Legitimacy: the quality of being in accordance with established or accepted patterns and standards: I do not understand why people still put stock into the AP "national champion." When the BCS was installed, it was decided among the major conferences that the BCS national championship would determine the recognized national champion. By agreeing to this format, it essentially rendered impotent the AP and ended the some thirty-odd sources who have in the past crowned a "national champion." There is no argument against the fact that if USC gets #1 from the AP that they will be the AP "national champion." But as we all know, the BCS is the source of our national champion. The advent of the BCS degraded what an AP "national championship" means. I would argue that because the BCS system was agreed to by the major conferences that the AP national title in 1998-1999 and following years was relegated to a position of something like the national title given out by sources like Dickinson or Dunkel. USC becomes just one more of a long line of schools that claim national titles when an illigitimate source announces that they are national champions. It's exactly how Alabama claims something like 16 national titles. To my knowledge, the BCS conference teams did not agree to not recognize the AP "national champion." But in coming together, there was no need to add any clause about which other "national champions" the coaches would recognize. It was implied, as all the major conferences came together in order to try to eliminate an unfair process in declaring national titles and split national titles. That unfair process in declaring a national title was the process by which voters pick a national champion. Human polls capriciously and extremely subjectively (not to mention its self-acknowledged bias) pick #1. A prime example is this year, as it voted USC #1 not because it is the most deserving team (it will have has less wins, a worse strength of schedule, worse head to head results against common opponents, and a smaller margin of victory than will winner of the Sugar Bowl). The AP has voted USC #1 not for any of the reasons that matter, but for when USC lost, which was before LSU and OU. Why that should determine a national title is precisely one of the many reasons the conferences came together to put together a system that would legitimately recognize a national title. There was no need to talk about the other minor national title proclaimers. There have been many of those, but for the time being, only the BCS has any legitimacy. It is the agreed upon standard to which all BCS conferences recognize the national champion. A team from a non-BCS conference has more right to claim the "national championship" than does USC. USC because it agreed to the BCS forfeited that right. A team like Miami OH would in my opinion have a stronger case at being "national champion" than USC. They have the same record, played a similar strength of schedule, according to the AP and BCS played three top 35 teams while USC only played two top 35 teams, and their loss was to top 10 Iowa while USC's loss was to unranked, 6 loss Cal. All these numbers are nice, but what would make Miami's case strongest is that they never agreed to the BCS. USC knows very well the Sugar Bowl is the national champion. Read some of the past articles. For instance, senior cornerback Marcell Allmond wore a t-shirt after the Oregon State game that read "Got Sugar?" I'm sure many of you saw the USC fans who looked so foolish wearing sugar bags on their heads with shirts that read the same thing. They acknowledged at that time that the legitimate national title game was the Sugar Bowl. It was only <i>after</i> USC was rejected (or finally realized that their shot at the Sugar was slim) from the Sugar Bowl that the "national title" game magically moved itself to California. If you asked Pete Carroll at the beginning of the year which bowl he'd rather go to, you know he would have said Sugar before Rose. The same was the case the day the final BCS standings came out. In order to create more controversy, that same day, when he realized that USC's chances at going to the national title game were slim, he started a campaign saying that the Rose was the national title game, even though the ranking which in the past six years has created so much controversy yet was what everyone looked to in order to determine the two most deserving teams for the national title game, said his team was #3. And he put on the non-disappointment face, speaking as though he would have rather gone to the Rose Bowl in the first place. The media is more than happy to help USC's coach and SID make a case for the national title. After all, their power was stripped with the BCS. They're once again in the spotlight with this campaign to overrule the BCS. The media more than anyone is the reason the BCS has received so much grief. Has it been deserved? Perhaps. But seeing how the AP has declared national champions in the past, the BCS has been extremely more fair. So long as there isn't a playoff we will continue to get the media providing an anti-BCS or whatever system that reduces the role of the AP's power argument. ................. Now for fun, here's why the AP makes no sense. The AP, if it votes USC #1, and LSU wins will show the reason why the BCS was set up. If LSU beats OU, check out how LSU compares to USC in terms of elements that should be important to voters. 1. Strength of schedule (opponents head-to-head). #1 Oklahoma (12-2) vs #4 Michigan (10-3): OU favored. #12 UGA (11-3) vs. #16 Washington (10-3) State: UGA favored. #12 UGA (11-3) vs. #35 Auburn (8-5): UGA beat Auburn. #15 Florida (8-5) vs. #40 Cal (8-6): UF favored. #19 Ole Miss (9-3) vs. #44 Oregon State (7-6): Ole Miss favored. #33 Arkansas (9-4) vs. #49 Notre (5-7) Dame: Arkansas favored. #35 Auburn (8-5) vs. #53 UCLA (6-6): Auburn favored. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- #63 South Carolina vs. #55 Washington : Washington favored. #69 Alabama vs. #64 Hawaii: Hawaii won. #80 LA Tech vs #72 Stanford: Stanford favored. #89 Arizona vs #73 Arizona State: Arizona State won. #95 Mississippi State vs #75 BYU: BYU favored. #116 ULM vs. #89 Arizona: Arizona favored. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Western Illinois: No USC opponent to compare with. 2. Record LSU 13-1 USC 12-1 3. Margin of victory As long as LSU beats OU by more than one point, LSU will have a larger margin of victory than will USC. 4. Loss LSU lost to ranked Florida. USC lost to unranked 6 loss Cal (please don't brag about their win over Virginia Tech, who finished the season 1-5 with its only win coming over Temple in overtime). 5. Head-to-head matchup LSU beat Auburn and Arizona by larger margins of victory and in a much more impressive manner, allowing its backups in the AU game after it went up 31-0 in the 3rd quarter, whereas USC had to keep its first team in the entire game. Arizona players said that LSU was a better team than USC. Arizona's Clay Hart said after this year's game with USC that the Trojans " were really good. But personally, I think LSU was the best team we’ve faced since I’ve been a Wildcat .” 6. Date of loss LSU lost October 11. USC lost September 27.
