Pac=10 Co-Champion = trip to Holiday Bowl

So here's my rant:

• ASU is co-champions of the Pac-10. They are co-champs of what could arguably be the 2nd or 3rd toughest conference in college football. If Oregon has a healthy Dennis Dixon, I'd say we're tied with the Big-12 for 2nd.
  
• Hawaii - congrats on going undefeated with your 137th ranked strength-of-schedule (according to Sagarin.) Spare me the whining about how no good non-conference teams want to come and play you. I hope you guys go to the Orange Bowl and thump Kansas (89th-ranked schedule) but you'll have to do better than you did against the LAST PLACE team in the Pac-10. ASU's strength of schedule according to Sagarin's computer model - 29th.
  
• West Virginia - a 28-point favorite against Pitt loses, costs itself a spot in the National Championship and because of the stupid BCS conference tie-ins, the Fiesta Bowl is forced to take them.
  
• Speaking of conference tie-ins - the Rose Bowl people should be ashamed of themselves. Congrats on picking a team with three losses who will get thumped by USC, maybe even worse than ASU did. Here you have the flexibility to set up a great match-up with another, more deserving team like maybe West Virginia, but you feel compelled to keep that Pac-10 vs. Big 10 tradition alive. Get over Rose Bowl committee, Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler don't coach in the Big-10 anymore. The Big-10 is awful and overrated.
  
• It's a complete travesty that Ohio State is playing for the national championship .... again.
• Then again, had the Devils taken care of business in just one of the games against Oregon or USC, then all of the above are moot points. Sigh.
  

Living in the Austin area, I get Longhorn football shoved down my throat pretty consistently. I accept it, it's part of being a sports fan in the home of the biggest university in Texas. It doesn't mean I have to like it however.

This is where I see a silver lining in all of this. My bitterness about ASU not playing in a BCS game is somewhat off-set by the fact that ASU will take on the Longhorns in San Diego. If ASU wins this game (and there's no reason they shouldn't) I get to throw this in the face of my fellow co-workers, neighbors, parishioners and anyone else who rides the burnt orange bandwagon for the next year.

My note on last night's win over Tucson is simply this: Chris McGaha is a freaking stud. It's a shame the guy hasn't scored a TD yet this year.