Friends, For the purposes of this discussion, I begin using Rick Tellshow's final BCS projections as a starting point: Click on BCS-Projected on the Left-Hand Side of the Page, If Necessary Now, one thing jumps out at you and should outrage all LSU and most fair-minded fans if this indeed comes to pass: The BCS, which was intended to severely limit human bias in determining the two teams facing off in a National Title game, will FAIL. Lookit, LSU is projected to pass USC in most BCS computer polls (2.33 to 2.50) and in strength of schedule (1.04 to 1.44), finishing some .33 points behind USC come December 8. The only thing that would keep LSU out of New Orleans in this scenario: the G*ddamn pollsters (or, in other words, "human bias") How else to describe it? If all of the non-human elements, if you will, report LSU as the #2 team in the land (on average), then the two human polls reporting LSU as #3 are then biased and run counter to everything else used to compute BCS standings. I, for one, think that a concerted and focused effort needs to be made to cajole, etc., enough voters to have us pass SC in JUST ONE of the two polls. A move to #2 in either poll gives LSU a .50 boost, or enough to pass SC in the above scenario by approximately .17 of a single point. Wow! Of course, ex-New Orleans Saints assistant head coach Mike Riley can make things really easy and simple. GO BEAVERS!
Oh, my: check out THIS possibility (don't know if this is indeed accurate, but just imagine if this happened...):
Replying to my own message, here are the official BCS tiebreakers: In this case, we easily win since Georgia will still be around 9 or 10, comfortably ahead of a Wash. St team that is done for the regular season. Could you imagine the controversy, though! Wow.
The human voters will be swayed by a conference title game, they have in the past. They will not ignore that game, and give SC a free pass with an easier schedule. Once the conferenee title week comes along, the debates will start, and most experts and poll voters will be upset that the PAC/Big 10 still do not have a title game. This is why Oregon got "screwed", and it will happen to SC, if we both win out. The voters will not overlook the fact the Tigers had a good run late in the season beating a ranked 2 loss Ole Miss team, a 3 loss Ark team (who spent much of the season ranked), and a conference title game against a 2 loss team. While SC plays Ore St, with 5 losses. Maybe it is just me, but I bet that will have something to do with voting. Most of the articles and experts are expecting SC in the NC b/c they do not think LSU will beat Ark and then win the conference Title. Strangely we are in the same position Tenn was in, when we beat them and kept them out of any chance to play for the NC.
The three biggest games of note this Saturday to Tiger fans (assuming we take care of business on Friday, of course): --Tennessee at Kentucky--11AM --Florida State at Florida--2:30 PM --Alabama at Hawaii--6:45 pm
As per CBS Sportsline, Jerry Palm projects LSU in second ahead of USC by .15 if both win out and LSU tops SC in 6 of the 7 computer polls (certain we won't catch them in NYT). Again, all of these discussions presume USC stays at #2 in both polls.
An Alabama win would improve our SOS since we played them, and it would drop USC's SOS since they played Hawaii. My how this BCS can become BS real fast....
