Lance Armstrong is the greatest cyclist ever. He won the Tour de France — the most demanding and challenge race in the world — seven consecutive times, more than any other cyclist in history. It’s a record that is bound to stand for many years to come and it was his near constant ownership of the famed yellow jersey worn by the leader of the race that inspired those ubiquitous yellow bracelets.
But for all his dominance, for all the yellow jerseys, Armstrong never wore the less-famed green jersey, awarded to the sprint leader. Overall Armstrong was the fastest rider in the race, but on the particularly flat stages where the sprint points are highest Armstrong hardly ever battled it out to finish first to wear the maillot vert. If you put Armstrong on a short track he would be smoked by countless other cyclists. He won the race because he was incredible in the mountain stages, where no sprinters ever seriously contend and where the most time towards the overall standings is earned.
Armstrong was strategic and adapted his racing philosophy to suit the terrain upon which he raced.
The same is true of any sensible football coach who has any input over the type of players on his team (which is every football coach in Division 1 football in a BCS conference whose team is remotely competitive). When you play on turf in Hawaii it makes sense to accentuate the competitive advantages of a fast track (as turf is commonly called) by installing a wide open passing attack. When you play on the shores of Lake Erie it helps to have a punishing running back because there will be days of freezing temperatures accompanied by howling winds that render a passing game impossible.
Which is why the cries of “THE BIG TEN IS SLOW!” are growing so tired. True, the lack of speed on Ohio State’s football team — however valid this claim may be — is a weakness when playing indoors against a southern football team. But transplant LSU to Wisconsin and let’s see how that speed does in 12 inches of snow when the terrain calls for a bruising running game founded on punishing lineman and running backs who are more in the mold of Dickerson than Sanders (which, admittedly, LSU had in Hester).
LSU was a better football team that OSU this season. Anyone who watched the two teams play more than twice could see that. By earning a berth to the BCS title game OSU overachieved on a tremendous scale while LSU was a preseason favorite to win the title in a game practically played in their back yard. At the start of the season LSU was better and it turns out that at the end of the season LSU was better. This is not to detract from OSU’s accomplishments. It’s just a fact.
With all that said, it’s time to recognize that warm weather teams have an advantage in bowl games, which are predominantly played in warm weather (be it in the south or indoors). Warm weather schools have teams adapted to compliment the conditions in which they play. It’s smart. It’s what they should do. It’s also smart for cold weather schools to have teams that are designed to play well in freezing temperatures and snow. Let’s be honest here: football in snow is a qualitatively different game that football in 80 degree temperatures. It requires different strategies and personnel. Move the BCS title game to Boston and see how warm weather teams respond to playing in sub-freezing temperatures. Maybe the cries of too slow from the south will be muffled by the three layers of facial coverings it takes to avoid frostbite while standing outside rooting on your football team in a Nor’easter, replaced instead by the beefy growls of now that’s football from bearded, bare-chested northerners who prefer their football to look like a manly pursuit.
