DAMN, did Alabama look good on Saturday. Nobody plays their “best” in every game. But if that’s Alabama’s best, and they can do it again, they’ll beat Texas, and handily. Texas is a very good team but they’re not a great team. They have an outstanding defense, but not so much better than Florida’s and Alabama pushed Florida around. Bama had almost 500 yards of offense and only threw 18 times. They’ll go play the game, and Texas will fight, but from the looks of those two games Saturday, and given Texas’ offensive struggles the two best defenses they played, Oklahoma and Nebraska, Alabama should be a clear favorite in the title game.

MAN, did TCU get F-ed! Not that they didn’t get the title game, that was settled when Lawrence’s field goal went through, but in the matchup they got. It’s hard enough for non-AQ teams to get in. TCU blew through a good schedule. They went on the road to two ACC teams, including one which won its division, and won. They went into Provo and de-pantsed BYU. They absolutely rolled a good Utah team at home. So, they earned their way in. What do they get? A matchup against the other non-AQ team. This is the equivalent of cooking the Christmas meal, then having to eat it at the children’s table. I don’t know if this was “the fix” or just they way the Fiesta Bowl Committee “drafted,” but TCU earned and deserves a shot at a champion from a BCS conference. I would love to have seen them draw Florida. BTW, I think this TCU-Boise matchup will be the third highest TV rating BCS game, behind Rose Bowl #2 and Rose Bowl #1.

Georgia Tech and Iowa? Blah. I’ll watch because GT runs option, and though 20 years removed from Norman, I still love to watch teams that run triple option. But this is a lame matchup that will have very little appeal outside Atlanta and the corn fields.

Florida will roll Cincinnati. Cincinnati is a really good football team. On offense. They’re very pedestrian on defense. Florida’s defense won’t shut Cincy down, but they’ll keep them under 25. Florida’s offense will best 30 against a very average D.

Oklahoma’s matchup in the Sun Bowl versus Stanford is a very good game for the Sun Bowl. I imagine their Committee is tickled at the game they got. Don’t laugh folks, but given McCoy’s and Tebow’s rough games on Saturday, Toby Gerhart may damn well win the Heisman. I’m not that big a believer in him, nor am I shilling for him to win it, but he’s put up big numbers all year, had no “bad” games and lit up Notre Dame on national television in a game that I guarantee got bigger TV numbers than any game Tebow, McCoy or Ingram played in all year. So, if that happens, the little ol’ (it is the third or fourth longest standing bowl, and older than the Cotton Bowl, I believe) Sun Bowl gets the Heisman winner against one of the winningest programs of all time, one of the winningest of the decade and a seven time national champion. As “minor” bowls go, they got a very good matchup. I’ll have to look deeper into this game before offering any prediction, but this is a pretty good outcome for a very frustrating year in Norman.

I’m afraid the somewhat regular embarrassment of the Big XII in the Cotton Bowl will continue. Dexter McCluster is a huge talent and Snead is a good enough QB. I don’t think Oklahoma State is very good at all and anyone who knows me knows that I think Zac Robinson is the most vastly over-rated player in the country. Ole Miss “stomps a mud hole,” as the Barking Carnival guys say, into Okie Lite.

How did Missouri fall all the way to the Texas Bowl? Now, I don’t think Mizzou is worth a flip but they did win 8 games. The Insight took Iowa State over them? Don’t look for too much Black and Gold in Reliant on NYE. Potential silver lining, though, to play in front of Texas high school kids, not Arizona….

More later, I’m sure, but those are my opening shots. What are yours?