[NU Sports] Win one for Rutgers (fwd)

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> > Oddly enough, fans seem to relish it when a
> Cinderella school makes it to 
> > the Final Four, but I don't see that attitude in
> 1-A football.  Too much
> 
> I think the difference is that the Cinderella hoops
> teams have to make it
> through a gauntlet of four usually higher-rated
> Tourney teams--including at

Bingo - you hit the nail on the head there. The
Cinderellas have to "earn" it in the tourney (and with
the RPI and tourney committee actually giving big
teams INCENTIVE to play small teams), they do it in
the regular season many times as well.

And when you have cinderella teams in college
football, I think you see teams rally behind them as
well. Most notably, NU in 1995. We beat Notre Dame,
Michigan, PSU and the country was loving it.

The difference is that right now, Rutgers has not
earned that shot at the title. The only team they beat
that has sniffed the top 20 is a Louisville team whose
own ranking was inflated on a weak schedule, a win
over underachieving Miami and a home win over West
Virginia.

So when you put a team that's coasted like that up for
a title shot instead of a team like Florida or Auburn
who ran the gauntlet in the nation's toughest
conference and came up short once, then you get the
"not deserving" label. Because while Rutgers may be a
great story and Louisville has a talented offense, I
think we all know they'd lose at least once in an SEC
schedule with the Cards' porous D and Rutgers'
one-dimensional O.

Now, if Rutgers wins out -- including a season-ending
win at Morgantown, which would be more than anything
Louisville had done to earn #3 -- then I think they
deserve a shot, but it won't matter because they can't
jump that much ground from #15 to #2 in a month
anyway.

As for the title game rematch, as Mike points out, we
had an FSU-Florida rematch a few years back ... but
that was the weird 1996 year where, with no BCS, #1
FSU played #3 Florida and #2 ASU played #4 OSU in
Pasadena. It wasn't like people were clamoring for
that rematch - it was more of a case of everything
else -- Nebraska losing in the Big XII title game for
instandce -- apart. I'm not crying that FSU lost the
rematch because Bobby Bowden is perhaps my least
favorite coach ever, but it wasn't the best way to end
a season to decide a title.

The one thing that could help the OSU/Mich loser is
that they'll be done on Nov. 18 at 11-1 while the
other contenders all play two more games.

In any case, it should be a fun end to the season.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!


 
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