I am unsure if anyone had great expectations for yesterday's college football "card" (and, no, I did not watch the fight last night)? Absent the huge match-ups of top ten teams we had grown accustomed to, the day would need competitive performances from some teams below the radar for us, as fans, to have a fun time. And that is exactly what happened.
Northwestern got the ball rolling with a stirring comeback of all things--the Cats have lost twice this year in big games thanks to allowing rallies--to nip Iowa at the wire and eliminate the Hawkeyes from the Big Ten race. That QB Dan Persa was lost for the season on the play just added to the drama. Fortunately this game was exciting as Wisconsin was clubbing seal cubs on another ESPN outlet at the same time.
But then in a span of a few moments in the afternoon, Ohio State, Auburn and TCU were all losing by a couple of scores. They did all rally to win, and at night both Oregon and Stanford won closer games than expected, but the excitement--from noon until late at night--stayed with anyone fortunate enough to have tuned in. All five of the underdog teams in question, Penn State, Georgia, San Diego State, Cal, and Arizona State respectively, played with heart and all put a scare into teams still clinging to BCS title game aspirations. But then plenty of other teams without hopes of reaching the BCS title game played with spirit too, like South Carolina who whacked Florida to earn the SEC East crown or Virginia Tech, who looks determined to win another ACC crown. Or how about North Carolina State, Maryland and, yes, Syracuse, who all won their seventh game of the year.
Days like yesterday are proof that the college football game is not broken.
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