The Road to South Florida Week 9

Dear Football Fans,

There’s a theory called “The Rule of Six.” It has something to do with viruses and genomes and is not at all relevant to college football. The only Rule of Six that matters this week is Bowl eligibility. A team, with a few weird exceptions, has to win six games to be Bowl eligible.

We’re going into week nine of the season so many teams know they are going somewhere to play in one of the 41 college bowl games. There are so many bowl games that there are barely enough sponsors and names. Some of my personal favorites are “The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl,” “The Quick Lane Bowl,” “The Pinstripe Bowl,” “The Camping World Bowl” and, the “Bad Boy Mowers Bowl.” I wish the guy who sells pillows on TV would sponsor a Bowl, the “My Pillow Bowl.” Some Bowl games are snoozers, so “for the best night’s sleep in the whole wide world,” you could watch one of the many arcane Bowl games on TV and fall right to sleep.

We aren’t concerned with those Bowls. It’s the New Year’s six that are of interest - the Rose, Cotton, Fiesta, Peach, Sugar and of course, ORANGE Bowl - those are the six that rule. Two of the games, the Rose and the Sugar will host the national semifinals. One game will pit the College Football Playoff Committee’s number one team against the number four team and the other game will be a match-up between the number two and three schools. Both games will be played New Year’s Day. The two winners of the semifinals will go on to play in The National Championship on January 8 in Atlanta. 

We’re not there yet, but the top is starting to look pretty solid.

Alabama is, has been and perhaps always will be this season the number one ranked team in the country. It’s pretty boring and predictable to watch The Crimson Tide. The only question is by how much they will annihilate the other team. Last week they beat Tennessee 45-7. What is wildly entertaining is watching Coach Nick Saban’s press conferences. He doesn’t have much use for the press, although they follow him slavishly and dissect his every sentence. Coach Saban recently remarked, when talking about the press and the effect their stories have on the team, “Poison, like taking poison, rat poison.” He once admonished the press, “never answer a “what if” question.” My spin on that is lawyers should never ask a “what if” question on cross examination. He has acknowledged that “my patience level is not what it should be.” Amen to that - I completely understand and feel the same way. However, patience is a much over-rated virtue.

There was a lot of yak yak about whether Penn State should have been so highly ranked this season. Yes, they should have been so highly ranked. Last weekend they beat then #19 Michigan (now # nothing Michigan, they are out of the Top 25) 42-13. THEY ARE PENN STATE!

University of Georgia and TCU, both 7-0 for the season, hold the number three and four spots in the AP Top 25. I went to a Georgia Game once and people were making a big deal about seeing “the dog walk” before the game. Being an animal lover, I thought Georgia fans would parade their little beasts outside the stadium pregame. I was somewhat disappointed when I saw that the “Dawg Walk” was the players entering the stadium. I’d really been looking forward to seeing the puppies.

My friend Mark Neubauer is a fancy media and entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles. He must be pretty busy these days! He wrote me last week, somewhat indignant that I haven’t mentioned #5 Wisconsin. Of the Badgers Mark wrote, “They have a real chance to run the table and make it against ‘Bama. It just goes to show what beer, brats and 3,000 pound linemen can do for you. Go Bucky!” Mark, it’s nice that you have been infused with sunny Southern California optimism. As to the Badgers running the table and beating ‘Bama, maybe…. 

We’ll see if the #7 Clemson Tigers will get their mojo back after their loss the week before to Syracuse. It would be interesting (at least to me) to see a third in a row Alabama/Clemson matchup for the National Championship. Each team has won a game, so this would be a tie-breaker. Others, particularly if they like geographical diversity, want a different match-up.

Was the Syracuse team that played Miami last Saturday the same team that beat Clemson? The Hurricanes beat the Orange 27-19. People have poo poo’ed UM ever being a football powerhouse again. Many reasons have been cited, but here we are with a UM team ranked #8 in the country. Of 129 schools in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision, UM is one of only eight of teams that are undefeated. The others are Alabama, Penn State, Georgia, TCU, Wisconsin, South Florida and University of Central Florida. I’m sure you couldn’t help but notice that three of the eight undefeated schools are Florida teams, for whatever that’s worth. 

Under the leadership of Coach Mark Richt, the team is on an 11 game winning streak, currently the second longest winning streak in the nation. For three years in the early 2000s, UM had 34 game winning streak, the sixth longest in history. This should be a trivia question, but I’ll tell you that the team with the longest winning streak ever is the University of Oklahoma Sooners, who won 47 consecutive games between 1953 and 1957.

Miami is an ostentatious city - a big, warm, brash place, inhabited by people from everywhere. It’s an immigrant city, with people not just from foreign places, but from other cities in America. It’s a place of both questionable and impeccable taste. A community that is at times vulgar and at all times beautiful. After all my years here, I still find the place mesmerizing.

Which brings me to the “Turnover Chain”.

A week before the season started, UM cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph decided that there needed to be something players could wear after forcing a turnover. He called a local jeweler who made a big, dramatic, over the top “Turnover Chain.” Subtlety is not valued in Miami - bigger and glitzier is always better. The chain is spectacular. As someone who loves, loves, loves jewelry and who would like to wear a tiara everyday, I would be motivated to force a turnover if I had a chance to wear that bling for awhile.

Although I don’t pretend to be a sports prognosticator, you will remember last week me commenting that you should keep your eye on Notre Dame. Apparently USC was not keeping their eye on Notre Dame or the ball or anything much, since Notre Dame beat USC 49-14. Notre Dame jumped up four spots in The AP Poll and is now ranked #9. This should make all of you crazy Notre Dame fans euphoric. There are some rough games ahead before the Irish are in a field of four-leaf clover. They have to play N.C. State, Wake Forest, Miami, Navy and Stanford.

Last week I had a little fun at the expense of the Ivies. Some of my intellectual elite readers (I didn’t know that I knew so many thin-skinned, highly educated people) immediately wrote me, extolling the virtues of Ivy League football. Within seconds of hitting the “send” button, I heard from Rene Murai, a lawyer and fellow Orange Bowl Committee member who wrote “The Ivies started football and still play it like was meant to be: an adjunct to your college studies and not a semi professional team‼!” Rene, this may be why so few people follow the Ivies.

Russ Abrams, a partner of mine in the Charleston office gave me an interesting factoid, writing, “The University of Pennsylvania, is where numbers were first put on football jerseys. A truly substantial Ivy League football contribution that will endure and affect the sport in perpetuity.” Never let it be said that Ivy Leaguers don’t have a sense of grandiosity. Are those numbers because the fans couldn’t keep track of players?

Columbia, with a 6-0 winning record, undefeated for the season, would be Bowl eligible except Ivy League schools CHOOSE not to play in post-season Bowl games. Since 1956, the schools have not played in December due to concerns about the effects on academics. Can anyone say “Poindexter?” This odd situation came to my attention this week. I never thought about it, but had I been asked why none of the “Ancient Eight” Ivy League schools ever play in Bowl games I would have hazarded a guess and said because they aren’t many Ivy League schools that produce teams that can get through a season with at least six wins. Unlike other schools they only play 10 games a season.

The school that has “Scooter the Cougar” as their mascot (should it be “Scooter the Pussycat?) is getting pushback from Columbia alums for their gridiron prowess. Some “fans,” if you can call them that, are dismayed that having a winning football team somehow dilutes the intellectual superiority of Columbia. In a recent New York Times article, an alum said that having an undefeated team was “bad news,” and added, “When I went to Columbia, we prided ourselves on being anti-football and pro-intellectual. Can’t we retain our pride in being anti-athletic intellectual nerds?” Most people can multi-task and enjoy college football and, read books without having an existential crisis or cognitive dissonance.

See what you started Judge Greenaway?

Okay, enough trash talking the Ivy League. Let’s discuss some real football.

Coming up this weekend is #11 Oklahoma State against #22 West Virginia. As I’ve mentioned, the West Virginia team can be sneakily good and I wouldn’t bet against them. Their wins the past two weeks against Baylor and Texas Tech have been close, but the point is, they won. This could be an upset. 

Penn State is playing #6 Ohio State. That will be a good one. Imagine all that wholesome Midwesternism in one place.

The most fun by far game of the week will be “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”, the Florida-Georgia game. When I was a baby reporter, I was assigned to do a “color” piece about the game. My assignment was specific and had nothing to do with sports - write a fluffy article about the fans, and the gestalt of the crowd. I worked for the Jacksonville based Florida Times-Union. I walked around and chatted with the obligatory drunks and overly enthusiastic fans, then filed my story at half-time. In those days, reporters drank in the press box and smoked like chimneys. Political correctness was not a concept, much less a phrase. The press box was as entertaining as the game. Ah me, those were the days.

Despite the somewhat sad fortunes of the football team, I’ve been writing quite a bit about University of Florida this year. I attribute my revitalized devotion to UF to Dean Laura Rosenbury, the Dean of UF Law. For the past couple of years we have seen each other at Federal District Court Judge Paul Huck’s annual Navigator panel, where we speak to UF law students. She’s been the Dean since 2015 and when she asked to get together for coffee this year, I knew I would have to get out my checkbook.

I wanted Dean Rosenbury to tailor her pitch appropriately, so when I met her and Kelli Murray, the Dean’s Chief of Staff, at the office on a Friday morning, I wanted to give her a clear picture of who she was dealing with. I told her to ignore makeup, jewelry and anything that would suggest a soft heart and realize that temperamentally I am a Bull Gator. I am not referring to the booster organization by the same name, or to gender specific stuff - it’s a state of mind. She laughed and during a wonderful and enlightening conversation, she reminded me why I love my school and how much I have to be grateful for.

In the two years since she’s been the Dean, the law school has jumped seven places in the U.S. News rankings from the 49th ranked to the 42nd ranked law school in the country and from 24th to 19th among public law schools. The U.S. News rankings are to universities what The AP Top 25 and the College Football Playoff rankings are to college football. Considering there are a zillion law schools in America, this is a very impressive jump. Under her tenure, applications are up 112%.

Dean Rosenbury has raised a ton of money and is going to raise a bunch more. I’m a soft touch, but living in South Florida, we don’t get hit up much by University of Florida for money. People in the northern part of the State and indeed, the rest of the country, don’t always consider Miami part of the continental United States.

The Dean doesn’t send bland letters or write antiseptic emails - she comes to visit. Her way of doing things, actually showing up and talking, is far superior to an email or letter, which I usually delete unread. Since May, 2017, when “The Culverhouse Challenge” was launched she convinced 1,400 people to give money and was able to get a “triple match” to the $1.5 million she raised - $1.5 from Hugh Culverhouse and $1.5 from the UF Provost.

I say, as the highest praise, she has the smarts, tenacity, and soul of a Bull Gator.

Young people ask me frequently how to distinguish themselves. There’s all the usual recommendations - write an article, join a professional group, blah blah blah. It’s good advice, but what we all need to do is to write checks and dedicate time to things we believe in, our schools, our communities and things that move us. It’s a rewarding thing to do and it’s a way to set yourself apart - you will be remembered. Checks don’t have to be big, but exercise that giving muscle. You will become stronger and so will whoever or whatever you are helping.

Many of you answered last week’s trivia question correctly, but the first one to do so was Ron Albert, “The Minister of Fun.” The answer to the trivia question of which team had more games when both teams were ranked was Michigan-Ohio State (45 times). Oklahoma and Texas have met 38 times when they were both ranked and, there’s a tie for 26 matchups of ranked teams - Miami-FSU and Auburn-Alabama.

THE WAHL TRIVIA QUESTION: I don’t come up with these questions. Larry Wahl, Orange Bowl Vice President of Communications always has some interesting tidbits and he really knows football. He has graciously agreed to come up with a weekly trivia question for the rest of the season: Here goes:

Penn State plays Ohio State this week after hosting Michigan last week. In the last 25 years (ironically since Penn State joined the Big Ten), 33 Big Ten teams have played Michigan and OSU back to back. How many times has a Big Ten team won both of those games against the conference’s Big Two?

The first person to answer correctly will receive some sort of delightful Orange Bowl swag, courtesy of Christina Ramos.        

As the Beach Boys sang dear sports fans and readers:

BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL.

Enjoy Game Day.

Lee