Two weeks ago, three friends and I ventured up to the Big House to watch Ball State University play Michigan in football, to see the Big House for the first time and hopefully to see our Cards not get totally embarrassed.
We left with our heads held high after Ball State played quite possibly the most thrilling game it has ever played in. You all know it by now, but the Cards were two yards from possibly tying the mighty Wolverines, sending the game to overtime and, if they'd managed to pull the upset, completely throwing the Bowl Championship Series into chaos.
Two yards. That's six feet. Which is four inches less than my height.
It's been that kind of season all around the nation - a reality we saw in action last week.
Of eight one-loss teams with a legitimate claim to play in the national title game on Jan. 8, half of them went down, and a fifth almost had their dreams ended also.
Auburn, ranked sixth in the BCS rankings, which determine the title-game participants, was absolutely clobbered at home by Georgia. The Bulldogs had lost to the mighty Kentucky Wildcats the week before.
Louisville, ranked third in the BCS, blew a 25-7 lead, committed an awful offsides penalty that offered a second chance at the game-winning field goal, and lost to undefeated Rutgers. "Undefeated Rutgers," by the way, is, incredibly, not a typo.
Texas, ranked fifth in the BCS, gave up a 21-point spurt in the span of a few minutes, enough to lose to Kansas State, a team that has a loss to Baylor on its resume.
California, ranked eighth in the BCS, saw its hopes fade when Arizona came back and won, catching the Bears napping with a showdown with USC looming the following week.
Florida, ranked fourth in the BCS, needed to block three kicks in a row to save its chances against South Carolina.
Some would think that this chaos is good for the game because it will result in the current championship system being changed, but I completely disagree. I think it's good for the game even if it does not change a thing.
Is it any wonder college football's popularity is at an all-time high? The two best programs in history, statistically, are both in the title race in Michigan and Notre Dame. Other prominent teams, like Ohio State and USC, are also right in the thick of things. The season boasts the best story possibly in college football history, as Rutgers, a team that hadn't played a meaningful game since it played the first one back in 1867, is undefeated with only one major test - West Virginia - remaining.
Even more amazingly, sports fan chatter in the area, for the first time in my memory, focuses more on the college game than on the NFL. That's an especially incredible feat since the Colts are once again trying for an undefeated season.
The 2006 season illustrates the point of this column better than probably any season in history: the more teams involved, the more chaos created, the more people talk, the better it is for college football.
Maybe next time, Ball State can be directly involved, as opposed to the bit player that it is in this year's wackiness.
Andy Roberts is a junior telecommunications major and writes 'Who, Me?' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Andy at ndistops@hotmail.com.
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