Bowl season winners and losers

Let start where it all began, with the SEC West. After all, it was Texas A resounding win over South Carolina on the opening Thursday that laid the foundation for the narrative that dominated the regular season that the West was ridiculously good, perhaps the best division ever.

When the Mississippi schools rose up and beat A and Alabama and Auburn in early October, there was no turning back until the first week of January, at least.

That when the West put the finishing touches on a 2 5 bowl season the top five teams in the standings all lost and the jeers came from all corners of the rest of the nation.

My view of the conflicting West narratives is that both are true: The division was overrated and it was the best in the country.

So yes, it deserved the in season praise. At the same time, it clearly wasn the toughest division we ever seen. The postseason results particularly the losses by Ole Miss, Mississippi State and LSU were proof of that. wholesale mlb jerseys china

Count the West as an in season winner and a post season loser. The semifinals averaged a 15 rating and drew the two largest audiences in cable history. Then the title game checked in with a 18.5 overnight. Sure seems like that was a smart investment of $5.5 billion (approx) over 12 years.

Loser: SEC. The conference didn't play for the national title for the first time since the 2005 season. Even worse, it blew a 15 point lead in the most important game (Alabama to OSU) and went 7 5 overall a record, frankly, that's usually fit for the Big Ten. And now it has to suffer through basketball season.

Winner: Big Ten (it's about time). Have to give credit where it's due, and the conference more than held its own with Ohio State beating Alabama and Oregon, Wisconsin outlasting Auburn and Michigan State edging Baylor. (We won't mention Illinois' face plant against Louisiana Tech or Maryland's belly flop against Stanford. How the Alabama administration can keep employing him, I do not know. Isn't Mike Shula available? Or Mike DuBose? Mike Price?

Winner: Big Ten. First undisputed national championship that didn involve a phantom pass interference call since the Buckeyes won it all in 1968.

Loser: Oregon. The Ducks are 0 2 in the title game this decade. Easy to say they weren physical enough and they weren but the dropped passes early were killers. Tough to win games like that without so many of your top playmakers.

Winner: SEC East. Went 5 0 in the postseason, in case you didn notice and I certain you didn because there was no reason to.

Loser: Big 12. The tumble started on selection day, when playoff hopefuls TCU and Baylor were tossed aside in favor of Ohio State, and it continued through the games themselves. The conference went 2 5, with atrocious losses by Texas and Oklahoma.

Winner: Pac 12. Placed a team in the championship and won six of nine games overall.

Loser: Pac 12: It was favored in eight of the nine. Ooops. cheap mlb jerseys

Winner: Urban Meyer. Had his Buckeyes masterfully prepared for Alabama and Oregon, won the title with his third string quarterback and got the talented underclassmen to develop faster than anyone had a reasonable right to expect. Coach of the century? Nicky S. might quibble, but nobody else would dare.

Loser: Florida State. The Seminoles played the way they did all season (sloppy, bored, entitled), which highlights the difference between Oregon and everyone in the ACC.

Winner: Ohio State Michigan rivalry. Urb vs. Harbs will be Woody vs. Bo redux (until Harbaugh gets an NFL offer he can refuse). Hate Week can come soon enough.

Loser: Duke. The quest to lose bowl games in every fashion imaginable continued this time, a kickoff return as the Blue Devils failed to secure their first bowl win since 1961.

Winner: Ohio State. No team in the BCS era has won the title with a worse loss than the Buckeyes (VaTech), but they were terrific down the stretch and should be just as good next season, unless they experience QB chemistry issues. china cheap mlb jerseys

Loser: State of Mississippi. Gave all the non believers plenty of evidence to support the sketpicism. Ole Miss and MSU were outscored 91 37 by TCU and Georgia tech Georgia Tech! combined.

Winner: Conference USA. Nobody was more successful than the league whose members you can't name. CUSA won four of its five games, with three victories in decisive fashion.

Loser: Baylor. Avoided a UCF level embarrassment but blew a 20 point fourth quarter lead and lost to Michigan State in the Cotton.

Winner: TCU. The Hotline's pick for the fourth semifinal spot (ahead of Ohio State) did nothing to undermine its case with a 39 point victory over Ole Miss.

Loser: Chris Petersen. While his former team was winning the Fiesta Bowl to finish 12 2, the first year Washington coach lost his sixth of the season (to Oklahoma State in the Cactus) and did little to prove he's capable of leading UW to the top of the Pac 12.

Winner: The service academies. They were 2 0 with Air Force handling Western Michigan and Navy rallying to beat San Diego State. wholesale mlb jerseys