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NFL can't compete with college football
If your friend chooses the NFL, wish him the best of luck with his fantasy team and send him on his way.
Bowl season roundup
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Bowl recaps and analysis:
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EagleBank: Wake 29, Navy 19 | CFN
New Mexico: Colo. St. 40, Fresno St. 35
St. Petersburg: S. Florida 41, Memphis 14
Las Vegas: Arizona 31, BYU 21 | CFN
New Orleans: SMU 30, Troy 27 (OT) | CFN
Poinsettia: TCU 17, Boise St. 16 | CFN
Hawaii: Notre Dame 49, Hawaii 21 | CFN
Motor City: FAU 24, Cen. Mich. 21 | CFN
Meineke: W. Virginia 31, UNC 30 | CFN
Champs Sports: Fla. St. 42, Wis. 13 | CFN
Emerald: Cal 24, Miami 17 | CFN
Independence: La. Tech 17, NIU 10 | CFN
Papajohns.com: Rutgers 29, N.C. St. 23
Alamo: Mizzou 30, N'west. 23 (OT) | CFN
Humanitarian: Maryland 42, Nevada 35
Texas: Rice 38, W. Michigan 14
Holiday: Oregon 42, Oklahoma St. 31 | CFN
Armed Forces: Houston 34, Air Force 28
Sun: Oregon St. 3, Pittsburgh 0 | CFN
Music City: Vandy 16, BC 14 | CFN
Insight: Kansas 42, Minnesota 21
Chick-fil-A: LSU 38, Georgia Tech 3
Outback: Iowa 31, South Carolina 10 | CFN
Capital One: Georgia 24, MSU 12 | CFN
Gator: Nebraska 26, Clemson 21
Rose: USC 38, Penn St. 24 | Analysis
Orange: Va. Tech 20, Cincinnati 7
Cotton: Ole Miss 47, Texas Tech 34
Liberty: Kentucky 25, East Carolina 19
Sugar: Utah 31, Alabama 17
International: UConn 38, Buffalo 20
Fiesta: Texas 24, Ohio St. 21 | Analysis
GMAC: Tulsa 45, Ball St. 13
BCS title: Florida 24, Oklahoma 14
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From now until the end of the season, I'll write about college football every Monday here on FOXsports.com. College football is 300 times more interesting, 600 times more controversial and 900 times more fun. It is also 1,700 times more prone to hyperbole. This is part of its charm.
College football teams are a reflection of universities, fan bases, even entire states. NFL teams are a reflection of ... the billionaire who owns the team. The only real difference between a Vikings fan and a Dolphins fan is that the Dolphins fan has a year-round tan. But Wisconsin fans see themselves in their Badgers.
Critics say that college football is rife with hypocrisy, cheating and dishonesty. This is also part of its charm.
It took the NFL like 80 years to come up with Spygate. College football comes up with more interesting scandals than that every single year.
Ask yourself this: In the last year, have you heard a single person say that Spygate says something about the city of Boston? Of course not. Nobody says "Hey, those people in Boston, they illicitly videotape everything to give themselves an edge."
But when Alabama gets in trouble with the NCAA, watches alum Mike Shula wade through the sanctions, fires Shula, then throws $32 million at Nick Saban ... well, EVERYBODY wonders what that says about Alabama.
A lot of people think the whole state is out of whack, that Alabama puts way too much emphasis on winning football games. To which Crimson Tide fans respond:
Did you SEE that beat-down of Clemson?
Yes, indeed. Alabama took a 23-3 halftime lead, beat No. 9 Clemson 34-10, outgained the Tigers 419-188, and provided a fascinating glimpse into another reason why college football is better than the NFL: The Cult of the Coach.
Alabama, more than any other school in the country, needs to believe in its coach. Bear Bryant's shadow is just that long. This is why Saban got all that money, and why, by Saturday night, Saban could have asked Alabama to double his salary and the school's trustees would have passed a hat around the state.
Saban truly takes the Cult of the Coach to a whole new level. A friend of mine said his relationship with Michigan State fans was like that of an abusive spouse. I would never make that comparison myself, because it is offensive and wrong and frankly in horrible taste, but since my friend brought it up, let me just say he is right.
In Saban's first four seasons (admittedly, he was dealing with NCAA sanctions) he went 6-5-1, 6-6, 7-5 and 6-6. He flirted with other suitors virtually every year. Yet many Spartan fans could not shake the feeling that one day, Saban would wake up and decide he was too good for them.
In 1999, Saban led Michigan State to one of its best seasons in four decades, then promptly left for Louisiana State. MSU fans decided he was a jerk, they didn't need him, they were better off without that ungrateful weasel and his wandering eye, and they maintained that stance for approximately three days. Then Saban won big at LSU, and MSU fans started pining for a guy who had never treated them all that well when they were together.
Somehow, Saban's woodchipper personality has added to his aura. A guy with so little interest in other people must be a hell of a coach, right? Yes. Yes he is.
To fully understand Saban's appeal, you only had to look across the field Saturday at Clemson's Tommy Bowden. He was hired on the heels of a perfect season at Tulane, and since coaching hires are all about extrapolation, it was easy to understand Clemson's thinking: the guy just went unbeaten at Tulane, of all places, and his daddy is one of the best coaches ever. How can this not work?
Unfortunately, Bowden has been the worst kind of coach for the die-hard fan: he doesn't win as much as Clemson would like, but he wins too much to get fired. This was supposed to be the season Clemson finally won the Atlantic Coast Conference. In one day, the whole season seemed shot. One more reason to love college more than the NFL.
Under the table
In 13 seasons as a college head coach — at three schools — Willingham has compiled seven losing seasons and three five-loss seasons. He has lost at least three games every year. His Washington Huskies just lost 44-10 to Oregon.
Wannstedt was 82-87 as an NFL coach. He did not produce a winning record in any of his first three seasons at Pittsburgh. He just lost to Bowling Green at home.
This is another horrible byproduct of the BCS. (I'm not a playoff guy; I'm a poll guy. We'll get to that another week.) Since the BCS took hold, teams have avoided the big, juicy September matchups and the U.S. economy has gone in the tank. Coincidence?
Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg is a contributor to FOXSports.com. An archive of his Free Press columns can be found here.
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