Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	--
2	Utah	5
3	Southern Cal	2
4	Texas	1
5	Oklahoma	3
6	Alabama	2
7	TCU	7
8	Penn State	2
9	Ohio State	--
10	Oregon	5
11	Texas Tech	3
12	Mississippi	9
13	Boise State	3
14	Georgia	4
15	Oregon State	9
16	Oklahoma State	5
17	Virginia Tech	--
18	California	8
19	Michigan State	3
20	Cincinnati	8
21	Iowa	5
22	Florida State	4
23	Georgia Tech	10
24	Missouri	2
25	LSU	1

Dropped Out: Brigham Young (#19), Pittsburgh (#20), Boston College (#23), Ball State (#25).

The question has been raised by countless pundits over the past week:  does the winner of the BCS Championship Game (Florida) deserve to be #1?  What about Utah, USC, or even Texas?  Let's run down the arguments:

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Use this thread to discuss the National Championship Game today between Florida and Oklahoma that will determine who is the #2 best team behind Utah.  Game starts at 5 PM PST on Fox. 

And at 7 PM, the Cal-WSU b-ball game is on.  But apparently not on TV.  So, check it out on the radio: KYOU 1550.  Or follow it online.  Go Bears!

A lot of people complain that there are too many bowl games, but personally, I don't care.  Most of these bowls are tourist-pandering exhibitions, and as long as enough people continue to pay enough attention to them so that they don't lose massive amounts of money, I'm fine with them.  Sure, I didn't watch the International Bowl in Toronto between Buffalo and Connecticut, and I neither know nor care which team won, but some people *did*, and I'll bet they even had a good time.  Really, who cares?  I'm not the enemy of fun.

The NCAA, however, has often been accused of many things, including being an enemy of fun.  In allowing football teams to participate in these postseason exhibitions, they set minimum standards such as "must not be on probation" and "must not have a losing record" and "only one win can be over a I-AA team" and such.  Reasonable things, I would say.  If a bowl game is a reward for a successful season, I say, in fact, that these standards aren't strict enough!

In particular, teams with 6-6 records (the very pinnacle of mediocrity) can, in most cases, be hardly said to have had successful seasons.  And if they lose a bowl game, they suddenly have a 6-7 record, and now their "moderately successful season" has turned into a "losing season".  Even worse, what if one of those wins was against a I-AA opponent?  Now their record against I-A competition stands at a pathetic 5-7, a mere 42% winning percentage against teams playing with supposedly equal rules and equal access to resources.  Successful?  Hardly.  Were I appointed NCAA President for a day, one of my acts would be to remove to rule allowing a team to count a I-AA win towards its bowl eligibile record.  Wanna play an early-season patsy?  Fine, but you should be able to win at least 6 of your remaining 11 games.

Given the currently lax rules, however, it should come as no surprise that 7 of the 13 teams who finished 6-6 this year managed to do so via a win over a I-AA team, including 5 who were granted bowl bids.  Also not surprising:  of the three 6-6 teams that lost their bowl games to finish 6-7, all three needed a win over a I-AA cupcake to even reach the postseason.  The following is a list of all the teams who finished 6-6, ranked from most to least undeserving of a bowl bid:

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We thought we should go senior by senior and take a gander at their Cal career.  Some photos.  Some videos.  Some stats.  And if HydroTech has any personal stories of his time with the team, he'd share them.  We start with Nate Longshore.

This site has often been accused of adoring Nate Longshore.  "J'Accuse d'Longshore" was often the rallying cry of our detractors.  Maybe.  Depending on what I actually just said there, it's unclear to me.  I took Spanish in high school.

The point is, if you hate anybody speaking positively of Nate Longshore, I suggest you stop reading.  Immediately.  I LOVE NATE LONGSHORE AND THE REST OF THE LONGSHORE IMMEDIATE FAMILY PLUS A SMATTERING OF HIS COUSINS!  Didn't I tell you to stop reading immediately.  You never listen to me, do you?

via www.natelongshore.org

TwistNHook:  I know that a lot and I mean a LOT of ink has been spilled on the negatives of Nate, none of which has been spilled at his sadly neglected blog.  But in this retrospective roundtable, let's try to remember the good times.  The great times.  Like the Oregon 2006 game or the Oregon 2007 game.  Or, hell, even the Oregon 2008 game.  He seemed to have a knack for playing great against Oregon all throughout his career.  We should have taped an Oregon jersey to all the Miami players.  In 2006, he helped engineer a whupping of them.  In 2007, his play wasn't as good, it being on the road and all, but he still helped guide the team to victory, no matter how slim.  And in 2008, he came in for an injured Kevin Riley and threw the ball surprisingly well considering the elements.  The weather was crazzy that day, but he managed to move the ball and again guide the team to a solid victory. 

So, what are your positive memories of Nate Longshore?

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Use this thread to discuss the Fiesta Bowl. The game starts at 5 PM Pacific Standard Time and is being broadcast on Fox.  It pains me to say this, because I've never warmed to those continual runners up from the midwest, but Go Buckeyes!  Beat The Longhorns!

Use this as an open thread for today's games.

Part I, II, III, IV

via www.libertybowl.org

What bowl?: The AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
Who's playing? Kentucky WIldcats vs. East Carolina Pirates.
When is it? January 2, 5:00 PM EST.
Where is it? Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee.
Why should you watch? Because you're not sure what the hell happened to the Pirates after beating Virginia Tech and West Virginia to open the season, and you love watching the SEC lose.

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We apologize for being late on the ball here.  My excuse is that I was up buying fried chicken from a gas station at 6 in the morning.  Which was AWESOME!  But that's neither here nor there.  Anyway, use this post to discuss all the crazyness of today's games.  Follow the scores live here, too. 

(Use this as an Open Thread for all the 12.31 Bowl Games.  Go Bears!)

Parts I, II, III

via www.chick-fil-abowl.com

What bowl?: The Chick-Fil-A Bowl.
Who's playing? #14 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. LSU Tigers.
When is it? December 31, 7:30 PM EST.
Where is it? Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.
Why should you watch? Because you love the option, you love watching the SEC lose, and you've never quite understood the whole dynamic of Atlanta natives being much more amped up about college sports than pro sports.  So it'll be fun to see the Yellow Jackets in a de facto home game.

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Still reveling, two days later.  Before I wax sentimental about Mack and Follet and Felder and all the rest, let's start with the hilarious.  Ordinarily I don't pay much attention to the video board announcements at halftime, but the first one caught my eye:

"Watch the Fake, Alamar!" -- Your friends in QQ

I was so stunned by the simple brilliance of the message that I froze, paralyzed with laughter for 30 seconds before I thought to snap a picture. By the time I recovered it was too late and the message was gone forever.  If anyone was quick enough to grab a shot, or if anyone knows the identities of the brave young alums who paid for it, please post it here.  I only wish that they had paid for an extra dozen words or so, in order to clarify that you can defend fakes with more than 10 players on the field.  Hopefully Alamar learned his lesson after the Maurice Jones-Drew game in 2005, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Ahh memories.

Happier times, for my sake:

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Well, that was exciting and nerve-wracking. 

(1) Longshore.  Let's go there one last final time.  In case you missed my last post, Riley is injured.  Thus, it was highly unlikely that Riley would start or even play at all.  So Longshore was our only option whether you like him or not.  Did Longshore play well?  Not really.  Did he play horribly?  Not really.  He was very much "eh."  He had a few great throws (Tucker's catch, a crossing route to Boateng, and his TD pass to Miller), and he also had some really bad passes (missing Ross for a big gain, 4th down pass short of the sticks). A few of his passes were clearly due to the receivers losing their footing on the very soft grass which provided no traction and easily gave away.

I think it's unfortunate how Longshore will probably go down as the most hated Cal QB in the past 10 years - yes, even more than Ayoob.  While he certainly didn't have a great game, I don't think he should have been booed.  Many Cal fans, unfortunately, did not know that Riley was injured and thus the chants for Riley to come in were mostly due to ignorance but still... it sucks for Longshore.  I feel bad for the guy.  I'm glad he threw the last touchdown.  And to those who believe he didn't actually intend the ball for Miller but instead was throwing to Morrah, this YouTube clip clearly confirms that he was intending the pass to Miller since Longshore clearly didn't throw the ball at Morrah.

If I had to give Longshore a grade, I guess it'd be a "C."  He was 10/21 which isn't good.  If you take away a throw-away or two, and one or two incompletions due to poor grass conditions, he was around 10/17 or so which is better.  But he just missed a few too many fairly easy throws (two incompletions to Ross come to mind), made a few bad reads (the 4th down pass short of the first down markers), and didn't see some open receivers to really push himself into the "B" range for a grade.  So as much as I would love to say Longshore had a "good" or "great" final game, I think he only had a mediocre game.

I do wish him the best of luck with his NFL dreams.  Unlike most Cal fans, I will remember his glory days of 2006 and pre-injury 2007 instead of only post-injury 2007.  I hope we can remember him for the good he brought us instead of the bad.  I am somewhat glad to see him graduate, not because I dislike him but because I am tired of the Longshore vs. Riley debate.  I am tired of Cal fans calling for Riley when Longshore throws even one incomplete pass or when a rushing play doesn't go for 20+ yards.

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