and now dodd responds to doofuss...

bulls96go · November 7, 2006

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/9782660

Give Louisville the credit it deserves

Nov. 6, 2006

By Dennis Dodd

CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer

Tell Dennis your opinion!

Freeman: Fairy tales are for losers

Mike Freeman is full of it. Louisville deserves to play in the BC of S championship game. Would it win? Doubtful, but already we're off topic.

That's not really the point. The BCS' sole duty is to supply two teams to play in a winner-take-all title bout. That's it. Everything else is, well, written in your column, Mike, which reminds me. Headline suggestion: Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

Bobby Petrino has built a big-time winner at Louisville. (AP)

This isn't Best Buy, big fella. The BCS doesn't promise name brands only. Legally, it can't.

Something about Congress and antitrust. Everybody gets a chance. What a concept. Almost sounds like -- oh wait, it is -- a playoff. One that begins around Labor Day and holds our rapt attention until the first week of January.

Call me a shill for the commissioners who run this deal, but the BCS has made the regular season more compelling. NBA? Wake me in the fourth quarter of Game 6 of the Finals, maybe we'll talk. Baseball? If you're not cheating, you're not trying.

Besides, The 'Ville is new, huggable, refreshing. Embrace the moment. When is the last time you saw that in your stiflingly corporate NFL?

You have portrayed the Cardinals as some sort of touch football outfit. May I remind you, they aren't exactly Louisiana-Lafayette.

Quarterback Brian Brohm was the No. 1 high school player in the country. His now-injured tailback Michael Bush wasn't far behind. The school has spent enough on facilities to make The Donald blush. The official mascot of the school should be a crane. Not the bird, the mechanical thingie that lifts girders into place.

I don't want to hear about all these SEC "victims". Anthony Michael Hall in Sixteen Candles had an easier time scoring than Florida does now. Auburn got punked by Arkansas -- at home.

The point is, those teams lost, something Louisville has managed to avoid.

Don't even get me started about the non-conference schedules. Louisville has played Miami (ACC), Kansas State (Big 12) and Kentucky (SEC). That's three possible bowl teams (if Miami ever scores again), plus the Big East schedule.

Oh yeah, the Big East. No longer a running joke, Mike. In fact, last week it was the first conference in 35 years to have three undefeated teams heading into November.

You want to talk schedules? Auburn went Charmin soft, essentially building Buffalo and Arkansas State new weight rooms with nice guarantee checks. Florida has I-AA Western Carolina coming up.

Pick your outrages. Jeff Bowden calling plays for daddy? That's an outrage. Louisville not so much.

For real embarrassment you need only go back to 2001. Nebraska lost its last regular-season game by 26 at Colorado, didn't even win its own division in the Big 12 and played for the national championship. In 2003, Oklahoma got drubbed by four touchdowns in the Big 12 title game and retained its spot in the Sugar Bowl.

If Louisville makes it, the Cardinals would be the undefeated champions of a major conference. Hello?

The program has some football equity built up. It has won at least nine games in five of the past six seasons and is about to make it six out of seven. There's a reason the Big East invited the school in. It's big time. Never thought I'd type those three words.

There really are two arguments here. One about football and one about the BCS. You've made your case, as shaky as it might be. But with this system in place, Louisville deserves to be in.

You want to dump on a squad that can't play? Florida State lost five games last year and cashed a $13 million check because it is part of the same BCS. Fair? Pick on Colorado. The Buffs' brave effort in last year's Big 12 championship game somehow kept the score differential under 68 points. Texas 70, Colorado 3. No major-college program should lose that bad. Especially one that has a national championship in its recent past.

Louisville just wants a chance to put that label next to its name.