An Inquiry

First, two big losers from the Oregon-Arizona game (other than, you know, Oregon fans):

1. Dennis Dixon. It sucks to see your championship hopes disappear in the hands of Brady Leaf after an injury where nobody hit you. Especially when your suspect defense actually showed some backbone in the second half and kept you in the game. But hey, at least you might still win the Heisman, and if that's not a recipe for future happiness, NFL success, and good character, I don't know what is. Except for that Chris Weinke guy. What an asshat.*

2. The father of Ryan and Brady Leaf. Good lord, you sire not one but two scholarship D-I quarterbacks, and the lasting memories of both will be ineptitude and failure. Odds this guy is going to send a package bomb to Archie Manning are hovering around 3:1.


Second, the inquiry. Say Oregon won this game despite losing Dixon and won at UCLA and in the Civil War, and say Dixon's injury is one that knocks him out for the season. Further assume that Kansas doesn't go undefeated and LSU wins out, leaving the BCS standings, in theory, largely the same.

Would you still put Oregon into the National Championship game? On the one hand, it's kind of shitty to punish the entire team for an injury to one player, especially if they continued to win despite that loss (though beating Oregon State and Karl Dorrell isn't all that much to write home about). On the other, does anyone really think Oregon would have a snowball's chance in hell of beating LSU in New Orleans without Dixon?



Ed. Note: Mostly sarcasm. Although anytime your grandkids attend the Heisman ceremony, you really should feel like an asshat on your own.