Movin' to Miami, gonna eat a lot of ORANGES

Apparently, not very many people agree with Tim and me that Kansas deserves a shot at a national title. Well, Howard Schellenberger, Florida Atlantic's head coach, voted Kansas second. You may remember Schellenberger from his bizarre one year stint at Oklahoma in the 90s (when OU stunk - that was weird wasn't it?), but he also built the Louisville and Miami football programs, which is a good thing I guess.

I'm not angry about KU not playing for a title; the point wasn't that KU was one of the two best teams, but that the system is arbitrary and stupid, and that everyone would love to have a playoff. I give up though, this is what we have. KU has smart people that know how the game is played, and they can schedule with the BCS in mind. Next year, KU goes to South Florida in September, and will play Texas and Oklahoma. That's plenty, now they just have to win all those games.

But the system is stupid right? Last night the Patriots pulled out a late win to clinch a place in the "Super" Bowl, likely against Dallas. Other potential match-ups are the Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers, which would showcase two of the better quarterbacks in the league; the San Diego Chargers have grabbed control of the AFC West and will likely face the Seahawks, though a game with a fellow AFC team like the Jaguars is possible. See how stupid that would be? Oh well.

KU got a great deal. The Jayhawks are going to the Orange Bowl, a game that means a ton to its fanbase, is played in primetime all by itself on January 3rd, and is in fabulously warm Miami. One of my first memories of KU football was at an ESPN Thursday night game against Cal back in 1992. When KU scored early in the game, oranges flew out of the stands and onto the field, as (very optimistic) KU fans were hoping for a Big 8 championship and the automatic trip to the Orange Bowl (KU finished 8-4 winning the Aloha Bowl, the only bowl Glen Mason was allowed to attend for some reason). For some reason, the Big 12 champ now goes to the Fiesta Bowl, and the ACC champ goes to Miami. Nothing is sacred.

I know Mizzou fans are screaming (more than usual at least) that KU completely benefited from this "screwed up" system. I have seen Mizzou fans posting on the Miami Herald website, on Virginia Tech football message boards, the Kansas City Star, and of course their own and KU message boards. They're all screaming about KU's fraudulent selection to the Orange Bowl. You guys are retarded. Mizzou's beef isn't with Kansas (any more than usual at least), who at 11-1 deserves to be in. Your beef is with the stupid BCS, just like everyone else. Illinois is in the Rose Bowl, and MU beat them head-to-head. Yes, MU also beat KU, but Illinois has 3 losses! Three! They're Texas Tech with a win over an overrated Ohio State (but I repeat myself). West Virginia is the biggest bunch of chokers in the world, why are they in over Mizzou? Winning the the Big East gets an automatic bid? Why, because they beat UConn and Rutgers?

Besides, once you steal an election in Kansas that determines whether or not that state will allow people to own other people, which then leads to several years of bloodshed in that state, as well as a massive war throughout the continent, you have to wait at least 200 years before bitching about your football team being shafted by Kansas. So, come back in 2070 Mizzou fans.

Why did the Orange Bowl select Kansas? I don't know. Why did Robert E. Lee abandon his brilliant defensive war at Gettysburg and send a massive frontal assault across a mile of open ground against a superior Union force that had the high ground? Why did Hitler invade Russia knowing that Napoleon tried the same thing, and despite being the most brilliant military mind in Europe, had his French Army utterly destroyed? Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor when the key to the US Navy, its aircraft carriers, were safe and out at sea? I don't know why these things happen, I'm just grateful that things worked out for the best.

I'm tired of Mizzou though. It's as if KU fans are obsessed with Mizzou, without regard for their own team, and vice versa (hahaha my blog is called Missouri Sucks I'm obsessed hahahah). KU is going to a great bowl. Mangino gets a month with his team, which is just gold. They have a great chance to build huge momentum to take into spring practice and into next year. With the Border War game at Arrowhead, and a huge game with #3 Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, KU will have gained a ton of experience in playing big games at neutral sites in front of a nationwide television audience.

I watched Mangino's television show last week, after the Mizzou game, and came away feeling great about the team. Mangino was clearly not happy. He's not sitting on 11-1. He's scheming about how to beat Mizzou. It has to kill him that he's lost the big game two years in a row. He repeated a few times that KU just wasn't able to get pressure on Chase Daniel, which killed KU. He knows he doesn't have the defensive line that he needs, and I bet he fixes that by next year.

So we have a month until the game. We'll look at Virginia Tech, we'll look at the past season, and probably some recruiting. There's also some basketball going on I think, so maybe we'll cover that as well.