Mid-Season Winners & Loooooosers

It’s the half way point of the season so let’s talk about some winners and losers. Feel free to post your own thoughts in the comments section.

Winners: Although I’m definitely not a fan of the parade of “alternate” uniforms bombarding college football, some of the new designs are pretty snappy. Vanderbilt, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Illinois look pretty good in the new gear.

Losers: Some of these are just terrible. Nebraska, Missouri, Notre Dame’s helmets and a majority of Oregon’s 384 designs.

Winners: The SEC. Four teams in the Top 10 and seven in the Top 25.

Losers: The BIG TEN. No teams ranked in the Coaches top 25 and the best two teams, Ohio State and Penn State are on probation.

Winners: Offensive Football. In 2003, only 2 teams averaged 500 yards or more of total offense per game. 39 teams averaged 400 yards or more. In 2012, a staggering 18 teams are averaging 500 yards or more of total offense per game while 69 teams are averaging 400 yards or more.

Losers: Defensive Coordinators trying to keep up with these high powered offensive units. (Excluding anyone that plays LSU and its anemic offense)

Winners: Group Think. All 60 AP voters selected Alabama as #1.

Losers: Independent Thought. Alabama has beaten five teams with a combined record of 13-14. You mean to tell me that among the 60 voters NOT ONE thinks Oregon, South Carolina, Florida or West Virginia, all undefeated, would beat Alabama on a neutral site? NOT ONE?

Winners: The internet, blogs, social media and TV. The more sports info out there the better.

Losers: Coaches bullying the media to push their own agenda. Just shut up and coach and stop reading the paper if you don’t like what is being said. Yes, I’m talking to YOU, YOU and YOU.

Winners: Upsets!! Stanford over USC, Washington over Stanford, NC State over FSU, Central Michigan over Iowa.

Losers: Terrible non-conference schedules suck the life out of September. Top 25 match-ups in September were like unicorns.  Of the current Top 25 teams, there were only two non-conference match-ups; Michigan v. Alabama and Michigan v. Notre Dame.  Even when you add the "others receiving votes" to the mix, (41 teams received at least one vote) there were only 7 non-conference match-ups total between the top 41 teams in the country.