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Excellent ESPN article about the BCS mess


Sgt. Ryan
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http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...mp;sportCat=ncf

 

The only people who love college football more than me are Bebes Maisel, Joe Paterno and the Auburn fans who TP'd Toomer's Corner after a sixth consecutive Iron Bowl win against Bama.

 

 

And yet, I still have issues with the game. I'm not talking about the dumbest rule in sports (penalizing a team for what an uptight official deems "excessive" celebration after a touchdown), or that Reggie Bush still hasn't come clean about his relationship with sports agents at USC, or that recruiting rankings are really interesting, but should be taken with a shovel-full of salt. I'm talking about misconceptions.

 

So, because I care, the Three Myths of College Football:

 

The BCS Works

The BCS works as well as Kim Kardashian in the lead role of "The Eleanor Roosevelt Story." It is the Kim Jong Il of college football: dictatorial and isolationist. BCS cheerleaders figure if they ignore the logic of a playoff system long enough, maybe it will all just go away.

 

[+] EnlargeG. Newman Lowrance/Getty Images

 

Chase Daniel and Missouri are No. 1. But would the Tigers survive a playoff?

The truth is, the BCS is held together by rolls of duct tape and stubbornness. First the well-intentioned Bowl Coalition, then the Bowl Alliance, and now the Bowl Championship Series. And they still can't get it right.

 

Just last week BCS administrators had to tweak their "system" for about the billionth time. The latest bandage was applied after it became apparent that the BCS might not have enough eligible at-large teams for its five games. Oops. The BCS works so well that the only undefeated team in the country, Hawaii, could finish the regular season 12-0 and still get squeezed out of a BCS bowl game. Meanwhile, two-loss Georgia, which didn't even win its conference division or qualify for its league championship game, could conceivably play in a national title game. Huh?

 

And the next person who smugly tells me, "We don't need a playoff system because we already have one: the regular season," is going to get a Mike Gundy-a-gram. Look, if the regular season were really a playoff, Ohio State would have been eliminated Nov. 10, when it lost at home to Illinois. West Virginia would have been history when it lost to a South Florida team that later experienced a three-game free fall. Missouri would have been through when it lost decisively at Oklahoma on Oct. 13. LSU would have been done after an OT loss at Kentucky on the same Saturday. Virginia Tech would have been cooked after a Sept. 8 loss at LSU and most definitely after an Oct. 25 loss at home against Boston College. And USC's hopes would have expired the exact minute it lost at home to a Stanford team that couldn't beat Notre Dame.

 

Instead, the Buckeyes, Mountaineers, Hokies and both Tigers are somehow still on the short list, while unbeaten Hawaii and its absolutely hellacious offense is placed in BCS quarantine. Explain that. And while you're at it, explain why the Hokies, who have the same 10-2 record as Boston College, are five spots ahead of the Eagles in the latest BCS standings. You can't.

 

Just think if you could take Ohio State, West Virginia, LSU, Mizzou, Hawaii, BC (sorry, Hokies -- BC won on your field), Oklahoma and USC (sorry, Kansas and Georgia -- you've got to win your conference or at least reach your conference championship game to qualify), and then start an eight-team, seven-game playoff. How's this for a first-round schedule:

 

Warriors vs. Mountaineers, Tigers vs. Tigers, Buckeyes vs. Sooners, and Trojans vs. Eagles.

 

But no, we're stuck with the BCS and its weekly standings weirdness. For example, Missouri is your No. 1 team in the country. This is like Homer Simpson picking up Eva Mendes at a Chi Omega party.

 

Nothing against Mizzou and quarterback Chase Daniel, but the Tigers aren't the No. 1 team in the country. They aren't even favored in Vegas to beat No. 9 Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship (Mizzou is a 3-point dog).

 

Missouri is ranked first because somebody needs to be there, and because there is no clear-cut No. 1. There are lots of No. 2s and 3s, which is yet another reason a playoff would work, as opposed to this BCS mess.

 

Just in case anybody needs instructions, contact the NCAA and its Division I-FCS, Division II and III football teams. They've had an actual playoff system for decades.

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