There’s both good and bad news as we conclude Week 13 of the 2012 season.
The bad? Saturday will serve as the last full schedule of weekend games until the 2013 season kicks off. The good? It’s easily the greatest weekend of football at any level, certainly saving the best for last.
From heated traditional rivalries to games rife with BcS implications -- or both -- the collective plates of college football fans all across the country will be overflowing from the noon kickoff of The Game all the way through the final gun sounding around midnight on a storied West Coast-Midwest rivalry, one that will determine one of the two spots in the BcS championship game.
For all the pomp and circumstance prior to kickoff, the weekend could be relatively quiet BcS-wise come day’s end. If Notre Dame knocks off USC, and Alabama and Georgia take care of business against Auburn and Georgia Tech, respectively, the Fighting Irish will square off against the winner of the Tide/Bulldogs SEC title game for the BcS championship in Miami. If the Golden Domers do stumble, however, all BChaoS will break loose and bring a handful of teams back into the title picture:
Oregon, Kansas State and the winner of the Florida-Florida State would find themselves on some level back in the title talk with an Irish loss. The SEC, in particular, has become a collective Southern fan base for the Trojans in general and Lane Kiffin specifically; if USC topples Notre Dame, and Florida can manage to come out of Tallahassee with a win over FSU, there’s a very solid chance that, for the second straight year, it would be an all-SEC BcS championship game -- the Gators vs. the winner of the conference title game.
Before the anti-SEC outrage commences in earnest, however, there are many steps that need taken and myriad games to play out. From Michigan-Ohio State to Oregon-Oregon State to Alabama-Auburn to Oklahoma-Oklahoma State to Clemson-South Carolina to Mississippi State-Ole Miss and all rivalry points in between, it’s a day to celebrate the greatness of a sport whose leaders have done their best to screw it up.
So, sit back, put fresh batteries in the remote, grab your go-to beverages and bask in the glow of all that’s good about this game.
