JUST WHO IS THE TRUE CHAMPION? GAMEDAY BREAKS IT ALL DOWN RIGHT NOW

Just because the college football season is over doesn’t mean the rivalries, arguments and disagreements have cooled off. In fact, all of those things have only intensified, especially in the Carroll Battle for college football supremacy. As everyone knows by now, with Florida’s 10-point victory over Oklahoma last night, both Craig and I finished with identical 65-61-2 records over the entire season. And just as Florida, Utah, Texas and USC say they should be the No. 1 team in the nation (vote now!), both of us are trying to make a case for winning this season’s crown. Needless to say, voices have been raised and theories have been put forth.

“In all of sports, there are tiebreakers,” Craig said in an exclusive interview. “So, in this case, the tiebreaker should be either the champion from a year ago keeps the crown or your bowl record. The latter is actually the most legitimate tiebreaker there is.”

My argument against that is simple: to use a tiebreaker to determine a season’s champion, then the tiebreaker should be set up beforehand. In this case, it wasn’t. So, I don’t think using bowl records is a cut-and-dry reason to give the title to Craig. I actually brought up the fact that if you wanted to break the tie, it should go by our Heisman Trophy picks. He went with Tim Tebow of Florida, while I went with winner Sam Bradford of Oklahoma. Of course, he disagrees.

“The Heisman Trophy voting has nothing to do with picking college games,” he said. “If you go by that, you’re going by all these voters who didn’t have the guts to vote for Utah in the AP Poll. The Heisman scenario is ridiculous.”

“You blew your chance at the title,” Craig continued about GameDay. “That is the bottom line. If I blew a six-game lead with six to play, I would accept it. Technically it’s a tie, but the Patriots and Dolphins both finished 11-5 but the Patriots went home and the Dolphins played. That’s the way it is.”

Of course, the championship should have never come down to any arguing at all. There is absolutely no way that I could have or should have lost a seemingly insurmountable lead. With six bowl games to play, I had a six-game lead over Craig in the standings. Victory was already a foregone conclusion. Then came loss after loss after loss after loss and before you knew it Florida was hoisting the championship trophy and Craig was calling to say he had won the Carroll Battle championship. What went wrong? Well, everyone has already seen what I have to say, so I’ll let Craig give you his thoughts on the collapse.

“Obviously I didn’t think the collapse would happen,” he told me. “Looking back at the Mets collapsing two years in a row, and the Jets this year, I say you’d have to put yourself at the top of that list. You only had to be right on one game, but you blew it. It is a monumental collapse that will stick with you for years to come.

“For me coming back, once Utah beat Alabama, I knew I had a shot. The one game that I was nervous about was Ball State and Tulsa, but that worked out as well. I didn’t get lucky. You made questionable calls down the stretch. You thought there was no way you could lose this title and you got cocky. You went with who you wanted to win instead of who you thought would win. Why else would you take Buffalo over UConn? In the national championship game, I can’t see you thinking Oklahoma would win the game. So, you went with who you wanted to win because you wanted to cheer for those teams. Actually, thank God the Utah-Alabama game was in the second-to-last column, as you would have gone with Utah because you wanted them to win. You basically put out a bad product out because you weren’t handicapping, you were rooting. You wanted to bag on Connecticut. You wanted Oklahoma to win.”

While Craig may have a point, I don’t think I made a pick that went against my thinking. I really did think Oklahoma had a legitimate shot at beating Florida. After watching the Big 12 play horribly in the bowl games, however, I did think it would have been a big upset if the Sooners did win. But, by then, the pick was made, so I couldn’t change it. I actually still wouldn’t have changed it. And Oklahoma could have easily won that game. For UConn-Buffalo, I may have fell in love with the feel-good story of the Bulls and their unlikely ride to a January bowl game. Unfortunately, like anyone, I fall into a trap of believing in a team’s destiny (Kansas last year and Texas Tech this year). Sometimes it works out (Kansas) and other times it blows up in your face (Texas Tech). So, I made my picks with my head and heart, as always, so I don’t think you got a bad product. (Anyway, that is why I put another person’s picks on the board … to give you a second opinion.)

“It’s been a rough season,” Craig said, “especially in the beginning where a bunch of teams that were supposed to be good, weren’t. Nobody thought Michigan would be so bad. Nobody thought Ole Miss would beat Florida. But when all was said and done, and we got to the bowl games and knew what teams stood out among the others that is where I made my move. There are no ties in picking college games.”

So, who is the 2008-09 Carroll Battle Champion?

“I think I am the true champion because I came back from six games down with six to play. I had the better bowl record. I am the champion. I am still the champion – back-to-back.”

My take on it isn’t as simple, as you know. But I guess I get to make the final call since this blog is called Brad Carroll’s GameDay. First, I wholeheartedly agree that the trophy remains in the Craig camp for another year. So, for this year, I guess it comes down to either handing out a split-championship or giving the title to Craig for his better bowl record. Craig makes an excellent argument, but I’m leaning toward a split-championship. It only makes sense. Next year, we’ll set up the tiebreaker system to have one and only champion, but for this year, it’s a split. Unofficially, I would say Craig is the champion for this season, but a tie is a tie. Craig wins back-to-back titles and even though I end up with a piece of this year’s crown, it sure feels like a loss. And that’s what it’s all about. Let the arguing continue!

(AP photo, top, Florida celebrates its national championship victory over Oklahoma. Middle photo, Oklahoma's Mike Balogun (10) sits on the bench during the fourth quarter of the BCS Championship. Bottom photo, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow celebrates.)