Kirschman: Believe it or not, football season’s not over

Pitt’s nonconference season didn’t go the way the team or Panthers fans hoped. Fans might… Pitt’s nonconference season didn’t go the way the team or Panther fans hoped. Fans might have expected one loss, but not three. Certainly, nobody expected the Panthers to enter the Big East portion of the schedule under .500.

Here’s the good news, though: Football season isn’t over yet. There’s still plenty to look forward to and hope for, both from the Panthers and the rest of the college-football world. Here’s just a few of things I’m hoping for:

Pitt to win the Big East. Last season, Panther fans watched as Cincinnati dashed Pitt’s hopes for a Big East Championship and a BCS bowl bid on a touchdown pass in the final seconds. Going into this season, nearly every football expert picked the Panthers to win the conference and get to the BCS bowl that they were denied last season. Then, the year started, and Pitt stumbled out of the gate with each game seemingly revealing new problems. But Pitt can still achieve the goal of winning a Big East Championship and that all begins on Saturday when the Panthers travel to Syracuse to kick off the conference season.

If Pitt doesn’t win the Big East, WVU can’t either. If watching the West Virginia basketball team get to the Final Four last year proved anything, it was that there are few things more painful than watching your school’s biggest rival succeed. So, if Pitt can’t get back on the right track in time to win the conference, then I think I speak for all Panther fans when I say it would be for the best if WVU didn’t end up in first place either.

Someone new in the National Championship. We’ve all seen the USCs, Alabamas, Floridas and Ohio States of the world compete for a national championship. It’s boring. It’s predictable. It’s exactly what the BCS is designed to produce every season. This year, I want to see a different team compete for the title. It would be great if one of those teams was Boise State or TCU, but Oregon and Nebraska are also acceptable.

Boise State and TCU to play in a BCS bowl but not against each other. Last year, Boise State and TCU competed in the “The BCS doesn’t want too many teams to be undefeated at the end of the year” bowl because if the two non-BCS schools actually got to prove themselves against BCS schools, more people than usual would end up questioning the system. And there might have been a repeat of Boise State over Oklahoma — and that just gave everyone the radical idea that maybe, just maybe, teams who go undefeated should have the same opportunity to compete for a National Championship as other teams that go undefeated. Which brings me to …

BCS system abolished. It won’t happen. I know it won’t happen. You know it won’t happen. Everyone knows it’s not going to happen. But it should. The whole system is messed up – a combination of computers and polls that doesn’t allow schools to settle who the best team is on the field. It’s time for a college football playoff, mainly because if I hear that a one-loss SEC school deserves to be in the National Championship over a undefeated Boise State or TCU one more time, I’m going to scream. If that’s the way the system is going to work, just throw all the schools that are considered good enough into one giant conference, and let them play for the title. It’s either that or give everyone an equal opportunity.

Denard Robinson to win the Heisman. Have you seen the quarterback from Michigan play? Enough said.

The Big East to add another football school or two. Or at least start considering it. The conference already invited Villanova, but really, the more the merrier. The Big East teams this season should wear “Help Wanted” signs around their necks.

Tino Sunseri to have a big game. I really want Sunseri to have an impressive game that ends in a Panther victory, if only to get Pitt fans to quiet down for two seconds. Sunseri is a redshirt sophomore starting for the first time; he’s bound to have some growing pains. But many Pitt fans wanted Sunseri to play last season, and this year they expected him to immediately perform like the second coming of Troy Aikman. It just wasn’t realistic. So I’ll be patiently waiting for Sunseri to put together that big game that makes Panther fans realize that maybe all he needed was some support, a little patience and time.