A fantastic college football weekend, some intriguing NFL storylines and a documentary about gymnastics mean that I have a few things to address today in bullet point format.
- Oregon is 14th in the AP poll!?!?!?! Travesty! Did anyone watch the Cal game? Have they even been watching Oregon all season? There is no possible way Oregon is the 14th best team in the country. If their WR holds on to that football, Cal and Oregon may STILL be playing today. Losing to the #6 team (now #3- although they’re better than USC right now) on a last second fumble hardly necessitates a 3 spot drop, particularly when you’re already ranked too low to begin with. I know I’m not the only one to take issue with the AP poll, but that’s out of hand. If Oregon played in the SEC, they would’ve held their position (or even been moved up) for that kind of loss or their school’s AD would be up in the clock tower picking students off with an assault rifle and jockeying for secession from the BCS.
- Just a reminder for everyone, Big 12 football still ain’t intramurals, brother, even though Oklahoma had a hung-over, Sunday morning flag football intensity about their team on Saturday.
- More analysis about USC coming soon. But let me get some complaining out of the way: that was the worst game a USC team has played since the Las Vegas Bowl in 2002 and they still managed to win despite lopsided officiating.
- For every year that passes, Vince Young’s performance in 2005 becomes even more impressive when you look at Mack Brown’s track record. He loses games he shouldn’t EVERY year, except 2005. Coincidence, I think not. If Vince is enough of a winner to counteract a coach’s propensity for underachieving, then he should be able to overcome personnel problems in the NFL.
- Shawn Merriman sure hasn’t looked the same since he’s come back from that steroid suspension. In fact, neither has the Chargers defense across the board. While most of the problem is coaching and chemistry, if this were baseball we would be voting on ESPN.com about whether all of his sacks should be asterisked and holding a live drug test for the entire defense during SportsCenter. Lights out!
- Why aren’t people more outraged about “Women’s” gymnastics? Let me run down the situation: little girls are sent to live and train with coaches who work them ragged and focus their attention on one goal: the Olympics, which is a long-shot at best. They “choose” to complete through mind-boggling injuries that would sideline most NFL players and do irreparable damage to their bodies. They have an immense emotional weight on their shoulders (in addition to the normal angst of growing up), since they’ve spent their entire life preparing for one thing, but are classified as weak if they wilt under the bright lights of competition like any normal child. Then at the end of the road in their late teens, they’re left maladjusted and stunted with few options besides starting over since they can’t even become professionals in their field. And 18 year olds can’t delcare for the NBA draft?
Yeah, I would put Oregon at #10, up one spot. I have to put 8 of the undefeateds ahead of them (LSU, USC, Cal, South Florida, Ohio State, Wisconsin, & Boston College). But they are probably better than most of the one-loss teams. I’d keep Florida above them simply because it came down to the wire and they were high up to begin with. (Oklahoma falls further because Auburn is MUCH BETTER than Colorado.)
Also, what was this documentary you watched? It sounds interesting.