Randy Smith
The Bowl Championship Series has now completed 15 years with the same basic format; the two best teams in the country chosen to play for the national title by computers and polls. In most cases, no one really argues with the eventual winner being the best team in the nation. The big argument comes in when there is a real mismatch in the championship event, much like the one this past Monday night when Alabama routed Notre Dame 42-13. The rout was equal to the Tide’s 44-13 win over a very bad Tennessee squad in October. College football fans deserve much more for their national championship event.
Things will improve a bit in 2014, when a four team playoff will decide the best college football team in the country, but we must be patient; we have to sit through one more year of hoping those computers and polls will get it right. Alabama was no doubt a better football team than Notre Dame. I knew it before the game as did most football prognosticators. But, we could have had a better match up.
That’s why I think we should change the name of the BCS from, Bowl Championship Series, to Basic Common Sense. Alabama would still likely be the national champ, but in my final poll of the year, they would have faced a completely different opponent. My final top five would have looked like this:
- Alabama
- Oregon
- Texas A&M
- Georgia
- Ohio State
Oregon would have given the Crimson Tide a much more competitive game than the Fighting Irish, simply because of their high-powered, fast-paced offense. Alabama would have still won the game, but they would have used a more time consuming offensive approach, just to keep the Ducks offense off the field. It still would have been fun to watch. Texas A&M was tabbed third in my final BCS (Basic Common Sense) poll, because the Aggies were the hottest team in the country the last two months of the season. Remember, they handed Alabama its only defeat of the year in November in Tuscaloosa.
I also really liked the Georgia Bulldogs who had a real chance to win the SEC Championship Game over Alabama. The Bulldogs were a single play away from winning over the Tide, and moving on to face Notre Dame in Miami. I think Georgia will be a title contender in 2013 if they keep most of their NFL draft eligible juniors and keep everyone healthy when the season starts.
I chose Ohio State fifth because even though the Buckeyes were on probation and were forced to miss the post season, they still beat every opponent they faced during the season to finish 12-0. They will be picked to win the Big Ten title this coming fall.
With Alabama Coach Nick Saban winning his third NCAA Crown in four years and fourth overall as a head coach, he further entrenched himself as the games top coach. As long as Saban is on the “Capstone” Alabama will be a contender. He has been the Tide’s head man for six seasons and has already won half as many titles as the great “Bear” Bryant, who won six. There are already ‘Bama fans who consider Saban to be the best football coach ever and that’s understandable. It’s been thirty years since the “Bear” roamed the Alabama sidelines. A lot of Crimson Tide fans weren’t even born when “Bear” was coaching. A lot of people however, including myself, still consider him to be the best ever. That’s just Basic Common Sense.
rsmithsports@comcast.net
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Randy Smith has been covering sports in Tennessee for the last 43 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has continued his broadcasting career as a free-lance play-by-play announcer. He is also an author and is a media concepts teacher at Brainerd High School in Chattanooga. He is also the Head Softball Coach at Brainerd. Randy Smith's career has included a 17-year stint as scoreboard host and pre-game talk show host on the widely regarded "Vol Network". He has also done play by play of more than 500 college football, basketball, baseball and softball games on ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports, CSS and Tennessee Pay Per View telecasts. He was selected as "Tennessee's Best Sports Talk Show Host" in 1998 by the Associated Press. He has won other major awards including, "Best Sports Story" in Tennessee and his "Friday Night Football" shows on WRCB-TV twice won "Best Sports Talk Show In Tennessee" awards. He has also been the host of "Inside Lee University Basketball" on CSS for the past 11 years. He was the first television broadcaster to ever be elected to the "Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame", in 2003. Randy and his wife, Shelia, reside in Hixson. They have two married children (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith). They also have three grandchildren (Coleman, Boone, and DellaMae).