Music Monday: Things Have Changed.
"Lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff, too.
Don't get up gentlemen, I'm only passing through."
Figuring it out as I go along.
"Lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff, too.
Don't get up gentlemen, I'm only passing through."
As we were watching the Outback Bowl, Jackson asked the question that the NCAA should ask itself about the arcane bowl system: "What does MSU get if it wins?" Um, a trophy. Bragging rights over a team they may never play again. A cool reward for the players, who get to finish their season with a sunny road trip filled with goodies (up to a $500 value; these aren't professionals, after all!). And ... that's it.
Unless you're playing for the national championship in whatever bowl is hosting the Nos. 1-2 teams, you're not playing for anything else. Does it matter who won the Rose Bowl? The Outback Bowl? The Sugar Bowl? The Mountain Dew Livewire Bowl Presented by 7-11 Nacho Lime Big Bites? Nope. (And don't get me started about this year's "championship" game having two SEC teams; that only increases amount of BS packed into the crap sandwich the NCAA is serving.)
Oh wait, the bowls are a reward for the fans, right? After all, schools that "travel well" are rewarded with disproportionately prestigious bowl bids. Except the fans have wised up. Take the Sugar Bowl: The whole reason the BCS passed over more deserving teams to give bids to Virginia Tech and Michigan was because their fans would pack the Superdome. Only they didn't. There were (conservatively) 12,000 empty seats. My non-scientific survey conducted using my remote control showed a similar pattern at nearly every other bowl game (not the Rose Bowl, because that still seems to have a purpose with its Big Ten-Pac 10 tradition). Why shell out thousands of bucks to go watch a meaningless game? Why is March Madness so great for college hoops? Because every game means something in the grand scheme. Each matchup builds toward a championship game. What if the field goal dramatics of the Outback and Sugar Bowls set up a playoff rematch between the Spartans and Wolverines, in a warm-weather vacation town, with the winner of that game going to the National Championship game? That'd be something worth traveling for. Until the current system is plowed under and replaced by a playoff, all the bowls have turds floating in them.You don't expect the Spartans to win a bowl game against an SEC team played in Florida where the opponent gets a safety on your first offensive play and adds TDs on an 80-yard TD bomb and a 90-yard punt return in the first half. Especially against a team that runs an NFL defense, and has an NFL-caliber QB, according to former NFL coach Jon NFL Gruden NFL. (Note to ABC: Please keep Gruden away from college games. Forever.)
Really, though, that first sentence is too long. It really boils down to "You don't expect the Spartans to win a bowl game." For all the advances of the Dantonio era, the team had looked anything from bad to completely overwhelmed in its five previous bowls. I actually feared for the safety of the MSU players on the field against Alabama last year.
This year, the Spartans turned the corner. And even on a day when they couldn't get their running game going and their senior QB was 80 percent awful, 10 percent great and 10 percent just good enough, they got it done. They stayed patient, didn't get overwhelmed and didn't lose their heads in a flurry of personal fouls. Jerel Worthy and William Gholston were amazing on the D-line, and Brian Linthicum was a warrior on offense. They won the game, and another monkey is off Sparty's back. Next year, let's see more of the same in Pasadena.
This was Christmas Setup Weekend at our house, so we pumped the Jingle Jams for hours on end. And boy, am I sick of pretty much all of it now. Exceptions can be found on the Swingin' Christmas channel on Pandora: Can't go wrong with Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Der Bingle or the Chairman of the Board.
But in the spirit of sharing something new, I have to recommend the lead song from Paul Simon's latest LP. My lovely wife and I disagree as to whether this is really a Christmas song or not (it isn't, and I'm right). Either way, it's a great tune for any time of year.I haven't taken the time to write much about college football this season. On the whole, the Spartans have had a much better year than I expected at the outset – I was thinking 8-4 in the regular season would have been a good year, given the brutal schedule. It really seems like a 10-3 mark heading into a decent bowl game and a Big Ten Championship game appearance should feel better than this. But...
