We’re all frauds. Everyone, everywhere is just pretending to be something they’re not and trying to avoid being exposed for as long as possible. While that may seem like a stretch, no one is more guilty of this than the sports media cohort. We might be the worst — after elected officials, of course. Still, I’ll lightly pat myself on the back for correctly forecasting this season’s win/loss record for the Frogs, as well as having a generally accurate idea of which teams they’d struggle with or prevail against.
Saturday in Cincinnati was — for lack of better description — 55 minutes of boredom. Quarterback Josh Hoover wasn’t sharp, only completing about half his passes for barely more than 200 yards. Hoover’s Bearcat counterpart Brendan Sorsby tossed for 160, and the two signal callers combined for an interception each and no touchdowns. The offense continued to devolve after the Frogs built a 20-7 first-half lead and snow built on the playing surface. Cincinnati scored a touchdown with five minutes left in the game before putting themselves in position for a Hail Mary attempt that was batted down by the Frogs as time expired to secure TCU’s eighth victory of the season in a game where the defense kept them winning comfortably most of the contest.
This game sucked to watch, and it wasn’t how I would’ve suggested any fan — even the Frog faithful — spend their limited screentime this week. It was rivalry week, and the implications, brawls, and otherwise were so much more compelling than the Big 12 throwing the week away for the majority of its teams that could have been playing more meaningful games than Houston at BYU and Texas Tech versus West Virginia. The Big 12’s situation is fairly bleak: Arizona State and Iowa State will meet in Arlington for the conference title on Saturday morning, and the winner will receive an automatic bid to the playoff. Not a single other member has a prayer of being included. Worse, our conference is likely home to the only champion who won’t receive a bye in the first round. The Boise State Broncos of the Mountain West should gobble up that time off.
The game of the past week — and, apparently, the most expensive college football ticket ever — was supposed to be the Longhorns and Aggies dusting off their 13-year hiatus for an epic showdown at Kyle Field. The Aggies dazzled their capacity crowd by scoring zero offensive points in a game the Horns should have won 31-0 but instead won 17-7 thanks to repeated red-zone turnovers by the burnt-orange offense. It was this contest that made it clearer than ever that conferences at large, like the writers and pundits who cover them, are either ignorantly or complicitly biased, none more so than the SEC. The Aggies spent decades not winning the Big 12, as did the Longhorns. Georgia Tech, who is in sixth place in the ACC, took the supposed-to-be-mighty Georgia Bulldogs to eight overtimes. Oklahoma, who won their former conference more than anyone, are having an abysmal-for-them season in the SEC but managed to beat Alabama by 21 points while not allowing a touchdown the previous week.
The misconception is understandable. Conferences used to present a measure of regional pride and tribalism. Even if I want to evaporate Avengers: Infinity War-style while watching videos of Aggie yell practice, the maroon goons still represent Texas football, something I want to be proud of. It was still marketing when groupings represented actual regions of our country, but that cultism has been vanquished by conference expansion. Only teams matter. Conferences don’t and should be discounted as the loose contractual affiliations they are.
Is Coke Zero unequivocally the best soda ever produced? Yes. Should I also proclaim Mr. Pibb better than Dr Pepper because Coca-Cola owns both brands? No, they’re both garbage. This is just a hypothetical. All the teams in the SEC, Big 10, and elsewhere have no more credence because they operate under the same corporate umbrella than anyone else. A team isn’t magically better because they’re in a certain conference, and athletes don’t give a crap about anything but paychecks anymore. Any school in any conference that can secure good coaches and pay talented athletes can compete with anyone. All the rest is just tripe.
Case in point: Every Power Four conference could potentially be won by a team that wasn’t a member the previous year. Texas, Arizona State, SMU, and Oregon are all rookies in their respective groups. Texas won the Big 12 last season, but it was their first title in 14 years, and SMU won the American Athletic Conference last season for their first and only time during their 10 affiliated years. Arizona State hadn’t won the PAC 12 since 2007, and Oregon, who last won the now-defunct conference in 2000, is currently the only unbeaten FBS team (which is no coincidence after Nike founder Phil Knight pledged unlimited funds to the program). No one saw this coming, because we all (at least to a certain degree) believe the conference advertisers feeding us the narrative that their members play a tougher brand of ball, in more intimidating locations, with better athletes, and it just isn’t true. Plus, marginally successful in-state strivers Texas and SMU are looking at first-round byes if they can win against Georgia and Clemson, respectively. Yet the Mustangs absolutely need to win to secure their spot and are playing a de facto playoff game against the Tigers in Charlotte on Saturday. Texas could lose to Georgia a second time and still continue into the postseason regardless.
The Southeastern Conference rode Nick Saban’s khaki-lined zipper for so many years that every seersucker-swaddled Southern sycophant started believing their own hype. When the truth is, those Alabama teams were excellent and fantastically coached and had less to do with the competition they faced and more with a direct corollary to one of the best college coaches to ever walk the sideline. Still, the mystique surrounding what may soon become the NCAA’s only two remaining major football conferences — the SEC and Big 10 — endures, and both groups are poised to advance four conference members each. Both the ACC and Big 12 bid their champions only, while Boise State and Notre Dame round out the new playoff slate.
As for our Frogs, early projections are for TCU to visit the Liberty Bowl in Memphis for the third time in program history, against Florida, Oklahoma, or someone else in the barely bowl-eligible Southeastern crowd. For championship weekend, locals can watch the Big 12 championship, or not, because truthfully no one else in the country — or Texas — really cares about the game except Cyclones and Sun Devils.
The SEC championship will receive the most hype, for all the reasons we’ve discussed, right behind the Big 10, but neither game has significant implications. All four participants are assured another meaningful contest regardless of the outcome.
The Mountain West and ACC are both play-in games. SMU will try and fulfill what seems to be their season of destiny, and Boise State will determine if South Carolina represents a fifth SEC squad in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. Ignore the hype. Watch the games with real chaos factor, and whether you’re pulling for or against the Ponies, that’s a personal decision every North Texan is going to have to make for themselves.
