Here is my breakdown of the BCS. It sucks.
Aren't you glad you visited this website for such a novel opinion?
But seriously, lets count the number of legitimate national champions since the BCS had its inaugural season.
1998 Tennessee
JNG: The Vols were a worthy and deserving champion defeating a one loss Florida State team that was actually favored to win the game in the title game. Tee Martin led the team to a 13-0 season which included beating eight bowl teams, including six January bowl teams, four top ten teams and three BCS bowl-bound teams.
MLC: You can't argue with those stats. The Vols were clearly the best team in the nation that year. But if you're giving the BCS a pass for the '98 season, you're sorely mistaken. Let's travel back 9 years and 10 months to December 1998. Tennessee was the clear number one heading into conference title game week. Because Hurricane Georges had destroyed Miami in September, UCLA had to travel cross country to play a makeup game late in the season instead of early. Cade McNown was a Heisman candidate, and the Bruins had only to beat the unranked Hurricanes and they were into the national title game. But Edgerrin James ran all over the powder blue in Little Havana. So down goes the number two team in the nation.
No problem, right? Let's just plug number three in there and go to war in Tempe. Except that number three was Kansas State. Quarterback Michael Bishop led a triple option attack that had Bill Snyder's crew undefeated going into the Big XII Championship game in San Antonio. They had only to be lowly Texas A&M (remember when the Big XII North was good and the South was bad?), and they'd be joining the day-glow orange volunteers on Mill Street in Tempe. So when Sir Parker (Yes, his name was Sir) beat the Wildcats in overtime, and Dat Nguyn's team won the Big XII, the BCS was thrown into chaos in it's innaugural season.
That left Florida State. FSU had one loss to NC State on the road, and that was Chris Weinke threw six interceptions in his first ever college start. Weinke turned out to be a good quarterback, but Virginia's Patrick Kearney broke his neck later in the season. Weinke was out, and backup Marcus Outzen was in. How this kid got a scholarship to FSU during the dominant '90s, no body knows.
You can't really back into a title game more than FSU did. I was at the UVA game when Weinke got hurt, and I was at the title game in Tempe on January 3, 1999. The score was 23-14. Rocky Top is the most obnoxious song ever. It was not a good title game, and so the BCS may have got it right, but it didn't acheive its goal of bringing us a good title game between the two best teams in the country.
1999 Florida State
JNG: Undefeated FSU beats Michael Vick and the undefeated Hokies. Thank God FSU won this game. The thought of having to live in a world where Va. Tech and "National Champion"...well, I can't even imagine. I believe it's in The Bible under Revelations.
MLC: My only argument here would be that the Hokies beat the likes of JMU (1-AA), UConn
(1-AA at the time), and UAB among other lightweights to end up with an undefeated record. But still, the two best teams, an exciting title game, this was a great year for the BCS.
2005 Texas
JNG: No arguments here. USC and Texas were #1 and #2 nearly all year before colliding in an epic title game at the Rose Bowl. Who can forget Vince Young both throwing and rushing for over 200 yards? Speaking of which, has any truly great college quarterback fallen off the map with such a thud as VY? What's he doing now? Wait, what? He's still playing football?
MLC: No arguments here either.
2007 LSU
JNG: Ah, the media proclaimed "Year of the Upset". An unranked or lower-ranked opponent defeated a higher ranked team 59 times over the course of the season. A record setting 13 unranked teams defeated top 5 teams during the regular season. Michigan lost to I-AA Appalachian State in the Big House to set the tone. Of note, USC went on to lose to a Stanford team ranked 80 spots below them while all West Virginia had to do was beat a 4-7 Pittsburgh team to get to the national championship game...and of course lost. WVU became the last of seven #2 ranked teams to lose during the year. Incredibly, a 2 loss LSU team thrashed a one loss, and SEC favorite, Ohio State for the crystal ball and no one could really be left to argue.
MLC: Can we just bar the Big 10 from being involved in national title games until they prove they deserve it? Maybe by not getting blown out in the Rose Bowl every year?
JNG: So count em': 1,2,3.4.
The BCS has only had four non-arguable National Champions in 11 seasons of existence. That's .363%, which would be great... if we were talking batting percentages.
So why those four? It is difficult to crown anyone "the best of the best" if, quite simply, they aren't playing the next best team. Those four instances are the only national championship games where the two teams playing were quite clearly the best teams in the country.
Now, I have no doubt in my mind that 2001 Miami and 2004 USC would have obliterated whomever the BCS sacrificially chose for them (just as they obliterated Nebraska and Oklahoma). The problem is that the system chose the wrong opponents, which is not only a disservice to the teams and their respective legacies but also to the fans who are left to wonder 'what if''.
Well, what if...
2000 Oklahoma
JNG: The dawn of the new millennium marked both a milestone in my athletic career and the exact year I began to see just how wonderful the world of the BCS could be.
My whole life up until this point I had been a stocky, little tight end or defensive end on my pee wee teams.Then 7th grade hit, I grew eight inches and became seemingly fast overnight. Years and years of throwing a mini foam football to myself in my living room somehow paid off into being able to throw an actual football to other people. I was one of a handful of 7th graders to make the varsity team and I needed someone to look up to, someone to aspire to. Naturally, I came to find the ever-so-white and unathletic Miami QB Ken Dorsey. I followed the Hurricanes religiously that year, and all of Dorsey's years for that matter. Thus, it still pains and frustrates me that a one-loss Canes team could be passed over for the national championship game whilst a team they had beaten head-to-head got play in it. Making matters even more complicated, the team that beat Miami, eventual Pac-10 Champion Washington, also finished the season with one loss. Both the Canes and the Huskies dominated their respective BCS bowls.
Luckily, the Sooners put to rest any doubt to who the best team in the land was by winning in a 13-2 thriller...
MLC: Holy shit dude, spare me the comparisons between you and Ken Dorsey. The NCAA suspended FSU's top wide out Marvin "Snoop" Minnis because he "had no idea he was failing two classes." Yeah. OK, he was a total moron, not unlike Peter Warrick the year before who took a 96% discount on clothes and other items from a Tallahassee Dillard's and got hosed on the Heisman. We've had this argument before. The 'Canes deserved to be in the title game over the' Noles. UDub should've been there too. Whatever can we just have a playoff?
2001 Miami
JNG: The Canes destroyed Nebraska in the title game 37-14. Unfortunately their opponent in the title game was unworthy of such a beating considering Nebraska hadn't even MADE it to the Big XII title game after losing to Colorado by 36 points in the season finale. A one loss Oregon team was a more deserving foe as they were ranked second in both human polls.
Let there be no doubt that a Miami team with Ken Dorsey, Clinton Portis, Frank Gore, Willis McGahee, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow Jr., Ed Reed, Jonathon Vilma, Vince Wilfork, Andre Johnson, Bryant McKinnie, Najah Davenport, D.J. Williams, Mike Rumph, and Phillip Buchanon, would have destroyed Oregon too.
Hell, I'd put my money on 2001 Miami if they played. the 2009 Washington Redskins.
MLC: We all know how Joey Harrington plays against NFL defenses. No one in history touches this 'Canes team. But that is an argument for another column (which is coming, by the way).
2002 Ohio State
JNG: I refuse to acknowledge the 14-0 Buckeyes for one simple reason....................
Oh, still waiting?.....
Just replaying it in my head.....
That horribly delayed and horribly bad pass interference call.
2003 LSU
JNG: No team in college football finished the year undefeated in 2003. However, 3 BCS conference teams did finish with only one loss: LSU, Oklahoma and USC.
Logically, USC, the number #1 ranked team in both human polls, was passed over for the BCS title game.Instead, learning nothing from previous mistakes, the computers selected an Oklahoma team who had just been soundly beaten in the Big XII title game.
The AP awarded the National Championship to USC, while the coaches were obligated to vote for LSU.
The BCS, where split national champions can still happen!
MLC: Yeah, wasn't that the point of the BCS? Nebraska and Michigan split the title in 1997 and the BCS was instituted the following year to end that bullshit. Everything about this season bothers me. Jason White wins the Heisman. Oklahoma plays in the national championship (and becomes the original perennial BCS disappointment before Ohio State claimed the crown). LSU basically plays a home game in the Sugar Bowl. We're deprived of an LSU-USC title game.
By the way, do you remember the talk that surrounded this Oklahoma team? Analysts were calling them one of the best teams in college football history. They were the juggernaut. They were unbeatable. Then they got absolutely housed by the Kansas State Wildcats. Then they got killed by LSU. Anyone can beat anyone. Playoff please.
2004 USC
JNG: Like 2001 Miami, I have no doubt in my mind USC, with Heisman winner Matt Leinart and eventual winner Reggie Bush, would have drubbed whomever was placed in front of them. Yet Auburn, an undefeated SEC Champion, never got in the discussion to even play for the title, never being able to rise past #3.
I am fairly certain the South would secede from the Union for a second time if this were to ever happen again.
MLC: Jason Campbell. Ronnie Brown. Cadillac Williams. Reggie Bush. Matt Leinart. I want to see this game. And the BCS stole it from me. I want justice. I want a playoff.
2006 Florida
JNG: Going into the final poll, undefeated Boise State and four one-loss teams (Michigan, Wisconsin, Louisville and Florida) were up for a sport against undefeated top-ranked Ohio State in the championship game in Glendale, Arizona. Of the one loss teams, Florida was probably the best, especially when you consider how badly the Buckeyes, Wolverines and the rest of the Big 10 were humiliated in their bowl games after being so ballyhooed all season. The conference still hasn't been able to restore its image.
I would have liked to have seen undefeated Boise State play though as they proved they could hang with the big boys by defeating Adrian Peterson and Oklahoma in that all-time classic Fiesta Bowl. Just imagine the significance of that hook-and-ladder or that Statue of Liberty hand-off if it were for the BCS crown. Imagine the mythology that would have followed Ian Johnson's proposal to his girlfriend and BSU cheerleader if he had just won the crystal ball...Imagine.
1998 Tennessee
JNG: The Vols were a worthy and deserving champion defeating a one loss Florida State team that was actually favored to win the game in the title game. Tee Martin led the team to a 13-0 season which included beating eight bowl teams, including six January bowl teams, four top ten teams and three BCS bowl-bound teams.
MLC: You can't argue with those stats. The Vols were clearly the best team in the nation that year. But if you're giving the BCS a pass for the '98 season, you're sorely mistaken. Let's travel back 9 years and 10 months to December 1998. Tennessee was the clear number one heading into conference title game week. Because Hurricane Georges had destroyed Miami in September, UCLA had to travel cross country to play a makeup game late in the season instead of early. Cade McNown was a Heisman candidate, and the Bruins had only to beat the unranked Hurricanes and they were into the national title game. But Edgerrin James ran all over the powder blue in Little Havana. So down goes the number two team in the nation.
No problem, right? Let's just plug number three in there and go to war in Tempe. Except that number three was Kansas State. Quarterback Michael Bishop led a triple option attack that had Bill Snyder's crew undefeated going into the Big XII Championship game in San Antonio. They had only to be lowly Texas A&M (remember when the Big XII North was good and the South was bad?), and they'd be joining the day-glow orange volunteers on Mill Street in Tempe. So when Sir Parker (Yes, his name was Sir) beat the Wildcats in overtime, and Dat Nguyn's team won the Big XII, the BCS was thrown into chaos in it's innaugural season.
That left Florida State. FSU had one loss to NC State on the road, and that was Chris Weinke threw six interceptions in his first ever college start. Weinke turned out to be a good quarterback, but Virginia's Patrick Kearney broke his neck later in the season. Weinke was out, and backup Marcus Outzen was in. How this kid got a scholarship to FSU during the dominant '90s, no body knows.
You can't really back into a title game more than FSU did. I was at the UVA game when Weinke got hurt, and I was at the title game in Tempe on January 3, 1999. The score was 23-14. Rocky Top is the most obnoxious song ever. It was not a good title game, and so the BCS may have got it right, but it didn't acheive its goal of bringing us a good title game between the two best teams in the country.
1999 Florida State
JNG: Undefeated FSU beats Michael Vick and the undefeated Hokies. Thank God FSU won this game. The thought of having to live in a world where Va. Tech and "National Champion"...well, I can't even imagine. I believe it's in The Bible under Revelations.
MLC: My only argument here would be that the Hokies beat the likes of JMU (1-AA), UConn
(1-AA at the time), and UAB among other lightweights to end up with an undefeated record. But still, the two best teams, an exciting title game, this was a great year for the BCS.
2005 Texas
JNG: No arguments here. USC and Texas were #1 and #2 nearly all year before colliding in an epic title game at the Rose Bowl. Who can forget Vince Young both throwing and rushing for over 200 yards? Speaking of which, has any truly great college quarterback fallen off the map with such a thud as VY? What's he doing now? Wait, what? He's still playing football?
MLC: No arguments here either.
2007 LSU
JNG: Ah, the media proclaimed "Year of the Upset". An unranked or lower-ranked opponent defeated a higher ranked team 59 times over the course of the season. A record setting 13 unranked teams defeated top 5 teams during the regular season. Michigan lost to I-AA Appalachian State in the Big House to set the tone. Of note, USC went on to lose to a Stanford team ranked 80 spots below them while all West Virginia had to do was beat a 4-7 Pittsburgh team to get to the national championship game...and of course lost. WVU became the last of seven #2 ranked teams to lose during the year. Incredibly, a 2 loss LSU team thrashed a one loss, and SEC favorite, Ohio State for the crystal ball and no one could really be left to argue.
MLC: Can we just bar the Big 10 from being involved in national title games until they prove they deserve it? Maybe by not getting blown out in the Rose Bowl every year?
JNG: So count em': 1,2,3.4.
The BCS has only had four non-arguable National Champions in 11 seasons of existence. That's .363%, which would be great... if we were talking batting percentages.
So why those four? It is difficult to crown anyone "the best of the best" if, quite simply, they aren't playing the next best team. Those four instances are the only national championship games where the two teams playing were quite clearly the best teams in the country.
Now, I have no doubt in my mind that 2001 Miami and 2004 USC would have obliterated whomever the BCS sacrificially chose for them (just as they obliterated Nebraska and Oklahoma). The problem is that the system chose the wrong opponents, which is not only a disservice to the teams and their respective legacies but also to the fans who are left to wonder 'what if''.
Well, what if...
2000 Oklahoma
JNG: The dawn of the new millennium marked both a milestone in my athletic career and the exact year I began to see just how wonderful the world of the BCS could be.
My whole life up until this point I had been a stocky, little tight end or defensive end on my pee wee teams.Then 7th grade hit, I grew eight inches and became seemingly fast overnight. Years and years of throwing a mini foam football to myself in my living room somehow paid off into being able to throw an actual football to other people. I was one of a handful of 7th graders to make the varsity team and I needed someone to look up to, someone to aspire to. Naturally, I came to find the ever-so-white and unathletic Miami QB Ken Dorsey. I followed the Hurricanes religiously that year, and all of Dorsey's years for that matter. Thus, it still pains and frustrates me that a one-loss Canes team could be passed over for the national championship game whilst a team they had beaten head-to-head got play in it. Making matters even more complicated, the team that beat Miami, eventual Pac-10 Champion Washington, also finished the season with one loss. Both the Canes and the Huskies dominated their respective BCS bowls.
Luckily, the Sooners put to rest any doubt to who the best team in the land was by winning in a 13-2 thriller...
MLC: Holy shit dude, spare me the comparisons between you and Ken Dorsey. The NCAA suspended FSU's top wide out Marvin "Snoop" Minnis because he "had no idea he was failing two classes." Yeah. OK, he was a total moron, not unlike Peter Warrick the year before who took a 96% discount on clothes and other items from a Tallahassee Dillard's and got hosed on the Heisman. We've had this argument before. The 'Canes deserved to be in the title game over the' Noles. UDub should've been there too. Whatever can we just have a playoff?
2001 Miami
JNG: The Canes destroyed Nebraska in the title game 37-14. Unfortunately their opponent in the title game was unworthy of such a beating considering Nebraska hadn't even MADE it to the Big XII title game after losing to Colorado by 36 points in the season finale. A one loss Oregon team was a more deserving foe as they were ranked second in both human polls.
Let there be no doubt that a Miami team with Ken Dorsey, Clinton Portis, Frank Gore, Willis McGahee, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow Jr., Ed Reed, Jonathon Vilma, Vince Wilfork, Andre Johnson, Bryant McKinnie, Najah Davenport, D.J. Williams, Mike Rumph, and Phillip Buchanon, would have destroyed Oregon too.
Hell, I'd put my money on 2001 Miami if they played. the 2009 Washington Redskins.
MLC: We all know how Joey Harrington plays against NFL defenses. No one in history touches this 'Canes team. But that is an argument for another column (which is coming, by the way).
2002 Ohio State
JNG: I refuse to acknowledge the 14-0 Buckeyes for one simple reason....................
Oh, still waiting?.....
Just replaying it in my head.....
That horribly delayed and horribly bad pass interference call.
MLC: What an awful call. Just absolutely horrendous. It's like that stupid Buffalo Wild Wings commercial where the ref goes under the tent to review the play, then asks the restaurant full of people what they want to happen. I think that side judge just wanted to hang out for a little while. On the flip side, a second title might have stopped Miami from firing that Uncle Fester look-alike Larry Coker (nicest man in the world, good coordinator, awful head coach). So for the current state of Miami football, it might have actually helped not to win that sixth title. Paradoxical, I know.
2003 LSU
JNG: No team in college football finished the year undefeated in 2003. However, 3 BCS conference teams did finish with only one loss: LSU, Oklahoma and USC.
Logically, USC, the number #1 ranked team in both human polls, was passed over for the BCS title game.Instead, learning nothing from previous mistakes, the computers selected an Oklahoma team who had just been soundly beaten in the Big XII title game.
The AP awarded the National Championship to USC, while the coaches were obligated to vote for LSU.
The BCS, where split national champions can still happen!
MLC: Yeah, wasn't that the point of the BCS? Nebraska and Michigan split the title in 1997 and the BCS was instituted the following year to end that bullshit. Everything about this season bothers me. Jason White wins the Heisman. Oklahoma plays in the national championship (and becomes the original perennial BCS disappointment before Ohio State claimed the crown). LSU basically plays a home game in the Sugar Bowl. We're deprived of an LSU-USC title game.
By the way, do you remember the talk that surrounded this Oklahoma team? Analysts were calling them one of the best teams in college football history. They were the juggernaut. They were unbeatable. Then they got absolutely housed by the Kansas State Wildcats. Then they got killed by LSU. Anyone can beat anyone. Playoff please.
2004 USC
JNG: Like 2001 Miami, I have no doubt in my mind USC, with Heisman winner Matt Leinart and eventual winner Reggie Bush, would have drubbed whomever was placed in front of them. Yet Auburn, an undefeated SEC Champion, never got in the discussion to even play for the title, never being able to rise past #3.
I am fairly certain the South would secede from the Union for a second time if this were to ever happen again.
MLC: Jason Campbell. Ronnie Brown. Cadillac Williams. Reggie Bush. Matt Leinart. I want to see this game. And the BCS stole it from me. I want justice. I want a playoff.
2006 Florida
JNG: Going into the final poll, undefeated Boise State and four one-loss teams (Michigan, Wisconsin, Louisville and Florida) were up for a sport against undefeated top-ranked Ohio State in the championship game in Glendale, Arizona. Of the one loss teams, Florida was probably the best, especially when you consider how badly the Buckeyes, Wolverines and the rest of the Big 10 were humiliated in their bowl games after being so ballyhooed all season. The conference still hasn't been able to restore its image.
I would have liked to have seen undefeated Boise State play though as they proved they could hang with the big boys by defeating Adrian Peterson and Oklahoma in that all-time classic Fiesta Bowl. Just imagine the significance of that hook-and-ladder or that Statue of Liberty hand-off if it were for the BCS crown. Imagine the mythology that would have followed Ian Johnson's proposal to his girlfriend and BSU cheerleader if he had just won the crystal ball...Imagine.
MLC: I'm going to be a hypocrite hear, so keep that in mind. But I stop short of putting Boise State in a class with Florida in this one. I know they beat Oklahoma. But starting in '03 with the Jason White flop team that we've already discussed, Oklahoma was basically Ohio State when it came to BCS games. Starting in 2003, the Sooners are 1-5 in Bowl games. That one win was the 2005 Holiday Bowl win over Oregon that capped off an 8-4 season. All five of those losses were in BCS bowls. 0-5 in the last six years in the BCS. Destroyed by LSU (2003). AnnihIilated 55-19 by USC (2004). Shocked by Boise State (2006). Dominated by West Virginia (2007). Outclassed by Football Jesus and Florida (2008). Much like Ohio State, show me you can win a bowl game before I consider you a big win for someone else.
So my point in all that is, I know Ohio State was not the best team to play Florida, and the Big 10 has since been exposed as a total fraud. But was Boise State the best team to play Florida? Did they deserve a shot? Not because they beat Oklahoma, no. Should it have at least been a possibility? Hell yes. Playoff please.
2008 Florida
JNG: How could you ever say the Gators were the best team in the land this year?
To recap, Texas loses on a last second play at #6 Texas Tech. It was the Horns fourth straight game against a team ranked in the top ten. Florida loses at home to an Ole' Miss team that had already lost to Wake Forest and Vanderbilt (the Rebels would go on to lose the two subsequent weeks following this game). USC loses early in the season at Oregon State before running the table. Penn State loses by one on a last second field goal at Iowa. Oklahoma loses by 10 on a neutral field to Texas. Oh, and Utah went undefeated.
And I am supposed to anoint the Tebows because they beat Oklahoma on a neutral (if you could call that Miami atmosphere neutral) field by the same margin a one-loss Texas team did earlier in the season? Complicating things is that Utah beat SEC powerhouse and 12-1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to finish its undefeated season.
After all the bowl games, four teams (Florida, Texas, USC, and Utah) could legitimately say they were the best in the land and you could run in circles all day touting reasons for each team without ever reaching a verdict.
MLC: I couldn't tell you who should have been in this title game. I would struggle to pick the right teams in most of these years. But that's not our point here. Our point is that no one can pick the right two teams when they never play each other. Without a better system, it's guess work. We writers (and I used the term loosely) sit around and say, "Team A beat Team B. And Team B beat Team C. But Team B also lost to Teams D and F. But Team D beat Team A. So the two teams should be Team B and F. Wait what? Well the computers do the exact same things by comparing strength of schedule, margin of victory, strength of opponents schedule, 8 different rankings, etc. It's really no different. It's only more complicated.
I remember the old system though. Writers and coaches with historical biases deciding the national champ after traditional bowl games. If not for the BCS, we would never have exposed the Big 10 or Oklahoma for the frauds that they are because writers would continue saying, "But it's Ohio State. But it's the Sooners. Surely they're really good because they always have been and their record is good, right?" I remember the arguments for the BCS: "what if we have a scientific formula that would guarantee the best two teams play each other in the title game? What a great idea!" Well it was a novel idea. But Dr. Frankenstein created his monster, and now it has come back to haunt him. The system is a failure, and it actually makes me wish we just had people vote on the games after watching all of the teams all season long. In retrospect that makes a lot of sense.
Speaking of making sense. Ummmm, playoff please?
JNG: The BCS wasn't instituted to give us champions that can be second guessed. Just because they won a game titled "Championship" doesn't mean crap if other teams are just as deserving, or more deserving, than the opponents who made the game.
I am not a horribly strong advocate of the playoff system. I don't think playoffs necessarily judge the BEST team over an entire season. Upsets can happen, and while they are fun and enjoyable in there unpredictability, I think a champion should be a team that has proved it to be worthy all season. Not a team with two losses that suddenly got hot.
Any right minded human could have told you, as I am now, who should have played for the championship each and every year of the BCS (MLC: not me). Why are we relying totally on a computer rankings system? Aren't we smart enough to take those rankings, couple them with our own, and decide who REALLY deserves to play? I mean we have something the BCS doesn't...common sense.
Any right minded human could have told you, as I am now, who should have played for the championship each and every year of the BCS (MLC: not me). Why are we relying totally on a computer rankings system? Aren't we smart enough to take those rankings, couple them with our own, and decide who REALLY deserves to play? I mean we have something the BCS doesn't...common sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment