TCU to the Rose Bowl

I haven't mentioned the Rose Bowl yet, but it's been about a week since TCU was formally invited to the "Granddaddy of Them All."

Am I upset that the Frogs didn't go to the National Title game? No, I'm not. People have said that TCU has done everything they were asked to do and still didn't get in. That, starting as high as they did, that this should have been the year for a non-BCS team to get in. That, in the absence of Florida and Alabama and Texas and Oklahoma and LSU and Michigan and Ohio State...this was the year to get it done.

But an SEC team was undefeated. A Pac-10 team was undefeated. And, in college football, that means that an SEC team is going to play a Pac-10 team in the championship. And I understand that.

If Auburn was 12-1, I might be upset. If Oregon was 11-1, I would definitely be upset. But two teams played in "bigger" conferences and did the same thing TCU did, and I think they deserved to go. I watched a lot of Oregon and Auburn in the last few weeks (for obvious reasons), and I think they're both good teams. The title game should be good.

The Rose Bowl will be very interesting. Wisconsin fans are basically declaring the game a blowout before it even begins, even though TCU is actually favored in the game. Wisconsin ran through their entire schedule, scoring a ridiculous amount of points in a few of their games. They also gave up a lot of points.

Two things to think about.

1. Wisconsin's Run Game vs. TCU's Defense - TCU will face, by far, their biggest challenge as far as a run game goes. The Badgers will run the ball until it hurts, and then they'll run it about 50 more times. At the same time, TCU will be the best defense that Wisconsin has faced, and they almost never allow people to run on them. A lot has been made of the size disparity between the Wisconsin O-Line and the TCU D-Line. I'm not sure it will be as "David vs. Goliath" as people are saying.

2. TCU's Offense vs. Wisconsin's Defense - Oh yeah, TCU has an offense too. TCU has a mature and experienced passing game with Andy Dalton and Jeremy Kerley, and when they're on, they're really hard to stop. And they have Ed Wesley, who might be the Frogs' best running back since a guy named Tomlinson was on campus. Again, Wisconsin has allowed people to score, but they did stop Terrelle Pryor.

I think it will be a great game, and the winner will probably end up at #2 in the final standings. I will be at the game, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Frogs react. They apparently felt cheated by last year's Boise game. Hopefully, they'll be ready to go in this one.