When Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was given the opportunity years ago to host the 2011 college football semi-finals, certainly visions of Florida Gators, maybe even Florida State and Miami, and even further, South Florida and Central Florida, danced in their heads. Certainly a big SEC presence would be expected, because three of the past four years have featured two SEC teams in the semis. Instead, the 2010-2011 reality was that no Florida teams even made the post-season tournament, much less the semi-finals. Yes, Auburn will be there to represent the SEC, but this set of teams features two Pac-10 schools, so not exactly around the corner from Tampa Bay. And Pac-10 fans often don't even want to sojourn around the corner to attend a bowl game. However, the inclusion of Auburn and the always willing to caravan Ohio State Buckeyes will make sure all of the seats are accounted for at Tropicana Field.
This year's Football's Final Four also features:
A star-filled list of quarterbacks: To start off, a little award known as, the Heisman Trophy! Auburn's Cam Newton, winner of the Heisman, will be in the house. Also Stanford's Andrew Luck is the top quarterback NFL prospect in the country. Throw in Terrelle Pryor of Ohio State, one of the most highly recruited players of recent memory. Last but not least, there is Darron Thomas who drives Oregon's scoring machine. All of these quarterbacks playing on the same day in the same stadium, wow, it feels like a college football version of the Yalta Conference.
It's been five long years: During the season prior to the tournament expanding to ten teams, USC and Ohio State were in the 2005-2006 Semi-Finals. That is the last time a Big Ten or Pac-10 team was in the Semi-Finals. And to get there fie years ago, then fourth seed Ohio State won 27-14 over then fifth seed Oregon, their opponent this Saturday.
Sanctions, shmanctions: Maybe Cam Newton, Terrelle Pryor, and his inked Buckeye comrades can have some laughs about those annoying, pesky NCAA investigators and their probing questions. NCAA cleared everybody to play in the post-season, so we can all enjoy a suspension free tourney.
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