August is the loneliest month. At least it is for a college football sports writer. Just tune into ESPN’s College Football Live for a few moments if you don’t know what I mean. How many times will Mark May tell us that USC is the greatest team in the history universe (while Herbstreet smiles and politely nods his head) before they just give in and show replays of the 1987 Blue Bonnet bowl?
As you can see by this site, I am not much for preseason analysis. Preseason rankings (while good to the Buckeyes last year) do nothing more than build hype leaving more deserved teams in the dust. Need an example…there are people out there that actually believe that LLLLLLoyd Carr, Chad Henne and the rest of _ichigan will actually beat Ohio State this year.
All that aside, in order to fill the void, the writers at Scout.com have produced the “2007 Ultimate College Football playoff”, a fictional “March Madness” style tournament seeding all 119 teams and creating post game reports for every single, albeit fictional, game. They even go so far as to quote players and coaches and provide a “fun stat” for each game.
Just in case you’re wondering, #3 seed Ohio State gets knocked out the third round to #6 seed Oklahoma State in what appears to have been a good defensive game (3rd down conversions Oklahoma State = 3 for 12, Ohio State 1 for 10).
Naturally, #2 seed Michigan also got knocked out in the third round to #7 seed Boston College. Michigan played a much closer game losing by missing a last minute field goal that “sailed wide from the start.” The game also featured an end zone reception thrown by UM quarterback Chad Henne and an “uncharacteristic fumble” by Sports Illustrated coverboy Mike Hart.
With Ohio State and Michigan losing in the third round, Scout.com writers were spared the difficulties of writing a post game Ohio State/Michigan match up in the semifinals.
While I won’t give away the ending, Wisconsin beat out…get this…Clemson to go to the national championship game against…guess…no go ahead, guess…could it be…why, it’s that media Cinderella story…USC!!
(Did I mention that I think USC is getting more than a little hype this year.)
The entire exercise is the equivalent of two-a-days for the Scout.com writers. As for myself, I sure hope March goes better…my bracket was a disaster site after Virginia got knocked out in the first round.
