Gators Grab National Crown

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Congratulations to Florida on its victory over Oklahoma last night.

The Gators now have their second national title in three years — and the Southeastern Conference has its fourth national title in six years.

In fact, in those six years, the SEC has compiled a record of 7-2 in BCS bowl games — only Georgia (in the January 2006 Sugar Bowl) and Alabama (in the January 2009 Sugar Bowl) have failed to emerge victorious in BCS bowls in that time span.

Viewers who tuned in to the game expecting to see another 60-point performance by the Sooners were disappointed. OU only managed to get a single TD in each half.

And those who enjoy controversy may have been denied that opportunity this year. If Oklahoma had won the game, Texas fans might have been able to argue convincingly that they were more deserving of the national title since the Longhorns beat the Sooners in October.

But OU lost by the same margin (10 points) to Florida as to Texas, and the Gators' defense did a better job of stopping Oklahoma's admired offense than Texas did.

So, if Mack Brown follows through with his pledge to vote Texas #1 in today's poll, what will be his justification?

Florida followed the prescribed formula for winning the national title.

Does that mean the national championship will be spared controversy this year? Not necessarily. After all, Utah finished the season undefeated — and beat Alabama more convincingly than Florida did last month.

Doug Robinson of the Deseret News is armed with the blue-collar argument: "This is about nothing more than money, a case of the rich getting richer and not wanting to share the loot with the lower classes. It's the good-ol'-boys bowl network protecting its turf."

And he isn't finished.

"No matter how you cut it, the arrangement is just plain un-American," he writes. "In America, it's what you do, not who you are or what club you belong to or how much money you have. It's about fairness and equal opportunity and performance, or it's supposed to be."

Ah, yes, performance.

That's an area where Oklahoma came up far short of expectations, after routinely putting up 50 or 60 points against foes during the regular season — and even in its Big 12 title game.

During halftime, Barry Switzer may have been on to something when he pointed to OU's failure to score in the red zone as a potential factor in the game. Instead of attempting what should have been a chip shot field goal on a fourth-and-goal situation with the score tied late in the second quarter, the Sooners tried to score a touchdown and were rejected by the Gators.

That's the kind of play that gives confidence and momentum to the defense while robbing the offense of the same things.

Late in the game, OU coach Bob Stoops may have wished the Sooners had kicked that field goal in the first half. If the Sooners had settled for the three points before halftime, the whole complexion of the game could have been altered, strategies would have been different, and the Sooners might not have faced impossible odds late in the contest.

So this loss was as much Stoops' failure as his team's.

If not moreso.

As a result, as Kevin Sherrington suggests in the Dallas Morning News, Stoops' moniker of "Big Game Bob" may not survive.

But Florida's Urban Meyer, who has now won two national championships in three years, may now be overdue for a nickname that implies his winning ways.

PBA Bowling Championship Starts in Reno

The careers of athletes who participate in traditional team sports (i.e, baseball, basketball, football) typically have a short shelf life. But participants in some individual sports — like bowling or golf — can enjoy much longer careers.

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) National Bowling Stadium Championship got under way in Reno, Nev., today.

Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, S.C., is the defending champion. On Jan. 6, 2008, he won the title by defeating Patrick Allen, 254-214. It was his 11th career title.

A field of 64 bowlers is lined up to compete in this year's event, which comes at the beginning of the second half of the 50th anniversary of the PBA.

If you can't get to Reno to witness the event in person, you can catch coverage of the final round on ESPN starting at noon (Central) on Sunday.

Eagles-Giants May Be Best Game This Weekend

Peter King of Sports Illustrated — a sportswriter for whom I have a great deal of respect — points out that this weekend's playoff games are all rematches of regular-season encounters.

And each one was a "barnburner," King says.

"Philadelphia beat New York by six, New York beat Philly by five, Carolina beat Arizona by four, Tennessee beat Baltimore by three, Pittsburgh beat San Diego by one," he observes. "Wow. You can't make this stuff up."

No, you can't.

Only the outcome of one of the four playoff games is guaranteed to be a reversal of a regular-season game — the Philadelphia-New York game. Those teams play in the same division, which means they face each other twice during the regular season.

As King notes in his column, the Giants and Eagles split their games during the season. So what is to be gleaned from that? Well, the visiting team was the winner in both instances. If that trend continues, that means the Eagles will prevail over the defending Super Bowl champions.

That may turn out to be the relevant factor. The Eagles were very hot at the end of the season, going 4-1 in their last five games. And one of those wins was a 20-14 victory over the Giants at the Meadowlands.

The Giants, meanwhile, sort of staggered to the finish line, going 2-3 in the same stretch.

The Giants still won the NFC East, with a 12-4 record. The Eagles took a wild-card spot with an 8-7-1 record, including a much-maligned tie with Cincinnati that many observers believed would keep them out of the playoffs.

Nevertheless, the Eagles made it to the playoffs, beat the Minnesota Vikings, and should be very confident when they take the field Sunday against the Giants, having won five of their last six games.

Do the statistics support the suggestion that the Eagles will advance to the NFC title game and face either Carolina or Arizona?

• Well, neither team seems to have an advantage at quarterback. Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb and New York's Eli Manning both have ratings of 86.4.
  
  McNabb threw for 3,916 yards and 23 touchdowns during the regular season. In his 10-year career, that's the highest yardage total he has compiled and his third-highest TD total. He threw for 300 yards or more four times this season, but came up just short of 200 yards in each of the games with New York.
  
  Manning's NFL career has been half as long as McNabb's, and neither his yardage total (3,238) nor TD total (21) represented his best efforts. But Manning threw only 10 interceptions (his lowest total since his rookie year, when he only played in nine games). He failed to throw for more than 200 yards in either of his previous encounters with the Eagles.


• Both teams appear to have spread the ball around in the passing game. Rookie DeSean Jackson led the Eagles with 912 yards on 62 receptions and scored two TDs. Brian Westbrook led the team in receiving TDs with five — one came at New York on Dec. 7.
  
  For the Giants, second-year receiver Kevin Boss led the team in receiving TDs with six, one of which came against Philly on Nov. 9. He had 33 catches during the season for 384 yards. Steve Smith led the team in receptions with 57, accounting for 574 yards and one TD.


• The Giants seem to have the edge in the ground game. Both Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward ran for more than 1,000 yards, while the Eagles' leading rusher, Westbrook, accounted for 936 yards. However, when you combine his rushing and receiving yards, Westbrook accounted for 1,000 yards for the fifth consecutive season.
  
  Jacobs was third in the NFC in rushing TDs (15), and he got two of them at Philadelphia in November, but Ward got into the end zone twice. Westbrook, meanwhile, scored nine TDs, one of them at New York on Dec. 7. For both Jacobs and Westbrook, those are career high TD totals.
  
  But Jacobs has been hobbled by injury in recent weeks. The Giants have to hope that having some time off since the last regular-season game will help him get back to normal.


• On defense, things look fairly even in the sack department. Justin Tuck (12.0) and Mathias Kiwanuka (8.5) were New York's top producers in that category; Darren Howard (10.0) and Trent Cole (9.0) set the pace for Philadelphia.


• Putting additional pressure on the quarterbacks are Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel, who picked off four passes this season, and safety Quintin Mikell, who intercepted three passes. Giants safety James Butler, second-year cornerback Aaron Ross and cornerback Corey Webster had three interceptions each.


• Second-year linebacker Stewart Bradley led the Eagles in tackles with 108. Antonio Pierce was the best tackler for the Giants with 94.

The Giants-Eagles game may well be the best playoff matchup of the weekend, although, as King observed, all four games are rematches so they should all be reasonably familiar with each other.

Bob Glauber of Newsday says the Eagles look like last year's Giants team that, as a wild-card team, won three straight road games and then beat the previously unbeaten New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.

But Gary Myers of the New York Daily News is adamant that the Eagles will not beat the Giants on Sunday.

The Giants "take the Birds seriously," Myers writes. But, he insists, "The Eagles come flying into Giants Stadium but will pack up their season and leave by bus."

Sounds like bulletin board material.

Longhorns' Victory Wasn't Enough to Claim #1

In the aftermath of Texas' come-from-behind victory over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, Texas coach Mack Brown was defiant.

"I wasn't sure before, but on Friday, I'll vote Texas No. 1 because I believe this is the best team in the country," Brown, a voter in the coaches' poll, proclaimed.

Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman agrees that Texas looked like a champion. However, "[i]n all likelihood, the Florida-Oklahoma winner in Thursday's BCS title game will take home the big prize unless unbeaten Utah's longshot campaign takes hold. But Texas deserves to be in the conversation about No. 1."

This is utter nonsense.

Not to take anything away from the season the Longhorns have had. But if Brown votes for Texas, he will be in violation of the agreement that the voters in the coaches' poll will support the winner of what is designated as the BCS national title game.

In the pre-BCS days, Brown could do that with a reasonable expectation of getting additional support from his colleagues.

But today it amounts to little more than a quixotic gesture — and one that could cost Brown his voting privileges in future polls.

Things could get interesting, though, if Oklahoma beats Florida. If that happens, Texas can claim to be deserving of the national title because the Longhorns were the only team to beat the Sooners.

But, if Florida wins the game, what would be Brown's justification? The Longhorns didn't play the Gators this season, so any claim to be the better team would be purely hypothetical. And Florida would have back-to-back victories over Alabama and Oklahoma to its credit.

No offense to Ohio State intended, but the Buckeyes have now lost three consecutive bowls — including two BCS title games.

When they look at the Buckeyes these days, college football observers don't see the team that beat Miami in double overtime to claim the national title for the 2002-03 season.

They see a team that has a reputation now — fairly or unfairly — for being unable to win in January.

A win over Ohio State simply doesn't impress people the way Brown may think it should.

Even so, the Longhorns are positioned well for 2009.

Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle points out that Texas will have nine offensive starters and six defensive starters returning and "might well be the preseason No. 1 team in the country."

But Texas will have to settle for the potential for greatness next season — and concede this year's national title to the winner of Thursday night's game.

Even if that turns out to be the hated Sooners.

Mike Freeman of CBS Sports may have said it best when he wrote that Texas "choked away a long shot at history" by claiming a "lucky" victory over an "average team whose claim to fame now is beating Michigan" — an achievement that wasn't too remarkable, given the fact that Michigan, with its 3-9 record, had its first losing season in more than 40 years.

Brown will have to be gracious this time — and abide by the coaches' agreement to support the winner of the BCS title game.

The Latest Polls

It seems that I was a bit hasty — but only a bit — when I wrote the other day that Oklahoma hadn't budged from #4 and unranked Arkansas hadn't received any votes for the Top 25 following Arkansas' victory over Oklahoma a week ago today.

I guess what I saw was mislabeled — or perhaps I was mistaken. Either way, I apologize for any contribution I may have made to anyone's misunderstanding of the situation.

I wasn't too far off, though. OU only dropped a couple of spots. The Sooners are now ranked sixth in both the AP and Coaches' polls.

And the Razorbacks still aren't ranked in the Top 25 — but they did receive some votes.

If you extend the AP rankings to include every team that received any support at all, the Razorbacks would be ranked 28th in that poll.

Arkansas also received some modest support in the Coaches' poll. If you extend that poll to include every team that received any votes, the Razorbacks would be ranked 36th in the nation.

Nevertheless, I still hope that Arkansas will beat Texas tonight — and the Razorbacks will break into the Top 25 in both polls next week.

Arkansas Has Rare Opportunity Against Texas

I must admit I was disappointed, but now I realize it simply means a greater opportunity.

My alma mater, the University of Arkansas, pulled off its most significant basketball win in recent times by beating fourth-ranked (and previously unbeaten) Oklahoma, 96-88, on December 30.

But when the next polls came out, Arkansas hadn't received any votes for the Top 25 — and OU hadn't budged from its position at #4.

Now, the Razorbacks have an opportunity to beat two Top 10 basketball programs within a week of each other — and, hopefully, break into the Top 25 in the process.

Eighth-ranked Texas (11-2) faces unranked Arkansas (11-1) on ESPN at 8:05 p.m. (Central).

If you grew up in Arkansas before the Razorbacks left the old Southwest Conference in the early 1990s, any competition between Arkansas and Texas will bring back memories of autumn afternoons on the gridiron or winter nights in the fieldhouse.

When I was a little boy, Arkansas-Texas was significant only in football. Once football season was over, neither school seemed to exist until September rolled around.

But, when I was in junior high school, something amazing started happening. Arkansas and Texas became competitive in basketball and, by the time I was in high school, the Razorbacks were competing on a national level, advancing to the Final Four for the first time in 30 years.

And, in my college years, the Razorbacks were always playing in the NCAA Tournament.

They battled Larry Bird and Indiana State to the very last second for a trip to the Final Four.

They knocked off Louisville, the defending national champion, with a midcourt shot at the buzzer — years before such a shot would count for three points.

And every year, it seemed, the Razorbacks and the Longhorns met in the SWC's postseason tournament — which inevitably gave the schools three meetings in basketball in a single season.

As a writer from Sports Illustrated observed at the time, that was two more shootouts in a season than the schools' fabled football coaches, Darrell Royal and Frank Broyles, ever had, even in their best years.

The schools haven't faced each other regularly in any sport for 16 or 17 years now. But this academic year is resembling the days of my youth — last fall, the football teams met in Austin, Texas (in a game that was postponed for a couple of weeks by Hurricane Ike), and, on Tuesday night, the basketball teams will face each other in Fayetteville, Ark.

As familiar as the scene appears to an old Razorback fan like myself, I know it won't last. Both teams will revert rapidly to their current roles, and the memories of the old SWC will recede.

Texas opens its Big 12 schedule Saturday at home against 10-4 Iowa State. After that, the Longhorns have a couple of challenging road games, at 13-1 Oklahoma on January 12 and at 10-4 Texas Tech on January 17, followed by a home game against an old football rival, 13-1 Texas A&M on January 24.

For Arkansas, the SEC schedule also begins Saturday. The Razorbacks host 9-5 Mississippi State, then they also must go on a two-game road trip — to 9-5 Ole Miss on January 14 and 12-2 Florida on January 17. Arkansas will be at home on January 24 against Auburn (10-4).

In the meantime, both teams come into the game with certain things they do much better than the other.

Texas, for example, is one of the best teams in the nation when it comes to blocking shots. The Longhorns average 6.3 per game, which is 13th in the country. Senior Connor Atchley is responsible for nearly one-third of those blocked shots.

The Longhorns are 43rd in the nation in rebounds, averaging 43.2. Junior Damion James averages 8.4, and sophomore Gary Johnson accounts for 7.4.

Texas also ranks 64th in avoiding turnovers, averaging 12.8 per game.

The Razorbacks are 12th in the nation in scoring, averaging 82.7 points per game — they're 39th in field goals made (27.8 — same as UConn and a full field goal more than Texas).

But Arkansas is way down the list in average field goal attempts per game (96th while Texas is 73rd). And lots of field goals made combined with not too many attempts means the Razorbacks are in the Top 50 in field goal percentage (47.4%).

The Razorbacks have always been solid in scoring, though. But an encouraging development for long-time Arkansas fans is clear improvement in both free-throw shooting and rebounding.

Currently, the Razorbacks are sixth in the nation in free throws made (20.1). That may be due, in part, to the job they've done at drawing fouls. They're second in the nation in free throw attempts (30.7). Now, I'll grant you that their 65% accuracy rate isn't one of the nation's best, but it's not bad when you consider that they're attempting nearly 31 free throws per game.

And it's a distinct improvement over what the Razorbacks did from the free-throw line when I was a student.

Arkansas is also 17th in rebounding (44.9), thanks in large part to junior Michael Washington, who is 18th in the nation (10.4).

Freshman Courtney Fortson is 16th in the nation in assists (6.4), and he had one of his best games of the season against Oklahoma, accounting for 10 that night. As a team, Arkansas is 69th in assists, with an average of 15.3.

Can the Razorbacks do it? They'll be playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd and a national TV audience.

As someone who's seen more Razorback basketball games than he can recall, I say this — it can be done.

Who's No. 1?

Friday had already been a surprising day for college football fans when they sat down to watch the Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Utah.

After all, Ole Miss pulled off an amazing 47-34 victory over Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl Friday afternoon.

But few people — outside of Utah's base of hard-core supporters — gave the Utes much of a chance of beating the Crimson Tide. Although they were undefeated, there weren't many college football observers who thought the Utes could beat the team that many people believed should have been playing Oklahoma for the national championship.

Myself included.

For most of the season, I believed that Alabama was the best team in college football. I was among those who were surprised when the Crimson Tide lost the SEC championship to the Florida Gators last month — even though Florida's quarterback was the defending Heisman Trophy winner.

And I was absolutely shocked that Utah not only beat Alabama but did so by two touchdowns.

Gentry Estes of the Mobile Press-Register called it an "uninspired" performance — and implied that the Crimson Tide lost its motivation after losing the SEC title to Florida.

In the future, I believe Nick Saban's Alabama program will be a force to reckon with — on both the SEC and national levels.

But, to pull off this victory — Utah's 14th straight win and its eighth consecutive bowl triumph — required more than athletic ability.

As Gordon Monson of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote, it required a "winning mind-set."

Monson aptly wrote, "Destiny, thrown in alongside talent and execution, even when it shows up in the last two minutes, can do that for a team. A group of guys who have been good enough to win 12 games without a loss figure they're good enough to win 13, even when few others on the outside agree with them."

Following the Utes' victory, it is appropriate to wonder what kind of impact this may have on the national championship picture for this season — and, looking ahead several months, what kind of impact will it have on national polls and expectations when the start of the next college football season approaches.

It may have an impact next week, after Texas plays Ohio State on Monday and either Florida or Oklahoma wins the "national championship" game on Thursday.

No matter how those games turn out, Utah will finish the season, as Cory McCartney writes for SI.com, as "the only unbeaten," and he all but underlined the achievement by observing, "Entering Friday night's showdown, the Utes had beaten three teams ranked in the latest AP Top 25 (No. 11 TCU, No. 17 BYU and No. 24 Oregon State)."

Make that four teams now.

McCartney observed that Utah took some motivation from Saban's remarks after the loss to Florida last month. Saban said Alabama was "the only team that plays in a real BCS conference that went 12-0, which is very difficult to do."

Florida or Oklahoma will still be proclaimed the national champion a week from now, but Utah's victory should make some people think twice about what "a real BCS conference" is.

Then, perhaps, we can do away with the BCS nonsense altogether.

(Almost) Seems Like Old Times

More than 20 years ago, just about any conference basketball game featuring the Georgetown Hoyas was looked upon as a big game — and seemed to qualify automatically as a "rivalry."

In fact, as Ray Fittipaldo observes in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Big East Conference "is known for its rivalries, and none recently has been better than the series between Pitt and Georgetown."

The Hoyas fell on hard times after making back-to-back appearances in the national championship game in the mid-1980s, beating Houston and then losing to conference foe Villanova.

But the name "Hoyas" — whatever that name means — always retained its magic when mentioned in a basketball context. And recently, Georgetown has been back on the NCAA map.

And, tomorrow, you can re-live that old-time feeling on ESPN, which will televise the Big East match between the Hoyas and the visiting Pittsburgh Panthers at 11 a.m. (Central).

Pitt is undefeated (13-0) and ranked third in the nation behind top-ranked North Carolina and Big East rival Connecticut. Georgetown is ranked 11th in the country and boasts a record of 10-1.

In their most recent games, Pitt rallied to beat conference opponent Rutgers on New Year's Eve, and Georgetown upset UConn on Monday.

In most statistical categories, Pittsburgh seems to enjoy an advantage.

Neither team is among the leaders in scoring — Pitt is 45th in the nation, averaging almost 78 points per game, while Georgetown is 73rd in the country with an average of about 76 points per game.

That may be due, in part, to the fact that neither team is in the Top 100 in three-point shooting.

But Pitt has a huge advantage in rebounding, ranking 25th in the country with an average of 44 rebounds per game. Georgetown isn't even in the Top 100.

And the Panthers' advantage is even more pronounced in assists and field goals, both attempts and field goals made per game. Pitt is 14th in the country with nearly 18 assists per game, 21st in field goals with slightly more than 29 per game and 41st in field goal attempts (61.2 per game). Again, Georgetown didn't make the top 100 in any of those categories.

But Georgetown turned the tables on Pitt in free throws. The Hoyas are fourth in the nation in free throws made per game (20.8) and 11th in free throws attempted (27.6) while the Panthers failed to make the Top 100 in either category.

Georgetown also has outperformed Pittsburgh in steals, ranking 38th in the country (averaging 9 per game) while the Panthers are 62nd (with an average of 8.4). And the Hoyas are ahead of the Panthers in blocked shots per game, 4.7 to 4.2.

Pittsburgh, however, has been more efficient at avoiding turnovers. The Panthers have averaged less than a dozen turnovers per game while the Hoyas again are not in the Top 100.

On an individual level, Pittsburgh sophomore forward DeJuan Blair is 18th in the nation in field goal percentage (nearly 63%) and he's second in the nation in rebounds, with more than 13 per game. Senior guard Levance Fields is one of the nation's leaders in steals, averaging seven per outing.

The NFL Playoffs

Back in August, I predicted how the NFL playoff field would look at the end of the regular season.

That day has come, and the results of the season, compared to my predictions, are decidedly mixed.

My predictions did pretty well in the AFC, not so well in the NFC.

In the AFC, I predicted New England would repeat as Eastern Division champion (that was a month before Tom Brady was injured for the season — nevertheless, the Patriots managed to win a share of the division title, but not the tiebreaker that would have given them their tickets to the postseason).

But I correctly predicted that Pittsburgh and San Diego would win their divisions. And I also predicted that Miami would be in the playoffs — but as a wild card team, not as the AFC East champs.

And I correctly predicted the Indianapolis Colts would be in the playoffs — but I said they would win their division. Instead, Indy is in the postseason dance as a wild card team.

On the downside, I picked the hapless Bengals to earn a wild card bid. Cincinnati didn't come close to making it to the postseason, finishing the schedule with a 4-11-1 record.

Instead of Cincinnati and New England, the AFC playoff field includes Tennessee and Baltimore.

(Today, instead of talking about the playoffs, New England's followers seem to be more interested in whether or not Brady proposed to his girlfriend during the holidays.)

I was way off on my predictions for the NFC.

All four of the teams I predicted to win their divisions failed to make the playoffs — Dallas, Chicago, Seattle and New Orleans.

Instead, the four division winners are the New York Giants, Minnesota, Carolina and Arizona.

In my own defense, I did pick the Giants and Vikings to make the playoffs — as the wild card teams, not as the division winners they eventually turned out to be.

But the actual wild card teams, Philadelphia and Atlanta, were not mentioned in my predictions.

I know that the teams I predicted to advance to the Super Bowl — New England and Chicago — won't be there.

Who will be?

The Greatest Game Ever Played

Today is an important anniversary in the history of the National Football League.

Fifty years ago today, the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants played for the NFL championship. At the end of the fourth quarter, the score was tied.

And, for the first time, a professional football game went into overtime.

I've seen the highlights from the game before, but they were always in the original black-and-white — the way TV viewers saw it on Dec. 28, 1958.

But, to mark the 50th anniversary, ESPN Films and NFL Films created a special colorized presentation of the game film. For the first time, TV viewers could see the Colts and Giants in the uniform colors that the fans at their games saw in 1958.

It also includes commentary from several people who participated in the game — although some of the people who might have had the most interesting insights (Johnny Unitas, Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, Weeb Ewbank) are no longer around.

The film was first broadcast a couple of weeks ago.

Oddly, it does not appear to have been scheduled for broadcast today — on the actual anniversary.

However, you can see it on New Year's Day on ESPN Classic from 6-8 p.m. (Central).