Monday, December 06, 2004
Football Commentary
OK, so now that the regular season for college football is over, we know everything we're going to know. Here are the top 12 things we know:
1. The USC-Oklahoma national championship will be a great game.
2. A USC-Auburn or Oklahoma-Auburn national championship would have been every bit as good.
3. Therefore, the BCS sucks.
4. Pitt doesn't deserve to be in the dance. Utah will whip their booties, led by the head coach of Florida and the head coach of UNLV (and maybe also the head coach of BYU).
5. The Rose Bowl powers that be hate the BCS system.
6. Cal hates the BCS system and regrets not running up the score. They deserve to be in the dance.
7. The Liberty Bowl counts as a BCS game this year, because it's going to be a better game than the Rose Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl and probably even the Sugar Bowl.
8. Therefore, the BCS sucks.
9. Money talks. Urban Meyer passed up his dream job because of one single factor: cha-ching.
10. The entire nation would have loved it if USC, Oklahoma, Auburn, AND Cal had all lost on Saturday. That would have put Virginia Tech and Utah in the Orange Bowl for the national championship, USC and Michigan in the Rose Bowl, Colorado and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, and Tennessee and Louisville in the Sugar Bowl (they'd HAVE to have passed up Pitt in that case).
11. This year's major tweak to the BCS system will be a requirement that any BCS conference champion has to be ranked at least so high in order to qualify for the automatic bid. But the number will be greater than 12.
12. Therefore, the BCS sucks.
1. The USC-Oklahoma national championship will be a great game.
2. A USC-Auburn or Oklahoma-Auburn national championship would have been every bit as good.
3. Therefore, the BCS sucks.
4. Pitt doesn't deserve to be in the dance. Utah will whip their booties, led by the head coach of Florida and the head coach of UNLV (and maybe also the head coach of BYU).
5. The Rose Bowl powers that be hate the BCS system.
6. Cal hates the BCS system and regrets not running up the score. They deserve to be in the dance.
7. The Liberty Bowl counts as a BCS game this year, because it's going to be a better game than the Rose Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl and probably even the Sugar Bowl.
8. Therefore, the BCS sucks.
9. Money talks. Urban Meyer passed up his dream job because of one single factor: cha-ching.
10. The entire nation would have loved it if USC, Oklahoma, Auburn, AND Cal had all lost on Saturday. That would have put Virginia Tech and Utah in the Orange Bowl for the national championship, USC and Michigan in the Rose Bowl, Colorado and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, and Tennessee and Louisville in the Sugar Bowl (they'd HAVE to have passed up Pitt in that case).
11. This year's major tweak to the BCS system will be a requirement that any BCS conference champion has to be ranked at least so high in order to qualify for the automatic bid. But the number will be greater than 12.
12. Therefore, the BCS sucks.
Comments:
The BCS needs to decide what its real motives are: declare the legitimate national champion or have 1 vs. 2 while trying to preserve "bowl tradition". Screw tradition, let's determine the actual national champion. How stupid is it for a player at Michigan to say at the beginning of the season, "We got to play hard this year so we can play the PAC-10 champion in the Rose Bowl." The kids are playing for a national championship and there needs to be a reliable system in place to facilitate it. A playoff system with NO automatic bids for Conference Champions (eliminating undeserving underdogs who got lucky in a game K-State '03) and eliminating undeserving teams (Pitt '04).
I don't think the BCS's real motivation is either declaring a true national champion OR having #1 v. #2 while preserving bowl tradition. The BCS exists for one reason: To make money for ABC and six of the eleven conferences. And so far it has succeeded in doing that. Can't ABC put together a deal where they televise all the games of a playoff? That's even MORE TV revenue!
And by the way, I think eliminating all conference champ automatic bids is a bold move, would probably improve the system for everyone (it would allow many teams from a strong conference, and would have less bias against a traditionally weak conference), but it will never ever happen. If we remove the significance of conference championships, then there is no purpose to even having conferences. Hmm... That's an intriguing idea as well...
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And by the way, I think eliminating all conference champ automatic bids is a bold move, would probably improve the system for everyone (it would allow many teams from a strong conference, and would have less bias against a traditionally weak conference), but it will never ever happen. If we remove the significance of conference championships, then there is no purpose to even having conferences. Hmm... That's an intriguing idea as well...
