The BCS is garbage.
Even when it works, someone has a problem. Usually legitimate. At least in college basketball, the problems happen during the selection process, a full month before the national championship game. With the BCS, problems begin the first day the rankings are released and continue until about the middle of the 3rd quarter of the MNC game.
No one points out one of the biggest deficiencies of the BCS better than this piece by Wendell Barnhouse -- who's name frankly sounds made-up -- in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Star-Telegram:
Two of the most popular exhibits in the BCS' Hall of Shame are the 2001 and 2003 seasons. In both cases (Nebraska in '01 and Oklahoma in '03), a team reached the BCS title game without winning its conference championship.Obviously, this is the scenario we as Mountaineer fans want to have play out this season. But, in the interest of college football, there needs to be a rule change.
...
Should West Virginia win out, it will be 11-1 and atop the Big East standings. If South Florida wins its remaining games, the Bulls and the Mountaineers would be the only Big East teams with one loss.South Florida, based on its head-to-head victory over West Virginia, would be Big East champions. The Bulls, 12th in the coaches' and Harris polls and 10th in the BCS standings, are long shots to reach the BCS title game.
While it would require more upsets -- and based on what's transpired, that's not exactly a reach -- it's not out of the question that West Virginia could wind up ranked No. 2 in the final BCS standings.
Yep, that's right. West Virginia could play in the BCS title game and not be the top team in its conference. At least the Mountaineers could claim to be "co-champions," which is something Nebraska and Oklahoma couldn't do.
Simply amending the BCS qualification rules to require winning your own conference's championship (along with any tiebreakers) would help shore up a faulty BCS process. Reason suggests that if you're not the best team in your conference of 8-12 teams, then how can you compete for the title of best team in America?
Hopefully -- soon -- you won't be able to.
5 comments:
I remember a co-worker of mine that was a Miami fan that season and it used to bother him to no end when we would tell him that the 'canes could only get a NC by playing the second best team in the Big 12....now if both WVU and USF win out and this were to still happen, I know the Ohio State fans I live around and work with would do much of the same, but hell with it I will take playing in the big one no matter what those clowns, including my father-in-law, have to say about it.
Trust me, this year, I will absolutely take it. Won't even feel guilty about it.
But after this year, it makes more sense to fix it.
I agree about fixing it, and undoubtedly agree that it should be next year, the sooner the better.
The BCS will never get fixed. Its been broken for years.
Bottome line is there needs to be a playoff. Only allowing two teams to play for a championship, even in years where there are only two undefeateds, just does not make sense. Keep the lower level bowls and corporate sponsors for all games.
This could be the year the BCS gets blown-up.
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