BCS pairings: The system worked, plus winners and losers
This was a bad year to be the No. 2 team in the AP poll. It was an even worse year to be a playoff proponent.
The Bowl Championship Series system worked (again), leaving us with little chance of seeing a playoff system early in the next decade when the current TV contract expires.
Sure, Missouri and Georgia are hopping mad. USC and Oklahoma are frustrated. But the system did what it’s supposed to:
It generated enormous interest in college football for the past two months and a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in the national championship game that most folks can live with.
To blow up the system, a doomsday scenario is required. Ohio State vs. LSU is not a doomsday scenario.
Georgia getting left out is not doomsday (the Bulldogs didn’t even win their division in the SEC).
Missouri getting left out of the BCS altogether is not doomsday (the BCS was created to match No. 1 vs. No. 2, not decide the major bowls).
Oklahoma and USC had their chances but couldn’t beat Colorado or Stanford.
This is nothing like 2003, when USC was No. 1 in both polls but not in the title game.
So the BCS honchos have to be pretty happy right now — well, maybe Pac-10 commish Tom Hansen is a bit irritated: His conference was denied an at-large bid.
Hawaii’s victory over Washington sent the Warriors into the BCS and knocked Arizona State out. But even there, the system hardly failed.
It’s tough for the Pac-10 to complain:
Kansas had one loss to ASU’s two.
Georgia is six spots above ASU in the BCS standings.
Hawaii became a lock when it finished No. 10 (the Warriors just had to make the top-12).
And Illinois filled a slot in the Rose Bowl, opposite USC, that couldn’t have gone to ASU.
ASU’s exclusion rippled through the Pac-10 and its bowl partners. The Emerald Bowl, played at AT&T Park, had been hoping to pick Cal but instead had to take Oregon State (which will play Maryland).
The Bears, who lost six of their last seven games, fell to the Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth, where they’ll face Air Force.
A look at some winners and losers from BCS selection day:
***Winners
The Western Athletic Conference: A BCS team two years in a row - take that, Mountain West.
Louisiana State: Jumped from No. 7 to 2 in the final 24 hours. Thank you cards being sent to Pittsburgh and Oklahoma.
Ohio State: Was No. 7 after losing to Illinois, then played once in three weeks and watched everyone else tumble.
The Big Ten: A mediocre league whose best non-conference victory was over Bowling Green, and it gots two teams into the BCS (OSU and Illinois). Meanwhile, the superior Pac-10 only got one.
Kansas: The Jayhawks played a pathetic non-conference schedule, didn’t beat a team with more than seven wins, didn’t win their division in the Big 12, lost to Missouri … and yet they’re in the BCS and Mizzou is home. Awful. Just awful.
San Jose State: Gets a six-figure paycheck from Hawaii’s BCS bid.
“Whatever the amount is, it will be re-invested,” SJSU athletic director Tom Bowen said. “We’ll use it for summer school, sports medicine and strength and conditioning for all our sports programs. We’re not just going to pour it all back into football.”
***Losers
West Virginia: KOed from the BCS title game because of home loss to lowly Pitt, an upset that belongs in the same sentence as Appalachian State over Michigan and Stanford over USC. Speaking of…
USC: Sure, the Trojans won the Pac-10 and are headed to Pasadena, but they’d be playing for the BCS title if they had stopped Stanford on fourth down. Reward for taking too long to get their act together: three-loss Illinois.
Missouri: Essentially punished for making (and losing) Big 12 title game, because that second loss made them less attractive than one-loss Kansas.
Georgia: The idle Bulldogs were overtaken by LSU on the last day. But they lost to the team (Tennessee) that lost to LSU (in the SEC title game).
Rose Bowl: Was hoping for USC vs. Ohio State and ended up with Illinois (9-3). But that’s still better than USC-Michigan.
If there is an argument for the BCS system that is not founded on “tradition,” it has to be that the system is so illogical, subjective, and just plain wacky that it makes us obsessed with week-to-week rankings, thereby generating more regular season interest (viewership…ad revenue…yadda yadda) than you’d see if we had a sensible, fair, plain vanilla playoff system.
I’m not necessarily arguing against it, but introducing a playoff system would, I think, lead to fewer opportunities to argue against the standings, grumble about east coast bias, and call your favorite columnists, commentators, and league commissioners idiots — and really, who wants less of that?
OU vs LSU; not even close! OU will get trashed again! It should have been USC vs LSU!!! Until a playoff is instituted, the BCS will always be subject to questions.
Missouri is not playing any bowl game, dose it make sense?
This is the gayest thing I have ever heard. I am a football freak and can’t stand to watch it due to the BCS crap. I watched an LSU team barely look competent and almost lose to a weak Tennessee team and lose twice while holding the #1 slot. Then an OSU team that lost to Illinois, and beat Michigan, but who else in the Big 10 was worth a crap this year? The BCS does nothing but show favoritism to SEC schools when it comes to the big games and this is evident that there is no sense to the madness. I for one, will watch no BCS games this year. But, will gladly watch the meaningless bowl games.
How can a team go from being ranked 4th and not lose a game to being ranked fifth! It proves just how bias the rankings are …. even though they are supposedly “Fair”. Go Dawgs!
I found from another newspaper that Missouri is playing at the Cotton Bowl. Mercury news should just list all the bowl games in chronological order for us who just want a simple schedule with the 2 teams and their respective rankings.
Oklahoma vs. USC is my choice, but it is just my opinion.
This year’s college football season is just too complex to determine who should be #1 & #2.
However, this is the most interesting year for a long time since I start watching college football in the 60’s!
I don’t think the BCS System is a winner in this scenario. It is true that it generated interest but only because people (myself included) wanted to see how they screwed up this time and who would get shafted. I don’t think (I could be wrong) anyone outside of Ohio or Lousiana believes this is a good matchup of the two best teams in college football. This isn’t a doomsday scenario but this college football season has demonsrated to me that it is practically impossible to pick (almost arbitrarily) two teams for the NC game without pissing off someone who has a valid argument.
Whoever thinks that OSU won’t get totally demolished by LSU is out of their mind. OSU is 0-8 in Bowl games against SEC schools and this year is going to be no different. OSU is the most undeserving team in a BCS Championship with their pansy schedule. The Big-ten was nothing this year, as exemplified by the Rose Bowl being “forced” to take the Illini (another joke…who doesn’t want to see USC v. UGA?). If anything, this year is proof that there needs to be a playoff system. The matchups are terrible and all but one BCS games are going to be blow outs. There needs to be change.
What an 8 team BCS playoff would look like:
ROSE: USC (Pac-10) v. Ohio St. (Big 10)
FIESTA: Oklahoma (Big 12) v. Georgia (SEC at-large)
SUGAR: LSU (SEC) v. Hawaii (WAC at-large)
ORANGE: Va. Tech. (ACC) v. WVU (Big East)
The “big six” conference champs would play in their conference tie-in games (so that those games would preserve their historical significance), plus there would be 2 at large spots that would go first to mid major conference winners and/or Notre Dame if they ranked high enough (say, 14 or higher), then to the next highest ranked big-six conference non-winner (Georgia this year). After these bowl games, the winners play each other (either Rose-Fiesta and Orange-Sugar, for an East West championship, or seeded by rankings), and then once more for the championship.
Last year, a playoff would have looked like this:
ROSE: USC (Pac-10) v. Ohio St. (Big Ten)
FIESTA: Oklahoma (Big 12) v. Boise St. (WAC at-large)
SUGAR: Florida (SEC) v. Notre Dame (at-large)
ORANGE: Wake Forest (ACC) v. Louisville (Big East)
A 2005 playoff would have looked like this:
ROSE: USC (Pac-10) v. Penn. State (Big Ten)
FIESTA: Texas (Big 12) v. Notre Dame (at-large)
SUGAR: Georgia (SEC) v. TCU (MWC at-large)
ORANGE: Florida St. (ACC) v. WVU (Big East)
In 2004, a playoff would have looked like this:
ROSE: USC (Pac-10) v. Michigan (Big Ten)
FIESTA: Oklahoma (Big 12) v. Utah (MWC at-large)
SUGAR: Auburn (SEC) v. California (Pac-10 at-large)
ORANGE: Va. Tech. (ACC) v. Pitt. (Big East)
In 2003, a playoff would have looked like this:
ROSE: USC (Pac-10) v. Michigan (Big Ten)
FIESTA: Kansas St. (Big 12) v. Miami OH (MAC at-large)
SUGAR: LSU (SEC) v. Oklahoma (Big 12 at-large)
ORANGE: Florida St. (ACC) v. Miami (Big East)
A 2002 playoff would have looked like this:
ROSE: Washington St. (Pac-10) v. Ohio St. (Big Ten)
FIESTA: Oklahoma (Big 12) v. Notre Dame (at-large)
SUGAR: Georgia (SEC) v. Iowa (Big Ten at-large)
ORANGE: Florida St. (ACC) v. Miami (Big East)
You will notice that a mid-major team made the playoff in 5 out of the 6 years evaluated. This is good for football and for fan interest because everyone who doesn’t have a vested interest likes to root for an underdog and see how far they can go in the playoff.
This system also would produce a real undisputed champion, unlike this year when no teams seem perfectly qualified to play for the championship game, or in years like 2003 and 2004 when there were 3 teams who all seemed equally qualified (3 teams had one loss in 2003 and 3 teams had no losses in 2004).
Peter is right, these match-ups are really uninteresting. USC-Georgia would have been an interesting game, as would Oklahoma-Kansas, Georgia-LSU or Hawaii-Kansas/Missouri/Texas Tech, Virginia Tech-West Virginia, etc. It’s almost as if they tried to come up with the dullest match-ups (of course, it is all about selling tickets). It will be very interesting to see how the ratings for the various games hold up, particularly with the schedule of stringing the games out past January 1 for another six days.
Bowl-Shmole. After a season of being on board a Drunken Boat, it’s good to be back on dry land again. And of all the people who dream of this season the Cal Coach is not thinking of Rose Bowl but Rosebud.
Jon, How can you say the BCS System was a winner this year?? This year more than ever, there were 6-8 teams that could have had a shot at a national championship with a playoff system. No 1 or 2 teams have a clear, unchallenged right to the championship game. This is the best year to mount an anti-BCS movement. We just need someone to be the leader of the cause!!!
Tom
Tom, no use in relying on Wilner for help in that regard. If Wilner had his way, he’s have a playoff of just SEC teams and maybe USC and leave every other team sitting at home.
Look at his bogus AP ballot this week. He has OSU ranked 8th, behind a 3 loss Florida team. And last week, he had them behind Florida and Tennessee. This guy is a hack, clear and simple.
Wilner is a lock to get worst voter of the week for the fourth time (out of I think eight weeks) at http://www.pollspeak.com/ . That is tough to do when there are 65 voters.
The system worked? Are you kidding me or is your team LSU? The “system” is a joke. #3 Ohio State moved up without playing. #4 Georgia and #5 Kansas moved down without playing when #1 and #2 lost. Huh? The BCS stupidity…oops, I mean by-laws do not state that you must win your conference. If Georgia was #4 before the weekend, and it doesn’t play, when #1 and #2 lose then #3 and #4 must move up. No questions. They do not have to win their conference to play for the national championship. The BCS does not say they must win their conference. Here’s another one for you. #6 Virginia Tech beats #11 Boston College but #7 LSU leap frogs them by beating #19 Tennessee. What? But according to the BCS apologists the system worked. That’s bull(manure)!
It was an even worse year to be a playoff proponent.
Are you f’ing kidding me? This year proves for all time beyond a shadow of a doubt that we need a playoff system. So what if we have a title game that “most folks can live with”? What kind of a standard is that?
Prove it on the field. If there were a sixteen team playoff, this year it would be anybody’s guess who would win. My bet would be USC and this Old Blue would much rather see that than watch Cal in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Special thanks to SJbytes for his criticism. When #6 soundly beats #11, how does #7 jump ahead (all the way to #1, in fact) by squeeking by #19? Let’s pile it on, folks. Bring all your criticism. Wilner and the BCS proponents have lost their marbles this time. The BCS system is not a clear winner.
As for me, I’m not that miffed that LSU is in. They killed the ACC champ head-to-head, and it took them 6 overtimes to lose two games. That’s about the best two loss team you can find. The Pac-10 and Big 12 champ were embarrassed by bottom dwellers Stanfurd and Colorado, respectively, and the Big East champ got pounded by unranked Pitt.
My contention is this: how does 1-loss Ohio State (who didn’t play anybody) get into the championship game over undefeated Hawaii (who didn’t play anybody)? I’m not saying that Hawaii is a clear choice to play for the championship. I’m saying that schedule strength should put a big question mark over BOTH teams (not just Hawaii). The only way to settle who is the best among teams who haven’t played anybody but went undefeated (or nearly so) and teams who played difficult schedules and have 2 or more losses is to settle it on the field in head-to-head competition. A playoff is the only way that an undisputed champion could emerge from the car wreck that was this season. Regardless who wins, you’re going to tell me that a majority of Americans won’t think that Oklahoma, USC, West Virginia, Georgia, Virginia Tech or Hawaii is still the better team? I know there will always be SOME people who think their team is better (even with a playoff system), but I’m saying that a majority of people won’t respect this champion, and that is a sad thing for college football.
I know I won’t respect the winner (LSU) this year. It will be just like last year. Ohio State will embarrass itself, the Big Ten, college football, and the BCS system. I am thankful only for the first and third embarrassments.
Oops. I mean the first and LAST embarrassments.
I am wondering , where are all thoes West Virginia Fans.
I guess they are embrassed and counting their chickens today, LOL
I told them, not to look beyond Pitt. ON ANY GIVEN SAT!
On behalf of the Tiger NATION, I would like to THANK everyone for playing. Better luck next year.
John…question for you:
Aside from the controversy of who should be in the Title Game, why isn’t the media bashing the Rose Bowl Executive Director for its selection of Illinois?
Yet another huge flaw in the BCS system is that the Bowls – namely the Rose Bowl – are so deeply rooted in tradition they care more about their prehistoric matchups instead of putting on the best game.
And I don’t understand why the media isn’t complaining about this – in fact, they seem to sort of understand it rather that bitch about.
With Ohio State going to the Title Game, the Rose Bowl gets the first pick of all at-large teams available – the available teams being #3 through #14 in the final BCS standings.
Because of this so-called history & tradition – and don’t get me wrong, I appreciate history – the “Grandaddy of them all” opts to pick Illinois, which ranks 13th in the BCS standings. Are you kidding me? We could have had a USC vs Georgia Rose Bowl…instead we get USC-Illinois.
And in the process, #6 Missouri gets screwed, and Arizona State (at #11) and Florida (at #12) also have a beef because they finished higher than Illinois.
So Illinois and the Big Ten get a HUGE payday because of the Rose Bowl’s tradition.
And no one seems to be bitching about it in the media nationally. Maybe the media is in on the whole BCS conspiracy as well.
Broncos, a few answers to your questions.
While I am not defending Illinois’ selection, if the Rose Bowl chose Georgia, the Sugar Bowl could have refused that selection. There is rule stipulating if the host bowl loses its rep (LSU), that if another bowl selects another conference rep (Georgia), they can block it if they are going to pick that rep.
As for Florida, they had no chance due to the 2 teams only from one conference rule (LSU and Georgia).
If the Rose Bowl selected Missouri, then Kansas does not get selected (ala Florida). Then the Orange probably selects West Virginia. Since Hawaii has to be chosen, that leaves one empty spot for the Fiesta/Sugar between Arizona St and Illinois with fFiesta picking first. The Fiesta probably would not choose Az St (no traveling fans to line local pockets with tourism $$) and Hawaii goes to the Sugar anyways.
To Mike the tiger
I am looking at the SEC going maybe 8 and 1
this year by far gives the 9 thats right 9 sec bowl teams great match ups
1 LSU V OSU
2 UGA V Haw
3 Tenn V Wis
4 Ark V Mizz (2 words Mcfaden & Jones
5 Fla V Michigan ( are you kidding me )
6 UK V FLS close
7 AUB V Cle
8 Al V Colorado ( Sabin hase never had a loosing season)
9 UCF V MS (Just stop UCF running back and you win)
8
Guys you have to face it, LSU VS OHIO ST.
9 SEC TEAMS GOING BOWLING
2 BCS BOWLS
4 NEW YEARS BOWLS
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
NUMBER ONE CONFERENCE! NO QUESTION, #1
HEY, WE WILL LET YOU GUYS WIN,, TENNIS.
I AM SORRY, GA. WON .
The solution for Pac-10 is clear. The Pac-10 needs to break away from the BCS immediately after the last snap of the bowl season, and start over.
1.Fire Tom Hansen, who is way past his prime, gets outmanuevered every year, and is the ring leader behind our terrible bowl tie-ins. We have one team playing after January 1st. Our bowls tie-ins stink and we play teams with worse records and conference position finishes than our teams.
2.Get a new C.E.O. Immediately.
3.Tear up the T.V. Contracts. We need an exclusive network to carry our teams nationally. ABC does not even show our games in the mountain states because we get relegated to regional coverage and that is basically Nevada and Idaho, plus our Pac-10 states. Yet, I can watch multitudes of SEC games on CBS and ESPN all Saturday long. They are playing later and later in the day, so this bumps our conference to an after-thought.
4.Create a super-conference by adding teams from the WAC, Mountain West, Big 12. The jewel of the bunch would be to snag Texas, Texas A&M, and Colorado from the Big 12. Add from the WAC and Mountain West at least BYU, Boise St, Fresno State, Utah and Hawaii.
5.In essence this will create a Pac-10 North and South
6.Our new super-region/conference champions should square off in the Rose Bowl the same day as the alleged BCS Championship game.
There will never be a playoff system until, we create a rival system to the BCS mafia. The Pac-10 is the biggest loser every year and has yet to get 2 teams into this system. 2 teams = 34 million. 1 team is 17 million. Ask yourself this, do you ever foresee a 2nd invite for the Pac, as a 3 loss team, as Illinois received gift-wrapped to the Rose Bowl.
Tom Hansen, the ADs’ and influential donors need to the right thing and start over. It is not working for us.
sounds like the SEC .
Good job
Ernie,
Thats the stupidest idea ever. The Pac10 is weak, USC and ASU are the only real powers this year. If it were not for USC, the Pac10 would be mid major quality. You are never going to push around the BCS, you are never going to win a TV slot over one where the midwest, or mountain slot would rather watch one of their own teams. Texas and A&M would never leave their conference for the Pac10 let alone any other conference. Pac10 are losers because their teams lose! They aren’t being left out on purpose. What, do you want USC to be in the national champ or something, you can’t put a team in the national champ that lost to Stanford. You guys just want to be able to walk right into the big games while making a few or even many mistakes along the way. Play a perfect season like Boise or Hawaii and see how tough it is. Stop complaining, you guys are the biggest cry-babies on the planet.
Bronco Man
That is one of, if not the best POST I have read this year.
Are you a sport writer?
Ernie, just to clarify on the $$ in the BCS bowls. When a conference gets a 2nd team in, they do not double the $17M. The 2nd team that is selected, gives that conference an additional $4.5 million. See page 9 of this link, http://www.bcsfootball.org/id/7212064_37_1.pdf
Hope this helps.
Thanks Dean!
To all the detractors: your are visiting a Pac-10 centric blog. Please be curteous while you are visiting.
I thought this is College Hotline.
Plus I have yet to see someone who is not curteous.
Did your feeling get hurt?
To BroncMan, Mike The Tiger, and all the other Pac-10 bashers:
How can you call the league weak when the Pac-10 went 21-10 in OOC play? And let’s not forget, that’s against the toughest competition in the land. Take a look at the Sagarin Rankings (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbc07.htm) or any other strength of schedule measure. From top to bottom, the Pac-10 played the hardest OOC schedule, not the high school JV squads that other conferences play. Combine that with playing everyone in the conference, and it’s almost mathematically impossible to have impressive looking records from top to bottom.
Of course you have more Jan 1 bowl games because they’ve been there forever and you havE TIE INS with those bowl games.
Way to bring up a strawman, lazy SEC fan
Just look at the records in your conference. I also would like to differ, concerning strength of schedule.
Try playing 8 SEC game per year.plus a championship game.
We played 4 games against BCS teams , the last week of the season. How many BCS teams did the pac 10 play the whole season.
We play contenders, you guys play pretenders.
Your biggest game outside of the pac 10 games was Cal vs Tenn, at Cal.
Hey Spartan.
Just look at who is going to the BIG game. Say what you want to say. We got 2 BCS bowl teams. Oh, I guess that is Tie In, also ?
To Mike the Tiger:
Yes, and Cal, who finished 6th in the mighty Pac-10, beat Tennessee much more handily than did LSU.
You guys don’t play round robin, so don’t talk about the difficulty of playing 8 SEC games per year. Boo-hoo, you get to eat up plankton like Ole’ Miss and skip playing all the difficult teams — yet you somehow get credit for playing the toughest schedule! It doesn’t add up. You’d know that if your college was anything more than a football factory.
Just look at any SEC schedule compared to any pac 10.
The Tigers would be undefeated with Cal’s schedule.
I can’t believe with all you smart guys and you can’t figure it out.
As I already said in a post much earlier in the year, I’d take Florida’s schedule. Come to think of it, LSU makes my case just as easily: It supposedly plays such a hard SEC schedule, yet they didn’t even play the toughest competition in the conference — Georgia. Why should you get credit for having Georgia in your conference when they are not on your schedule? How does that add to your conference strength? Yet the computers and, more importantly, the voters somehow look the other way and grant you a pass, giving you credit for facing a Georgia team you never had to play. But you really stuck it to that basketball school Kentucky, didn’t you?
How to fix Pac-10 bowl tie-ins: A simple fix.
Currently, the Pac-10 teams play lower-ranked teams from opposing conferences in their bowls. Also, the locations do not seem deserving of the magnitude of the game (who really wants to go to El Paso?). Here is my simple solution:
Place the second place Pac-10 team (assuming the first place team goes to the Rose) against the WAC winner in the Honolulu bowl, and bump the rest of the bowls down one notch. The Holiday will now get the Pac-10 3 against the Big 12 3, etc. This gives the Pac-10 runner up a great destination for the fans to travel to, and it gives the WAC winner a worthy opponent (did you know they are currently slated to play the Conf. USA #2?!?! — this year that is East Carolina. EAST CAROLINA IS GOING TO HAWAII!!).
I would also recommend reordering the bottom of the bowl tie-ins so that desirable locations like Phoenix and SF came way before El Paso. You could even create a new bowl game and host it in LA at the Colisseum. But the main fix is just to add the Honolulu bowl for #2 and drop the rest down the ladder one rung.
One more thing: by any means, create a tie-in for the Pac-10 to play against a comparable team from the SEC. It won’t be the first or second place teams because they already have strong bowl tie-ins, but the SEC fans are rabid and would probably travel to the West Coast for a bowl against the Pac-10 for bragging rights. How about SEC 4/5 versus Pac-10 4/5? If the SEC was willing to give us their number 3 team, I’d say the Holiday in San Diego would be a perfect fit (those good ol’ boys like to party and would love the gas light district). We can play the Big 12 in El Paso or Phoenix.
“Just look at any SEC schedule compared to any pac 10.
The Tigers would be undefeated with Cal’s schedule.
I can’t believe with all you smart guys and you can’t figure it out.”
Cal has the #4 ranked schedule in the nation. LSU’s schedule is ranked #21. For the record, 8 out of 10 Pac-10 teams have tougher rated schedules than LSU.
Thank you Trojan Brett!! Aparently, Tiger Mike has grown silent.
As for my Honolulu bowl scenario, I just realized that the Holiday Bowl has 20,000 more seating capacity than the Honolulu Bowl, so I guess I’d have to change my scenario a bit. Have the WAC winner play the #3 Pac-10 instead of the #2 Conf. USA and leave the Holiday with the #2 Pac-10 team, but get us a better matchup. Still try to get the SEC (probably impossible), but one of the major conferences has got to be willing to have their #2 team travel to San Diego — one of the most beautiful cities on earth.
Regardless, my point is that there are options out there that need to be explored. The west coast has an abundance of world-class travel destinations and we aren’t taking advantage of it! The Pac-10 should be hosting/attending bowls in Pasadena, San Diego, Honolulu, Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Those are some awesome travel destinations that should be hosting awesome games, but in many cases it ain’t happening. If the Niners ever build their new stadium and the Emerald could move there, that game could move up the list with the greater seating capacity (plus, Silicon Valley is warmer than SF). Then we’d really have some amazing sites.
Tom Hansen, what are you doing?!?! You need to have somebody monitoring these blogs!
Jon, per a few of your quotes:
“The Bowl Championship Series system worked (again)” and “Ohio State vs. LSU is not a doomsday scenario”.
These statements are highly contradictory to your previous columns. Did you forget that “column” of your bashing OSU? It only generated the most posts the last month. You had nothing good to say about OSU.
Even your most current AP poll has OSU 8th. How is that not “doomsday” enough when the 1 plays the 8 per your own rankings.
I sure hope your editor reads the comments given to you. Your bias towards the SEC and USC vs every other FBS school is overwhelming. Is there any way to petition the AP and have your voting rights revoked? You are sure to get worst voter of the week for the 4th time this year on pollspeak.com, plus the dishonrable mentions you have received there as well.
[Please note that they didn't start rating until week 7. Week 7, no mentions for you, good I guess, but they didn't have anything but 1 good and 1 bad, no other mentions. Week 8, you were mentioned for leaving LSU #1 after losing. Week 9, another mention about OSU at #5. Week 10, worst voter. Week 11, another mention about having OSU 4th. Week 12 - Dishonorable mention. Week 13 - Worst voter. Week 14 - Worst voter, Weeks 15 and 16 haven't been tabulated yet. But I am confident you get worst voter for Week 15.]
Have not left the house.
Come on guys. The next thing you guys are going to say is, Cal. is better than LSU.
Stop crying, because your conference sucks.
The nation has spoken and you refuse to lisen.
Now that is a shame.
Maybe if Cal would have won some games, their schedule would not have be tough.
Just win and you are in.
Do you really think you could beat Oregon after 2 weeks after?
Georgia is not even close to being the best in the SEC.
They got blown away by Tenn.They also lost to South Carolina. LSU beat So Carolina.
Also Golden Bear,
Why didn’t the Rose take Georgia.
I can tell you why. Because of the TIE-INs.
Why would us southern folks want to travel such a far distance durning the holidays.
LSU begged the Rose last year
One other thing Bear. LSU played 9 conference games, which included the championship game.
How many does the Pac 10 play? Oh, 9 games.
What are you complaining about? So what, we have 12 teams and a championship game
Well, I guess you old pac 10 guys are in bed by now.
I am hitting the sack. flying out to Houston tomm.
Don’t say anything bad about me, cause I will be back friday.
Tiger Mike don’t be an idiot. I’m not saying Cal is better than LSU. LSU deserves to be in contention for the championship. But so are several other teams. “Win and you are in?” Well then LSU should be on the sidelines and Hawaii should be in. Look, you’re biased and you’re happy that you were selected in the beauty contest that is the BCS. Fine, I’m happy for you. Somebody has to play the “championship” game and it might as well be LSU. Just don’t act like a nutjob and claim that the SEC is superior to the Pac-10 (it isn’t, see above), or that LSU’s schedule is harder than Cal’s (it isn’t, see above), or that LSU is playing in the BCS championship bowl because “the nation has spoken” — as if LSU is a unanimous choice (they’re not even close, see above).
However, you did get me to reconsider one of my earlier statements and I think you may be right. Perhaps, contrary to popular myth, the SEC DOESN’T travel well and wouldn’t come out west for a bowl game. I mean, they mainly only schedule home games against patsies for their out of conference games (LSU v. Va. Tech excepted for the patsies part, but still a home game).
I think that all BCS confrences should play at least 3 BCS non confrence games that will settle a lot of the Fluff schedual talk. i know i would rather see LSU V Ill over LSU V middle tenn state. or OSU V Vanderbuilt insted of OSU V the ZIPS. Man i would never do anything but watch football on saturday it that would happen. This would help the BCS lower level schools with a couple of extra pay-checks Because there services would be requested by everyone
PS. Golden Bear Did Tenn not bring almost 20000 fans to the Game?
Jon,
When does the BCS contract expire? It can’t be soon enough and coaches\presidents start thinking about what’s best for ALL, not just the BIG 666.
~mws
I am a fan of this blog. But how can you say the BCS system worked? sure, some people say there was a lot of excitement, but that’s because many teams were angry about being screwed over. It’s been said over and over, but what about missouri? what about hawaii? HOW IS IT FAIR THAT LSU JUMPED FROM NUMBER 7 BACK TO NUMBER 2? its not fair, case and point. It’s a case of bias, glamour, and money that make this system so screwed up.
That takes us to a playoff. Frankly, i’m all in favor. I’m tired of letting these “voters”, whoever they are, getting to decide the fate of these teams! let the results speak for themselves. Let the teams battle it out. College football deserves a true winner, not just some team who lucked out with the right schedule.
Ohio state — you played a weak conference and were able to make the jump by doing nothing. LSU — The system gave you way too many chances, better not screw that up. Georgia and Hawaii — i’m looking forward to your game. USC — too bad the stanford game diminished your efforts in everybodys eyes, you’re playing amazing and nobody took notice. After beating a number six team while LSU scraped by, you were clearly shafted.
As for the bcs title game OSU vs. LSU, i’m not even watching. that will be crap. LSU is going to blow OSU out of the water, and i fucking hate LSU.
Jon,
The BCS hosed the Pac 10 again. When SC went to the BCS, a second place, one loss Pac 10 team was not good enough for the Rose Bowl, but this year a three-loss Big 10 school gets invited to the Granddaddy of them all? Hawaii should have been invited to the Rose Bowl and ASU should have played Georgia. It would have made both games interesting.