#2 KU vs #3 MU - Border War 2007

[Elspode]

Ten minutes to game time - the biggest football game in Kansas City since the Chiefs beat the Vikes in the 1970 Superbowl. 80,000 fans are expected at Arrowhead Stadium, and LJ - I'll bet they will be beating off on the scoreboard, no matter who wins. This is expected to be the largest crowd in Arrowhead history, as most of the 90,000 joint alums of the two schools who live in the KC Metro cram themselves in after an afternoon of tailgating and shit talking - leaving an estimated 10 to 20,000 of their BBQ'ing compatriots in the parking lots to absorb the energy as it drifts out of Arrowhead's glorious arching bowl.

With #1 LSU losing today, the winner of this game is a shoo-in for half of the BCS game. Not only is this the biggest college football game of the year nationwide, it is the biggest game, perhaps ever, in KC history.

KU are mere 3 point favorites. I have my wood stove stoked, leftover turkey and spuds in the microwave, and about a gallon of leftover wine rapidly finding its way down my gullet.

I hope you all enjoy this one as much as we will here in KC.

[TheMercenary]

Mizzou is ahead and looking like the much better team. I want them to win. The winner plays OU next week for the conf champ and OU beat them once already, so if #4 beats #2, #4 should move up. If OU beats them again it should really help their rank for a good bowl game. GO MIZZOU!

[Elspode]

MU outplayed KU for three quarters, but by the time KU woke up, it was too late.

Big 12 Championship should be a great game, and Mizzou should clock in at #1 this week.

[TheMercenary]

1. Missouri Tigers 11-1
2. West Virginia Mountaineers 10-1
3. Ohio State Buckeyes 11-1
4. Georgia Bulldogs 10-2
5. Kansas Jayhawks 11-1
6. Virginia Tech Hokies 10-2
7. L-S-U Tigers 10-2 5 7
8. U-S-C Trojans 9-2 9 9
9. Oklahoma Sooners 10-2
10. Florida Gators 9-3

[TheMercenary]

November 26, 2007
Missouri, No. 1? College Football Surprises Again
By PETE THAMEL and THAYER EVANS
Imagine Albania playing for the World Cup title in soccer, or an amateur golfer approaching the final hole with the United States Open at stake. Think of Adam Sandler as a nominee for best actor at the Academy Awards.

With one week remaining in the regular season of this most unpredictable of college football campaigns, a similar possibility may await. The University of Missouri and West Virginia University are each one victory from playing for college football’s national title. Neither university has won a national title in football. Rarely has either one come close.

But the most unusual of circumstances would be a fitting finale to what has been a dizzying, maddening and relentlessly engaging season.

“I don’t know if I have the proper adjectives,” said Keith Jackson, the longtime play-by-play announcer whose booming baritone defined the sport for decades.

There is a reason that even someone as articulate as Jackson, who is now retired, can be left at a loss for words. A season that began with Appalachian State jumping up a division to beat Michigan, the program with the most victories in college football history, is now nearing the most improbable of endings.

Over the past four decades, Missouri football has sent reporters thumbing through their thesauruses to find new ways to describe the Tigers’ football futility. (The actor Brad Pitt, who attended Missouri’s journalism school, found a more lucrative profession.)

Consider the following:

¶The only unbeaten team in major Division I football is remote Hawaii (11-0).

¶A sophomore, Florida’s Tim Tebow, is a leading contender to become the first freshman or sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.

¶Twelve top-five teams have lost to unranked opponents.

¶South Florida, Boston College, Oregon and Kansas, which all began the season outside the top 25, have been No. 2 in the Associated Press poll.

¶Notre Dame, one of the most storied programs in college football history, set a team record for losses in going 3-9.

Why is this happening? After Stanford, a 41-point underdog, defeated the perennial power Southern California, the question was asked. After the third time a No. 1 team lost to an unranked opponent, the question was asked again. Scholarship limits have prevented programs from stockpiling talented players, leaving plenty of players for previously overlooked teams.

Spread offenses have neutralized larger programs’ speed and size advantages. Increased coverage on television and the Internet has created more interest among more teams and players.

And more universities have committed millions to enhancing their programs.

“The whole season is a reflection of what’s happened in college football,” said Mike Tranghese, commissioner of the Big East Conference. “There’s been a lot of parity and teams have lost some games that have been mind-boggling to anyone who follows the sport.”

It would be difficult to make up a better story than the one that has unfolded this season in Columbia, Mo. And that is fitting for Missouri, which is better known for its journalism school than its football teams.

John A. Walsh, the executive editor of ESPN and a 1968 Missouri journalism graduate, says the Tigers’ season has been nothing more than “a publicity stunt to help the journalism school to draw attention to its 100th anniversary next fall.”

But as he looks more seriously around the nation, he said, “The reason we’re all drawn to sports in our day jobs is the human drama and the uncertainty.”

“This puts that to the nth power,” he said.

Missouri began this season unranked, with odds of 150 to 1 against a national title, according to Danny Sheridan, a sports analyst and oddsmaker. Now, the Tigers are 11-1, ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for the first time since 1960 and need only a victory over Oklahoma in the Big 12 Conference championship game to play for the title.

Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel, whose team beat the previously No. 2-ranked Kansas, 36-28, on Saturday night, found himself searching for words yesterday to describe just how topsy-turvy this season has been.

“I don’t really know what historical event or what sporting event to compare it to,” Pinkel said.

In the Bowl Championship Series standings released yesterday, Missouri moved up to No. 1, from No. 4, and West Virginia was No. 2, up from No. 3. If the Tigers and the Mountaineers win their games next Saturday, they will meet Jan. 7 in New Orleans for the national title.

Missouri is an underdog against Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game, according to Sheridan, but West Virginia is expected to win its final game, a home contest with neighboring Pittsburgh known as the Backyard Brawl. The Mountaineers began the season No. 3 in the Associated Press poll, then lost at South Florida on Sept. 28 and were sent down the rankings. West Virginia, which plays in the Big East, lurked on the outskirts and steadily climbed up the rankings amid the cacophony of upsets.

The West Virginia athletic director, Ed Pastilong, gazed out the window of his box during halftime Saturday as his team improved to 10-1 with a 66-21 victory over Connecticut in Morgantown. He marveled at the possibilities this season has yielded. He said that at kickoff next Saturday night at 7:45, all 1.8 million people in the state would be watching the game on television or listening on the radio.

“Of all the sports, college football is the least predictable per game and per season,” Pastilong said. “That’s what’s occurring this year.”

Sheridan said there was one enduring lesson from the wildness of this season.

“You’ve got to be crazy to bet on sports,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/sp...gewanted=print

[deadbeater]

Man, any system in which the only undefeated team doesn't even have a chance to go for a championship is quite fraudulent.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by deadbeater

Man, any system in which the only undefeated team doesn't even have a chance to go for a championship is quite fraudulent.

Fraudulent is a bit of an overstatement because that implies that means that no one knows what is going on.

It is a big rip off of the standings and for those teams who think they should be at the top. I could make a case for Oklahoma as well, they spanked the number one team when Ohio didn't even play a division playoff because they don't have one.

The people who don't want to see it die are the College presidents who get huge money from the sponsors of the various bowl games. We have to convince them to let it go and have a play off like college basketball, I doubt that will happen without some serious arm twisting.

[deadbeater]

I was referring to Hawaii being shafted. Ohio State had an easier schedule than Hawaii did, and they lost a game. Meanwhile, Hawaii is supposed to be giddy over the extra 4.2 million dollars they get, and forget about going for a championship.

[TheMercenary]

Bottom line, we need a play-off.