Tuesday, 14 September 2004
Rivalry Games Should Not Be at the Start of the Season
Every year we hear the people in sports whine about the games being at the beginning of the season. They complain for all of the wrong reasons. They will say that the loser suffers a set back that is hard to recover. They will say that it puts to much pressure on the preseason. They say that the veteran teams have too much advantage. All of that is poppy-cock.
The reason I don't like rivalry games at the beginning of the year is that they are dominated by the team with the best defense. At the start of every college campaign, the offenses are always struggling to find their stride while the defenses have a much easier time with it. This causes two things. Bad games where the offenses look inept and games where scores are closer which means the better team doesn't necessarily win the game.
I love good defensive battles so you might think I am hypocritcal, but lets take a look at two examples from this year. The first is the Floriday St vs Miami game. The defenses for these teams are spectacular. The offenses never had a chance and that led to a boring game. I would much rather see these stellar defenses match up against offenses that are clicking.
The second game was the University of Louisville vs. Kentucky. This game wasalso dominated by the defenses. U of L's high powered offense looked eniemic against an ok UK defense. If this game were played later in the year, the acrobatics would have been impressive. Also it would have given UK a chance to at least score. As it was they looked like an 0-11 team. Both offenses willlook better as the season goes on, but the game lacked something fundamental..
I like watching good teams play at the end of the year for a couple of reasons
- The offense and defense are at the top of thier games and it comesdown to the playmakers
- The underdog has something to play for if the season went south
- The favorite is scared to death of losing which makes rivalrygames tight
