Unless you had a rooting interest in the Oklahoma Sooners, the Fiesta Bowl was the most exciting game of the 2006-07 bowl season.
The game offered spectacular plays, trick plays, comebacks, and overtime — all capped by a classic upset winner, Boise State.
Because of how that game played out, the Hawaii-Georgia Sugar Bowl is one of the most anticipated bowls of this post-season. Like Boise State vs. Oklahoma, it matches an exciting, high-scoring non-BCS team against a longstanding member of the college football establishment.
It’s a fun game. It’s not a fair game.
Sure, I like seeing a non-mainland, non-mainstream football program take on one of the powers that be. But I don’t like seeing a team that played a difficult schedule in a strong conference lose a major bowl bid to a school that played a schedule as light as Hawaii’s.
Take Arizona State, for example. It plays in the Pac-10, which was probably the second-toughest conference (behind the SEC) this season. The Sun Devils went 10-2, losing only to Southern Cal and Oregon, which still had a healthy Dennis Dixon at quarterback when it beat Arizona State. They were 4-2 against bowl teams.
They have two other victories which must leave them wondering how in the world of big-time college football is Hawaii playing in a BCS bowl.
Arizona State beat San Jose State 45-3 in the season opener. Hawaii beat San Jose State in overtime.
Arizona State beat Washington 44-20. Hawaii avoided an overtime against Washington when a Huskies receiver dropped a pass in the end zone with 22 seconds to play.
Granted, you can prove almost anything by comparative scores. But I watched five Hawaii games, including four against Western Athletic Conference teams, and twice that many Pac-10 games. Comparing the WAC to the Pac-10 this season is akin to comparing Conference USA to the SEC.
Anything can happen in one game, so I wouldn’t rule out Hawaii upsetting Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. But there’s a huge difference in one game and a conference season’s worth of games.
Washington was 2-7 in the Pac-10, but it almost beat Hawaii and did beat Boise State — the second-best team in the WAC — by two touchdowns. If Washington and Hawaii had traded places, my guess is the Huskies would have won the WAC, and the Warriors wouldn’t have finished in the top half of the Pac-10.
I’m not anti-WAC. I ranked Fresno State in the top five after it beat Colorado, Oregon State and Wisconsin early in the 2001 season. I also was impressed when Boise State opened its unbeaten 2006 season with a 42-14 victory over Oregon State, which finished 10-4.
I’m not asking for a lot. If you go unbeaten and beat one nationally ranked team from a BCS conference, that’s worth plenty. Or do what Division I-AA Appalachian State did. Go to Ann Arbor and beat an overrated Michigan team.
Hawaii doesn’t have a single marquee victory. And a team with no more quality wins than the Warriors shouldn’t be bumping Arizona State from a BCS bowl.
Nonetheless, I’m still looking forward to Hawaii vs. Georgia. I’ll worry about resolving my hypocrisy after the game.
Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.
UT's new $45 million football…
Images from Larry Murphy's book on…
Smokey undergoes physical therapy at UT
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 12
LargeOrange writes:
Ok, John, I agree with you, you are a hypocrite, and not just on this subject, and I can't wait for your "resolving" that. To me, Hawaii making a BCS bowl makes more sense that Ohio St. playing in the BCS championship game. OSU played only 2 BCS ranked teams, and lost to one of them (Illinois #13). OSU's only "marquee" win was, against Wisconsin, #18. These two teams were the only two teams that Ohio St. even played with a winning record in their respective, and IMO weak, conferences. Look at who they beat: (3-3) Youngstown St. the 3rd ranked team in the IAA Gateway Conf, The 10th ranked team (3-5) Akron in the Mid-American Conf., the 2-7, Washington, 10th and last in the PAC 10, 2-7 N. Western 10th in the b-10, 0-8 Minn. 11th in the b10 (how do you finish 11th in the b10?). Purdue 3-5 and 8th in b10, Kent State 1-7 in the Mid American Conf., Mich St. 3-5 in the b10, Penn St. 4-4, and the BIG WIN, Wisconsin 5-3, then a loss at home to Illinois 13th in BCS, finishing with an unranked Michigan (I don't even have to mention Appy St, here). How OSU could be considered the #1 team in the country is beyond me. They played 12 games against a combined conference record of 38-58 including one Div 1AA and two teams at the bottom of the Mid American Conf, they only played 2 ranked teams and lost one of those. That this team is ranked #1 is a joke and much more ridiculous than an undefeated Hawaii team playing in the Sugar Bowl. Hopefully both UH and OSU will lose to their SEC opponents, as they should, and we can all complain about not having a true playoff system, again, until the pre-season 2008 polls come out with OSU ranked in the top 5, again.
LargeOrange writes:
OTOH, John, you are spot on about the Fiesta Bowl last year, I watched that game in my Tampa hotel room still severely ticked off about the UT gift to PSU earlier in the day, and to watch Boise St. in that game, made me forget for a couple of hours the misery I felt earlier in the day. What a game, and what a finish, I will never forget it, as much as I wish I could forget watching the UT-PSU melt down. This year, I would much rather watch a GA/UH bowl game, while celebrating a win over the only team Ohio St. beat all year! Go BIG ORANGE!!!
koamalina writes:
How did Hawai'i make it to the Sugar Bowl? It's called a perfect season, so deal with it.
All bowl games, including LSU-OSU, are just for fun. Without a playoff the bowl games prove nothing. If Hawai'i should win, they should get the AP national championship. They will have earned it, and maybe it would be enough to get the NCAA to realize that I-A deserves a playoff.
gohawks1 writes:
We'll see how perfect that season is after your upcoming bowl game, koamalina. If you can pull off a win against GA, then you'll earn my respect. I don't see that happening, though. The SEC isn't the WAC. The bottom dwellers of the SEC could play a WAC schedule and win the division.
I'll give you this, though - Colt Brennan is a great QB, and he'll be playing on Sundays very soon.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
I,m sure I didn't earn enuf brownie points with the Lord to will Hawaii to upset the Dawgs. This may be exciting for a half. Colt B will have to take the Ainge approach. Take the snap from center and throw in the same motion. If not, he could get smashed. 450 yds between the 20's will not win this game.
However, Boise St showed last year that pigs can fly, they just don't do it very often. Rainbows, huh.
hijinx writes:
Uh, I think maybe everyone else but you remembers that Hawaii beat Arizona State handily in the Hawaii Bowl last year 41-24. Also, maybe you should do a little more research before crticizing Hawaii's schedule. Hawaii offered to play Michigan IN Michigan to fill our schedule - they declined and played App. State instead - that worked well for them. Also, Michigan State paid us $250,000 to break the contract they signed to play Hawaii this year. Don't criticize Hawaii's schedule when no one would play us here OR AWAY. Florida agreed to play us next year in Florida - yet they did not offer to come here the year after (even without Colt), yeah Big bad SEC scared of coming to little ol' Hawaii. Let's see the SEC come out of the Southeast sometimes. Their excuse, they have nothing to gain coming here (but EVERYTHING to lose even if they won't admit it). LAME, more lame than criticising Hawaii for winning a perfect season - playing the only teams that would challenge them this year. If Hawaii wins, I expect to see a whole article about how wrong you were.
gohawks1 writes:
If Hawaii whips GA, come on back and remind me how wrong I was and I'll be the first to eat crow! I just don't think it's going to happen. Regardless of who you "tried" to schedule, the teams you ended up playing aren't SEC caliber. I'm not knocking Hawaii, I'm just saying that some of the other conferences are much stronger than the WAC.
But you never know with Brennan at QB. We'll see.... Good luck in the Sugar Bowl!
billsmith writes:
The real joke is on the big conferences that refused to play Hawaii during the regular season. Maybe John Adams should read this article, http://collegefootball.rivals.com/con.... I remember reading at several places in July that Hawaii could not get big schools to play them. Instead, teams like Tennessee played Louisiana Lafayette and Arkansas State. Real powerhouses.
SpringCityVol writes:
I couldn't get anyone to play me this year either so I guess technically I'm undefeated. Should I get a shot at the Sugar Bowl too? And to all those Warrior fans out there I see wearing your Buck the Fulldogs shirts around Oahu, be careful UGA ain't no poi dog...that dog'll bite.
Colliervol writes:
I'll tell you how Hawaii made the Sugar Bowl. It's because those two extra slots were added to prevent the mid-majors from suing the NCAA and the BCS. No more, no less. That and the Sugar Bowl had the last pick and that's who they ended up with. I expect it to be an interesting game for awhile but the key will be Moreno and the GA running game keeping Hawaii off the field for long stretches of time. Moreno rushes for 200 yards and the Dogs win by 17.
Also, you can leave Tennessee out of that argument about not playing people. Year in and year out, UT plays a good non-conference schedule. (Can't say that much for Bama, Auburn or Arkansas but we can defend UT's schedule easily.) Can't play an SEC schedule and four tough non-conference games. That's not realistic.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
True-Collierville. I'm not sure, but I don't believe that Ga has traveled out of the South in bu-coup years. Dooley never would consider it after I believe there was a tie with Michigan in the 60s. It is incredible how Ga selects it non-conf opponents.
Believe Ga wins by more than 17.
tnbuco#393180 writes:
The only GA fan that I know has been moaning for weeks about UGA having to play a team "That is below them" when they should be in the Rose Bowl instead. If that is a widespread attitude then UGA fans might want to talk to OU fans about how that attitude works out.
Keep in mind that UT and everyone else in the SEC routinely refuse to play mid level teams on the road because there is no benifit. I believe that the last SEC team to play Hawaii got whipped!
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.