College pigskin, week 7

Part 1: Plain old football:

Texas/OU weekend often includes a competitive game being preceded and followed by excessive drinking, but this year Texas fans will drink too much in celebration, and Oklahoma fans will drink too much to drown their sorrows. Oklahoma had a 3-0 lead after the first quarter, but I assume they intended to coast on that lead and benched their starters, thus explaining the fact that #1 Texas then proceeded to score 34 unanswered points.

#3 Oregon got an important “we belong in the Big 10” victory, barely eking out a 32-31 home win over #2 THE Ohio State University. The Ducks have had to provide some credibility for the Pacific Northwest portion of the Pac-10 exiles, given that Washington got destroyed by Iowa, and has already lost to Rutgers. I noticed that Washington has had the same coach all year. Shouldn’t a loss to Rutgers be cause for instant dismissal for a coach in a major program, possibly accompanied by a long period in a public pillory?

#9 Ole Miss lost in overtime to an equally good #13 LSU.

The other top teams survived, but it wasn’t always easy. #4 Penn State and #8 Tennessee needed overtime. #7 Alabama needed a 4th-quarter rally in a game decided by the last play.

The scoreboard

The new rankings.

The new computer ratings

Part 2: Football, as a reflection of life:

Both Army and Navy are undefeated, and are now in the top 25, harking back to their glory days. In both 1944 and 1945, the Army-Navy game pitted the top two teams in the nation. The game, traditionally held in Philadelphia, used to be such a big deal that the railroads set up a temporary passenger station just outside Memorial Stadium, and brought in trains from Annapolis, West Point, and all of the big cities near Philly. It was an impressive sight to see, as depicted in this painting:

If you are interested in the complex logistics of setting up a massive temporary train station, the story is told here:

That era is truly bygone. Passenger trains are no longer the preferred mode of transportation in America, nor even an especially important one, and the game itself is usually of interest only to the cadets and midshipmen. The college football world left the service academies behind. Before this week, Army and Navy had not appeared together in the top 25 in the past 64 years. Their decline started with their height and weight limits, which used to be strictly enforced. Even when those limitations were waived, many athletes have been daunted by their demanding academic standards and the requirement for service after graduation. Many NFL hopefuls simply want to go to schools where their most important priority is to improve at football, and their most difficult courses are Remedial Reading, Introduction to Sports Drinks, and Golf 101.