My next 50 years...

On the eve of the Sugar Bowl, matching up Florida State and Northern Illinois, I want to share With all due respect to my Illinois friend, Jeff Dahl, and Ryan’s Uncle Charles, I don’t like Illinois or the BCS much these days.

Illinois:

                             

 

First, let’s talk about Illinois. I did enjoy the movie “Lincoln” (saw it Thanksgiving weekend). Even more, I liked Bill O’Reilly’s 2011 book called “Killing Lincoln.” But the state that brought us one of our greatest Presidents, also has brought the following:

 

·   The former Illinois Senator, who will remain nameless

·     Former Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and is now serving a 14 year prison sentence for attempting to sell the Senate seat vacated by the nameless one. What a joke!

·    Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who used his public platform to start a smear campaign against Chik-fil-A (the best chocolate Chip cookies I’ve ever eaten) for their pro-Christian policies. Joke #2!·    Speaking of Chicago, how many murders this year, Rahm? I read an article that claimed that there have been more murders in Chicago this year than deaths in Afghanistan. Good reason to focus your attention on Chik-fil-A-gate!

·    Lastly the Illinois State Employees Retirement Fund is going bankrupt due to mis-management. So what does the state of Illinois do? They have recently petitioned the Federal Government saying that “other states” should pay their deficit! The gall!

Illinois is the new “Mistake-by-the-lake!”

To top it all off, The Northern Illinois Huskie’s football team is going to the a BCS Bowl, knocking the Oklahoma Sooners out of a prestigious BCS Bowl game! To be fair, this is not the fault of the N. Illinois football program. They have had a great year, finishing 12-1 in the MAC Conference, and beating the likes of (mighty) Akron, Toledo, and Buffalo, soundly. But they lost to Iowa (at 2-6, one of the worst teams in a bad Big 10 Conference (did you know that the BCS rep from the Big 10 conference is a 5 loss Wisconsin team?). The N. Illinois “marquee” win was by 7 points against a University of Kansas team that finished 1-11, losing their last 11 games. Does this sound like a BCS resume?

Again, the N. Illinois Huskies had a great year, and have earned a bowl game. But a BCS Bowl, against Florida State? Ouch! Embarrassing!

The BCS:

Okay, so my beef is not so much against N. Illinois (although I can’t say much about the state they represent). My beef is really against the BCS. Because of (a number of) recent rule changes, Northern Illinois received a BCS Bowl bid, likely replacing the Oklahoma Sooners in a BCS Bowl.

Although Oklahoma has lost two games this year, one loss was to Notre Dame, the undefeated #1 team in the country, who is (deservedly) playing in the National Championship game. The second loss was to Kansas State, by 5 points (24-19) way back in September. In that game, OU had two costly fumbles, one by Landry Jones in the end zone (KSU recovered for a TD), and the second on an OU first & goal from the 3 yard line (that KSU recovered preventing an OU touchdown). If either of those fumbles hadn’t happened, likely a different outcome. However, KSU won the game fair and square, and has had a great season!

KSU will be representing the Big XII in a BCS Bowl (the Fiesta). They finished with the same 8-1 Big XII record as Oklahoma. OU has won 8 straight Big XII games, since losing to KSU in September. This is the same Big XII that has 9 of 10 teams going to a Bowl games, so we’re not talking lightweight opponents here!

Anyway, I just thought I’d get it off my chest. I’m not happy with Illinois or the BCS! My apologies to Jeff Dahl!

 

Cotton Bowl:

OU will be playing Texas A&M, led by Heisman hopeful Johnny “Football” Manzeil, in the Cotton Bowl. Interestingly, this will be the third Heisman hopeful OU will face this season (KSU’s Colin Klein, and Notre Dame’s Manti Teo). Will the Heisman curse (it is said that the team that wins the Heisman typically has a bad bowl game) continue? We’ll see! As I have three kids (and their three spouses) all as Texas A&M grads, it will be interesting to see what happens!

 

Boomer Sooner!