Last Weekend's Football Games

Looking back on this past weekend in college and pro football, I have a generally positive outlook on the future with the teams I want to succeed (and some of those I don't).  Ohio State lost their Big Ten championship game to Michigan State, so the winner of the SEC championship game, Auburn, has a clear shot at the national championship game against Florida State, who easily handled Duke in their ACC championship game.  I don't think I could have dreamed up a better title matchup...unless of course it had been Florida winning the Southeastern Conference instead of Auburn. But alas, the Gators had all sorts of issues with their team this year and suffered a miserable 4-8 record.  I am happiest of all, regarding the national championship picture, with the exclusion of Nick Saban's Alabama from being in it after their momentous final-play loss to Auburn a couple of weeks ago.  Although I am a Floridian by heart, I'm going to pull for Auburn against FSU simply out of gratitude for the Tigers beating the Saban Tide. 

In the NFL, Miami managed to play well enough in Pittsburgh to win 34-28, in a game marked by a desperate , multi-lateral final play by the Steelers that very nearly saw them scoring the winning touchdown. But but their runner had stepped out of bounds (just barely) and the Dolphins kept up with their wild-card race rival Baltimore at 7-6.  I don't know whether or not Miami will manage to make the playoffs this year, but from where I stand a winning 9-7 record would mark a successful season for them.  Tampa Bay and Jacksonville have also recently done well, each team now at 4-9 and in next-to-last place in their respective divisions after 0-8 starts.  I don't know exactly what this means for them...are they getting better or simply playing more loosely without concerns of "choking up" in important games (of which there are no more for them this year)?  I don't know, but it's still pleasing to see them playing stronger.

Pondering Whether to Follow NHL

I wonder what it would be like to attend a hockey game in person.  I'm not a northerner, having grown up in south Florida and currently living in north Florida for more than 36 years, so ice hockey is not a sport that I ever played or was ever played in any school I attended, including college.  We do have the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning NHL pro teams here in Florida, but I think maybe their main source of fan appeal is from transplants from the north. 

On channel 33 where I live, I can often watch NHL games and sometimes do, although I am not at all clear about the various rules in the sport.  In particular, I feel a bit clueless about what constitutes off-sides and icing penalties...and I'm not sure what the rules are restricting opposing team access to the goal area.  I think that perhaps I should pay a visit to YouTube to see if there isn't some kind of video illustrating these rules.

Earlier this spring I enjoyed watching the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs and was excited at the play of "my" team, the Chicago Blackhawks.  However, if I ever do go to attend hockey games, I'm sure my allegiances will naturally shift to the most "local" team around, which is Tampa Bay...which I hear actually did win the league's Stanley Cup championship playoffs one year and in so doing traumatized everyone to the point that they cancelled the following year's season...

Actually, all kidding aside, it was a management's lockout against the players in a labor contract dispute that caused the season-long cancellation.  But the Lightning got a "two-for" out of it: they got to be defending champions for two straight years!

Finished Reading A Storm of Swords

I just finished reading George R.R. Martin's third volume in his ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, titled A Storm of Swords.  Fantasy fiction as a general rule tends to be violent, but Martin seems to delight in killing off one protagonist after another...and whoever is left standing is left BARELY standing, often maimed and hopelessly scarred, both physically and emotionally.  A Storm of Swords doesn't disappoint, if this is the kind of outcome the reader is expecting.  The world in which Martin works his literary magic is a cutthroat one, with medieval "honor" combining with the gore and horror of medieval warfare. There are no cell phones or Internet here to clear up false rumors circulating among the royalty, and those rumors can touch off wars that bring whole regions to ruin and famine with thousands brutally slaughtered in the process. 

I'd like to think that there are some characters in this series who are destined to endure to the end of the final volume (whenever that's going to be published at some indeterminate future date, if ever), but I'd be deceiving myself if I thought that the author thought that any character was indispensable as long as his or her demise could further the story.  So I've learned, as a reader, to emotionally distance myself from all of the characters here...and I don't think that's a very good thing for writers to instill in their faithful readers.  Still, I'm plodding on ahead, carnage notwithstanding, to the fourth book titled A Feast for Crows.  Since crows have often been described in this series as feeding on the dead, I entertain little hope for the survival of any of the rest of the sorry, hapless bunch...

Today's NCAA Football Conference Title Games

Today marks that time that all true college football fans look forward to each year, and some have more than a passing interest since one of their own teams is involved.  It is conference championship game Saturday!  Now that the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences have finally joined in with the playoff concept, almost all major conferences now have a championship game...and the results will determine the national championship game lineup as well as which team gets to play in which bowl game.  The conferences getting the most attention are the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, and Southeastern since the teams involved in those contests are the highest ranked and figure in the national championship game.  Top-ranked Florida State plays 20th-ranked Duke in the ACC, a game that hardly anyone (including me) thinks will go Duke's way. The Big Ten and SEC games should be close and exciting, though.  Ohio State, currently undefeated and ranked #2, faces off against Michigan State in the Big Ten.  Should Michigan State win this game, the Southeastern Conference title game between Auburn and Missouri should determine who faces Florida State in the national championship game. The only problem I see with all this is if Ohio State wins their contest, finishes undefeated, but still gets deprived of a national championship opportunity because of bias in favor of the SEC.  I hope that does not happen.

Other major conference matchups include Stanford vs. Arizona State in the Pacific-12 and the final week for the regular season in the Big-12 (they have forgone having conference championship games).  In the Big-12, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Baylor at present are still in the running for that conference's championship, depending on how their games go today.

As far as the games which are already lined up for today are concerned, I'm pulling for Florida State, Michigan State, Auburn, and Arizona State in their respective contests.  I guess that ultimately I'd like to see Auburn and FSU face off for the national championship: Florida State is a "home state" team and I am grateful for Auburn beating Nick Saban's team, whichever one he happened to be coaching (it happened to be Alabama this time).  But if Ohio State wins their game today, I want them included in the title game next month...

Nelson Mandela's Full Life Ends at 95

In 1984, from time to time MTV used to show a video of a group calling themselves "Special A.K.A.".  The song was Free Nelson Mandela and had a rich African musical flavor to it.  It was the first time I had heard of the imprisoned African National Congress leader, who would eventually emerge from his confinement into the presidency of the very country that had taken away his freedom for nearly three decades of his life.  His burning desire was to eliminate the Apartheid in South Africa and allow for all South Africans equal opportunity of expression, movement, and economic activity.  What many in the world celebrate him for nowadays, especially on this day of his death at age 95, is how he fervently worked to reconcile the whites and blacks in that great nation following the end of that horrendous system of racial segregation and oppression.  Moreover, Mandela, who could probably have retained the leadership of South Africa for life, served out his one elected term and then left office...a great sign of humility and respect on his part and a strong example for his successors to emulate.  I admire him for all of that, but I have to admit that I initially had misgivings about him during the mid-to-late 1980s, suspecting that perhaps he had plans to amass power and rule his country as a dictator like Fidel Castro in Cuba.  Instead, Nelson Mandela turned out more like George Washington in terms of his ability to unify his country and voluntarily step down from what must have been a very tempting amount of power.  God bless him!

Weather Forecast Suddenly, Drastically Changes

I was watching my local weather TV station yesterday evening when they displayed their day-to-day forecast for the upcoming week, stretching ahead to a five-day outlook.  The temperatures were projected to be higher than usual for this time of year, but on the fifth day they had a projected high of 67 degrees with a low of 46.  That would be more to my liking and gave me something to look forward to.  But a funny thing happened between last night and this morning: the forecast for that very day changed to a high of 82 and a low of 63, with no cooling in sight!

We're already experiencing near-record high temperatures for this time of year here in north central Florida...and evidently more is to come.  Ironically, it seems, though, that every time I tune in to a football game anywhere else in the country, the spectators are all bundled up in winter clothing.  Only down here things are continuing to operate in "warm" mode.

I'm also getting sick and tired of the talking anchor heads on my local TV news station WCJB/Channel 20.  They consistently brand anything in the weather that doesn't involve clear, hot skies all day long as "bad".  For me, I've had my share of clear, steaming hot days (and nights) much too much this year and would like a little respite from it.  Just give me a nice, cool overcast day, please...

Dolphins Still in Playoff Hunt

The Miami Dolphins, incredibly, after slumping following an auspicious 3-0 start and then sinking further into an embarrassing, headline-grabbing bullying scandal, find themselves on the cusp of a playoff spot at 6-6, with all four of their remaining regular season games having an important bearing on their prospects.  Three of Miami's last games are within their own division, meaning that if they win at least two of the three (I'm not so confident about their prospects with New England, even with a home game) they will ensure themselves of a strong second place finish in their division.  But that would only give them an 8-7 record: to give themselves a real shot at the playoffs, the Dolphins have to win the other game, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, to end up with their first winning record season record since 2008 and a decent chance at the playoffs.  But even if Miami wins all of their remaining games and goes 10-6 they still have to get by Baltimore, which already beat them this year and thus has the tiebreaker advantage if the two teams end up with identical win-loss records.  The Ravens, like Miami, currently have a 6-6 record.  But a Miami win over the Steelers, especially on the road, would do a lot toward changing their reputation as a third-rate NFL team.  Right now, I'll just settle for second-rate, thank you!

2013 New Favorite Songs Sparse for Me

It has been a while since I wrote about my favorite songs for this year.  In fact, as far as anything new is concerned, I don't have anything to report on.  All of the music I regular listen to is on a playlist on my MP3 player and has been around for a while.  I suppose that, were I to try to name a favorite song of the year, then Kasabian's Switchblade Smiles, from their earlier Veliceraptor! album, would be the one: I listened to it a lot early in 2013 an it circulates around on my playlist shuffle.  But as for any new material, whether that be due to recent releases or to me discovering earlier recordings, just hasn't filtered through to me this year as anything outstanding.  I suppose at year's end I'll try to come up with some of a year's "best", but I have a feeling that I will be hard-pressed to come up with ten songs that are "new" to me for 2013: most of them, I think, will probably be Kasabian tracks from earlier albums I discovered several months ago...

As for whatever they've been coming out with on radio lately, though, forget it! My MP3 playlist focuses on personal favorites from acts like Beck, Metric, Spoon, Linkin Park, Arcade Fire, Kasabian, Regina Spektor, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, Gorillaz...and some old gems from others sprinkled into the mix...

Comet ISON Destroyed by Sun

Comet ISON, which many in the astronomical community had predicted would light up the nighttime sky early in December after it had passed close to the sun in its very elongated orbit, appears not to have survived its solar rendezvous and is now more or less a cloud of debris, fading away from sight as it moves away from the sun.  That's disappointing as I had hoped to be able to observe it around this time.  But the comet's destruction was always one of the possible outcomes and the result doesn't exactly come as a surprise to me. 

Speaking in general of sky gazing, we are now entering the time of year when the skies are usually clear and, with the humidity around where I live being relatively low, the stars at night come out looking brighter.  Also, in the evening December and January sky we are treated to one of the brighter and more interesting regions in the sky, with remarkable constellations like Orion, Gemini, Taurus, Auriga, and Canis Major dominating.  Sirius (of Canis Major) is striking as the brightest star in the night sky while the second brightest, Canopus (of the constellation Carina) is visible just a few degrees above the southern horizon, almost due south from Canis Major and Orion.

All this has me thinking that it's been a while since I paid a visit to my local planetarium at Santa Fe College and see what shows pertaining to this season they have to offer there...

Will Ohio State Be Passed Over for 2013 Title Game?

Going into this past weekend's games, the major college football BCS ranking system, which ultimately decides who gets to play for the national championship with the top two ranked teams playing for the title, had the top five teams ranked as follows:

#1 Alabama
#2 Florida State
#3 Ohio State
#4 Auburn
#5 Missouri

Alabama, FSU, and Ohio State each was undefeated while Auburn and Missouri each had one loss on their records.  Alabama, Auburn, and Missouri are all members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), which has produced the national champion in each of the past seven years.  So the SEC has a great deal of weight when it comes down to which teams are ranked the highest.  That's important to keep in mind when considering what just happened yesterday in college football.

Alabama lost a thrilling, tight game to Auburn...which now means that the SEC has no undefeated teams left.  Meanwhile, Florida State and Ohio State remained undefeated as they won their games (Ohio State's victory was a one-point squeaker).  Missouri also won their contest.  So now FSU and Ohio State are the remaining two major colleges that are undefeated...the common sense conclusion would be that these two will face off for the national championship.  But wait...

Alabama is now out of the picture for a national championship, but Auburn and Missouri will play each other next week for the Southeastern Conference championship.  Whoever wins this game will gain a great boost in their BCS status because of the strength of the opponent that they beat.  And I'm afraid that this, combined with the already slanted deference given to SEC teams in the rankings, may well result in the winner of that game vaulting ahead of Ohio State...even though Ohio State has yet to lose a game this year.

I'd hate to see a scenario where an undefeated team from a major conference like the Big Ten doesn't get to play for the national championship while another team who has a loss on their record from the SEC does, but it looks as if this may well happen.  The only way I see this not happening is if Ohio State loses to Michigan State in the Big Ten championship game next week, or in the extreme improbability that FSU would lose to Duke in their ACC championship game.

Urban Meyer took over coaching duties at Ohio State University last year and took them to an undefeated record.  But then they were under probation for rules violations under the previous coach and were ineligible for championships or bowl games.  And he has yet to lose this year, too!  Wouldn't it be something if Ohio State went undefeated again and were denied a shot at the championship...when they were one of the two undefeated teams left?  Incredibly, this travesty of the championship process looks to be a distinct possibility...

My November 2013 Running Report

In November I continued to keep up with my monthly running goals, surpassing 100 miles again with a total of 126.21 miles.  My longest run was for seven miles, and I ran on 29 out of the 30 days.  I passed on a couple of races in November I could have entered, but I have no regrets...I'll get back on the racing "circuit" when I know I'm ready.  The weather improved toward the end of November and consequently I began to run more outside instead of using the treadmill.  This trend should continue in December. 

Perhaps I'll run a race in December...I'm thinking right now of a 15K race (for 9.3 miles) that will take place in Gainesville on December 14.  Also, there's a half-marathon in Jacksonville a couple of weeks later.  I'll just have to assess how I feel when those opportunities approach...and whether I have any scheduling conflicts.

Pleasant Five Mile Run in Pleasant Weather

It was about 63 degrees outside, with the humidity hovering around 50%, when I did a twilight five-mile run around my neighborhood a little while ago.  The conditions were perfect for me, and my running responded in kind as I felt strong and energized throughout...I probably could have kept on but decided that it was getting a little too dark for me.  I wish all days were like this...at least it looks as if, for the foreseeable future, we'll be enjoying pretty much the same weather in Gainesville.  That's quite a departure from the previous few days, when we went through a rapid succession of warm mugginess, extreme storms, and then a frosty freeze before today's pleasantness...

Happy Thanksgiving, Keep Your Black Friday

I'd like to wish all of my faithful readers a happy Thanksgiving...and a sense of perspective about the consumer frenzy known as Black Friday.  Only it seems now that Black Friday has seeped deeply into Thursday and now thoroughly impinges on what once used to be a major holiday.  Amassing "stuff" isn't on my list of priorities in life, although I have certain things I want to buy as well (or receive as gifts).  I more highly value time, both in a relaxed setting with my family and in a more reclusive sense as I study and meditate.  Material possessions are O.K., but I already have enough of just about anything I need.  It looks as if most other people have enough, too, but they are restless to "upgrade" to the latest gizmos being churned out for consumption.  So this purchasing frenzy, as I see it, is not transformational in nature but rather marginal and compulsive.  There is too much effort being spent to gain too little of an improvement.  Also, I suspect that many people caught up in this shopping insanity are behaving like herd animals, just following whatever they perceive the others are doing in order to "fit in".  What a sad way to live a life...

Gamma Ray Burst Could Help Martin's Characters

I've just begun reading A Storm of Swords, the third volume of George R.R. Martin's projected (at present) seven-volume A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy saga.  It didn't take very long for me to quickly come to the conclusion that the overwhelming preponderance of characters in this series are so incredibly miserable in their despair that everyone's interests would probably be best served if a gamma ray burst from a nearby supernova explosion didn't just sweep over and instantly sterilize the entire blasted planet, which doesn't really exist anyway.  This feeling came to a head for me when I started reading a chapter in which Davos, a captain in one of the warring kingdoms' navies, finds himself shipwrecked and dying, imploring death to come and rescue him from his suffering. And then the damned fool goes and gets himself rescued...no doubt to despair and suffer even more down the line.

I get it: the author has to keep the story tight...no slackening...and accomplishes this by placing the various protagonists in a chronic state of peril and suffering.  But I have to admit that while I suppose this helps to sustain my interest in those characters, I'm starting to suffer from empathetic suffering pangs.

In the first book, A Games of Thrones, Martin smartly put the "bite" into everyone's peril by unceremoniously knocking off what was reasonably understood then to be his chief protagonist.  After this, it became clear that NOBODY was safe!  It reminds me of what Hitchcock did in the movie Psycho, when Janet Leigh's main protagonist character was murdered early in the story in the motel shower.  After that, the movie was almost unbearably frightening as I followed the remaining "survivors",  anticipating similar outcomes for them.

But I think there's something more to this dreariness that I detect in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.  I detest his fantasy world and its society...and the insensitivity and brutality of its people, especially those in positions of leadership.  I suppose that this is probably all allegorical, though, and I could apply some of the social models and problems that Martin reveals to our world today.  That doesn't make it any more pleasant to read, though...

Finished Reading Goodkind's Blood of the Fold

I have just completed reading Terry Goodkind's third novel in his twelve-part The Sword of Truth series, titled Blood of the Fold.  The title refers to an organization that parallels the Spanish Inquisitional movement in our own history, with a religiously fanatical leader going around with his army looking for heretics that he arbitrarily designates as working for the "Keeper" (analogous to Satan) while he continuously justifies his own cruel actions as being for the "Creator" (i.e. the Lord God).  It's obviously Goodkind's own statement against religious intolerance...the demonization of anything that is beyond the direct control of whoever is on a judgmental religious track in their lives.  But beyond that, Blood of the Fold is more or less a continuation of the author's fantasy world roller coaster ride of series protagonists Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd with a new cast of foes and all assortments of magical and prophetic quirks and gimmicks.  Now that I know how this series is going, along with the fact that there are nine more books to go, I feel that I can probably expect more of the same as I read on.  However, as tedious as this may seem, I do enjoy Goodkind's writing and his rather philosophical take on how people should live their lives and view things.  That doesn't mean that I necessarily agree with all that he promotes, but I know how to filter out the useful from the dross...

Oh, by the way, I was anticipating Terry Goodkind introducing a new "wizard's rule" as he did in each of the first two volumes.  I wasn't disappointed, as he revealed in his "Wizard's Third Rule":

Passion rules reason, for better or for worse.  

Next: Volume #4, Temple of the Winds...

Some Factors in Keith Richards' Success

As a continuation of my reaction to Keith Richards' autobiography Life, I'd like to examine some "success" traits of his.  From childhood and throughout his life, Richards was no doubt intent on pursuing his main interest and love, which was music.  He was determined and disciplined in his zeal to both perfect his guitar skills and create within the medium of music.  He also engaged with others and shared his learning on a professional level in a generous manner, inviting them to share with him what they had learned and incorporating much of their input into his own work.  Richards was a natural collaborator on projects...even this autobiography was a collaboration, and it worked out very well.  He kept his fanatical interest in music strong while concentrating his social relationships on being with others who shared his love for it.  At various points in his life story, he displayed a humility about his own abilities in music while openly acknowledging those he had encountered who excelled in the art.  Oh, one other thing...Keith Richards, in his early childhood, had adults present in his life who also loved music and introduced him to it with encouragement and an example of success that he could model himself on. Finally, Richards gave credit to those who had helped him at various stages of his life journey with a strong sense of gratitude.

Finished Reading Life by Keith Richards

I just finished reading the autobiography of Rolling Stones guitarist and songwriter Keith Richards, a quite lengthy book with a short, simple title: Life.  It's not, though, as if Richards just decided to sit down one day and crank out his life's story: on the contrary the book is essentially written by "co-writer" and friend James Fox, who conducted a series of sometimes intensive interviews with Richards over a five-year period.  It reads very well, though, as if the lead Stones guitarist is recounting in the first person his own personal experiences and beliefs.  I liked the book a lot, but not necessarily because I liked Keith Richards.  On the contrary, I never did like him, even from early childhood in the 1960's, and found a lot of stuff in Life to dislike him even more.  What I did appreciate about this particular autobiography is that he didn't just set out to justify himself in it, but rather put both the good and bad out on display, including the "dirty linen" of his extensive drug use over the years.  As a matter of fact, he was so candid about how badly it had gotten out of control that he opened the book with an incident relating to a drug bust that happened while on tour in the U.S. in 1975...and only then launched into recounts of his childhood as traditional biographies do.

I think that this book is something worth examining in future articles, for there is a lot to cover here.  There is a way, an approach to encountering people and befriending them that appealed to me in Keith Richards.  On the other hand, without explicitly coming out and saying it, he seemed to display some of the classic behavioral patterns of a bully at times, sorry to say.  Well, I'll leave some of that for a future article and just say right now that I'd recommended Life for anyone who either knew and liked some of what the Rolling Stones did over their incredibly long run as a rock and roll band or is interested in what went on (and probably still goes on) behind the scenes with rock and roll acts going back to the sixties and seventies.  And in spite of Keith Richards' excesses and personality flaws, some of the personality factors that contributed to his material and artistic success are revealed in this book...as a matter of fact, they become so self-evident that they seem to scream at me! 

Pathetic Gators Lose to Small College 26-20

So my University of Florida football team has skidded so far down this year that they just lost to a minor team, Georgia Southern, 26-20.  This was the "extra" game on the schedule after the regular season limit was increased to twelve...designed for Florida to have a breather as they prepared for their annual rivalry contest against Florida State.  Instead, they have now lost six in a row and have a 4-7 record and a guaranteed losing season, making them bowl ineligible.  Why, though, anyone would care to see them in a bowl after this dismal season is beyond me.  But for some reason there is no blame coming to the coaching staff from Athletic Director Foley.  Back in 2004, Ron Zook was fired mid-season as head coach for a much better performance...but current coach Will Muschamp seems to have entranced the Florida A.D. somehow in spite of the mediocrity he is showcasing.  Sure, the Gators have had their share of injuries, but so have other teams...who somehow seem to have been able to fill in the gaps with players off their bench.  With Florida though, it's all about the injuries and not about the coaching philosophy, strategy, or decisions.  I see little hope for improvement next year under Muschamp, but sooner or later the clamor by the fans and alumni will be too loud for Mr. Foley to ignore...

JFK Assassination Fifty Years Ago Today

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of a horrendous national event: the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the middle of a publicly intense motorcade running through downtown Dallas, Texas.   Since then, all kinds of conspiracy theories have abounded concerning who shot Kennedy and why...enriching quite a few of their promoters in the process.  As for me, I'm inclined to believe that the official suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone without anyone pulling the strings behind the scenes.  As for you, believe whatever you want to believe...bet you can't prove it! 

I was in the second grade in Hollywood, Florida on that fateful afternoon, just following lunch, when a kid from the adjacent classroom rushed in to inform us that President Kennedy had been shot...either in the back or the eye, he wasn't sure.  From that moment on, everything changed as no one could talk or think about anything else.  When I got home, the television was on CBS/Channel 4/WTVJ, which was providing continuous coverage of the crisis.  Both of my parents were Kennedy supporters although neither voted in order to avoid jury duty (nowadays this is a moot point with having a driver's license being the prerequisite for summoning).  It was pretty heavy and somber as I remembered it.  And of course, by the time I had gotten home from school, word had gone out that Kennedy was dead. 

I was only seven when JFK was killed.  I didn't know anything about politics, although I remember being familiar with the name of Kennedy as the President when the news came down that sorry Friday afternoon in 1963.  I became aware very quickly who Lyndon Baines Johnson was as Kennedy's successor...and even more so the following year when he would preempt regular televised programming by sounding war alarms about Vietnam and how we needed to respond...a double tragedy.  Some speculate that John Kennedy would have kept us out of Vietnam...I tend to think that he would have kept a covert US presence there without going overboard with the troop commitment and subsequent mass carnage.  And since a great part of the tide of changing American history turned on that war, it's easy to see how this assassination was so pivotal...as Stephen King speculated so provocatively in his recent novel 11/22/63...

NCAA Football National Championship Preferences

It's now getting to the point in the college football season when the hopes and aspirations of the teams I'm rooting for give way to often dismal reality, and I begin to side with schools that I usually wouldn't pull for as a first choice.  Two cases in point are Auburn and South Carolina.  These are the two "runner-up" teams in each Southeastern Conference division, behind Alabama and Missouri respectively.  I like Auburn because I dislike Alabama's coach Nick Saban, while I like South Carolina (who could win the conference title but not the national championship) because I like their coach Steve Spurrier and resent newcomer Missouri being able to pick up a divisional title in only their second year in the league. Outside the SEC, I'm still pulling for Michigan State to beat Ohio State...but if Urban Meyer's Buckeyes prevail, I would root for them in a national championship game against Alabama.  I'd like most of all for Florida State to win the national championship, but there are two obstacles to this. One, they'll have to get by Florida at Gainesville in their final regular season contest and two, their star quarterback Jameis Winston is, I'm afraid, on the verge of having his college career (and perhaps ultimately his noncriminal status) ended with a sexual assault charge.  I'm still rooting for my Gators, who I think have a shot of winning, to get by the Seminoles...as for the sexual assault matter, I just want for truth and justice to prevail regarding the victim and whoever gets accused.

Here is my list of teams with national championship possibilities, according to my preferences:

1 Florida State
2 Auburn
3 Oregon
4 Michigan State
5 Ohio State
6 Baylor
7 Stanford
8 Missouri
9 Alabama

So far, Alabama and FSU are the consensus favorites for the national championship game, with Ohio State and Baylor waiting in the wings hoping that one or both of them lose in the waning regular season or in their conference title games.  Meanwhile, teams like Auburn and Oregon are hoping that Ohio State and Baylor lose one of their final games as well...which I believe is a distinct possibility.  If Ohio States wins out and still misses the title game, it will have been coach Meyer's third team in his career that has gone undefeated without getting a shot at the championship!