Seeing Orange

Back after the weekend, a weekend in which winter arrived. A little bit of snow this morning, and I'm seeing reports of more snow coming on Tuesday. Not good. I don't mind the cold weather, but the snow really irks me. Let's hope there isn't too much of it...

Big news of the day was the announcement of the Bowl Championship Series games, in which Penn State was selected to play against Florida State in the FedEx Orange Bowl on January 3rd. Not much of a shocker here after both USC and Texas rolled right over their opponents and locked up what I think will be an excellent national championship game. Florida State pulled a bit of an upset over Virginia Tech, but the media will love having a month to come up with more Joe Paterno/Bobby Bowden stories. Since we can never be completely satisfied, I was hoping for the outside chance of the PSU/Notre Dame matchup, even though I knew it would never occur. I had actually heard a rumor last week that the Fiesta Bowl was going to offer the Orange Bowl millions of dollars to not select Penn State, so they could set up the PSU/Notre Dame matchup in the Fiesta. Of course, that was just a rumor. Regardless, I like the PSU/FSU matchup. Two legendary coaches, two legendary programs...just a shame that Florida State's had a slightly "down year" and yet ends up in a BCS game over a team like Oregon, who ends up 10-1 with their only loss coming to #1 USC. I guess you can make the case that they were the only team who were jipped by the BCS this year. Interestingly enough, the BCS got lucky because the pieces of the puzzle all fell in place: they had their #1 and #2 set for the whole season, and gained some solid matchups in the other 3 games. Of course, all of the critics would have had a field day if there was another situation with 3 undefeated teams, or an undefeated team and a slew of 1 loss teams. Regardless, that wasn't the case this year, and all of the proponents of the playoff system can resume their arguments after January 4th. Any case, definitely looking forward to the Orange Bowl matchup and the rest of the College Football Bowl games.

Now for some commentary from Bobby Hipp, as left in an IM this evening:

Bob: This is bullshit... Why the hell should I be excited to watch Penn State play FSU? They arent even ranked... [Editors note: In today's polls, FSU actually jumped back in #22 in both the AP and USA Today]
Bob: Give me Notre Dame
Bob: or even Ohio State again
Bob: Put that in your blog
Bob: BCS bullshit
Bob: I'd rather just see Paterno and Bowden box it out in the ring
Bob: later
Bob: the wedding article was very nice as well

That Bobby Hipp, always good for some comments...

- In other news, just wanted to give shout-outs to Alison & Reza for hosting a fine holiday party on Saturday evening. Jessica and I ventured out to their place in Long Island, and it didn't disappoint. Look forward to future parties of yours!

- I'm cutting it short this evening in the effort to get to bed at a decent hour. Many of my previous attempts have failed miserably. I may or may not write on Monday night, and that depends on what happens with the Eagles game on Monday Night Football, so we'll see.

Hope the weekend treated every well. Let's hope this week treats us well too.