Saturday's game proves FCS is where the action is

I'm feeling a little bit of a letdown after Norfolk's Game of the Century.

Not the sort of letdown Virginia football fans must be experiencing. Not abject disappointment.

More like a happy hangover.

On the field, Old Dominion and Norfolk State failed to fulfill the promise some held for the game, but the buildup and conversation swirling around the occasion created unprecedented anticipation and the promise of fun.

It's something that doesn't come along very often in Hampton Roads, a community usually resigned to witnessing intriguing athletic events through the prisms of other communities.

Old Dominion's thoughts turn to its second-round playoff game at Georgia Southern, but for the time being, my mind lingers on what just took place.

Attractive, successful seasons by both Norfolk State and ODU added to my appreciation of the Football Championship Subdivision. It's a product worth savoring. Both for what it is, and what it isn't.

While ODU-Norfolk State was a big attraction in our little corner of the world, big-time college football preceded as usual. Which is to say it continues to be a source of unintentional amusement.

The Football Bowl Subdivision, with its voodoo BCS science and discredited coaches poll, is where the big headlines are created, often in reference to ludicrous scenarios no other sport would tolerate.

If you stayed up late enough Saturday night, you could have watched Southern California toy with UCLA behind Matt Barkley's six touchdown passes.

Because USC is on NCAA probation, its place in the Pac-12 championship game is assumed by UCLA, which is 6-6 and going into the game off a 50-0 humiliation and a head coach - Rick Neuheisel - almost sure to be fired.

What a great advertisement for the inaugural Pac-12 title game.

With an improbable victory over Oregon, UCLA would represent the conference in the Rose Bowl, a development that would send the Granddaddy of Them All into cardiac arrest. If UCLA loses, it won't even be bowl eligible.

Under the circumstances - i.e., the team stinks - including UCLA in the mix is embarrassing for the Pac-12. Or it would be if big-time college football were capable of embarrassment.

Miami, currently under investigation by the NCAA as a result of the Nevin Shapiro extra-benefits scandal, came out the other day to say that it would not accept a bowl invitation.

That's mighty magnanimous of a school with a 6-6 football team.

But things are just as annoying at the top of the food chain. Alabama, with its victory over Auburn Saturday, can sit back and relax, all but assured of a berth in the BCS national championship game.

Meanwhile, undefeated LSU, which beat Alabama and won the SEC West, is saddled with another game - the conference championship against Georgia - and the potential, however remote, to miss out on the rematch with the Crimson Tide.

Conference championship games are meant to squeeze more money out of willing alumni and give ESPN something to televise and yap about. To a degree, this works, the way any promotion sucks in the gullible. But few beyond the excitable fan base approach these tack-on games as momentous title bouts.

Don't mind me. I'm just worn out by big-time college football and its exaggerated importance. And not just because of bogus BCS standings, the scandals and unnecessary league championship games.

Everything about the FBS is too over the top, with programs and coaches operating almost independently of the universities whose names they play under.

I find myself preferring a good brand of smaller ball like the kind ODU and Norfolk State played this season. It's got its flaws, and doesn't benefit from storied traditions and myths like big-school football does, but something about it feels more grounded and real. 

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com