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Volume CXXXII, Number 11 |
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All for the love of the game
CONOR WILLIAMS
COLUMNIST
Autumn is a time for love. A time for romance. Frankly, I'm at my most passionate between September and December. As the leaves fall, as the light wanes, as the temperature drops, I'm all about the love. Girls come and go, but college football is always there.
My first game was in the womb, the autumn before I came to be. Just a couple months later, I was born in Ann Arbor, a few miles from Michigan Stadium. At six, I sat in the south end zone and watched the Wolverines smoke Minnesota's Golden Gophers. Simply put, I've been steeped in college football.
That said, the last weeks have been tough, as the University of Michigan ended their season with a tight loss to the Ohio State's Buckeyes; a game the Maize and Blue dominated and should've taken. Until you've seen one of these games for yourself, you simply can't understand the intertwined passions. These are two of the nation's most storied teams - a contention that stats bear out.
According to the NCAA, Michigan's program is 121 years old, while Ohio State's is a sprightly 111 years young. Michigan has the second-best all-time winning percentage amongst all schools and the most overall victories, while Ohio State ranks fifth and seventh, respectively. The University of Michigan boasts the nation's largest football stadium on all levels with an official capacity of 107,501 and routinely sets a new attendance record during each year's Ohio State game.
The rivalry is 97 years old, with Michigan leading 56-36-6. These two teams are the class of the Big Ten; a fan poll conducted by the NCAA last week showed that nearly 32 percent of fans believe that the Big Ten is the nation's strongest football conference, with no other conference within 5 percentage points.
It's a huge game, casting a shadow over the rest of the season. Almost every year, one or both of the two teams are contending for the Big Ten's Rose Bowl berth or the national championship.
What am I getting at? The last Orient before Thanksgiving contended that there was no reason to watch Division I football because the Bowl Championship Series takes away from the excitement by focusing on exceedingly complex and excessive calculations to determine a champion. Granted, I've got my own problems with the BCS, namely that it plunders the Rose Bowl once every four years for two teams that are not necessarily from the Pac-10 or Big Ten.
Still, that's a separate issue. The ranking system is not necessarily the most desirable means of deciding a national champion, but it has little to no bearing on the quality of D-I football. Maybe the author has been watching the wrong football?
That is possible because the game has become a sectional affair. I'd contend that the SEC is not a "football" conference, or at least that it represents a diminished version. The West Coast offense is not football, either. Football is not played underneath a roof. Nor is it played on anything other than grass-real grass.
That's what makes the Big Ten so great, what makes the Big Twelve so strong. These are conferences where the game is about defense, about the ground game, and the changing seasons. The game has changed for some.
The appeal of college football isn't necessarily in the final score or outcome; it's in the game itself. I don't care one whit about the .01 that the Buckeyes needed to gain to overtake Miami for first place. It'll take far more than a nerdy rankings formula to kill my devotion. God I love football. Heads up for January 1st and the Rose Bowl!
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