If they lose to Michigan, it will be all that much more embarrassing because they've been building this up for a month.
The Rose Bowl must be PISSED OFF! I think they're really digging a hole for themselves and I hope they make the Rose Bowl officials REALLY MAD. If I were the Rose Bowl people I'd be pissed off that they're acting like the bowl is a second-class bowl. I intend to send an e-mail to the Rose Bowl people directing them to the site. USC had better quit all this stuff (I'll bet the NCAA or someone gets in the middle of this because it's an embarrassment) or else NO ONE will ever want them in their bowl again (not that it's a big monetary loss--I'll bet they don't travel as well as state universities or as well as Notre Dame does.)
Here is the email I sent them...it is a little long: The BCS was designed to match the top 2 teams in the country in a single National Championship game. It was NEVER designed to match the top 2 teams from the traditional polls. If that was the intent, then no BCS or other poll would be needed. All that would be required would be to have the conferences and bowls agree to release the #'s 1 & 2 teams in the traditional polls from their respective bowl “tie ins” so they could meet in the designated championship bowl game that year. Instead, all the conferences agreed (including the PAC 10) that they would devise a formula to determine who the top 2 teams were, then those 2 teams would be released from their bowl “tie ins” to play in the title game. Now, as I said, the idea was NEVER to match # 1 vs #2 in the traditional polls (or any other specific number for that matter such as #1 vs whomever). In other words, BY DESIGN, no traditional poll position was ever guaranteed a spot in the championship game, period. Here’s why. Everyone realized that the traditional polls have traditionally had some major flaws. Here are some examples: 1. The traditional polls typically reward the team that loses first over one who loses later in the season. They do not rank them based on the totality of the season. This year is a classic example. a. USC is over LSU because USC lost first. LSU has a stronger strength of schedule overall, and has played and beaten many more quality teams. b. USC & LSU are over OU because OU lost last. c. Consider this: Pick whichever of the three teams you think is best based on their performance over the entire year. Then assume that was the team who lost on the last weekend and the other 2 won their last 6 or 7 games. The team you just decided was best is now in 3rd, period, and if only the traditional polls were used, they would be left out. 2. The traditional polls reward teams presumed to be good at the beginning of the year a. OU & Ohio State were 1 & 2 in the pre-season polls. Traditionally, if those 2 go undefeated, no one else has a chance, regardless of their records. b. The traditional polls have often in the past rewarded undefeated teams without giving full consideration to the level of their competition. While clearly they have gotten better (Tulane a few years ago and TCU this year never made it all the way to the top), that has not always been the case. Any objective observer will tell you that BYU was NOT the best team in 1984, but the traditional polls rewarded them with the title as the only undefeated team. These are the 2 best examples of why the traditional polls were not the sole deciding factor (I will not even go into any presumed bias). Again, it was BY DESIGN and with a great deal of forethought that other factors were included. Hindsight is 20/20, but revisionist history is not! Each year you can look back and say that something or another doesn’t make sense and should be changed. Several years ago, most people agreed the championship should not be left up to the traditional polls. I understand USC’s frustration and I am not saying they should not be in the Sugar Bowl. But, to say that because they are ranked #1 in both traditional polls and are left out invalidates the BCS and it’s championship game is, frankly, uninformed and ironic. The truth is, it has validated the BCS at the highest level. It has shown that even the #1 ranked team is not safe if the rest of the relevant metrics don’t measure up.
