Gridiron (Championships)

Today is the Saturday when the ACC, the SEC and the Big 12 play their championship games. Of the three, the game that interests me most is the one I've been watching the past two hours: the SEC championship game with Number 1 Florida facing Number 2 Alabama. This is a game I've been looking foward to seeing for several weeks. I've watched both teams this season, I've been impressed by both, and I've been curious to know how they'd fare against each other. Both have solid offenses, defenses, and special teams, and each has an outstanding coach. At the half, the Tide leads Florida 19-13 and the game has lived up to my expectations in every way.

The Big 12 championship, tonight at 7:00, is a different situation. Undefeated Texas plays a mediocre 9-3 Nebraska team that won the North division more or less by default, since none of the other division teams were interested in contending. The outcome of the game is a foregone conclusion: Texas will win by at least 20 points, probably more. My guess would be something along the lines of 41-20, assuming the huskers can muster up as many as twenty points.

Added 6:42 pm: Wow. A game that looked fairly evenly matched at the half ended with superstar Tim Tebow choking back tears on the sideline, and Crimson Tide players doing the eagle rock. Alabama 32-13 over Florida. I've been watching Florida under Tebow for two years, and if anyone told me Alabama would shut him out in the 2nd half, I would've said he was nuts. But that's what happened. Alabama looks like the real deal, and Texas will have their hands full trying to get past them in Pasadena.

Added 12:28 am, Sunday: Texas 13, Nebraska 12. I didn't see the game since I expected blowout city. Instead we watched the classic romance Random Harvest  on TCM, and I saw a pretty good Kevin Costner movie called Thirteen Days. It was a dramatization of the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis. After the movie, I checked the internet to see how close I came to predicting the final score, and learned that Texas caught a lucky break at the very end of the game which allowed them the extra second they needed to kick a winning FG. Somehow, Texas always seems to get the one or two lucky breaks they need in conference games. Some conspiracy theorists believe Big 12 officials rig the outcomes of the games, but personally I think it only looks that way on TV.

So Texas and Alabama meet in the BCS championship game for all the marbles. I've seen more Alabama games than Texas games this fall, and I'm almost sure that 'bama is markedly better than Nebraska in every dimension. That doesn't guarantee they'll beat the longhorns, but if they do, it'll be sweet. I've had all the Texas hype I can stand for one season, and I'm ready to see them suffer for a change.