The BCS has decided, Now fall into line

The final BCS Standings have been released. The National Championship has pitted Ohio State against LSU. This is due to the previous two top teams losing in the last week of the season. West Virginia lost an unlikely game to Pittsburgh. Had WVU played like they normally do, they would be on their way to a National Championship, their first. Instead, they are relegated to an, although successful season, still a disappointment. Missouri also had a shot. One week after defeating #2 ranked Kansas in a border war, they earned a trip to the Big 12 title game to face the only team that had defeated them in this season, Oklahoma. Mizzou was holding the top spot in the Nation, and all they had to do was beat the Sooners on a neutral field. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t even hang with the Sooners. Oklahoma proved that they were better than the #1 team in the nation, not once this year, but twice.
So the question is, who should be playing for the title. We know who is, but who should be there. We will hear arguments from Georgia, USC, Oklahoma, LSU ought to make an argument to justify themselves, as should Ohio State. The best team in the country is such a difficult determination, that the only true way to determine it, is to have a playoff. Normally, we don’t have such a predicament, because one team does what is expected and wins all of their games.
Wait a minute, you say, didn’t Hawaii win all of their games. Yes they did. And they provided a formula to get other mid-majors into a BCS game. First of all, you need to win your conference, and do so undefeated. This is a hard thing to do, but not impossible. BYU has done so the past two years, and Boise State did so last year. Boise had an opportunity to do so again, but failed to beat Hawaii. The second step is to schedule weak opponents for non-conference games. This is the key. If a “mid-major” wishes to play with the big boys, they need to make sure that they don’t lose a non-conference game, and schedule pansies, push-overs, and weaklings. In fact, if you aren’t sure, go ahead and schedule teams that don’t even play in the same sub-division. This helps. This way, you are ensured to win all of your non-conference games, and then your tough goal is to win your conference. A conference championship isn’t good enough, only an undefeated season will get you in the BCS, unless you already belong to such a conference. In that case, you can actually suffer two losses and play for the National Title. Now playing these push-overs won’t get you national respect, and won’t get you a top 5 ranking, even after going undefeated through the season; it will only ensure that you play in a BCS game, and receive millions of dollars.
So since Hawaii doesn’t deserve to play in the National Championship game, who does? Does a two loss team really belong there? I don’t like this, but I am willing to concede Ohio State to a spot in the title game. I don’t think they are the best team, and I don’t think that they are even the second best team, but they won all their games, save one. They hold the best record apart from Hawaii. Did Ohio State play a tough non-conference schedule? No. Did they go undefeated in a tough BCS conference? No. Did they at least win a tough BCS conference? No. They won a BCS conference, but the Big 10 is by far the weakest of the BCS conferences this year, and may in fact be worse than the WAC and the MWC. Yet, somehow the Big 10 earned two spots in the BCS games. Thank you Rose Bowl for allowing this to happen. Ohio State has the best record over the past two years. They have suffered only two losses over the past two years, and as we’ve seen, all teams, save Hawaii and Kansas, have suffered two losses this year. So Ohio State gets one spot. Congratulations to them.
Who gets the next spot? Many of you have perhaps suspected my bias, but I believe Oklahoma deserves to play there. I will address that last. Does USC belong there? They beat Arizona State, pushing them out of contention, but they did lose to Stanford. They also lost to Oregon, but that was when Dennis Dixon was playing, and the Ducks with Dixon is a top 2 team. That loss to Stanford was ugly. It was close, but it was Stanford, with a Freshman quarterback, who had never played a college snap. They aren’t the same team they were two years back, when they lost in the National Championship game. Sorry Pete.
What about Georgia? I really don’t think they deserve a spot in the game either. The Bulldog’s didn’t even win their conference. Their two losses came at the hands of Tennessee, a good team, and South Carolina, a mediocre 6-6 team. This year, if you can’t win your conference, you don’t deserve a chance at the title.
What about Virginia Tech? They lost to LSU, and LSU proved they were a better team. If LSU is in the conversation, Vatech is not.
So how about LSU? Obviously they are deservingly in the conversation. In fact, most people seem to think they are the best team in the nation, and that is why they are going to play in the game. In my opinion however, they don’t. I’ll give them credit for continuing to win these close games, but they could have just as easily been 7-5 rather than 11-2. (Note, I took away the SEC championship victory, because had they lost the other games, they wouldn’t have played in it. I may be bad a math, but not that bad.) So they are the best team in the SEC, but contrary to popular belief, the SEC is not the end all of college football. They are a conference that has a bunch of middle of the pack teams with anywhere from 2 - 9 losses. The average number of losses for an SEC team is 5, rounding up from 4.75. This just happens to be this year, other years, the SEC is still a good conference.
What about the other two loss teams. Arizona State has two losses, but they recently lost to USC, and USC is the conference champs, so the benefit of the doubt goes to USC. Boise State also has two losses, but their most recent loss came at the hands of Hawaii, and if Hawaii doesn’t deserve it, neither does Boise State. West Virginia has already been discussed.
Then there is BYU. They have two losses, their two losses were both at the beginning of the season. They have won 9 straight games. They have the second longest active winning streak in the country, second to Hawaii. They have gone undefeated in conference, for the second straight year. They are averaging over 30 points a game over the season. Their defense has yet to allow a 100 yard rusher. Yet, they are only ranked 19th. They are being overlooked by everyone. They are returning to the Vegas bowl, for the 3rd year in a row, and are facing one of the teams that beat them early in the season, UCLA. Doesn’t BYU get a chance to show that they could be the best team in the country. Their losses to UCLA and Tulsa are no worse than losses to Oregon and Stanford, or Colorado and Texas Tech, or Tennessee and South Carolina, or Kentucky and Arkansas. And BYU’s losses came early in the season. That should have opened the door for them to be ranked higher, but instead it prevented them from being ranked until late in the season. In my opinion, BYU probably isn’t the best team in the nation, but we will never know. They struggled just like everyone else, but have been winning since, and longer than everyone but Hawaii.
So, why do I think Oklahoma deserves to play in the National Title? Here’s why. They have played a strong non-conference schedule. They played Miami, they played Tulsa, at Tulsa, they did play Utah State as a gimme, but I’m willing to excuse one cupcake as normally everyone plays more than that. The Big 12 is a tough conference this year, probably the toughest. Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas are all ranked in the top 15. Texas Tech scores like crazy, and Colorado is on the up and up. The Sooner’s had to play a tough conference schedule and ended up losing twice. They beat their rival Texas on a neutral field and they beat Mizzou twice, once will they were ranked 9th and once while they were ranked 1st. One of their losses was on the road, without their starting quarterback. The other was lost on a field goal, also on the road. There are many reasons why I think Oklahoma is the best team in the country. Had the kicker from Colorado missed that 40+ yard field goal, it is likely that the Sooner’s would have won that game, and ended up with only 1 loss, a loss without their starting, record setting quarterback. Instead of playing for the title, the national media kept their love-fest going with the SEC and voting for LSU.
So in summation, the BCS is flawed. The only way we will ever see a consensus on a National Champion is if we institute a playoff. I am not saying that I am for a playoff, in fact I’m not. But I am also not in favor of the BCS. It is a flawed system, and it rewards teams that are undeserving, such as Illinois, and this year Kansas, since Missouri deserved to play in stead. It keeps out other deserving teams. Not just the mid-majors. If I was the Pac 10, I’d be pissed. Instead of getting two teams, ASU being the second, they only get one, and once aain get shafted. It happened to Cal, to Oregon, and now to ASU.