Did the BCS Get It Right This Year?

Well sports fans, this has been one crazy year for college football. In fact, I don’t know if I remember a year that had more twists, turns and surprises. The #2 ranking was a place full of surprises this year as 7, yes 7, teams lost when being ranked #2. The teams unlucky to have been ranked #2 and subsequently loosing were USC, Cal, South Florida, Boston College, Oregon, Kansas and West Virginia. The worst loss out of all these was by West Virginia which was a 28 pt favorite over a sorry Pitt team, (4-7 at that time). Oh and did I mention West Virginia was playing Pitt AT HOME and all WV needed to do was win that game and they would have been playing for the national championship…and they still couldn’t close the deal. Terrible…

The bowl match ups were set on Sunday and after all the dust was settled, the following BCS bowl pairings were announced:

Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Kansas
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. West Virginia
Sugar Bowl: Georgia vs. Hawaii
Rose Bowl: Southern Cal vs. Illinois
Championship: Ohio State vs. LSU

I’ve got to be honest here. I’m not real sure the BCS selection committees got this right. I know the BCS is meant for one thing…to pair up #1 vs. #2 in a national championship game. However, while I think Ohio State is a solid team probably worth a BCS bowl bid, I do not think they should be in the national championship game.

Every team has its share of lay up games, especially out of conference games. Ohio State had more than it’s share this year when it’s out of conference schedule included the powerhouses of Youngstown St., Akron, Washington and Kent State. Add in the fact that the Big 10 wasn’t particularly good this year and you have an Ohio State team that could be a bit overrated. They could surprise me and beat LSU but I won’t be shocked if LSU does to them what Florida did to them a year ago, especially since it’s basically a home game for LSU as the national championship is in New Orleans.

LSU, in my opinion, is the best team in the country. They played 7 ranked teams and beat 6 of them. The loss was in 3 overtimes, on the road to Kentucky. LSU also lost in 3 overtimes to Arkansas and while Arkansas was not ranked, the Hogs do have a legit Heisman candidate in Darren McFadden.

The travesty here is that Missouri got left out of the BCS bowl mix. I’m not a Missouri fan, per se, but looking at this objectively I think Mizzou got screwed. On Saturday, they were unanimously #1 in the country…by Sunday evening they were relegated to the Cotton Bowl, which isn’t a bottom feeder bowl but isn’t a BCS bowl either. Let’s look at Mizzou’s case for a BCS bowl:
-The 2 losses Mizzou had were both to a good OU team which was a top 10 team both times Mizzou played them.
-Illinois (with 3 losses) and Kansas both got BCS bowl bids…and Mizzou beat both of them this year.
-The only real test Kansas had this year was Mizzou…Kansas failed that test. Kansas didn’t have to play Texas, OU, or Texas Tech. If they did, I think at least 2 of those 3 would have been losses for the Jayhawks. Kansas also struggled to beat fairly mediocre teams such as Kansas State, Colorado and TX A&M.

I know it’s been argued over and over, to no avail, but I really would be interested to see how a playoff could sort all this out. Put the top 8-10 teams in a playoff and let them solve any question about who is #1 on the field. I know a playoff scenario will never happen because the bowl system is much too lucrative, financially, to the NCAA but it would be fun to see. However, it seems to me that the NCAA could put all their heads together and figure out a way for a playoff that would incorporate the bowls. Div 1 football is the only sport that doesn’t have a playoff system…Div. 1-AA, Div II, and Div III all have playoffs systems and they manage just fine.

The current BCS system is adequate but, as we have seen this year, has flaws. And while I can’t bring myself to root for LSU, I will root for another SEC national championship. Which I predict will happen.