1. The Continued Dominance Of The SEC
The SEC won its sixth straight BCS National Title this year, but did it in absurd fashion this year. College football's best conference had six teams in the BCS top 25, and 4 teams in the top ten. 4 teams? That's absolutely ridiculous. You could even make the argument that Arkansas should be ranked #3 in the nation because their only losses come against the National Championship contenders LSU and Alabama. It doesn't matter though, the SEC has the fastest lineman, the best coaching and the most elite competition. Not a single matchup in this conference is a cake walk, even with the likes of Kentucky and Vanderbilt finding a home in the SEC cellar.
With the immense and deep recruiting pool right in their backyard, a conference fall-out of any sort doesn't look likely. The other conferences are going to continue to have a hard time finishing off the SEC in the National Championship Game(if they even make it their) because they focus too much of their attention on high-powered offenses. The Big-12 and Pac-12 are going to hang around like always, but they don't have the defenses to compete fully with the all-around SEC teams. The Big Ten, which is the fourth best conference in college football, doesn't have enough athletes to play with the NFL-ready southern boys. So everyone, choose an SEC team to root for, because it might be a long time until a non-SEC team lifts the crystal ball.
2.Oregon Finally Breaks Through The BCS Barrier
After completely revamping their football program in 2005 thanks to Nike CEO and school alum, Phil Knight's huge donations to improve their locker room and workout facilities, the Oregon Ducks slowly became a national power. With the addition of several insanely athletic recruits and a new high-flying offensive system, Oregon has gone 72-21 in its last seven years. However, over the two previous years they were unable to turn their regular season success into BCS post season success, losing the Rose Bowl in '09 and the National Championship last year. But this season, the Ducks finally cracked through their BCS drought and won the Rose Bowl.
Oregon also won the Rose Bowl in their patented fashion: high scoring, fast paced and good looking. Between the freshman De'Anthony Thomas, QB Darron Thomas and the Barner/James RB connection, the Ducks ran all over the place in their 45-38 Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin. I'm not sure what was faster De'Anthony Thomas legs, or his completely reflective helmet. The whole shebang came together for the Ducks in 2011-12, despite losses to LSU in Week 1 and USC late in the year. They rallied nicely and capped off their season with the inaugural Pac-12 championship along with a bowl of roses.
3.College Football's Dramatic Conference Movements
I'm not even sure of all the moves, but that's not the point. A seismic shift in the college football world is brewing. Whether it is the disaffiliation of college football and the NCAA, or the greatly desired playoff, our college football world will look wildly different in a couple of years. I can't even keep track of the all the conference movements and I don't even really care. Most of the teams moved conferences due to impulsive decisions and will regret all the transfer money they have to give up in order to move once the whole college football organization is blown up. But most importantly everyone will just continue to chase the SEC especially with the additions of Missouri and Texas A&M, and that's really all that matters.
4.USC's Makes Noise, Even With Their Bowl Ban
After receiving a two-year bowl ban in 2009, the USC Trojans played out an uninspiring 8-5 season last year and it seemed as if USC might tailspin out of control. But Lane Kiffin and Matt Barkley rallied the troops as the Trojans finished this year at 10-2. If they had been eligible for postseason play they may have won the Pac-12 Championship, as they impressively beat Oregon on the road earlier in the year. They also took Stanford to triple overtime at home before falling to a beautiful Andrew Luck pass.
What's even more impressive is that USC returns 16 starters from last year, and finished the season winning four in a row and 7 out of 8. But their successful 2011 campaign is a testament more to their players and coaching staff. It's extremely difficult to play a season without the ability to garner any trophies, especially if you're basically your cities NFL team. While I'm still skeptical of Lane Kiffin's coaching abilities, I think he did a nice job in corralling the negative attitudes that plagued the team last year and transforming them into the motivation for a successful 2011-12. I don't like pretty boyMatt Barkley one bit, but he showed me something by not only leading his team to a 10-2 record and having the balls to stick around for round 2. He could have been the 2nd QB selected in the 2012 NFL draft, but instead he recognized USC's potential for next season and made the proper decision. I don't fault him one bit if he's simply following in Andrew Luck's footsteps. Maybe for him it will end lifting the Crystal Ball instead of a big ol' BCS loss.
5. For Once The Heisman Winner Isn't The Favorite
Say what you want about RG III's stats and performances over the year, he was certainly not the favorite for the Heisman Trophy. Andrew Luck was undeniably the favorite simply on name recognition, no matter the differences in stats.
But on this Saturday night in December the voters decided to go with the guy who deserved it the most, forgetting about name recognition or BCS status. RG III was the best player in college football and that'd be hard to debate. Griffin threw for almost 4,000 yards, 36 TDs and only 6 INTs. But most ridiculously, he did it at 72.4% completion rate, along with running for 600+ yards and 9 TDs. With his stats being elite, the Baylor QB needed a memorable play and he got it in the form of a last second 35 yard TD pass to beat the 5th ranked Oklahoma Sooners.
Recently the Heisman Trophy had been given to guys based more on name recognition and team status than pure results. Now while I'm not saying that the guys over the last decade haven't deserved their trophies, I feel like we haven't seen a dark horse in a while. Well, RG III was that dark horse and a great one at that. Griffin is a consummate teammate and has a great football mind. He showed great class in his latest press conference declaring for the NFL draft, and truly represented the Heisman well. Plus when you put up stats like he did, at such a prolific, but more importantly effective rate, you get some respect. Fortunately for Griffin he got a lot of it.
6. No BCS Busting Teams This Year
For the first season in a long time we had no non-BCS teams stirring up controversy, and it was beautiful. Boise State lost to TCU in mid-November ending another undefeated debacle, and leaving the BCS headache for the big boys, where it belongs. Probably the most interesting non-AQ team this season was the Houston Cougars, led by the gunslinger Case Keenum. Keenum set the FBS record for career passing yards, total yards and passing TDs this season and almost led the Cougars to a perfect 14-0 record if it wasn't for a sketchy loss at the end of the season to Southern Miss.
It was nice to see a season where the BCS controversy was stowed away between the big three conferences(SEC, Big-12, Pac-12) instead of being clouded by a soft schedule-runner like TCU or Boise State. Everyone seemed to be all giddy about Boise State and TCU in the past few seasons, but no one seemed to miss them once they faded into darkness in early November this season. All hail the college football powerhouses!
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