Fitting finale
By Terry Bowden, Yahoo! Sports
November 27, 2007
The latest BCS standings came out and as expected Missouri and West Virginia are ranked one and two. If this holds up, although there is nothing that has happened this year to suggest that it will, it will be the perfect conclusion to a perfectly delirious season.
The Year of the Upset that started with the Michigan loss to Appalachian State and ended – so far – with the LSU loss to Arkansas needs to have the appropriate finale. Missouri and West Virginia would be just that.
We need to have a "Hoosiers" type of ending to the season. There's a reason it's in the top three of almost everybody's favorite sports movies. We need to see the upset … we need to see the little guy win it all once in a while. A Tiger/Mountaineer matchup would guarantee that.
Now, in a year when nothing is automatic, Missouri still has to beat Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship and WVU has to knock off Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl. That is not a guarantee even in the typical season, but let's hope that it happens.
We don't need to see the same old same old in the championship game this year. I have no desire to see Ohio State get back in the game. We saw them play in it last year and we'll probably see them play in it next year. They have the best players, the best facilities and the best tradition. But they lost to Illinois in the next-to-last game of the season and didn't really earn the right. Georgia could slide in with a 9-2 record. They are playing great football right now and coach Mark Richt has probably done his finest job. But they lost to South Carolina and Tennessee and although they are one of the traditional powers, they just don't get the blood boiling when it comes to a championship game.
Almost everybody's preseason picks were LSU and Southern California. I covered both of these teams this year and I still say they walk onto the field with the best talent in the country. But neither team played like a champion this year and the game needs to be about something more than a couple of talent-laden teams that underachieved.
West Virginia and Missouri would be the perfect choice for the championship. Not only have they consistently played at the highest level of the game for the greatest part of the season, but they have done it with so much less to work with. Neither team has a great recruiting base to attract the best football players. There are not enough blue chippers in their respective states to win the conference, much less a national championship. Take a look at the NFL rosters and you won't see a great number of players from these two schools. They don't have the history, the tradition or the money to compete with the typical powers of college football, but they did. They have made the underdog no longer look like an underdog. They have proven to be the best on the field and they deserve to play for a championship.
I would like every player, every coach, and every fan to truly believe that if they go out and play the game like it's supposed to be played, they have a chance to win it all. They need to believe that if they dream the dream and if they do things that they are supposed to do, then they have a shot to win it all.
A Missouri-West Virginia matchup would guarantee that.
This article appeared on the Yahoo Sports website on Tuesday, November 27, 2007.