BY JAMES FAMERA
As the countdown to college bowl games begins, the team least on the collective consciousness of sports writers and ESPN analysts is not the first place Missouri Tigers or even the 11 -2 Ohio State Buckeyes. No. In 2007, a season riddled in parity and first place upsets, all atention is owed to the undefeated Hawaii Warriors.
Yet, the BCS standings beg to differ. When rankings came out earlier this week, a couple of days after the unranked Arkansas Razorbacks defeated the first-place LSU Tigers in three overtimes - making this the twelfth occasion this season that an unranked team knocked off a top fiver - University of Hawaii students held their breath and patiently waited. Would the Warriors finally earn the respect of the college football establishment by breaking the top ten? Think again! The end result would prove to be less than flattering. Hawaii garnered a modest 12th place.
How could this have happened? Was there a glitch in the computer? What could possibly have gone wrong? In all, six teams with a pair of losses (Georgia, Virginia Tech, LSU, USC, Oklahoma and Boston College) managed to rank higher than the underappreciated Warriors of the Pacific. But why?
This flagrant injustice boils down to a single equation: college football + Hawaii Warriors = who cares? I ask you this: when was the last time you saw a Warriors game on national television? I'll give you a moment to ponder (well, a few, given that we're dealing with 'island time'). Now, when was the last time you saw a Notre Dame game on TV?
Granted, the Fighting Irish have had their worst season in history, but no one can discount the energy of their fans. Each Saturday, 100,00 strong pack Notre Dame Stadium to cheer on their beloved blue and gold. Just as we never purchase the album of an unkown artist even if we happen to like the cover art (and if you have done this, you most certainly suffer from a debiitating - or, at least, artistically unsavvy - mental defect), we never watch a college football game because we happen to like the team's jerseys. Sports teams thrive on their fans and sports fans thrive on their teams.
Hawaii fans could care less about the Warrior's success, which would explain why ESPN nearly blacked out one of their mid-season games versus Oregon because Hawaii's stadium was empty. Maybe the University of Hawaii deserves a shot at the BCS Championship... or, maybe, their fans are too busy to care.
