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 Friday, December 13, 2002
Arguments abound in Florida
By Brent Musburger
Special to BCSfootball.com
Each week throughout the season, ABC's Brent Musburger provides his insight on events of the coming weekend.
There are three contentious battles being played out before the American public in the state of Florida. It is unbelievable to me that Florida has become the focus of everything this fall, from presidential politics to national championship football teams to Heisman Trophies to the Super Bowl winner being crowned in Tampa on Jan. 28.
Let's leave the Bush-Gore battle for the legislature, the courts and the pundits, and we'll concentrate on the football.
On Saturday, the Heisman Trophy winner will be announced at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York. The winner will either be Chris Weinke of Florida State or Josh Heupel of Oklahoma. Both are deserving of the award, both are fine young men (a relative term in Weinke's case), and both stand very tall. I wound up voting for Heupel only because Oklahoma finished undefeated. I'll be happy for Weinke should he win the trophy, and from what I'm hearing, he has a significant lead in the voting.
My third place vote went to Drew Brees of Purdue because of his long and meritorious service to the Boilermaker program. After all, Brees is taking Purdue to its first Rose Bowl in 34 years. That counts for something.
The one issue that I find laughable is the one concerning Weinke's age. Some people think he should be ineligible because he is 28 years old -- that he is a man playing among boys. Let me just say that if it was so damn easy to play minor league baseball and then come back and lead your school to a national championship in football, then why has no one else ever done it?
In an era where many scribes are screaming about athletes not getting their degrees, it's refreshing to have someone like Weinke come back to school, earn a degree and lead his team to one, perhaps two, national championships.
Heupel, on the other hand, did a magnificent job of helping coach Bob Stoops lift Oklahoma's football program from the ashes. The OU run this fall has been the preeminent story of college football, and it says here that Heupel is the No. 1 reason why it happened.
And now, the battle over who deserves to play in the BCS bowls.
|  | | Chris Weinke has Florida State in position for its second straight national championship. |
As long as numbers are important, I have no quarrel with the eight computers ranking college football teams, and five of the eight say Florida State is the best team in the country. I will offer as evidence the fact that the Seminoles are 11-point favorites over the unbeaten Sooners in the FedEx Orange Bowl.
Clearly, the BCS computers reflected the power rankings, which are used by oddsmakers in Nevada, London, and the various Caribbean islands where it is legal to wager on a football game. Oddsmakers do not pick numbers out of thin air. Their livelihoods, not to mention their bank accounts, depend on it.
I suppose you could make the argument that Florida State and Miami are the two best teams in the game, but you cannot, under any circumstances, ignore an unbeaten Oklahoma team. The Sooners must be given a shot to win the title.
So Miami will be left to state its case on the night of Jan. 2 in the Nokia Sugar Bowl against Florida. Good stage, good opponent, and the Hurricanes will be given every opportunity to win the Associated Press title. I have no idea how this one will play out, but I expect to see a very determined and focused Miami team on the field in New Orleans.
For those of you who just have to have a tournament in college football, there's always Division I-AA. The two interesting semifinal games this weekend match Georgia Southern at Delaware, and Appalachian State at Montana. The winners will meet for that championship the following weekend in Chattanooga, Tenn. A tournament to determine a champion -- what a novel idea.
But that would rob us of all the fun we're having arguing down here in Florida about who should be the President and who should be No. 1 in college football.
Since I've been glued to the television set watching the Presidential argument the last few weeks, I've come away with the opinion that Americans really do love arguments.
So play the games and let the debates rage.
Brent Musburger is a play-by-play announcer for ABC's coverage of college football, and is a regular contributor to BCSfootball.com.
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