i just read this article in the ny post & thought other madjackers would find it interesting. this whole system is a disgrace when a team, who couldn't win their league title, play for the championship.
CASH-DRIVEN BCS SIMPLY RIDICULOUS
By LENN ROBBINS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 8, 2003 --
HOW do we justify this system?
How do we look a USC player in the eye and explain why he isn't playing for the national championship? Even worse, how do we look a Northern Illinois player in the eye and explain why he's not playing in a bowl game, period?
The sham known as big-time college football became a crueler joke yesterday when the nation's No. l-ranked team learned it would not play in the national championship Sugar Bowl.
Southern Cal is going to the Rose Bowl, the Granddaddy of bowls, which suddenly has been relegated to status as a cruel consolation prize. So much for the integrity of the bowl system.
Despite a 52-28 thrashing of Oregon State, the Trojans shockingly dropped from second to third in the convoluted BCS ratings. Oklahoma, which lost by 28 to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game, remained No. 1 in the BCS.
Of course, margin of victory no longer is factored into the BCS formula. Neither is common sense. USC coach Pete Carroll, who looked as if he had been chewing on calcified beef jerky, said the Trojans were proud to be ranked No. 1.
No. 1 won't play No. 2, which should be as basic as two plus two. No. 1 will instead play the No. 4-ranked Michigan Wolverines in what could be the most exciting bowl game of all.
No. 2 LSU, which waxed Georgia in the SEC title game and leapfrogged the Trojans, plays No. 3 Oklahoma for at least half the national championship. Never has a program been so thrilled to chant, "We're No. 3!"
Computer geeks, with their pocket protectors and stained shirts, will gladly explain how Syracuse's win over Notre Dame combined with Boise State's win over Hawaii lowered the Trojans' strength of schedule. There is no explanation for a system that values dollar signs over common sense.
The BCS exists because it generates so much money, about $120 million, that talk of tinkering with it (no less replacing it with a playoff system) makes bowl reps and athletic directors more nervous than a driver's-ed student on day one of class.
Today, there is no escaping the need for a playoff system. The team that is ranked No. 1 will not play in the national championship game, although voters in the Associated Press poll still can vote the Trojans No. 1 if they beat Michigan.
The team that did not win its conference title, Oklahoma, will still get a chance to rule the land. It sounds like a Cuban election.
Division I-A football is the only NCAA sport not decided on the field. Bowl games generated so much revenue and more rhetoric that it built a green curtain.
Whenever a playoff system was mentioned, the guys in the blazers regurgitated phrases such as, "A playoff would undermine the importance of the regular season," or, "A playoff would harm the integrity of the bowl system."
Do you think for one snap this season the players at Colgate, which Saturday beat Western Illinois, 28-27, in the Division I-AA quarterfinals, didn't think the regular-season game in which it was playing was important? Colgate was too busy extending its 18-game win streak.
How much integrity is there in a system that doesn't reward a team for winning its conference title? How much integrity is there in a system that gives us Miami and Florida State, a sequel, in the Orange Bowl?
Even worse, how much integrity is there in a system in which a team that goes 10-2, as Northern Illinois did, can't find a place in one of the 28 bowl games that will be played?
Maybe USC shouldn't feel that bad after all.
CASH-DRIVEN BCS SIMPLY RIDICULOUS
By LENN ROBBINS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 8, 2003 --
HOW do we justify this system?
How do we look a USC player in the eye and explain why he isn't playing for the national championship? Even worse, how do we look a Northern Illinois player in the eye and explain why he's not playing in a bowl game, period?
The sham known as big-time college football became a crueler joke yesterday when the nation's No. l-ranked team learned it would not play in the national championship Sugar Bowl.
Southern Cal is going to the Rose Bowl, the Granddaddy of bowls, which suddenly has been relegated to status as a cruel consolation prize. So much for the integrity of the bowl system.
Despite a 52-28 thrashing of Oregon State, the Trojans shockingly dropped from second to third in the convoluted BCS ratings. Oklahoma, which lost by 28 to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game, remained No. 1 in the BCS.
Of course, margin of victory no longer is factored into the BCS formula. Neither is common sense. USC coach Pete Carroll, who looked as if he had been chewing on calcified beef jerky, said the Trojans were proud to be ranked No. 1.
No. 1 won't play No. 2, which should be as basic as two plus two. No. 1 will instead play the No. 4-ranked Michigan Wolverines in what could be the most exciting bowl game of all.
No. 2 LSU, which waxed Georgia in the SEC title game and leapfrogged the Trojans, plays No. 3 Oklahoma for at least half the national championship. Never has a program been so thrilled to chant, "We're No. 3!"
Computer geeks, with their pocket protectors and stained shirts, will gladly explain how Syracuse's win over Notre Dame combined with Boise State's win over Hawaii lowered the Trojans' strength of schedule. There is no explanation for a system that values dollar signs over common sense.
The BCS exists because it generates so much money, about $120 million, that talk of tinkering with it (no less replacing it with a playoff system) makes bowl reps and athletic directors more nervous than a driver's-ed student on day one of class.
Today, there is no escaping the need for a playoff system. The team that is ranked No. 1 will not play in the national championship game, although voters in the Associated Press poll still can vote the Trojans No. 1 if they beat Michigan.
The team that did not win its conference title, Oklahoma, will still get a chance to rule the land. It sounds like a Cuban election.
Division I-A football is the only NCAA sport not decided on the field. Bowl games generated so much revenue and more rhetoric that it built a green curtain.
Whenever a playoff system was mentioned, the guys in the blazers regurgitated phrases such as, "A playoff would undermine the importance of the regular season," or, "A playoff would harm the integrity of the bowl system."
Do you think for one snap this season the players at Colgate, which Saturday beat Western Illinois, 28-27, in the Division I-AA quarterfinals, didn't think the regular-season game in which it was playing was important? Colgate was too busy extending its 18-game win streak.
How much integrity is there in a system that doesn't reward a team for winning its conference title? How much integrity is there in a system that gives us Miami and Florida State, a sequel, in the Orange Bowl?
Even worse, how much integrity is there in a system in which a team that goes 10-2, as Northern Illinois did, can't find a place in one of the 28 bowl games that will be played?
Maybe USC shouldn't feel that bad after all.
