Random Thoughts (December 4, 2008)

North Carolina is off to the races and look to be on their way to the 2009 national championship. They are absolutely crushing their opposition (77-58 over Kentucky, 98-69 over Oregon, 102-87 over Notre Dame, 98-63 over Michigan State). Their best players -- Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green -- are playing at an amazingly high level and some of their freshman bench players (Ed Davis, Larry Drew) would start for other Top 10 teams. The Tar Heels still have to navigate the ACC -- keep an eye on Duke, as always -- but this team is loaded across the board and plays with level of intensity that no opponent can match... I know the college football bowl games are all about making money but it makes very little sense that a 7-5 Clemson team will play in the Gator Bowl and the loser of the BC-Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship Game will likely play in the less prestigious Champs Sports Bowl... If college football used a playoff system of 8 teams using existing bowl games, these are the matchups (based on the current BCS standings) we could be seeing: FIRST ROUND ORANGE BOWL: (1) Alabama v. (8) Penn State GATOR BOWL: (4) Florida v. (5) USC CHICK-FIL-A BOWL: (3) Texas v. (6) Utah COTTON BOWL: (2) Oklahoma v. (7) Texas Tech SEMIFINALS SUGAR BOWL: Alabama/Penn State v. Florida/USC FIESTA BOWL: Texas/Utah v. Oklahoma/Texas Tech FINALS ROSE BOWL: Semifinals Winners The four "major" bowl games (Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Rose) would rotate so that the bowl that served as the national championship game would serve as a first round game the following year and then become a semifinal game for two years. It's better than what we have now... Roosevelt Colvin is back with the Patriots. Hopefully he can pressure the opposing quarterback... SAN DIEGO (-7.5) over Oakland... My Heisman choice is Tim Tebow. I love Colt McCoy, Graham Harrell, and Sam Bradford but they all play in the Big 12 (along with Chase Daniel, Todd Reesing, and Robert Griffin) so I tend to think some of their success is based on the poor defenses in the conference. Tebow has led Florida to the brink of a conference (and possibly a national) championship in the defensive minded SEC using his legs and arm... Enjoy Phil Kessel tonight...