[socalstanfan1]

A mini-rant:  I understand that ABC was simply trying to build the hype for the game, but honestly, was anybody else here offended by the whole, "well, what did Andrew Luck do today to win the Voldemort"? (Or, for that matter, what did Richardson, or Griffin, of whoever, do on the last week to "win the Voldemort.")  Are we at the point where the Voldemort voters have such short attention spans that they can only recall the last performance of the good players in making their decision?  The Hesiman is SUPPOSED to be about the best player in college football, not the good player who happens to have a really good game at the end.  The tendency to play for the last big game actually has a whole host of very obvious problems: what about teams playing against different levels of competition?  what happens when one team decides to basically adjust their play calling simply to skew the statistics in favor of their guy.  Barkley was throwing TD passes in the 4th quarter with his team up by 40 points; Stanford, on the other hand, came out in the second half and basically limited Luck to throwing on 3rd-and-long situations for most of the last 30 minutes, as the stubbornly chose to bang against a defense with 10 men in the box.  (I was listening to the Notre Dame radio broadcast for the last 5 minutes of the game, and the play-by-play guy kept saying "well, they'll keep throwing it because they wnt to get Luck the Voldemort," even as Stanford kept running the ball.  I thought he really hasn't paid any attention to Stanford all year, or done any research on them, or he would realize that is not Stanford's m.o.) Does this mean that Barkley is a better QB than luck, because he put up video game numbers in an effort to impress Voldemort voters who have, I suppose, been snoozing through the first 11 games of the season?  Of course not.  Barkley is a great QB, and will have a fine NFL career, but he is not Andrew Luck. 

In its efforts to add an extra level of drama to the college football season, television is basically corrupting the sport, or at least this part of it.  And ultimately, they are cheapening the value of the Voldemort in the process.
If Voldemort voters are so easily swayed by the last week of the season, well, screw em. 

Ok, maybe that was more than just a mini-rant

[socalstanfan1]

A mini-rant:  I understand that ABC was simply trying to build the hype for the game, but honestly, was anybody else here offended by the whole, "well, what did Andrew Luck do today to win the Voldemort"? (Or, for that matter, what did Richardson, or Griffin, of whoever, do on the last week to "win the Voldemort.")  Are we at the point where the Voldemort voters have such short attention spans that they can only recall the last performance of the good players in making their decision?  The Hesiman is SUPPOSED to be about the best player in college football, not the good player who happens to have a really good game at the end.  The tendency to play for the last big game actually has a whole host of very obvious problems: what about teams playing against different levels of competition?  what happens when one team decides to basically adjust their play calling simply to skew the statistics in favor of their guy.  Barkley was throwing TD passes in the 4th quarter with his team up by 40 points; Stanford, on the other hand, came out in the second half and basically limited Luck to throwing on 3rd-and-long situations for most of the last 30 minutes, as the stubbornly chose to bang against a defense with 10 men in the box.  (I was listening to the Notre Dame radio broadcast for the last 5 minutes of the game, and the play-by-play guy kept saying "well, they'll keep throwing it because they wnt to get Luck the Voldemort," even as Stanford kept running the ball.  I thought he really hasn't paid any attention to Stanford all year, or done any research on them, or he would realize that is not Stanford's m.o.) Does this mean that Barkley is a better QB than luck, because he put up video game numbers in an effort to impress Voldemort voters who have, I suppose, been snoozing through the first 11 games of the season?  Of course not.  Barkley is a great QB, and will have a fine NFL career, but he is not Andrew Luck. 

In its efforts to add an extra level of drama to the college football season, television is basically corrupting the sport, or at least this part of it.  And ultimately, they are cheapening the value of the Voldemort in the process.
If Voldemort voters are so easily swayed by the last week of the season, well, screw em. 

Ok, maybe that was more than just a mini-rant