Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Postseason Post
It's time for a college football blog post. The regular season is over, and the bowls have yet to start. It's time to evaluate how the season went, and how badly the postseason messed things up.
BYU's 2009 Season
First off, as a BYU fan, I have to be honest with myself and say that I'm pleased with the Cougars' 10-2 record for the fourth year in a row. There are those out there who won't be satisfied with anything less than 12-0 and a BCS bowl game, but I guess I'm more of a realist than that. I'm satisfied with being ranked at all at the end of the season. And I'm happy that they beat then-#3 Oklahoma. Boy am I happy about that. After all, BYU is a school, and it's a school with a special mission. The mission doesn't require winning every single football game. And this year's BYU Bowl - er, Las Vegas Bowl - opponent, Oregon State, is probably the best team we've ever faced there. Just think - only six more years and BYU might have the chance to play every Pac-10 team in the Las Vegas Bowl.
We're looking forward to going to see the Cougs play in Talahassee next September.
Two Observations about the Mountain West
1. This is the sixth year in a row where the conference champion went undefeated in conference. Utah did it in 2004, TCU in 2005, BYU in 2006 and 2007, Utah in 2008, and TCU in 2009. Sounds like BYU is ready to do it again in 2010 and 2011.
2. If you take a look at the final conference standings, you'll see something interesting. No two teams have the same conference record - they go from 8-0 all the way down to 0-8. Each team lost to every team above it and beat every team below it.
BCS Selections
Okay, now on to the postseason. I've said before that althoug I'd prefer a playoff, I'd be happy if they just did away with the automatic berths for particular conference champions. They should just give automatic bids to the top six conference champions according to the final BCS rankings. Last year, for example, Boise State was the sixth-highest-ranked conference champion, and it got left out.
Well, guess what? It got done right this year. The top six champions are Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, TCU, Boise State, and Oregon. Those teams are all playing in BCS bowls. In fact, this is the first year that I can recall (and I'm too lazy to look it up to see if I'm right) that the ten teams in the five BCS games are actually ranked #1 through #10. So I guess I should be pretty happy about that.
Fiesta Bowl Matchup
Of course, I'm on the side of the people who think that it's a shame Boise State and TCU are playing each other in the Fiesta Bowl. Yes, I realize that it will be a better game than Boise State-Iowa or TCU-Georgia Tech, which I was expecting, and it's a more worthy opponent for each team, and they're treating the teams like equals (sort of). But here's the problem: one of them has to lose the game. Yes, TCU can indeed prove more by beating Boise State than it could by beating Georgia Tech. It's possible the winner of the BSU-TCU game will end up ranked #2, just like Utah last year. But the problem is that the loser will be forgotten and will drop like a stone in the rankings. Say TCU wins (as I expect they will). Boise will be discarded and people will still say "they didn't beat anyone except a fluke of a game against Oregon." I don't know which team to cheer for. I'm an unabashed Mountain West Conference fan, but I've also been on the Boise State Bandwagon for a long, long time. I really was looking forward to watching two different BCS games and watching the "underdogs" beat up on the "big boys" (even if the underdogs were ranked higher).
The thing is, we all have to watch this game. We need to show the Powers That Be that these smaller, non-tradition-rich schools can draw an audience. That's the main reason they don't get the credit and respect they deserve, especially in the postseason, where it really is all about money.
Playoff
Of course, all these problems could be solved if they would just implement a playoff. My ideal playoff scenario would be a 16-team field involving all 11 conference champions and 5 at-large teams, very similar to the scenario outlined by Dan Wetzel in this article. Yes, as he points out, there might be a little controversy as to whether LSU is better than BYU, but even as a BYU fan, I can accept his selection of LSU and be happy because I know that neither of those teams is likely to make it through the playoff. (Actually, I think I would support a 2-team-per-conference limit, which would put BYU, not LSU, into the playoff). What's not to love about this plan? As it is, we could end up with as many as three unbeaten teams. Which one of them is the best? We'll never know.
BYU's 2009 Season
First off, as a BYU fan, I have to be honest with myself and say that I'm pleased with the Cougars' 10-2 record for the fourth year in a row. There are those out there who won't be satisfied with anything less than 12-0 and a BCS bowl game, but I guess I'm more of a realist than that. I'm satisfied with being ranked at all at the end of the season. And I'm happy that they beat then-#3 Oklahoma. Boy am I happy about that. After all, BYU is a school, and it's a school with a special mission. The mission doesn't require winning every single football game. And this year's BYU Bowl - er, Las Vegas Bowl - opponent, Oregon State, is probably the best team we've ever faced there. Just think - only six more years and BYU might have the chance to play every Pac-10 team in the Las Vegas Bowl.
We're looking forward to going to see the Cougs play in Talahassee next September.
Two Observations about the Mountain West
1. This is the sixth year in a row where the conference champion went undefeated in conference. Utah did it in 2004, TCU in 2005, BYU in 2006 and 2007, Utah in 2008, and TCU in 2009. Sounds like BYU is ready to do it again in 2010 and 2011.
2. If you take a look at the final conference standings, you'll see something interesting. No two teams have the same conference record - they go from 8-0 all the way down to 0-8. Each team lost to every team above it and beat every team below it.
BCS Selections
Okay, now on to the postseason. I've said before that althoug I'd prefer a playoff, I'd be happy if they just did away with the automatic berths for particular conference champions. They should just give automatic bids to the top six conference champions according to the final BCS rankings. Last year, for example, Boise State was the sixth-highest-ranked conference champion, and it got left out.
Well, guess what? It got done right this year. The top six champions are Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, TCU, Boise State, and Oregon. Those teams are all playing in BCS bowls. In fact, this is the first year that I can recall (and I'm too lazy to look it up to see if I'm right) that the ten teams in the five BCS games are actually ranked #1 through #10. So I guess I should be pretty happy about that.
Fiesta Bowl Matchup
Of course, I'm on the side of the people who think that it's a shame Boise State and TCU are playing each other in the Fiesta Bowl. Yes, I realize that it will be a better game than Boise State-Iowa or TCU-Georgia Tech, which I was expecting, and it's a more worthy opponent for each team, and they're treating the teams like equals (sort of). But here's the problem: one of them has to lose the game. Yes, TCU can indeed prove more by beating Boise State than it could by beating Georgia Tech. It's possible the winner of the BSU-TCU game will end up ranked #2, just like Utah last year. But the problem is that the loser will be forgotten and will drop like a stone in the rankings. Say TCU wins (as I expect they will). Boise will be discarded and people will still say "they didn't beat anyone except a fluke of a game against Oregon." I don't know which team to cheer for. I'm an unabashed Mountain West Conference fan, but I've also been on the Boise State Bandwagon for a long, long time. I really was looking forward to watching two different BCS games and watching the "underdogs" beat up on the "big boys" (even if the underdogs were ranked higher).
The thing is, we all have to watch this game. We need to show the Powers That Be that these smaller, non-tradition-rich schools can draw an audience. That's the main reason they don't get the credit and respect they deserve, especially in the postseason, where it really is all about money.
Playoff
Of course, all these problems could be solved if they would just implement a playoff. My ideal playoff scenario would be a 16-team field involving all 11 conference champions and 5 at-large teams, very similar to the scenario outlined by Dan Wetzel in this article. Yes, as he points out, there might be a little controversy as to whether LSU is better than BYU, but even as a BYU fan, I can accept his selection of LSU and be happy because I know that neither of those teams is likely to make it through the playoff. (Actually, I think I would support a 2-team-per-conference limit, which would put BYU, not LSU, into the playoff). What's not to love about this plan? As it is, we could end up with as many as three unbeaten teams. Which one of them is the best? We'll never know.
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