We Hold These (BCS) Truths To Be Self-Evident
posted by Scott Hood, Wednesday, December 05, 2007
As usual, we’re subject to more uninteresting games this year, no thanks to a system that’s designed to serve one purpose: prevent a playoff.
Taking the words of Thomas Jefferson totally out of context, we hold these four truths about the BCS to be self-evident:
1. Playing A Cupcake Schedule Pays Dividends: Why are Hawaii and Kansas playing in BCS games? Because they ran up impressive records against largely inferior competition.
Kansas benefited from not having to play Oklahoma and Texas this season. Missouri, on the other hand, was forced to play Oklahoma twice, once in the regular season and once in the Big 12 title game.
Here’s the Jayhawks’ nonconference schedule: Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International. There are some high school teams in the Palmetto State that play tougher schedules than that.
The Jayhawks played one difficult opponent all season – and lost. But that may be one more than Hawaii played. Do they play defense in the WAC? They don’t call it the wacky WAC for nothing.
Mel Kiper said it best on ESPN a week or so ago – if Hawaii was in the SEC the Warriors would finish 5-7. My first thought was, that many wins?
Hawaii is, granted, an exciting team to watch. Colt Brennan is a good quarterback. The Warriors zip the ball around the field, and score a lot of points. A 21-0 deficit like they faced last week against Washington doesn’t faze them.
But, let’s face it. Hawaii will get blasted by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, just like LSU crushed a Notre Dame team last year that had no business appearing in a BCS bowl game. Georgia is lights years ahead of any team Hawaii has faced this season.
But, in a way, you can’t blame Kansas or Hawaii. It appears they played by the rules. Some of the guilt must be shared by voters who refuse to penalize teams in the polls for playing soft competition, intentional or otherwise. A 12-0 record in a frail conference like the WAC is seen as superior to an 11-1 or 10-2 record in a much stronger conference like the SEC.
2. Losing A Conference Title Game Is Dangerous To Your Health: Missouri was left out of the BCS because they had the audacity to win their division and lose in the Big 12 Championship game. Bad Tigers.
Why was Kansas picked over Mizzou? Easy. The organizers of the Orange Bowl were petrified the Missouri fans wouldn’t travel as well to Miami after experiencing the disappointment of coming so close to playing for the national championship. Please. This is a team that hasn’t played in a major bowl game for nearly 40 years.
Sometimes I think these bowl people are afraid of their own shadow. But that’s how the people who run these bowl games think. It’s a lesson in Psychology 101.
Obviously, the best thing for any team to do is win nine or 10 games and finish second in your division to avoid the risk of tumbling in the rankings with a loss in the conference title game.
3. The Rose Bowl Is Living In The Past: The Rose Bowl likes to describe itself as the “Granddaddy of Them All.” Now I know why. Like my 90-year old grandfather, it’s experiencing bouts of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
The Rose Bowl still thinks it’s 1950. That’s why it selected a three-loss Illinois team over far more deserving squads like Missouri or Georgia. Their antiquated reasoning? They wanted to maintain the ‘tradition’ of the Big 10 versus Pac 10 matchup in the New Years Day game. The fact they had to make a quantum leap down the BCS rankings to get to Illinois speaks to how one-sided the Big 10 was this year. It was the Big One (Ohio State) and Little 10.
The result? A blowout win for Southern California over the Fightin’ Illini. Hey, you get what you deserve.
4. The Two Best Teams Aren’t Playing In The BCS Championship Game: If I had to rank LSU and Ohio State right now, neither team would be on my list of the top three teams in the country. That’s comprised of Oklahoma, Georgia and Southern California. All three of those teams are playing better football right now than either the Tigers or Buckeyes.
But all three teams have two losses, while Ohio State has one loss and LSU has dropped a pair of games in triple overtime. Both Ohio State and LSU lost in November. Historically, that’s been fatal to a team’s national championship hopes. So, is there some luck involved? You bet.
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, the Emperor of the BCS for the past two seasons, suggested Sunday night during a national teleconference with reporters that the craziness of the 2007 season might be the catalyst towards a plus-one game in the future.
However, if you’re looking for anything more, forget it. A plus-one game might be possible when the contracts expire following the 2009 season, but I’m convinced that’s about as much we’re going to get in our lifetime.
A full-fledged eight or 16-team playoff? Possibly by the time we send a manned mission to Mars.
The bowl system is too entrenched for college football to change very much the strange way it does things. It’s sort of like wishing all the politicians in D.C. would change their habits, but they never do. The good ‘ol boy system will prevail every time.
Is there hope for college football?
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Remind me again, it is the BCS or just BS? After watching this year’s BCS follies, I can’t remember.
As usual, we’re subject to more uninteresting games this year, no thanks to a system that’s designed to serve one purpose: prevent a playoff.
Taking the words of Thomas Jefferson totally out of context, we hold these four truths about the BCS to be self-evident:
1. Playing A Cupcake Schedule Pays Dividends: Why are Hawaii and Kansas playing in BCS games? Because they ran up impressive records against largely inferior competition.
Kansas benefited from not having to play Oklahoma and Texas this season. Missouri, on the other hand, was forced to play Oklahoma twice, once in the regular season and once in the Big 12 title game.
Here’s the Jayhawks’ nonconference schedule: Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International. There are some high school teams in the Palmetto State that play tougher schedules than that.
The Jayhawks played one difficult opponent all season – and lost. But that may be one more than Hawaii played. Do they play defense in the WAC? They don’t call it the wacky WAC for nothing.
Mel Kiper said it best on ESPN a week or so ago – if Hawaii was in the SEC the Warriors would finish 5-7. My first thought was, that many wins?
Hawaii is, granted, an exciting team to watch. Colt Brennan is a good quarterback. The Warriors zip the ball around the field, and score a lot of points. A 21-0 deficit like they faced last week against Washington doesn’t faze them.
But, let’s face it. Hawaii will get blasted by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, just like LSU crushed a Notre Dame team last year that had no business appearing in a BCS bowl game. Georgia is lights years ahead of any team Hawaii has faced this season.
But, in a way, you can’t blame Kansas or Hawaii. It appears they played by the rules. Some of the guilt must be shared by voters who refuse to penalize teams in the polls for playing soft competition, intentional or otherwise. A 12-0 record in a frail conference like the WAC is seen as superior to an 11-1 or 10-2 record in a much stronger conference like the SEC.
2. Losing A Conference Title Game Is Dangerous To Your Health: Missouri was left out of the BCS because they had the audacity to win their division and lose in the Big 12 Championship game. Bad Tigers.
Why was Kansas picked over Mizzou? Easy. The organizers of the Orange Bowl were petrified the Missouri fans wouldn’t travel as well to Miami after experiencing the disappointment of coming so close to playing for the national championship. Please. This is a team that hasn’t played in a major bowl game for nearly 40 years.
Sometimes I think these bowl people are afraid of their own shadow. But that’s how the people who run these bowl games think. It’s a lesson in Psychology 101.
Obviously, the best thing for any team to do is win nine or 10 games and finish second in your division to avoid the risk of tumbling in the rankings with a loss in the conference title game.
3. The Rose Bowl Is Living In The Past: The Rose Bowl likes to describe itself as the “Granddaddy of Them All.” Now I know why. Like my 90-year old grandfather, it’s experiencing bouts of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
The Rose Bowl still thinks it’s 1950. That’s why it selected a three-loss Illinois team over far more deserving squads like Missouri or Georgia. Their antiquated reasoning? They wanted to maintain the ‘tradition’ of the Big 10 versus Pac 10 matchup in the New Years Day game. The fact they had to make a quantum leap down the BCS rankings to get to Illinois speaks to how one-sided the Big 10 was this year. It was the Big One (Ohio State) and Little 10.
The result? A blowout win for Southern California over the Fightin’ Illini. Hey, you get what you deserve.
4. The Two Best Teams Aren’t Playing In The BCS Championship Game: If I had to rank LSU and Ohio State right now, neither team would be on my list of the top three teams in the country. That’s comprised of Oklahoma, Georgia and Southern California. All three of those teams are playing better football right now than either the Tigers or Buckeyes.
But all three teams have two losses, while Ohio State has one loss and LSU has dropped a pair of games in triple overtime. Both Ohio State and LSU lost in November. Historically, that’s been fatal to a team’s national championship hopes. So, is there some luck involved? You bet.
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, the Emperor of the BCS for the past two seasons, suggested Sunday night during a national teleconference with reporters that the craziness of the 2007 season might be the catalyst towards a plus-one game in the future.
However, if you’re looking for anything more, forget it. A plus-one game might be possible when the contracts expire following the 2009 season, but I’m convinced that’s about as much we’re going to get in our lifetime.
A full-fledged eight or 16-team playoff? Possibly by the time we send a manned mission to Mars.
The bowl system is too entrenched for college football to change very much the strange way it does things. It’s sort of like wishing all the politicians in D.C. would change their habits, but they never do. The good ‘ol boy system will prevail every time.
Is there hope for college football?
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.