Photo courtesy of Associated Press

It was certainly a great night for the Tiger fans here in the Phisch Bowl. We had some fellow alumni over, as well as friends who are just college football fans, and their kids. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, had Zapp's potato chips and Abita beer (Amber and Turbodog), even some king cake. We ate well, we cheered hard for our Tigers, and cheered harder still as the clock ran down in the fourth quarter. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

Monday night, my folks made the requisite birthday phone call, and while chatting with my dad, I was informed that thirty-seven years ago today, I witnessed my first LSU football game. Not that I recall one lick of it, you understand, being all of two days old. But Dad held me and we watched LSU go at it against Ole Miss, which was quarterbacked by the legendary Archie Manning. Of the three games Archie played against the Tigers, this was the only one he lost, and the Rebels lost big, 61-17. Manning played the game with a protected broken arm. (They don't make football players like they use to, though some come close.) So for my friends who might not quite understand my passion for college football, especially the Tigers, you could say I was born to it, and it's been with me ever since. GEAUX TIGERS!!

In some cultures, it is customary for the one having a birthday, instead of receiving gifts, to give them to loved ones and friends. Since I'm unemployed and living off of the labor of the hot number who agreed to swim through life with me, my gift to my college football-loving friends is a ready-made, iCalendar format calendar for the 2007 College Football Bowl season. From the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl (there's a mouthful) on December 20th through the Allstate BCS Championship Game (Geaux Tigers!) on January 8th, they're all in there, complete with locations, the match-ups, and the station on which you can find the game, courtesy of ESPN. All times are for the Central time zone. Just click on the link below, unzip the file, and open it in your calendar application of choice. (Provided said calendar application supports the iCalendar protocol. This was created in Apple's iCal, so if you're a Mac OS X user, you're covered.) Enjoy!

Some chatter by the sports media talking heads got me to wondering, so I did some research. I was wrong when I stated that a team had to win their conference to play in the BCS national championship game, thus eliminating Georgia and Kansas from contention. According to the BCS Selection Policies and Procedures, the only requirements to play in the National Championship Game (NCG) is that the two teams must be ranked first and second in the BCS rankings. What this means is that if the unlikely scenario I posited comes true, and Missouri, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech all lose, what we'd likely see is Ohio State and Georgia playing for the BCS championship. That's right, one team that played its last game on 11/17, and the other on 11/24, each getting to play for the national title, and only one of whom won its conference. If that scenario isn't just one of many which continues to scream the need for a playoff system, I don't know what would be one. What this means is that if somehow Mizzo, WV, and VT all lose--and things are tied up between BC and VT as of this writing--and LSU prevails, the pollsters would have to give my Tigers some serious love to vault them past Georgia and Kansas to put them in the national championship game. Otherwise, the best they can hope for is the Sugar Bowl. Given how badly they played last week against Arkansas, and the way they've struggled all through November, that may just be the best they should get any way. Geaux Tigers!!!

So the Tigers really blew it on Friday. Looking ahead to the SEC championship? Thinking of playing for the national title game? Distracted by the Miles-leaving-for-Michigan chatter? Whatever it was, the LSU football team was clearly not focused on getting past Arkansas, and it led to their number-one ranking being lost again in triple overtime. Today's BCS poll has the Tigers in the number seven spot, which is probably about right. (I think they should be ranked ahead of Virginia Tech, a team they trounced early in the season and which has not had as tough a schedule as the Tigers, but since when has playing in the toughest conference counted for anything with the polls?) It is possible for LSU to still advance to the BCS National Championship Game, but they need a lot of help, which they probably won't get. 1. The Tigers have to put the rest of the season behind them and take care of business against Tennessee in the SEC Championship. The same team that demolished a good Virginia Tech team in week two needs to emerge once again, because, quite frankly, we haven't seen that team since around week two. The Tigers have a perennial problem of playing down to the level of their opponent, rather than at the consistently high level they should be playing at. This is what cost them the game against Arkansas, and could spell their doom against Tennessee. 2. Missouri has to lose to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship. (Quite possible, as it appears that the Sooners are better now than when they beat Missouri earlier in the season.) 3. West Virginia has to lose to Pittsburgh. (The most unlikely of these scenarios.) 4. Virginia Tech has to lose to Boston College. (Will the Hokies fall twice in the same year to BC? It happened to Georgia against LSU in 2003. Unfortunately, this is probably the second least-likely outcome.) If all of the above were to occur, LSU would theoretically be in the BCS Championship game against Ohio State. The season is over for Georgia and Kansas. Since they won't win their conferences, they're not allowed to play for the BCS title, despite being ranked by the BCS ahead of LSU. What I think will actually happen is this: 1. LSU beats Tennessee in a closer-than-it-should've-been contest to advance to the Sugar Bowl, much to the chagrin (again) of the Sugar Bowl committee and New Orleans Board of Tourism, both of which want the influx of cash from out-of-staters, rather than fans who can drive the 60 miles between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and still sleep in their own beds. 2. Oklahoma upsets Missouri to win the Big 12. 3. Boston College rallies from behind late in the game to upset VT. 4. West Virginia trounces Pittsburgh much like what they did to Connecticut to advance to the BCS National Championship against Ohio State. So we shall hope for the former scenario, while acknowledging the latter is far, far more likely...

Yeah? Why not? Here's the rub, looking at the latest AP poll and BCS rankings: Ohio State may be unbeaten, but they haven't exactly had a tough time in their lossless season. Of the three ranked teams they've played, and beaten, none of those teams have been ranked higher than 21. The Big Ten is not so big this season. LSU, on the other hand, plays in the toughest conference in the land, widely acknowledged as such by the sports media and honest college football coaches and fans. As Mark May said one night on College GameDay Final, "Where do NFL scouts go first? The SEC." LSU has played twice as many ranked teams to date as OSU, with a record of 5-1 against those opponents. None of those opponents were ranked lower than 17. Sure, LSU hasn't been putting up the big numbers against their opponents like the Buckeyes have done, but it's easy to pad the score and go undefeated when you're playing a bunch of nobodies. And this nonsense about Kansas leapfrogging the Tigers should the Jayhawks go undefeated? Please. The case for Kansas being number one or two is weak. Their only win against a ranked team was in-state rival Kansas State, which clocked in on the October 6th game day at number 24. Oklahoma has a much better case, even with its one loss, at a higher ranking, since both of its wins came against teams ranked above twenty. The Big 12 as a conference isn't its usual powerful self this season either, but based on their schedule, I'd still put the Sooners ahead of the Buckeyes--and right behind LSU. The Tigers have definitely had the hardest road to the national championship, and unlike OSU or Oregon, will have to play one more game to get there. (Barring, that is, back-to-back stumbles against Ole Miss and Arkansas, both in the bottom half of the SEC West.) Looking at the rest of the season, it's very likely that LSU will be facing a Top 10 opponent in Georgia for that contest, eclipsing by ranking the twelfth-ranked Wolverines OSU faces on the seventeenth. Ever since, and including, the game against Florida, LSU has been it's own worst opponent, not the folks on the other side of the ball. Ivan Maisel calls it. The Tigers have played sloppy and undisciplined. It cost them at Kentucky, and made for much closer games against Florida, Auburn, and Alabama. Yet the Tigers still find ways to win against teams the likes of which Ohio State has nightmares about (Florida in Glendale earlier this year), and Oregon prays they won't have to play in the post-season. Why is so hard for an undefeated team to emerge from the SEC? Because the conference is just that good. Witness the rankings this week: no conference has more teams in the Top 25 than the SEC. Last season, no conference played in more bowls than the SEC. Last season, no conference won more bowl games than the SEC. (No one won as many as the SEC did, either.) You want to talk strength of schedule? Start with the Southeastern Conference, because that's where the strength not only lives, but has drilled deep to lay the foundation the rest of college football wishes its conferences were built upon. At least five members of the sports media got it right this week: they cast their number-one votes for the Fighting Tigers of LSU. If Les Miles can, ahem, "enlighten" his team to the point that the same Tigers who dismantled number-nine Virginia Tech in the second week show up for the rest of the season, the SEC Championship, and the national title game, God help whomever their opponent is. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

Today is a historic day in the life of our little family: the little phisch is going to his first-ever live, in-person football game. My wife's boss is a SMU alum, and secured us tickets to tonight's contest against Tulane, which is where my wife graduated from law school. Before the game, we'll be at the Tulane Alumni tailgate party, where I'm sure I'll draw some stares, since I'm in my purple LSU shirt and tan LSU cap. So here's the rundown: with me in my LSU regalia, we're going to be amongst Tulane grads for eats and drinks, assuring them that, yes, we'll be rooting for the Green Wave during the game. We'll be sitting in the heart of the SMU side of the field, amongst Mustang grads and their families, assuring them that, yes we'll be rooting for the ponies during the game. Effectively, we're going to be Switzerland, my wife told me earlier. See why I'm feeling a little schizo with regard to college football today? I'm just hoping it's a decent football game. I'm also interested in checking out Gerald J. Ford Stadium, which is fairly new, having had its first games played in the 2000 season. By the way, the game is on Fox Sports Network Southwest at 7 PM CST, so if you see the lone purple-shirt guy amongst a sea of blue, red, and white, that's probably moi.

Congratulations to the Florida Gators, who have secured their second national championship in 100 years of playing football. The Gators not only answered the question of the sports punditry--whether the Florida defense could slow down Troy Smith and the Buckeye offense--they trampled on it, threw it around, and crushed it in to the earth of the stadium in Glendale. Much like they did to Heisman Trophy winner Smith. I'm sure the manhandling of Ohio State by Florida comes as a surprise to those who spend little time paying attention to SEC football, which, judging from the press coverage of the last month, leading right up to the kickoff, includes pretty much every sports writer and television personality in the country. These are the same pundits who seem fixated on the Big Ten, an independent team continually in the national mind only because of a TV broadcast deal, and a former-glory team from a mediocre West Coast conference. Perhaps now that two SEC teams have soundly trounced the aforementioned independent team and the season-long number-one Big Ten team, they will sit up and take notice of the powerhouse that is the Southeastern Conference. (Somehow, though, I doubt it.) Lest, dear reader, you think I speak too quickly with this post's pronouncement of the SEC being the best conference in the land, allow me to recap the post-season bowl records for you: * The Big Ten, from whence the former number-one Ohio State Buckeyes hail, finished a woeful 2-5 in bowl play. * The Big 12 finished only one game better at 3-5. * The pathetically mediocre Pac-10 finished at a pathetically mediocre .500, going 3-3. * The "up and coming" ACC, which was supposed to become a powerhouse conference after the uniting of Florida State, Miami, and Virginia Tech under the same banner, also finished even, at 4-4. * You may point to the Big East's 5-0 record in bowl play as something worthy of note, until you compare the fact that the bowls in which the Big East played were of little consequence, with the exception of the Orange Bowl, which I am sure will be the lowest-rated of the BCS bowls because it featured a pair of teams pretty much no one cared about, nationally speaking. What you should take from this then, dear reader--other than the fact that there are way too many bowl games now--is that the SEC finishes 6-3, and is home of the national champion for two of the past four years. The SEC earned more bowl spots than any other conference, and won more bowl games than any other conference. Yet I'll wager you there won't be more than one SEC team in the pre-season Top 5 for the 2007 season, given the fixations the sports media and coaches are afflicted with. The 2006 college football season is now at an end, and I already await the 2007 season's start in August. The SEC will be leading the way. Sports pundits, please pay attention.

How do you like Romo now? :D Sorry, I'm a little giddy at the moment. I wonder what Drew Bledsoe is thinking.

Mark Schlabach perfectly sums up my feelings regarding the constantly overrated Fighting Irish. Those pollsters who had them at #2 in the rankings at the beginning of the season look, well, pretty stupid right now, don't they?

Dear ESPN, I realize that it's a pretty big deal that Nick Saban deserted the Miami Dolphins to become the highest paid college football coach in the country, but don't you think it's newsworthy that LSU exposed how overrated Notre Dame is in the Sugar Bowl last night, and that that should dominate the College Football home page? Please rectify this at your earliest convenience. Thanks, Retrophisch Update: It appears I've been heard. (Shush and allow me this delusion, will you?) As of 12:20 PM CST when I checked the College Football home page, the upcoming championship game between Florida and Ohio State has replaced Saban as the main news of the moment. Still no love for my Tigers from the SEC-bigoted blowhards at ESPN.

Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick. How could you do this to us? How could you do this to the team you already had a commitment to? I think I can speak for a lot of LSU fans in saying that we wanted to see the coach who brought the Tigers their second national championship do well. I'm not a huge fan of the NFL, and I don't really cheer for any team in particular, but I wanted to see Nick Saban turn things around at Miami and lead a successful career as a NFL head coach. While I, like many, was disappointed to see Saban leave LSU, I could certainly understand his departure: after summitting the highest point in college football, he was ready for the next challenge. Except Saban didn't really give the next challenge the time--and thus, the effort--to do the same in the NFL that he did in the NCAA. It takes an extremely rare coach to turn a football team in a complete one-eighty in two years or less. Nick Saban, for all his prowess as a football coach, is not amoung that rare number. For Saban, the 2006 season in Miami was actually worse than 2005, and there must have been something in the Dolphins' organization that told him 2007 wasn't going to get any better. I could certainly be wrong, but Saban has never struck me as the kind of guy who would shy away from a challenge, unless he knew the challenge wasn't worth it. Then, of course, there's the money. Nick Saban has become the highest-paid coach in college football, and he hasn't won a game in Tuscaloosa yet. For all appearances, it appears that Pat Forde is right, and Saban is just as shallow as, well, pretty much anyone else. Not surprising, but certainly disappointing. Those who keep their word and stick around to the end of their contract become increasingly rare with each passing season. But, Nick. Alabama? Alabama? LSU fans would be glad to welcome you back to the ranks of college football, even to the ranks of the SEC. But Alabama? Of all the teams you could have chosen to come back to, you have to pick the one with the most obnoxious fans in the Southeastern Conference. Fans who, though some of them aren't old enough to remember Bear Bryant, pine for the glory days of Alabama football, and hope to see the ghost of the Bear return again to lead them to another championship. (And it doesn't help that the same sports punditry which lauds USC and Notre Dame today for what those schools accomplished in yesteryear, do the same for Alabama and the days of Bear Bryant, as if there are no other schools in the south playing football and winning national championships.) Then again, perhaps the Crimson Tide will get what they deserve. They want to win, and Saban has shown, at the college level at least, that he can deliver in that department. (After all, under Saban the Tigers were undefeated at Bryant-Denny Stadium, so we know it's possible for him to win in Tuscaloosa.) But as Ivan Maisel points out, Saban is no Bryant, and now, having shown his true color--green--Alabama fans should in no way place any amount of trust in Saban sticking around for the long term. He may bring them a championship, but it's unlikely he'll deliver what they most lust for: a dynasty.

There are times when it's nice to be wrong, and I'm glad I was wrong regarding the poll voters living in yesteryear. They did the right thing, and put Florida in the BCS Championship game opposite Ohio State. That will be a great football game. It looks like there will be several great football games featured in the upcoming bowl season. My Tigers will face Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, and that looks like a great match-up. Michigan is going to face USC in a classic Big 10-vs.-Pac-10 Rose Bowl, and as usual, should be a good game, though I think Michigan is going to roll right over the Trojans. The Wolverines will be looking to prove something after seeing Florida vault over them in the standings, and I'm not sure the USC ego is going to recover from losing to UCLA. I'll set aside my normal dislike for Michigan to root for them, as my dislike for the Pac-10 in general, and USC in particular, is so much stronger. (My best friend in high school--hi, Matt!--was from Ohio, and a huge OSU fan, so I picked up the Michigan dislike from him.) Boise State against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl should yield another great game between well matched-up teams. Likewise with Arkansas and Wisconsin in the Capital One, West Virginia versus Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl, and Tennessee against Penn State in the Outback. I know Brent is probably beside himself in anticipation of potentially seeing in person his beloved Auburn take on Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl. That should be another great game. The only snoozer I see is the Orange Bowl. Will that many people really tune in to see Louisville take on Wake Forest? Granted, it will be the only college bowl game on that night, so I'm sure they'll get a lot of viewers that way. (I confess, I'll probably be one of those.) But I can't imagine it pulling in the sort of ratings the other BCS bowls will. Louisville's going to crush Wake Forest. I still believe the BCS needs to seriously consider the automatic bid for the Big East, and to a lesser extent, the ACC. There look to be some good match-ups in the lesser bowls, too. Our local TCU Hornfrogs are in the bowl season opener, the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, on December 19th. And what's with these two minor bowls, the International Bowl in Toronto, and the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, being held after the first of the year? Get back to being scheduled before December 30th, as all minor bowls should be. ESPN has the entire schedule for your TiVo-setting pleasure. So, go Florida! Go Michigan! Go Arkansas! Go Auburn! Go Tennessee! But most of all, Geaux Tigers!!

Say, worshipers of the University of Spoiled Children: for there to be a dynasty, don't you need to actually make it to the title game? Pardon me while I congratulate the Bruins of UCLA for an outstanding defensive effort, stifling the Trojans and keeping the overrated Pac-10 from a national championship shot. So now all of the attention is on the poll voters, who will determine if Michigan or Florida deserves to play Ohio State on January 8th. My two cents: the SEC is the toughest conference in all of the college football. To emerge undefeated from this conference, as Auburn did in 2004 (and was denied the national title shot) is one of the greatest team accomplishments in all of college football. Florida fell one game short of that goal this year, which is still a heck of an accomplishment, considering this is the SEC. Michigan has a hell of a football team this year, no doubt about it. But Florida played one more game this year, and the Wolverines failed to win their conference, as that honor went to Ohio State. Frankly, I don't think you should be allowed to play for the national championship if you fail to win your conference; this caused a lot of angst in 2003, when Oklahoma got to play LSU in the Sugar Bowl, even though the Sooners lost the Big 12 Championship game to Kansas State. In my mind, USC has a legitimate gripe they didn't get the title shot in 2003, and I would hate to see the same thing happen to Florida this year. I think the problem Florida will have with the poll voters is that too many of them are living in the glory days of yesteryear when the Big 10 and the Pac-10 did rule college football. Gentlemen, those days are over. The Pac-10 is a dim shadow of its former self, and the Big 12 has risen to national prominence. The SEC, Big 10, and Big 12 conferences are now college football's elite. Florida and Michigan come from those conferences, but of those two, only Florida emerged as conference champion. My fear is that too many voters will overlook that fact. Send Michigan to face USC in the Rose Bowl; you'll get your big Pac-10 vs Big 10 bowl game to remind you of the yesteryear you seem fixated upon. Florida deserves to be in the desert facing the Buckeyes in January.