Weekly Fever Review #4: NYC Bowl Hypocrisy, Etc.
It's going to be a briefer than normal weekly fever. We will take a look at some key games coming up and how they affect our teams and conferences as a whole, but first let's start with a subject that really has us a bit miffed.
In case you haven't heard, the new Yankee Stadium will be hosting a bowl game during Christmas week featuring teams from the Big East and the Big Ten. We must first begin by offering our support. We hope this does two things - (a) starts the process of turning the Big East into a real Northeastern conference (ie dropping the teams in our Footprint so that they can go into other conferences and (b) stops all the NYC-driven media against the bowls.
It's interesting how all of sudden, the New York media understands the value of bowl games. People are writing about what a natural fit it is and how even Notre Dame might play in the game!
Now that New York finally has a bowl game of its own for the first time in years, they seem to understand the value of a bowl game. It proves our point that all the bowl critics from this region largely are against bowls because most of them happen in our region. Only a handful of bowls happen outside the Swampland Footprint because their origins come in bringing tourists to our towns and cities during the holidays.
The BCS, for all its flaws, does allow for the best teams to play each other while still preserving the bowl games. It also preserves the greatest asset of college football - the regular season.
Speaking of the regular season, let's look at each conference and highlight a key game.
SEC - The SEC's best game will be LSU at Georgia, but its most important might be Miss State hosting Georgia Tech. This appears to be an even matchup so the winner will be a lot of conference pride to their respective league.
ACC - The Georgia Tech-MSU battle looms, but Miami's game against Oklahoma announces either Miami's continued rise as a national power or a "wait til next year" attitude.
Big 12 - Hidden behind OU's trip to Miami is the neutral field tilt between Texas A&M and Arkansas. The game features two second year head coaches fresh from the NFL who both want to recruit well in Texas. Jerry Jones has given these teams a showcase to do just that. Arkansas already has two SEC losses, but the Aggies still haven't played anyone of consequence. We shall see how this turns out.
Big East - WVU knocked off Colorado last night which is a solid win amongst our teams in the Big East. The biggest win remains USF's win in Tallahassee against FSU last weekend. The Bulls need to keep this momentum going by beating a pesky Syracuse team on the road.
Conference USA - After last night's surprising loss to UAB by Southern Miss, Houston remains this conference's only real hope - but what hope they represent. The Cougars have beaten two Big 12 South teams this season. They go to Miss State next week as well. If they can run the table, C-USA will have its first BCS buster since its recent overhaul.
Sun Belt - MTSU has become either the number 2 or number 3 team in Tennessee which will likely lead to changes at Memphis in the off season. Still, Tony Franklin's hiring has helped the Blue Raiders become the Sun Belt's most promising team. They host Troy in an important conference game on Saturday before hosting Miss State in a couple of weeks. MTSU's only loss is to Clemson in the first week of the season.
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