Haves and Have Nots- College Sports Edition

Saturday night had to be pretty tough for Rutgers fans and alums. They lost 39-0, and remain winless on the season in the Big Ten. They got humiliated by the team they desperately want to call their rival. They did so on senior night, at home. They did so in terrible weather. They did so in front of a crowd that could charitably been measured in dozens at the end, rather than thousands. It was probably the most humiliating situation I've ever seen.

In case you haven't looked lately, Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin are the teams battling to win the Big Ten. Oklahoma is the front-runner in the Big 12. Clemson controls it's fate in the ACC. Alabama will play Florida in the SEC Championship game. Washington and Colorado are trying to hold off USC in the PAC 12. In other words, if you haven't watched a game all season, and you just started watching college football this week, you could have guessed nearly all of the contenders for the national championship. If you want to call Washington and Colorado surprises, go ahead, but they are both schools that have been very good in the past.

This is not just a football thing either in the NCAA. Duke started the men's basketball season #1, with Kansas, Kentucky, and UNC all in the top ten, as usual. Penn State's wrestling team will be heavy favorites to win another championship, with Ohio State, Iowa, and Oklahoma State giving their normally strong chase. The UCONN women's basketball team will be favored to win the championship again. I could go on, but the point is made.

College sports mirror the marketplace in America- "the haves" keep having, the "have nots" don't. If you simply guessed the regular powerhouses are good again this year, they probably are. There's not much suspense to it. In fact, there's not as much suspense as there are in professional sports, where CBAs and free agency keep teams from building dynasties. While people love the unpredictability of pro sports, they don't seem to mind the predictability of the NCAA. If I knew why that is, I'd tell you, but i'm clueless there. Very clearly though, no one will be complaining this weekend when they watch Alabama and Auburn battle in the Iron Bowl, or when they watch Michigan-Ohio State. I guess some people will be complaining though- in New Brunswick, NJ.