Who Will The 2008 BCS Bitch Be?

The preseason polls have been out for a while now.  With the college football season opening tonight, I thought I’d recap the non-BCS teams in the preseason top 25, to see if we can find who will be the team that the BCS tries to hold out of the big bowls.

Non-BCS Teams in the Preseason AP Top 25

16. BYU (Wow, isn’t it amazing that in the preseason, only 1 non-BCS team makes it in to the top 25 poll)

So, what are the chances that BYU can bust the BCS bubble this year?  Of course most of their conference games will be tough just because of the intensity of conference games.  This is a factor regardless of whether a team is in a BCS conference or not. BYU is returning a nine starters on offense, including a nice quarterback in Max Hall.

BYU starts off with a home game against Northern Iowa on August 30. For those of you who think this is a gimme game, you should really do a little research on Northern Iowa.  They went to the quarterfinals in the top division in college football that has a real national championship.

After the Northern Iowa game, BYU travels to Washington. This is not the Huskies of past years that was a perennial bowl contender, but they are surely a worthy challenge.   Game 3 can be a real telling story for the Cougars as they welcome the Bruins of UCLA to Provo.  Time will tell if this is a real challenge or not, but if you buy Rick Neuheisel’s boasts, this will be a tremendous challenge for the Cougars, and one that would be a nice feather in the cap come BCS bowl selection time. I personally don’t think UCLA will be “the” team in Los Angeles this year, but I do like his approach to getting in USC’s face.

Beyond BYU, there are several non-BCS teams on the cusp of the top 25. Fresno State is the closest, coming in at #27.  After listening to their coach being interviewed last night, I have to think they will be in the top 25 very shortly in the season (maybe week 2).  Utah and Boise St received some consideration, but will ultimately have to finish undefeated or with a single loss to have even a remote chance at BCS bowl consideration.

I plan on getting a full dose of college football tonight! Here’s to a great season (BCS jerks or not!).

A Little BCS Humor

Carl is a guy I can get on board with!

Fedex BCS National Championship Game

The BCS will yet again ruin the 2008-2009 college football season with another mythical national championship game. This year’s made for TV, prime-time, boring game will be on January 8, 2009 at 8pm. Dolphin stadium in Miami will be the venue. And to be sure, we will all be tired of overdone hype for the month of downtime leading up to the game.

For those who like predictions… I predict a team from the Big 10 against a team from the Pac 10. Good conferences indeed, but the lack of a league championship game is likely to be the kicker to push their teams in.

Oh, I would not be surprised to see an ACC, SEC, or Big 12 team in the game, but only if they run the table.  Forget a team from the Big East, WAC, MAC, or any other conference in the country. A non-BCS conference team has just as much chance of making the national championship game as a Division I-AA or Division II team (ie, none).

Yet another season of the only major sports championship in the country not being decided on the field by a selection of capable teams. Do I think a WAC team can win the championship in a playoff system? Not likely, BUT, if they were in the playoff we would see that bear out on the field.  Not in the wood paneled boardroom of some big university.

Enough Said

Is there really any question now that the BCS is broken?  How can any university president honestly look anyone in the eye and say that the BCS is working?  It would have to be either a lie or an implied admission that the person that they are speaking too is too dumb to think on their own.

Which is it? 

Ohio State – National Champion?

I’m in the camp of thinking that Oklahoma will take down Missouri this weekend, pushing Ohio State in to the BCS championship game again. Trust me, I don’t like Oklahoma, and would surely like to see Missouri put them down. But I just feel that Oklahoma will take the game.

Damn.

Playoffs? Playoffs? – Why The BCS Sucks

If this season is not a perfect reason to implement a 16 team playoff system, I’ll eat my hat. Just think about it, everyone in the top 5 to 8 bitching that they should be in the mix for a national title — or actually why the other teams should not be there. Hawaii is out of the hunt.  LSU has chosen to forego the hunt (ha ha).  So why a playoff?

Because of everything I said.  Think about it.  You could almost take the Top 16 teams from the BCS computer rankings and have a great playoff that makes a ton of sense, and (this is for you big conference honks) a TON OF MONEY!

So lets see the pairings in my division 1 playoff (as of November 11/26/2007):

Missouriv v. Clemson

West Virginia v. Illinois

Ohio State v. Tennessee

Georgia v. Arizona St.

Kansas v Hawaii

Virginia Tech v. Boston College

LSU v. Florida

USC v. Oklahoma

Now, I see that a MAC team is missing.  I would think they are normally a big enough conference to deserve a guaranteed bid. But, if you don’t have a team in the Top 40, you should lose your automatic bid. 

Ok, so some of you will think Missouri v. Clemson would be a bad game to watch. Um, hello.  It’s a do or die playoff.  That game will be huge.  You’ve got the homers for each team who will travel and watch in big numbers (since this is do or die). You’ve also got the upset special fans who will be watching just to see if Clemson could upset the #1 team in the country.  Psst… you’ve also got the gamblers who will watch anxiously to see if they covered. 

Oh, there are the conference honks that would surely bitch about Virginia Tech playing BC and LSU playing Florida.  Tough.  Take the Top 16 and spread them out in a high versus low format and let the chips fall where they may. If your team is not a legitimate national championship contender, you will lose.  If you are, you will win. The champion would have to win 4 games.  The cream should rise to the top.

Obviously you’d want to set these matchups such that the Missouri/Clemson winner would get the winner of the #8/#9 matchup, and so on.  The #1 ranked team should have the theoretically easier path.

So what about the #17-#20 teams that are left out?  Aren’t they going to complain about the rankings?  Sure.  But do you honestly believe that they have a shot of winning a national title?  If they did, it is their own fault for being on the bubble.

Do you realize how much money this could make for the NCAA? For Vegas (let’s face it — Vegas has pull in our sports)?  For television?  Instead of crummy matchups with half full stadiums and even less TV viewers, you would have HUGE games with both big TV draw and big fan attendance.  Heck, you can even put these games in neutral sites where the bowls were.  A box office smash for the host cities!  Oh.  You conference honks should see the payday. The money would blow away any bowl payouts you currently get.

Of course these matchups still have one week to be tweaked with conference championship games.  But you can generally expect that the top 10 teams of this week will still be in the top 16 mix next week.  There will be some movement around the 12 to 20 I’d expect.  But isn’t that why you play the games each week?  Win — move up.  Lose — move down.

The last 3 games (2 semi’s and the final) would be absolute blockbuster games. How can any fan of college football not want the best team to prove it on the field? As long as you gave automatic bids to the WAC and MAC if they have a team in the top 25, 30 or 40, you would eliminate this argument that Boise St made last year and that Hawaii is making this year.  And if Hawaii would win the championship this year, you would have HUGE interest.

Obviously I am ignorant, as I can’t see why people still argue to keep division 1 football as the only major sport in the US where the winner is not truly decided on the field. 

The BCS is Awesome!

Not a chance in hell!

The BCS still sucks, and I hope this year’s end screws them again.  I need a team like the University of South Florida to stay unbeaten because it seems pretty obvious that USC and LSU will end the season unbeaten.  Oh I guess it would be just as fun if USC or LSU loses a single game and then USF gets cut out of the championship game.   Don’t think it can happen… just wait!

Thank You Florida Gators!

I can’t believe the day has come where I, a Hurricane fan for over 20 years, would thank the Florida Gators for their total ass-kicking of the Big 10’s best team.  But since it just highlights my personal agenda, I’ll take one for the team and say out loud, “What a great system we have with the BCS!”

Are you kidding me?  An undefeated team ranked #5 while numbers 1 through 4 all have losses?  Oh yeah, and undefeated team that beat Hawaii (11 wins), Oregon State (10 wins), and Oklahoma (11 wins). How about that powerhouse conference oligopoly now.  Fools.  Damned Fools! Only one person had the guts to vote Boise State number 1.  You know that I am a big fan of one of the teams privileged enough to be in one of the oligopolistic conferences, but come on.  Does this not smack you in the face and scream the system is hosed?

By the way, don’t you just love the fact that the best 2 teams in the Big 10 (aka the Overrated 10) were beaten by a combined 41 points in their BCS bowl games.  Sweet!

Please do something about this BCS soothsayers.  At a bare minimum we need a “plus one” approach.  Although it should be noted that a plus one game this year still would have left Boise State out as they were not in one of the top 2 games.  I have some ideas on a fair approach to a playoff that would introduce a chance for any conference to win the national championship.  I will be posting them in the coming weeks.

You are waiting anxiously, aren’t you?

Boise State Rocks the BCS

Just a quick post here to point out how the Boise State win just highlights the total crappiness of the BCS system. Their coach, and most people speaking on behalf of Boise State have been nothing but complimentary of the BCS for inviting them (as proper etiquette requires). But I would absolutely love to hear one of them claim that they are the undefeated co-champions of Division I football.

• Undefeated
• Took on every team in front of them
• Therefore, co-champion (LOL)

If the BCS did not want to hear that, then they should have put them up against Ohio State (or orchestrate a playoff of some type, even a “plus one” game). Had they taken this approach instead of putting in the BCS oligopoly, there would be a real national champion… settled on the field… where championships are supposed to be won.

Oh well, I cast my meaningless vote for undefeated co-champions once Ohio State dismantles Florida 17-7 (my prediction — and note I am not an Ohio State fan given their alledged victory over The U a few years back) .

No NCAA Division I Football National Champion, Again

Every year at about this time, I get that disgusted feeling about the only major sport in the world that does not have a playoff system to determine the real champion. Mythical champions abound, but in my mind none of them can truly claim to be champion (even my personal favorite team “The U” — let’s not discuss this season). Heck, until this year, there was a reasonable shot that an undefeated team from a non-BCS conference could be left out of the BCS bowl series.

Why?

I’m really not sure. There seems to be plenty of money to go around. And in my opinion, opening up the “bowl season” to a playoff approach would increase the pot of money these guys are trying to monopolize. Examples? NCAA basketball, NFL football, even the NBA does a decent job of moetizing the playoffs.

Such a big problem. Such a simple solution. (pssst — share the wealth)