Randy Smith
As college football fanatics realize what has taken place in the last few days, it appears the excitement level will only continue to build. The final four field is now set, and we are just a few weeks away from the first playoff to ever determine a national champion. And boy, what a field it is. In the Sugar Bowl, top-seed Alabama faces fourth seed Ohio State, while in the Rose Bowl, second seed Oregon will square off against third seed and defending national champ Florida State.
Both games are superb match-ups, with each game featuring individual battles that come along only so often.
In the Sugar Bowl, the Tide's Nick Saban faces Buckeyes' Coach Urban Meyer, in a battle of arguably, the two top head coaches in the game. A grand total of six national titles between the two men, all won in the last thirteen years is on the resume. In the Rose Bowl, the Heisman Trophy winner from last year (Florida States' Jameis Winston) faces off with the heavy favorite for this year's award. (Oregon's Marcus Mariota) The only way things could be better would be if eight teams were involved in the playoff format; which is coming in a few short years.
By the way, my vote for national Coach of the Year honors goes to Urban Meyer, hands down. The man has gone 35-4 in his first three years as the Buckeye's head coach, and he won the Big Ten Championship Game last weekend 59-0 with a third string quarterback calling the shots. Of all the teams in the final four, the Buckeyes could be the hottest team right now.
It's unfortunate that the two teams that shared the Big 12 title won't be in the mix in 2014. Baylor and TCU were rated fifth and sixth respectively, and were the first two teams out of the running. The biggest detriment to those two schools? No league championship game. All four of the teams that made the playoffs won their respective league championship events.
No matter what happens in the next few seasons, there are always going to be teams that feel they were disrespected when the final rankings come out and the playoffs are set. I'm sure that both Baylor and TCU feel they are as good as any team in the country, and they could very well be right, but the Bears and Horned Frogs will have to settle for just being among the best teams in the land for 2014.
The Southeastern Conference put in a plan to determine the champion when they split into divisions and formed the SEC Championship Game back in 1992. That move was considered radical at the time, because the other leagues said the SEC teams would wear each other out and would hardly ever win a national title. Since that daring move in 1992, the SEC has won 11 national championships, including the first year in 1992 ; far more than any other conference. Not only does the SEC play the best football in the country, they have proven over and over again to be trend setters in college sports.
While the Big 12 puts a plan into motion to bring back their conference championship game, I think it's time to make a few more changes in college football. First, the Big Ten and the Big 12 each must learn how to count. The Big Ten has a total of 14 teams, while the Big 12 should really be the Big Ten, because they have only ten teams. If the Big Ten becomes the Big 14, then the Big 12 could then become the Big Ten. Then and only then could those other leagues move a bit closer to SEC Supremacy.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.
To contact Randy: rsmithsports@epbfi.com