"The BCS did what it was created to do, finally" by: Scooter Hobbs "Enough already. The assumption amid all the national, knee-jerk whining is that the Bowl Championship Series failed big-time this year. Well, what if it actually worked? What if it did exactly what it is supposed to do, which is to pick two deserving teams to play one game for the national championship. The BCS will always have the flaw not of what it does, but of what it doesn't do and never will do — which is to organize a mega, come-one, come-all playoff from sea to shining sea. There's a radical element out there that will never forgive it for that failing. Get over it. There's nothing more boring or irritating than a single-issue blow-hard. When they get bored with the playing field, they are prone to gumming up the political arena. Their screams of anguish do not mean that Oklahoma and LSU do not deserve to play for the national championship. Now the "problem" is that the computers were the deciding factor, while the "human" polls decreed USC No. 1 and LSU No. 2. Wait a minute. The argument for a playoff used to be that we didn't want wimpy sports writers picking the national champion (not that sports writers were all too crazy about being drafted for the chore either). Now the playoff-centrists want it both ways. The BCS been pretty successful in the past. The only difference is that this year a garden slug could not have just as easily picked out the two most deserving teams. It wasn't a no-brainer. This year they had to carry the one and divide by some sort of quadrant or another. It doesn't mean that the BCS was wrong. Just that this year it had to go to the third place beyond the decimal point for a change. In other words, it had a tougher job, had to burn the midnight oil, but it still buckled down and did what it was programmed to do. Which does not automatically mean that it got it wrong. Just that Southern Cal got left out. Boo hoo. Somebody had to. If USC wants to cry foul — and to the Trojans' credit, they have personally taken it like the Trojans they are Ð they should have studied the formula a little closer in advance. But for the BCS-bashers it put a warm face on their cause, which always plays better to the masses than a cold statistic. The scorned Trojans are suddenly America's Heartthrob and the bashers are openly giggling at the prospect of a split national championship. And I'm not here to bash USC, although I suspect that the poor-little-jilted-Trojans act, a public relations hit at the moment, is going to start wearing thin on America long before the Rose Bowl. Look for the backlash to warm up right around Christmas. I also wonder how the forgotten Michigan Wolverines, no slouches themselves, feel about the way the Trojans are being handed a national championship in advance. I don't claim to know which two of these three teams should be in New Orleans. You can make a solid case for all three. You can also make a case against any one of them. But it does tell you a little about how far LSU has come in the last month. When the national talking heads go at it now, you never hear them suggest that the Tigers don't belong in New Orleans. Most want Oklahoma booted for not winning the Big 12 championship game (which is somehow worse than losing to Cal?) or agree that USC has nobody to blame for the Rose Bowl but itself. A couple or three weeks ago, all you heard was that America couldn't wait for OU-Southern Cal and, if LSU didn't like it, the Tigers shouldn't have scheduled Louisiana-Monroe. Now the great debate seems to be which team really deserves to play LSU. So LSU has arrived, at least in public perception. The computers also took a shine to them at the last moment. I also would not rule out the possibility of USC winning and the Sugar Bowl winner still sweeping both titles. I've voted on the Associated Press poll many times (though, God Bless America, not this year). Even if I currently had Southern Cal No. 1, I wouldn't have any problem putting the Sugar Bowl champ ahead of the Trojans in the final poll, even assuming that Rose Bowl victory for the Trojans. As you know, the AP writers' poll is not bound by the Sugar Bowl's final score and does not often displace a No. 1 team when it wins. But if you're looking for an excuse to drop a Rose Bowl champion, well, it would be that the Trojans, through the Pac-10 Conference, agreed to the BCS formula in advance. They can't wail too long about the results. It doesn't mean you'd have to switch votes, but it could be a handy tiebreaker if the Sugar Bowl gives you pause. One year that I did vote in the poll, Miami and Washington were locked in a bitter poll war. It was clear, even to this garden slug, that they were the top two teams in America. But this was before the BCS messed up college football, so one played in the Orange Bowl, the other in the Rose. What a concept. You had to watch two games and grade them on style points. If not for the BCS, this year you'd have to watch three with the same open mind. So we're making progress. The BCS can, in fact, be tweaked again. But that's a pulpit for another day."
I don't think SC is going to lose any sympathy, no matter how far away the Rose bowl is. It even seems some voters are going to vote out of spite, to crush the BCS. I've even read articles stating that SC and Michigan are playing better than anyone in the country right now. They rather have SC #1, and are looking for ways to justify it. Now, if SC loses to Michigan. All of this talk is over. No more #1. No more SC got screwed. It will simply be over with. And the winner of the Sugar will be the full NC with no complaints. Reading that voters are looking to vote based on style points is a shame. Why degrade an LSU or Okla win? Just to spite the BCS? It doesn't make sense, but most of the casual college football fans are buying it.
The bcs did what it was suppose to do. Its the stupid human polls that are the problem. Another reason we don't need people to vote is the fact stated above. They vote the other way, just for spite, for USuck
