Posted on 1/7/2008 9:11:50 PM

Sports Betting Action – Rose’s Rant

By Sports Betting Trends Rose's Rant

This is the least excited I’ve ever been for the big college football game that proclaims the victor the National Champion. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I don’t believe these two teams should be playing for all the marbles, or maybe it has to do with the fact that this bowl season has flat out stunk. Either way, I won’t be tuning into FOX as enthusiastically as I have the last 10 years.

If ever a case was made clearer for a playoff system to be instituted, one only has to look at what transpired throughout the 2007-08-college football season. It was hectic to say the least, if not laughable. It all started way back in the first week of the season when the Michigan Wolverines lost at home to Appalachian State. Big Blue held a lofty ranking at that time, but managed to lose at home to a Division 1AA/FPS program for the first time in the programs existence. Fast forward five weeks to USC’s Week 6 match-up with the Stanford Cardinal at home, and we were witnesses to one of the largest pointspread losses in the history of college football. USC, a 39-point home favorite, lost outright to a Stanford team that had only managed one win in its first four games. They got smacked in their Homecoming game at home by ASU the week before 41-3, so it’s safe to say that not one person on the outside looking in foresaw a Stanford outright victory in that spot. The kicker had to be the ‘Backyard Brawl” that took place on December 1st when West Virginia lost outright at home to Pitt. A win there would have found them playing for the National Championship today. Oddsmakers deemed the Mountaineers 28-points better than the Panthers, but wouldn’t ya know it, WV choked the game away and lost outright by a 13-9 final count. All they had to do was win and they were in….how unfortunate!!!

The point of all this rumbling is that the landscape of college football has changed dramatically over the years, and some sort of system has to be devised to allow a number of the top ranked teams to settle the controversy on the field of play. Whose to say that USC, Georgia, Kansas, or West Virginia aren’t as worthy of the National Championship as say Ohio State or LSU are? Especially in a season where not one team managed to go through their schedule unscathed. This topic will only become more heated if nothing is done to remedy the situation, and it will eventually turn fans away from college football altogether. What’s the point of being designated the best of the best when a bulk of the best didn’t even get a shot at the Title? The BCS works when only two teams went undefeated or suffered one loss. After that, it’s a crapshoot and a topic destined to be controversial. What the BCS picture told me this season is that it’s better to lose early than late, but if you lose late along with everyone else you’ll be rewarded. It’s not right, and it has to change or else college football will cease to exist in my book.

I’ll take a gander at what’s going on in the big game tonight, but I’ll also catch up on some of the stuff I DVR’d over the weekend, which includes the 21st Century edition of the American Gladiators. Sad, I know but I ate that stuff up when I was a kid and I’d love for nothing more than it to take me back to that decade.

Additional sports and entertainment odds can be found in the BetUS.com Sportsbook, in Futures/props, under Entertainment Props.