The End is Near -or- Why I Will Watch the BCS Championship Game Despite Hating Everything About It

[Ed. Note: I did not talk to Graham before he posted his thoughts, and his thoughts are slightly more succinct than mine (although I am sad he did not have a dating analogy). This is a lot longer and definitely free-flowing... Also, I woke up at 5:00 AM to workout and might not have all my wits about me. The upside? More rambling about football. Carry on.]

I have never fancied myself a connoisseur of all that is College Football in that, if I miss a game here and there my life is not over. In fact, I sadly admit that I missed the beauty that was K-State and Oregon - and really more so the fact that Ron MF Cherry had the call of the bowl season - for a night out with some friends my wife and I had not seen in quite some time. I did watch almost all of the Big Ten bowls, however, and I did watch a good portion of "Johnny Football destroys the Sooners" AKA as, "the Cotton Bowl formerly played in the Cotton Bowl but now played in Jerryworld." But I digress...

See, I have almost every excuse tonight to absolutely skip the BCS Championship Game. In fact, if I were to have given you a worst-case scenario poll at the beginning of the season for who would play in this game, I promise that Alabama-Notre Dame would rank up there with Alabama-LSU, Alabama-Arkansas (LOL), and ESS-EEE-SEE SPEEEEEED vs. ESS-EEE-SEE SPEEEEEED!!! In fact, my gut tells me that the Midwest passive aggressive angst would have spilled over into a glut of snark not unlike that of Notre Dame hate day that any attempts at moderation would have been futile. Basically, there are two things we dislike here in Big Ten, and to a lesser extent the former territories of the Big XII North -- the SEC Hype Machine and the Notre Dame Hype Machine. While you could also add in the USC Hype Machine in theory, just the fact that Lane Kiffin is the coach gives almost all of us pause for guffaws and stifled laughter.

Again, I feel like I am getting off subject - which I am - and need to point out that there is a game on tonight that we should at least try and pretend to get excited for. Why? Well, that is simple. Tonight still gives us quite a bit of room for conversation about the season that was, the season to come, and the hope that a meteor might, in fact, hit Sun Life Stadium and by proxy destroy Pitbull and his ranting about parties and good times. Wait, that can't be the reason. Well, if you can't get excited about meteors, how about you get excited about watching one last amazing football game, and by amazing I mean one last game no matter how good or bad it is. Even so, at minimum, at least consider the interesting storylines as they may or may not apply to the B1G.

1) Alabama has the chance to win their third National Championship in Four Years thusly creating a so-called Dynasty by matching Nebraska 1994-1997 run. As a Husker fan, I find this horrifying in the same way that the 1972 Miami Dolphins finds any team going undefeated horrifying. Of course, as a Red-colored Glasses Huskers fan, I am obligated to also point out that this Alabama dynasty is not nearly as dominant as those Huskers teams in that they have not exactly come out of their own schedules unscathed. Also, if you were wondering, I am absolutely rooting for Notre Dame in this game, which leads me to...

2) Notre Dame can reclaim a bit of glory for the North. While the B1G may have been rebuffed time and time again by our friends in South Bend, we still do share territory and tradition with the Fighting Irish. I hate them, but you know what? I also respect the fact that they went undefeated and they did it with a salty defense and an offense that somewhat resembles forward motion. This is apparently the formula of the SEC, but we all know where this comes from first and foremost. Teo is a beast and while I will again be rooting for meteor(s) to rain down from the heavens, I can at least rest assured that Notre Dame can break the cycle. And by cycle, I mean we can talk about the momentary blip on the radar in the media's eye and hype the SEC machine for 2013 -- the year they reclaim their glory. It is worth noting that I have enjoyed every SEC loss this season.

3) The End is Near -- Look, the bottom line is this ends the 2012 season and no matter how horrifying the Big Ten felt this season, any day with College Football is still largely better than any day without College Football. In the next few weeks we will have some recaps, award pieces, and other fun looks backwards and forwards, and hopefully when its all said and done it will feel all better. However, none of that will bring back gamedays and while OTE is now going to carry the torch for basketball [BTW, check out the BASKETBALL HUB and save it for all pertinent basketball articles], it will still be sad to see football gone.

So, in the end there are some legitimate storylines which at least gives a little reason to watch. Earlier Graham talked about the cases for both teams. I'll be honest, I cannot fathom rooting for anything but destruction, but I will be happy if the SEC goes down swinging. Even more interestingly, I have to believe that a close game either way makes for some excellent talking points about how close other conferences are to gaining ground. And maybe - just maybe - we will get our meteor. Either way, I give you something less annoying than Notre Dame-Alabama: Pitbull under an overpass in Miami.

Dr Pepper - Let's Have A Real Good Time, Feat. Pitbull (via omarmex10)