With the FedEx BcS National Title Game being played Thursday night in Miami between Oklahoma and Florida, I thought that I would offer the obligatory word or two about the upcoming game.  Since I am a college football blogger, I am supposed to talk about these things.  So, I thought I would title the post, “Passing the Crystal Ball.”  You know that piece of “hardware” they give to the winner of the so-called national championship game.  Of course, the crystal trophy may be in short supply.

Oklahoma and Florida passed whatever test that voters use these days to choose numbers 1 and 2 in the BCS and get the rip to Miami to see who should be ranked number 1.  I seems that voters don’t really know who they are voting for or have any real standards.  Consider this from Dan Wetzel

“The BCS has no set rationale for how or why a school should be ranked – is it record, strength of schedule, whom it beat, whom it lost to, how it won, how it lost? The decision is up to each voter.”

Huh?  No real standards.  Surely that is how they do it in Division I basketball.  Well, the committee who selects the 64 team tournament has a lot of work to do, and they don’t rely on the voters.  Here is more from Wetzel.

“In contrast, the 10-member NCAA men’s basketball selection committee meets throughout the season to compare notes and stay on top of hot teams. It demands comprehensive scouting, sets common criteria and even asks committee members to get out and see teams in person. Then they all meet and hash it out.”

There you have it, it is simply a beauty pageant (check out my comments).  Sure, the computers have something to do with it, but when voters don’t have standards and a full time job, they simply don’t watch teams such as Utah play games until the bowl season.  They are relying on Sportscenter, Sports Illustrated, ABC or CBS for all of their input.  These great media outlets are going to “hype” the teams they cover.

Now that I have gotten beyond my rant, let’s move on to the game.  This game will feature two of the most explosive in modern history.  Florida runs a spread offense, but it is an Urban Meyer specific.  Now, Chris at Smart Football says it is not innovative because he employs concepts and elements that existed before Meyer started using them.  That is true, but the

meshing together of the concepts and the extreme flexibility of Meyer’s offense makes it explosive.  He has merged a myriad of spread concepts making his offense difficult to defend, particularly when you consider the speed and talent on the field.

Oklahoma has set a record for points scored this year.  Much of that can be attributed to the move to a hurry-up, no-huddle offense.  The Sooners seem to score 21 points on every opponent in the first quarter.  They get teams in a hole, and they “pin their ears back” defensively the rest of the game.  The Sooner offense really took off later in the season when running back DeMarco Murray began to feel more comfortable with his knee after an injury last year.

In general, teams win when they can run the football and stop the run with only a rare exception (see Sugar Bowl, Utah).  That should play in Florida’s favor.  They have all of their rushing weapons available, but Oklahoma will

have to without DeMarco Murray.   On the flip side, Florida will have speedy receiver Percy Harvin for the national title game.   What’s more, OU will have to stop Tebow and Company without 315 pound DT  DeMarcus Granger who had back surgery.

Oklahoma still has the passing game, and that should keep the game interesting.  Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford has had few problems staying upright this year as he had a fanatastic year.  But, as in the Texas and TCU games, a pass rush can give him enough problems to be almost average.  You can bet that Florida Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong has studied those games closely.  My pick is Florida.  Let’s see how it turns out.