LIFE IS FULL OF REGRETS, CHOOSE ONE

It’s mid-May and there’s not a lot of fresh college football news coming down the pipeline. Sure, TV schedules for the fall are trickling out, Top-25 programs are scheduling home-and-homes for 2076, and things like that — but overall, it’s time for reflection. For contemplation.

It’s time to dwell in angry regret.

Maybe there’s a game that’s been bothering you for a while. It could’ve been this season — perhaps you’re an Alabama fan seething at the steamrolling you got from Clemson in January! It could’ve been ten years ago, like if you’re a Pitt fan who watched Mardy Gilyard drive away your chances at a BCS bowl. Whatever it is, there’s a certain game you can’t let go.

Let’s give you a hypothetical scenario to work with:

You’re given the opportunity to have one game replayed in its entirety.

Some specifics:

• The game would be replayed in that year, with that year’s personnel. We’re not making you run 31-year-old Tim Tebow out against Ole Miss. Besides, he’s busy playing baseball.
• You will not be able to influence the game in any way. You’re not whispering in Nick Saban’s ear, telling him to just take a knee and go to overtime, or to at least put some speedy defenders out rather than a strictly kick-blocking unit. You’re just watching, in the same degree of horror you did the first time.
• You do risk altering the space-time continuum and creating a butterfly effect that launches you into a horrible, dystopian version of the present. This seems like a small risk given that we already live in a horrible, dystopian version of the present, but who knows. Maybe we lose Mountain Dew Code Red.

What do you choose?

You’ve got to choose wisely and rationally: for instance, I’m a Cincinnati fan. As much as I would like to see the 2009 Bearcats win the Sugar Bowl over Florida — I was in attendance at that game, and it was deeply unpleasant — I am under no illusions that a replay of the game would fundamentally alter the 51-24 result that was not nearly as close as that sounds.

Personally, I would take another shot at Ohio State in 2002. It’s not a standout game, considering some of the heart-stopping games the Buckeyes had later in that season’s title run — including overtime against Illinois and double-overtime against the Miami Hurricanes — so it’s easy to forget that the pre-BCS Bearcats nearly derailed Jim Tressel’s team of destiny in September, with several dropped TD passes in the closing seconds of an eventual 23-19 loss.

Perhaps a replay would lead to a more comfortable Ohio State win. I’m willing to take that chance, because there’s a possibility that Cincinnati pulls the upset and changes the entire makeup of that season.

Some other suggestions!

Maybe you’re a Georgia fan, and you want another shot at Alabama in the 2012 SEC title game?

Maybe you’re an Ohio State fan, and you want to see if Urban Meyer would decide to use Ezekiel Elliott against Michigan State in 2015? (Remember, you can’t tell him to do so, and even if you could, he’s not great at taking advice.)

Maybe you’re a Michigan fan, and there’s a single play in recent memory that turned on a very close call and could’ve possibly gone another way? I can’t think of any, but maybe you guys can?

Maybe you’re an Alabama fan who really thinks that the Kick Six was an aberration and wouldn’t happen on any other roll of the dice? (You are wrong. It was fate and it will happen every time.)

Or maybe you’re a Clemson fan who just wants to watch that live a second time.

Share yours below!