BCS Rant (and this is actually the short version)
It’s that time of year again. As we look towards winter break, we look forward to days beginning at noon, presents under the tree or next to the menorah, a new year, and a big juicy controversy in college football.
Yes, it’s the season to give, and you can bet your bottom dollar that the Bowl Championship Series will give us yet another juicy controversy, just as it has in five of the eight years of it’s existence.
The BCS is the ranking system used by the NCAA to determine the national champion of Division 1-A college football. It was also given the task of selecting teams to play in BCS Bowl games, prestigious games pitting the champions of the “BCS conferences” against the highest rated teams, it is a system so controversial that I actually just copy-pasted “controversy” to save time typing up this column.
The system was implemented in the 1998 season, replacing the “Bowl Alliance” which was in place from 1995 to 1997. In fact, in the first season that it was in place, the BCS created controversy. Kansas State finished third in the BCS standings, but because they did not win their conference championship, they did not get to play in a BCS Bowl..
The BCS realized its mistake and instituted “The Kansas State Rule,” or as I like to call it “ The 1998 Common Sense Provision,” which guaranteed the team finishing third in the BCS gets a spot in a bowl game, even if it didn’t win its conference championship.
The next debacle, and probably one of the more embarrassing ones, came in the 2000 season. The national championship game featured Oklahoma; undefeated and ranked no. 1 by all major polls, against Florida State, a one-loss team ranked number three by both “human polls.”
The reason that Florida State was ranked number three by both human polls, is that their loss was to the number two team. Despite this, Florida State was ranked ahead of the team that beat them in the BCS, and earned them opportunity, which they capitalized on, to completely embarrass themselves in the final.
Perhaps the most fun controversy to date came in 2003. Now, with all respect to the BCS, there was no clear no. 1 team at the end of the season. Three teams from BCS conferences finished the season with one loss, no teams anywhere finished undefeated. USC was ranked no. 1 by both human polls, but had a feeble schedule which dropped their computer ranking to third, because one of the components in the computer ranking is strength of schedule. Oklahoma was ranked number three in the human polls and ranked—well I’ll let you guess their ranking in the BCS….Need more time…Ok, so lets recap. The team ranked no. 1 in the human polls was according to the computers not worthy of playing for glory, and the team ranked by the human polls as number three, as you’ve just figured out, set as the number one team by the computer rankings of the BCS. Louisiana State was ranked number two by both polls.
LSU won the BCS championship, and as a result the no. 1 ranking in the coaches poll, but USC also one the national title with their victory in the Rose Bowl. Coincidently, they did this by defeating Michigan. If Michigan avenges that defeat New Years’ Day, they could claim half a title if Florida manages to upset Ohio State.
That situation with Michigan is evident of the controversy that the BCS presented us this year. It is actually quite similar to what happened to Kansas State in 1998. Michigan and Ohio State both played through the first portion of their season 11-0. The schools, who are two of the biggest rivals in college sports, met each other in the last game of their regular season. Ohio State won the game, but barley. The loss dropped Michigan to number three in the BCS rankings, and allowed USC to take its familiar position of title contender.
Whatever omniscient and seriously confused spirit controls college football decided that letting USC win out would be to easy. And I have to admit, even as a Trojan fan, it was starting to get a little old. So anyway, the Men of Troy seriously messed things up by losing to UCLA. That opened up the number two spot for debate. The University of Florida and Michigan both also had only one loss. For the past three weeks, Michigan had nothing to do but watch USC win, study for final exams, and wonder what could have happened if they had managed to beat Ohio State. Meanwhile, Florida finished off their season, impressing the human voters.
In the end, Florida was the number two team, .0101 ahead of Michigan. The Gator’s miniscule advantage came only in the human polls. Michigan had a huge disadvantage here because their last game was a loss, while Florida’s last game was a conference championship game. They were almost exactly even in any measurable category, and the human pollsters succumbed to human nature.
I’m not one to judge a gift horse by its teeth, but I’m kind getting tired of these controversies. Maybe next year the NCAA will surprise us with an actual gift: a college football playoff! All of the drama of “March Madness,” the emotion of a Bowl Game, for four weeks straight, that’d be a paradise.
To bad there’s not a chance.
