Tide's Richardson would have won Heisman if he had played Saturday, expert says | al.com
"If he had played Saturday in the SEC Championship Game, he probably would have won (the Heisman)," Huston said of Richardson. "If he had had a big game against Georgia, like 150 yards (rushing), he would've gone over 1,700 yards rushing." Instead, Richardson finished the regular season with 1,583 rushing yards. He scored 23 touchdowns. "Voters weren't blown away," Huston said.
TideSports.com - Richardson named Heisman finalist
"It is a dream to be selected as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy," Richardson said. "There are very few people that can say they were a candidate for the Heisman Trophy and even less that can say they were a finalist. This is a tremendous honor, but one that wouldn't be possible without my teammates, especially my offensive line. As far as I'm concerned this is a team award."
Alabama's Trent Richardson tells Dan Patrick, 'I really was rooting for LSU' | al.com
"I really was rooting for LSU, for real," Richardson told Patrick. "That's the team we want to play, and that's the team we want to see in the national championship." Patrick then asked, "You were seriously rooting for LSU?" "Oh yeah," Richardson said. "That's the team we want to beat, and that's the team we want to play. They beat us, and that's the team we want to get back and have a chance to see again in the national championship."
Robert Griffin III Tops 2011's Final Heismanpundit.com Straw Poll | Heismanpundit
Griffin III heads into Saturday’s Heisman ceremony as the leader in the final Heismanpundit.com Heisman Straw Poll of the 2011 college football season, released on Monday (Dec. 5). Alabama’s Trent Richardson was third with 10 points and 1 first-place vote while appearing on six ballots. He was the leader in last week’s poll but appeared to lose most of his support over the weekend to Griffin III and Wisconsin’s Montee Ball, who was fourth with six points.
Gundy thinks Oklahoma State could beat LSU - Arizona Sports News from USA Today
He threw his support behind a model that would have four teams play in a short-form playoff. "The way to do it, in my opinion, is you take the next game, which one would be LSU versus Stanford and it would be Alabama versus Oklahoma State and that game has to take place in one week, this coming Saturday. We play those games and if you’re the higher ranked team, you get to play at home. … We play that game this week and then we go play the championship game at the same time because, I kind of joke about it, but the championship game’s not basically until March Madness anyway. … People say, ‘Well then the team that’s fifth in the poll will complain.’ But, for the most part, if you’ve gotten into the top four, if you look back over the history of the BCS, people across the country would be OK with it." (ed.- oh, so NOW the Big 12 wants a plus one...)
FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | One Foot Inbounds: Peerless
A Tide win on January 9 would leave a bit of a hollow feeling everywhere outside Tuscaloosa. After all, that would mean LSU will have won in Alabama, and Bama will have won on a neutral field -- albeit one in Louisiana. After this depressing, difficult, groundshaking year of college football, perhaps an ending rife with disquiet is appropriate. But if LSU completes an unbeaten season, the lasting memory of 2011 will be that of a team for the ages.
2011 BCS National-Championship Game: - The Daily Fix - WSJ
As it happens, Oklahoma State no longer has any hope of winning a national title, or at least not the one conferred on the winner of the Bowl Championship Series championship game. Alabama edged Oklahoma State for the No. 2 position in the final BCS rankings, by seven-tenths of a percentage point. That means Bama will get a rematch in the BCS championship game with undefeated LSU. But if just a few voters had treated Oklahoma State more fairly, it could have been the Cowboys who got a chance to unseat LSU for the season-ending No. 1 ranking. All things considered, Alabama probably is the more deserving team. It took two wrongs in the flawed BCS system to get that right.
Losing to Iowa State is worse than losing to LSU. How can you lose to TCU and expect to go? We think Alabama is better. We think the SEC is better. To determine a champion based on what we think might happen is anti-sport. It is more like life. Like Clay said, life is not fair, politics trumps all and life is too often a beauty contest and not a true measure of talent. What he would tell Oklahoma State players and the Boise ones who undoubtedly already know is, it feels OK right now. It will be harder in a year, especially for the seniors. Because for them, there can be no making it right. And it is impossible to answer why the very things sports were supposed to stand for were scrubbed in favor of what makes money by the BCS. No, nothing bad happened to college football Sunday — unless, of course, you count a sport letting down the very people who allow it to thrive a bad thing.
Chris Petersen is done believing the BCS bowl system will take care of Boise State - Dr. Saturday
"Everybody is just very tired of the BCS," Petersen said. "I think that's the bottom line. Everybody is frustrated. Everybody doesn't really know what to do anymore. It doesn't make sense to anybody. I don't think anybody is happy anywhere. "The whole thing needs to be changed, there's no question about it. I think (change) is coming, I really do."
Which bowl game selection upsets you the most?
College football's bowl season is always contentious, but this one seems particularly so. The BCS standings dictated the championship game between LSU and Alabama, but that logic didn't extend to the Sugar Bowl. Here are the four bowl games that seem to have stirred up the most angst.
Missouri Tigers -- Budget cuts played role in switch to Southeastern Conference - ESPN
A decade of declining state funding for the University of Missouri enhanced the appeal of switching conference alignments from the Big 12 to the more financially stable and lucrative Southeastern Conference, the university's chancellor said Monday. The University of Missouri-Columbia plans to join the SEC in July under an arrangement announced with much fanfare last month by university and conference officials. The golden financial opportunities associated with the SEC's powerful football programs were a much-publicized part of the deal. Chancellor Brady Deaton acknowledged Monday that repeated state funding cuts to the university also played a role his decision to make the switch.