Well, as I slept the night away blissfully unaware in Blighty - the whole BCS system fell to pieces. Missouri saw its National Championship coach turn into a pumpkin in San Antonio with a beating down by the Sooners. All college football fans should be grateful to the Pitt Panthers or else you may have had to watch the team with the ugliest uniforms ever play for a trophy.
So, number 1 loses in Texas, number 2 loses in their own backyard - that leaves number 3 Ohio State and number 4 Georgia, right? Probably not. The Buckeyes, with only one loss, are a near lock to plod their way down to the Big Easy and bore the nation again before ultimately getting beaten by a faster, stronger and more exciting team. But this is where certainty ends. Georgia is likely to get hosed because they didn’t win their conference championship. Number 7 LSU and number 6 Virginia Tech, both with two losses got the job done on Saturday, winning the SEC and ACC respectively. Let’s not forget one loss Kansas sitting at number 5 - then you could have two overrated teams playing for the crown - and undefeated Hawaii down around number 12 (though at the time of this writing they are losing badly to UW).
Yes, “clusterfuck” is the word you are looking for. I will admit that I am not objective, but Georgia deserves a shot at Ohio State as much, if not more than LSU and Va Tech. The Dawgs won six in a row to finish the season in the toughest conference in college football. They have not lost to a ranked team this year. They were a Kentucky field goal away from playing for their conference championship. They are ranked number 4!
Wouldn’t a four team play off be cool? Ohio State vs. LSU and Georgia vs Va. Tech with the winners playing for the crown. Or make it eight teams and include Oklahoma, Kansas, Hawaii and USC. It would mean a maximum of three extra games during school holidays so the conference commissioners can’t use “academics” as an excuse. It would actually mean more money for the big conferences, which is all that they care about anyway. Nobody is going to be happy with what happens on Sunday night when some sportswriters, computers and random folks on the street decide who will play the Buckeyes in New Orleans. But just remember - it doesn’t have to be that way.
Oh, and please pick the Dawgs faceless BCS machine!
* With apologies to Jon Stewart’s striking writers.
16 responses so far ↓
1 Jeff Keith // Dec 2, 2007 at 7:35 am
I am praying for a miracle. I do not think the Dawgs will move into the #2 spot. I hate that the best teams at the end of the year are not selected. In NCAA BBall, the best team at the end is crowned. Play good enough all year to get in then whoever is hot wins out. I think LSU might be the 5th or 6th best team right now. I will leave UGA out because I am biased. My top teams are:
1. USC
2. OU
3. UF
4. LSU
5. V Tech
6. The OSU
7. Missouri
I think UGA is there with the top two, but not winning the SEC doomed us! I can not believe that 3 dang field goals cost us. If any one of those had gone our way (The fake USC, VU, or UK), we would be plying for the NC. FWIW, I think LSU peaked about the 2nd game of the season.
2 Matthew // Dec 2, 2007 at 8:29 am
I just got back from the Mizzou vs Cal B-ball game, and they got beat in that as well. So, it’s a bit late and I might not be thinking all that clearly. LSU lost twice, both triple overtimes to respectable teams. It seems to me, and I truly, truly, hate to say it, that LSU is probably the other team that should be in NC. I not sure that OSU should be in it due to the thumping Illinois gave them, but I can’t think of anyone else at the moment.
Actually, maybe they should just cancel the NC game this year. No one deserves it. NCAA needs a playoff system.
3 CDV // Dec 2, 2007 at 8:34 am
I think Matthew speaks the truth - just cancel the whole damn thing.
The good news is that with the Buckeyes safely tucked away in New Orleans, two of the hottest teams in football may play in the Rose Bowl. USC, who Jeff rightly puts at number 1, and the Dawgs!
Missouri’s looking at Cotton, I reckon.
4 arizaphale // Dec 2, 2007 at 1:46 pm
The play off system (??) sounds f**ked indeed!!! How is it that you are GUESSING who will be in the finals??? Now I’m no football guru but even I can see the inequity in this.
How close to your prediction were you Chris?
5 arizaphale // Dec 2, 2007 at 1:48 pm
OOer. Just checked. Not very.
6 Jamie // Dec 2, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Sorry, Chris, but I am guessing LSU gets it, for winning the SEC (although I will grant you that I would take UGA over LSU on a neutral field right now). Anyway, you have no one to blame but yourselves for losing to the Vols, who even we managed to beat. Either way, I am sure UGA or LSU will destroy Ohio State as a certain unnamed team did last year.
And yes it was nice to see my other alma mater defeat West Virginia, who certainly deserved to play for the national championship even less than Ohio State. Oh, and did you see Hawaii stormed back? This actually benefits my employer a great deal - meaning about half a million for Utah State’s athletic program (even though we went 2-10!) That tells you all you need to know about the BCS and money.
7 CDV // Dec 2, 2007 at 8:13 pm
I’m happy for LSU to go, but not Oklahoma or Va Tech, because at least then it’s an SEC team, and your absolutely right about that mess in Knoxville.
How does the money to Utah State work? Because Hawaii plays in a BCS bowl everyone gets the money? Do you reckon you’ll get a raise?
8 Jamie // Dec 2, 2007 at 9:47 pm
The BCS is set up mainly around the BCS conferences, who all share the money - to some extent regardless of which teams go. In other words, UGA gets money from the BCS every year (even when they lose to Vandy), because the SEC has a team every year. If a non-BCS conference gets a team in, such as Hawaii and the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) this year, the conference collects several million dollars, divided among all the WAC schools (I assume Hawaii would get more, but not actually sure). I will certainly not be getting a raise, but maybe they won’t have to fire all the poetry professors in order to pay for our 2-10 football team (And to paraphrase Bull Durham, “How did we ever win 2?”
9 Jeff Keith // Dec 3, 2007 at 3:24 am
Well, I am ok with the NC game. We should have won our conference. What I am upset about is that the rest of the BCS games are bogus. There is no marque match ups. I guess they didnt want a game to rival the pitiful NC game. We should have been paired with USC or OU. No traditional powers got matched up and worse yet, Mizzou got ROBBED.
10 Busy Dad Mumbles // Dec 3, 2007 at 5:29 am
Can you believe that no one whats to be number one or number two? The Pitt upset is almost as big as App State over Michigan. But not quite.
I can’t believe that OSU is going to sneek into a championship game again after being in the lamest conference in football this year.
Anyway, congrats to the Dawgs going to the Sugar Bowl. You know…you can’t spell Sugar without UGA! (Not that I’m tired about hearing that one!)
Sorry about your Mizzou’s. I was hoping Mr. Daniels would have won. He should be considered for the Heisman. (Wasn’t he an Auburn coach?)
Conferences without championships should have points taken away. PAC-10, etc.
Have a great day,
Walt
11 Jason // Dec 3, 2007 at 5:37 am
Seems to be a lively discussion on this post, so maybe someone can answer a question. How in the world is Missouri left out of the BCS and Kansas is given a BCS bowl? I’m not even talking about how Mizzou beat Kansas because you can come up with a million reasons like that. But the final BCS rankings have Mizzou at #6 and Kansas at #8. I was originally thinking that I was being ridiculous when I felt that the so-called experts had something against Mizzou, but now I’m thinking that maybe I’m right. How do you leave a higher-ranked team out of the BCS????
12 CDV // Dec 3, 2007 at 8:14 am
I believe, Jason, it’s referred to by our neighbors to the north as getting hosed. I don’t really understand how Illinois got a BCS bid either. I agree with Jeff that I would rather watch UGa play OU or USC because a win over Hawaii is like kissing your sister and a loss - well, maybe a Sooner could tell me what a loss to a WAC team is like.
The whole thing is pretty fucked and I’m not disappointed to be overseas for this bowl season because I’m pretty sure there are going to be some blowouts.
13 CDV // Dec 3, 2007 at 8:27 am
Oh, and Jason, look at the bright side. Mizzou vs. Arkansas will resolve that argument that you and I and Nathan had. Who’s better, the No. 2 Big 12 team or a middling SEC team.
14 taina // Dec 3, 2007 at 5:39 pm
i guess the curse did strike again. In total agreement w/playoff system. BCS is wacked.
15 taina // Dec 3, 2007 at 5:39 pm
btw, no, not MU alumni. But live in Columbia. My husband is working on his PhD at MU.
16 Nathan B. // Dec 3, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Illinois got a bid since only 2 teams from one BCS conference can take slots in the BCS bowls. Illinois was the only other Big 10 school eligible for selection. I read somewhere that the Orange Bowl committee took KU almost exclusively on their one-loss record.
Chris, Mizzou has a recent history of beating a mid-level SEC team in a bowl game. They beat The Visor two years ago in the Independence Bowl…
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