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Cal victimized by a Texas-sized travesty
Matt Hayes / The Sporting News
Posted: 1 hour ago
I'm done with this crazy poll business. Don't ask me to vote again AP, because I'll laugh at you and your silly system of uninformed voters who don't take it seriously.
How on earth could some voters have dropped California or jumped Texas to put the Longhorns in the Rose Bowl ahead of the Bears? It's a damn shame.
Here's some advice for AP voters: Watch the games. Cal is significantly — that's right, significantly — better than Texas.
Who could watch Louisville and Utah and not also believe they would beat Texas and its one-dimensional offense?
I've had Cal, Utah and Louisville ahead of Texas on my AP ballot for the last month. Why? Because after actually watching games, I made an informed opinion that on a neutral field, Texas couldn't hang with any of the three.
What exactly has Texas done to prove it belongs among the elite of the nation, other than blow nearly every meaningful game under coach Mack Brown? Bottom line: Texas and Cal had ugly wins this season and played in conferences in down cycles. So let's go to the key game for both: the losses. Cal lost at the No.1 team in the nation (USC) on the last play of a game it should have won. Texas didn't sniff the end zone in a shutout loss to Oklahoma on a neutral field.
Polls and bowls are all about controversy; it's the lifeblood of the game. It gives every season unique and ever-changing flaws that are at times as much a part of the sport as the games. The problem is, many poll voters don' t watch the games and don't care enough about their place in this annual circus. I'd be willing to bet more than half of the AP voters have no idea who Ryan Riddle is. He's only second in the nation in sacks and has been one of the most dominant defensive players in the nation. By the way, he plays defensive end for Cal.
Those same voters are probably a little shaky on J.J. Arrington, too — the only back in the country to have at least 100 yards in every game this season. He's a tailback; he plays for the Bears, too. But you better believe they know Texas tailback Cedric Benson, who tanked three straight years against Oklahoma but has a lot of yards against the Baylors of the world. And the Longhorns' Vince Young, who as a quarterback, is a really good tailback. And they know about poor Mack Brown, the coach who tries so hard but just can't get his team to win a big game.
And while we're at it, let's congratulate those computer polls, which, according to the BCS honchos, weren't going to have as much of an impact on the BCS race this season. Well, Cal finished No.4 in both the human polls — one spot ahead of Texas in the coaches poll and two spots ahead of the Longhorns in the AP poll — and got bumped out by geeks with slide rules.
Texas whined and complained last year when it was left out of the BCS chase. Less than a month later, it waltzed into the Holiday Bowl and got physically whipped by a decent Washington State team. So instead of a little humility after last year's embarrassing finish to the season, Brown and the Longhorns were at it again last week, politicking to the very end.
Please Michigan, do us all a favor and expose the Longhorns once and for all. And expose those poll voters in the process. A damn shame, alright.
Senior writer Matt Hayes covers college football for Sporting News. Email him at mhayes@sportingnews.com.
