Sunday, January 18, 2015

The best and worst games of the year in college football

Sports Illustrated does a tremendous job of compiling their list of the 25 best and ten worst games of the FBS season (thereby excluding Savannah State, Davidson, Columbia, and other infamous 1-AA programs from the latter list, mercifully).

In the top 25, the obvious winner is indeed the most pivotal game of the regular season: Baylor 61, TCU 58, although the national championship game and both semifinals made the list as well. Some of my favorite games of the season show up as well, like the East Carolina unrealistically surprising conference championship over UCF, the WILD Western Kentucky/Central Michigan Bahamas Bowl (and WKU's 67-66 upset of Marshall), the Cal/Wazzu statistical menagerie, Arizona's Hail Mary over Cal and Arizona State's over USC, and Michigan State's comeback over Baylor

Meanwhile, there's also no argument with the "winner" of the Bottom Ten, a game I was "blessed" to have seen all five quarters of: Wake Forest 6, Virginia Tech 3. Somehow, the only team that defeated the eventual national champions (IN COLUMBUS, no less) also lost to the worst-ranked Power Five conference team in the country. An impressive double, Hokies! The list also includes both of Florida's most horrific performances, the Arkansas demolition of Texas in the bowl game where only one team showed up; the Georgia Tech rout of Pitt where the Panthers gave up five fumbles in their first thirteen plays; and the ridiculous Michigan/Northwestern game in which the rain added to the pathetic showing.

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