Fiesta Bowl Fishiness
Why TCU vs. Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl still isn’t fair
By Arun Morace
As the title suggests, this isn’t fair. The BCS has once again screwed over the small schools. Neither the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs nor the Boise State Broncos will get to prove their worth against a team from a major conference. Instead, they are rewarded with a bowl game that will allow them to duke it out for the honor of being the country’s best small conference college team. On the surface, this may look like a victory for the little guys, as two teams from small conferences (TCU-Mountain West and Boise State- Western Athletic) get to play in a BCS Bowl on New Year’s Day. But when we look closer, things get fishy.
Why is this matchup fishy? Let’s look at the other four BCS games. In the BCS National Championship Game, the # 1 seed, the Alabama Crimson Tide, plays the #2 seed, the Texas Longhorns. Makes sense. In the Rose Bowl, the 7th ranked Oregon Ducks will play the # 8 Ohio State Buckeyes. In the Orange Bowl, 9th ranked Iowa will play #10 Georgia Tech. And in the Sugar Bowl, #3 Cincinnati will play #5 Florida. Wait. #5? Shouldn’t the third seed play the fourth seed, and the fifth seed play the sixth, the way every other matchup is set up? No, because the fourth (TCU) and sixth (Boise State) seeds are fixed up to play each other. Of course, the BCS doesn’t want a small team to embarrass another one of its flagship teams, the way Boise State did in 2007 when they beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
If you ask me, either TCU or Boise State has earned a shot at playing a major team in a major bowl game. Both finished undefeated. And to open the season, Boise State beat, oh, who was it again? That’s right, #10 ranked Oregon, who gets to play perennial BCS Bowl game player Ohio State.
And of course, whichever team wins the Fiesta Bowl, be it Boise State or TCU, will get screwed out of the recognition it deserves, because the BCS will get to argue that they haven’t have won a game against a big time program. All because the BCS won’t let them have a game against big league school. It’s just another nail in the coffin of the BCS image. An image that is not tarnished, but instead rusting through by the minute.
A Different Kind of Rose
For years the Rose Bowl has been USC and whichever Big Ten sacrificial lamb was going to play them. And year after year, USC owned that game. But this year, it’s going to be different. With Mark Sanchez leaving for the NFL, USC was forced to start true freshman quarterback Matt Barkley this season. While that was all well and good when facing teams like San Jose State, USC was unable to beat teams like Washington and Arizona, who had been perennial punching bags for the Trojans.
This left USC in unfamiliar standing in the Pac-10: not first place. USC was always the forgone conclusion in that conference, and the other teams got to fight it out for Sun Bowl and Las Vegas Bowl berths. In fact, it was usually expected that USC would compete for the national championship. But with losses to Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Arizona, that was not to be the case.
In 2009, Oregon took the top spot, earning a spot in Rose Bowl, which was quite a surprise considering the tumultuous start to their season on Boise State’s blue turf, a game that ended in fights and the suspension of their star running back, LeGarrette Blount. Oregon was followed by Arizona, Oregon State, Stanford, and, in fifth place, was USC, looking up at all four teams that had beaten them.
So, no Rose Bowl for the Trojans this year. Instead, USC will be playing in…the Poinsettia Bowl. Quite a shot to the chin for such a vaunted program, one that Pete Carroll can only hope his freshman quarterback is the eventual solution to. Maybe they’ll return to Rose Bowl in a few years, or even next year. But for now, they’ll have to settle for a different kind of flower- a Poinsettia.
This article also available on the NFL Draft Prophecies site.
Mobile Journalism
Arun Morace
Journalism 10
Mobile Journalism Essay
11/21/2009
By Arun Morace
Reporting on the Hofstra University Public Safety service at 11:00 in the morning wasn’t exactly the most exciting assignment in the world. Nothing but the most basic patrols were going on, since it was a very uneventful time of day. Still, I got pictures of the Public Safety Center, and a safety officer on duty in the parking lot by the Admission Center.
As I said while blogging, a better time to cover this particular group would have been 11:00 at night, when Public Safety would be responding to calls about drunk students and the like.
Here on my blog you can see the pictures of the Public Safety Office and the officer standing on duty.
Uneventful
Really uneventful coverage, but I suppose that’s to be expected at this time of day. Just patrols and walkarounds going on, no real responses being made. Maybe tonight I’ll try to post some Public Safety stuff (just for fun) to show them really in action. I probably won’t have to leave my dorm to get that…
Here it is, Hofstra Public Safety headquarters. Inside you can find friendly Hofstra Public Safety officers who will give you hand with most anything you need, be it an escort back to your dorm, directions anywhere on campus, or a response to an emergency call.
Here, a Hofstra Public Safety Officer stands on duty. There really isn’t much going on at 11:00 in the morning. Perhaps this would have been better to do at 11:00 at night, when we’ve got Public Safety going after drunk Hofstra students coming back from the bars and parties. You know, making arrests, escorting people back to their dorms, all that fun stuff….
