Tuesday, January 09, 2007

BCS Proven Wrong Again

Two months ago the football world "knew" that Ohio State was the best team in college football and that Michigan was a clear number two.

First Michigan loses to a two loss USC team by two touchdowns in a game that wasn't that close. Then something funny happened on the way to the Buckeyes coronation. A beatdown at the hands of what was the ugliest good team in college football all season, the Florida Gators.

Meanwhile the little engine that could, the Boise State Broncos played the most entertaining bowl game in years when they upset a heavily favored Oklahoma team to go undefeated for the second time in three years. Yet the Broncs will be on the outside looking as they finished just fifth in the AP rankings.

Elsewhere the Louisville Cardinals are left to wonder what if. What if they had played just a hair better when they traveled to Rutgers to play the biggest college football game in the history of the state of New Jersey? Well, they could have been playing the role of spoiler to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. Now that chance seems to be gone with exit of Bobby Petrino to the Atlanta Falcons (mistake) to become the next embattled head coach for would be QB Michael Vick (mistake.)

We all know what would fix this entire thing. We all know the one word the college presidents could utter that would pull this stink-burger out of dumpster and polish into a fully dressed Triple Prime Burger from Ruby Tuesdays.

Playoffs.

It's that easy. Everyone's doing it. It's the coolest things. We take the element of falliable computers that are ran by even more falliable men and settle it on the field just like everyone else does from Pop Warner to the Super Bowl.

What amazes me is when people mention playoffs, they still want to get it wrong. They say, "How about a four team playoff?" Or "How about a 'plus 1' game?"

NO! How about a sixteen team playoff just like I-AA uses to crown it's champion.

For the record, here's how it would have looked using the BCS rankings like an RPI to sort the top 16.

1. Ohio State vs. 16. Rutgers
2. Florida vs. 15. Virginia Tech
3. Michigan vs. 14. Wake Forest
4. LSU vs. 13. West Virginia
5. USC vs. 12. Arkansas
6. Louisville vs. 11. Notre Dame
7. Wisconsin vs. 10. Oklahoma
8. Boise State vs. Auburn

Likely Second Round:
Ohio State vs. Boise State
USC vs. LSU
UofL vs. Michigan
Oklahoma vs. Florida

From there who knows. But who wouldn't love that?!?

1 comment:

Piccu said...

The presidents of the shcools that get $17 milion dollars to play in a meaningless bowl game wouldn't love that. I didn't watch the Boise State/OK game because in my eyes it was the battle for 9th place. I had no interest in watching two teams that had no shot at being number 1. And I missed one the greatest games of all time, reportedly. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

I would have watched if that was a playoff game. But whether I watch or not is irrelevant. The colleges get the cash no matter what.

What I don't get is the presidents' argument against degrading the quality of the bowls by having a playoff. On Sunday the Internationl Bowl was played with Cincinnati taking on another crappy school. A playoff would degrade the quality of the bowls? The bowls are degrading the quality of the bowls. I watched 4 bowl games this year, Kentucky's, USC/Michigan, LSU/ND, and the championship. That's 4 out of what, 35.

What I would really like to see and this would help me to better accept the BCS, is for the college presidents to just come out and say we want it this way because we get lots o' money. Be honest and I think things would be a little better accepted.