By Noah Gould
It’s January and that means a new year, fresh starts, another step forward, and an opportunity to do things differently. Last January ment was the same and in 2014 in sports. Lebron James got a fresh start, college football had its first season with a playoff, the US got out of the group of death and Tim Howard set a world cup record for saves, and the Seattle Seahawks won their first super bowl.
Last year started with Michigan State beating Stanford in a physical rose bowl game and Blake Bortles and UCF beating Baylor in a shootout fiesta bowl. Latter in January, Jameis Winston and Florida State won the national championship with a last minute touchdown against Auburn. The rest of the year went differently for all of the teams. Florida State went undefeated and extended their NCAA leading win streak. Baylor went 11-1 and finished the season ranked 5th barely missing the playoffs. Michigan State came in second to Ohio State in the Big Ten. Baylor and Michigan State met in the cotton bowl just 12 hours into 2015. Blake Bortles got drafted 3rd overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars and started for most of the season.
Last year was the first season of the college football playoff. While the playoff itself was played in 2015 the 2014 season was one of a kind. Never before had so many teams been alive for so long in the playoff chase. In the end the four teams that made it were Alabama, a team one year removed from winning 3 titles in 4 years. The defending champion that had the longest winning streak in college football. Ohio State, the unabated best team in the big ten and a team with only 3 losses with Urban Meyer. The final team was Oregon, the almost constant Pac 12 champion and the team with the best offense in college football perennially. After an entire season of games the 4 teams that made the playoff were all powerhouses of the last few seasons and made the 2015 playoffs must watch.
In the NFL 2014 was the year of the Seahawks. They won the super bowl in dominant fashion in February. Although, they started off the 2014 regular season slow they ended up the #1 seed in the NFC and are poised for a run at a repeat in 2015. 2014 was also a great year for Aaron Rodgers. He had one of the best seasons of his career and is probably going to be named MVP.
One of the most memorable sports sagas of 2014 was Lebron’s move to Cleveland. At the beginning of the year the heat were looking to win their 3rd straight title. Their chances seemed pretty good when they reached the finals for the 4th straight year and were looking at a finals rematch with the Spurs. Than, the Spurs decimated the Heat and won the series 4-1. The Spurs aggregate margin of victory was the most in a finals series ever. The loss basically ended the Miami Heat era in the NBA. Lebron went back to Cleveland after his 4 years on south beach. Before the season the Cavs were the favorite to win the title. That was an honor had by the Heat during the previous four seasons.
The biggest sporting event of 2014 was the world cup. While the story around the world will definitely be about Germany winning the world cup and beating Brazil 7-1 in Brazil. But here in the US, its all about our national team. The US was coming off a historically great and almost perfect 2013, but they were randomly drawn into the world cup’s group of death. Very few in the world thought the US would make it out, but they did despite losing one of their best players Jozy Altidore about 20 minutes into the world cup. The US played Belgium in the knockout round and lost 2-1 in extra time. It was impressive for the team to take Belgium to extra time considering how much buzz Belgium was getting as a dark horse champion before the tournament. 2010 and 2014 are the first time in the modern era that the US made it out of the group stage in back to back world cups. The team looks poised to have an even deeper run in 2018.
2014 was a huge year in sports. The winter olympics and world cup both won’t be back for another 4 years. It will also be remembered as the year Lebron went back to Cleveland and Seattle won its first super bowl. 2014 was huge for Buffalo too. Tyler Ennis’s goal against Montreal was the play of the NHL season and the Bills had a winning record for the first time since 2004. 2015 looks to be a huge year too. Lebron’s first playoffs since returning to the Cavs, a womens world cup, a gold cup, Seattle’s run at a repeat, and the first college football playoffs.
