The Worst System Ever

The Bowl Championship Series couldn’t have asked for more — a glitzy lineup with little for critics to gripe over. Only Oregon has a case to complain, as the Pac-10 has a 10-1 team left out of the marquee bowls for a second straight season...

Southern California and Texas, the only unbeatens left in Division I-A, will decide the national title in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4...

Major college football’s two winningest coaches, septuagenarians Penn State’s Joe Paterno and Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, will meet in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3.

The Fighting Irish are back in the BCS after a five-year absence. Charlie Weis’ team faces Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2.

Couldn't ask for more?  Not much to gripe about?

I'm assuming the people who run the BCS and the writer of this article hate college football.

Texas and USC?  Well, you can't much argue about them playing. Everyone has wanted to see them play since August, and they both went undefeated.  You're King of the Hill until someone knocks you off and no one knocked either of them off.

So fine.

But the rest of this???

This is horrible.

Notre Dame lost two games.  They lost to Michigan State, pretty badly, who Penn State beat.  Ohio State lost two games, one of which was to Penn State.

And those two teams, after the Rose Bowl, have the marquis game--Number Four versus Number Six.

Penn State?  Ten and one, and the one game they lost they lost on the last second of a game that lasted sixty minutes and two seconds? Penn State, which was one second, one pass, from perfection?  Penn State which put its best team on the field since 1994?

Number three Penn State?

They get to play eight win and four loss, number twenty two Florida State.

And I'm not saying Florida State couldn't beat Penn State. They could.  I'm not saying it won't possibly be a great game.  It could be.  FSU has a pretty impressive young quarterback.  Their defense is fast and, at times, has been pretty fierce.

But they're eight and four.  They're number twenty two. 

How is this fair to Penn State?  Or it's fans? One loss.  The number three team in the country.

Where's the drama?  Where's the excitement?  Where's the upside?

If Penn State wins, they just beat the number 22 team in the country.  Big deal.  They already beat Minnesota, Ohio State, Northwestern, and Wisconsin, all of whom were ranked higher than 22. If Penn State wins, no one is going to say, "Wow, they're better than we even thought."  They're supposed to beat a number twenty two team.

And if Penn State loses, well, that's horrible.  Everyone will say that they weren't nearly as good as they were ranked.

And, even worse, it won't mean much for the 8-4 Seminoles, either.

They'll still be a 9-5 team.

An absolutely meaningless, dull, anti-climatic game.  Pointless and stupid, stupid, stupid.

Meanwhile, the 10-1 Oregon team goes elsewhere. And, in fact, plays a more exciting bowl game than Penn State.  Hell, the excellent Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Miami, West Virginia, LSU teams and a few others will go elsewhere and play more meaningful and more exciting and more competive bowl games.

And the number three team in the country will play number twenty two???

Absolutely senseless.  Stupid.  I'm sure the Nittany Lions, their fans, and college football fans in general would rather see Penn State play any of those teams rather than the number twenty two Seminoles.

It's great for Florida State.  It sucks for Penn State.  And college football fans in general.

Notre Dame played a hell of a year.  They lost two games.  If they're going to get a great BCS bowl game, hell, make them play the Number Three Nittany Lions.  If not, then, fine, make Ohio State play Penn State again.

Whatever.  Either one would be a great game.

But two teams who didn't play as well as Penn State get a better bowl game than Penn State???

I've hated the BCS since it started.  But not because of why everyone else who loves college football hates the BCS.  Everyone else hates the BCS because it's supposed to remove controversy from college football's mythical "National Championship" and yet it mostly doesn't--in 2003 the NC was split, last year Auburn was left pounding sand...Not a great record.  Not much better than the old bowl and poll system.

Yes, when there is a clear Number One and Number Two team, the BCS stands a pretty good chance of matching them up.  But, then, the old bowl and poll system did, too.  And when there isn't a clear number one and number two, the BCS is worse than the old bowl and poll system.

Before the BCS, there might be three or four different bowls which might decide the mythical "National Champion".  If number one and number two weren't playing each other, than hell, you could be the sixth ranked team in the country and depending on what happened, you might vault to number one.

It didn't happen often.  But it was still possible.

And that was a lot more exciting to me than having an announced "championship" game, which one or two or three or four teams felt screwed out of.

But, beyond that, I hate the BCS because of it's supposed to eliminate the controversy from the Number Ranking in college football. Which is idiotic.  Since the whole point of having any kind of ranking in college football was to create controversy in the first place:

The confusion exists because somewhere along the line people forgot that the whole system was set up not to resolve controversy, but to cause it. Listen to former Associated Press editor in chief Alan J. Gould, interviewed in 1985 on the 50th anniversary of the Associated Press college football poll:

"It was a case of thinking up ideas to develop interest and controversy between football Saturdays. Papers wanted material to fill space between games. That's all I had in mind, something to keep the pot boiling. Sports then was living off controversy, opinion, whatever. This was just another exercise in hoopla. Making it a top 10 was an arbitrary decision. It seemed logical to confine it to that number. It was tough enough to pick a top 10 in those days, let alone 15 or 20."

That's right.  The "National Championship" was created to make controversy and make it more interesting and now idiot chuckleheads, including the United States Congress, are insisting on removing the controversy from the "National Championship", which will, undoubtably, make it less interesting.

And which, again, was the whole point in the first damn place.

Another victory for the money men.  Another victory for advertisers of pre-packaged, easily marketed product.  Another loss for the fans.

And believe me, when I say this, I'm not some disinterested fan of controversy.  I'm a Penn State fan.  In my lifetime, Penn State has had five undefeated teams and only won two "national championships".  And one of them, 1982, Penn State wasn't undefeated. Yeah, that's right, five times Penn State went undefeated and won their bowl game and only once won the "national championship".

Hell, Penn State is probably the reason we even have the stupid BCS.  In 1994, Penn State put not only it's best team on the field in the history of Penn State, but maybe the best team in the history of college football.  And they were voted number two in the country.  For no reason at all.  And ever since then, everyone has admitted that was a travesty.

If anyone should be riled about controversy, it's a Penn State fan.

But, frankly, it's great for college football.  It's great for the fans.  After all, I had the 1986 Fiesta Bowl for one drunken, insanely happy night.  And afterwards?  It was over and done. Settled.  But the 1994 team?  I'll have them forever.  Me, my friends, my relatives, Nebraska fans, we'll never stop living and reliving the 1994 season.

So I hate it for trying to take away the controversy which was always been so much fun.  And I hate it for taking away the controversy in a way that makes all the other bowl games, even among the number three, and four and five, and six teams irrelevant.

And I hate it even more for stupid shit like this year.  Shit like this doesn't even amount to controversy.  If Texas wins, or if both teams play lousy, what are Penn State fans going to say?  Well, we beat the number twenty two team in the country???

It's the best Penn State team in eleven years, they're the third ranked team in the country, they may be the best team in the country, and their reward is to play the number twenty two team in the country.

What a piece of garbage.

Just do it.  Bring on the playoffs and bury college football for once and for all.

Comments

[petercollada]

There was a very good reason they were voted number 2 in the country-the pity party for poor tom osbourne cause he hadn't won a title.
Can you name any players on that 94 nebraska team? How about psu-
Kerry Collins? KJ Carter? Bobby Engram? Kyle Brady? Jeff Hartings? Freddie Scott!
Am I missing any offensive players hear?

[ricky]

The worst thing about that '94 team was that they were too good. I hardly remember ever even watching the second half a game that year.

It was almost always over by halftime.

But, see what I mean about controversy? You're still fired up about that '94 team. Me, too.

But you never hear anyone talk like that about the '82 team...

[Mary]

Oh yeah, me too! *shrug*

[ricky]

Mary, we, at the Bottle Of Blog are irreverent--and irrelevent--regarding nearly everything.

But we never joke about the mighty and noble Nittany Lions.

Never.

[Luke]

You got one thing wrong:

"Notre Dame lost two games. They lost to Michigan State, pretty badly, who Penn State beat."

Notre Dame did not lose to Michigan State "pretty badly." They lost in overtime following one of the more remarkable comebacks of the season.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/recap?gid=200509170104
"The Spartans overcame a 21-point comeback by the 10th-ranked Fighting Irish and pulled out their fifth straight win at Notre Dame Stadium with a 44-41 overtime victory on Saturday."

Of course, the Irish's other loss came against USC, in one of the greatest college football games of the season, if not all time, on a last second questionable play. I still have a digital picture of the scoreboard that I took at that game showing Notre Dame ahead with 0:00 to play. And as much as some people complain that Notre Dame's schedule was weak this year, it was the preseason TOUGHEST schedule in the nation. Almost every team was ranked pre-season. Not their fault that Pittsburgh, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State etc. ended up having subpar seasons.

But whatever, you're right, Penn State did get screwed... But not by Notre Dame. They got screwed when Florida State won their championship game. So I guess that's two things wrong.

[ricky]

You're right about that Michigan State game.

But I did not say Penn State got screwed by Notre Dame. They got screwed by the system--hence the post title.

Nor did I knock Notre Dame. I said they played a hell of a season. I only felt it was terrible that with two losses--one even to USC--they were playing a better, more exciting, more meaningful bowl than Penn State.

If we couldn't get a shot at Texas or USC, Penn State fans, me included, wanted more than anything to see Penn State play Notre Dame.

That would have been a great game. As good as the Rose Bowl.

Instead, Notre Dame, while getting a better game than PSU, also kind of gets screwed.

If Penn State beats FSU, and Notre Dame beats Ohio State, what does it matter? What does it prove? Nothing. Penn State also beat Ohio State. So that does nothing for the Irish, either.

It's a mindless system that rendered all of the big bowls meaningless, except the Rose Bowl.

[Donna]

There is no stadium on earth big enough to hold Penn State Fans AND Notre Dame fans at the same time. THAT game (when it comes), will surely register on the Richter Scale.

[Luke]

"There is no stadium on earth big enough to hold Penn State Fans AND Notre Dame fans at the same time. THAT game (when it comes), will surely register on the Richter Scale."

Its happening next year, 2006, at Notre Dame Stadium. Nothing could keep me away from that matchup.