinsettia Bowl. Both teams represent small conferences. #25 TCU (10-2) is from the Mountain West and Northern Illinois (7-5) from the Mid-American.

2006 TCU Schedule/Results			2006 NIU Schedule/Results
at Baylor W 17-7			at(1) Ohio State L 12-35
Cal-Davis W 46-13			Ohio L 23-35
(24) Texas Tech W 12-3			Buffalo W 31-13
BYU L 17-31			Indiana State W 48-14
at Utah L 7-20			at Ball State W 40-28
at Army W 31-17			at Miami (OH) W 28-25
Wyoming W 26-3			at Western Michigan L14-16
at UNLV W 25-10			Temple W 43-21
at New Mexico W 27-21			at Iowa L 14-24
San Diego State W 52-0			Toledo L 13-17
at Colorado State W 45-14			Central Michigan W 31-10
Air Force W 38-14			at Eastern Michigan W 27-0

Three Reasons to Watch the Poinsettia Bowl
1. TCU is one of the hottest teams in the country. The Horned Frogs have won seven games in a row with a stingy run defense that only allows 67.6 rushing yards per game.


2. NIU’s Garret Wolfe is the nation’s leading rusher with 1900 yards. He averages 6.5 yards per carry and has tallied 18 touchdowns this season.


3. The Horned Frogs are looking to win consecutive bowl games for the first time in 10 year’s.

My Prediction
Granted TCU hasn’t faced a running back the caliber of Wolfe all season but Northern Illinois seems to fade against stronger competition. I think the game will be close and come down to a late field goal. I’ll Take TCU to win 24-21.

Bowl Pick’Em Contest
Today is the last day to sign-up for the Bowl Pick’Em Contest. The prize is a $25.00 gift card and you have to register before the kick-off of the Poinsettia Bowl tonight.