(EDITED BY AUTHOR: 12/6/2004 - 12:20 p.m.)And I hate to do this but hand me that dead horse over there and the Louisville Slugger and may every coach in the college ranks and every member of the media take heed.
It is over. The whole stinkin' system is over. Queen Elizabeth could've called it from Buckingham. Auburn didn't get screwed. They got ROYALLY screwed! Lemme backtrack... "Whoever got #3" got screwed. After all, face it. Anyone from SEC, and I mean EVERYONE!, that dared to finish 12-0 and SEC champs was doomed from the get go. That includes Arkansas, that includes Vanderbilt, that includes you as well pre-season #3 Georgia and pre-season #4 LSU. For the 8th consecutive year, the system did not work. And don't give me this paltry crap about this being only the 2nd time we had a disputed champion. It didn't work from the beginning, it didn't work now, it ain't gonna work forever. One Versus Two was never a feasible idea. It worked much better the old way because at LEAST even with conference tie ins you could keep track with who loses and who prevails in the end. Instead what did we get? Utah vs. Pittsburgh. To quote Denis Leary: "Thank you and @@@@ YOU!" Sure make it up to AU next year with another meaningless "pre-season" #1 ranking which all of a sudden doesn't seem so meaningless. I'm sure the '04 Seniors (especially the not-NFL bound) will carry that stigma on with pride.
It's not that I enjoy crying for AU. I neither despise nor am a sycophant of the program. Just an admirer of their season and the sport in general. But instead of bellyaching over the shocker to end all shockers--Baseball and steriods (well slap my mouth shut!) America should be pissed off because next year _______?_________ will get the same shaft job USC and AU received. Oh, yeah Michigan too but don't tell the Ugly 10 I admitted that (go huskers).
If it means the destruction of college football as I know it, so be it. Screw the bowls, screw the BCS, screw the Tostitos, Captial One, AFLAC, etc. sponsors. I don't want any part of it until justice is done and the D-1 playoff is created. We can then kick and scream over how a #9 Boise State got shafted or #17 Tennessee's (just hypo here) bubble bursted... and then wonder 30 seconds later why we gave a rip about those 3 loss and weak sister conference teams. I want the honor back and that is priceless. It holds a value that is incomprable. Even if lowly Arkansas just by some dumb luck scratches and claws their way to the same pinnacle that Auburn and LSU have achieved recently, I want what is fair. Sure "life" isn't fair, we are not talking about life. We are talking about a game that has invested heavily in the eyeglasses department for officials to keep things "fair". If we were to settle on "tough luck, life's not fair" then what the hell do we need officials for? What was the point for the overtime? Wasn't it to settle it all on the field and NOT in the polls? The BCS is the terrorist in my eye that wants us to bitch and moan over how AU was robbed to justify its existence.
Polls have their place in football... they do not RUN it.
The Auburn fans here may just want to "move on" with this and focus on VPI. Fine. I have no bowl team to root for this year so perhaps it should be left up to me to raise the hell needed. The irony of it all was that the BCS was intended to remove the word "mythical" from the National Championship game. It just became exponentially mythical now. And Lee Corso, ESPN, ABC, et al just became that much more irrelevant. I can't go through one more season of "well let's see how else the system is flawed" and just watch a car crash unfold without doing nothing. They know sensibility and logic will infuriate the bowls and some coaches.
There will be no bowl viewing for me, especially the ABC bowls until a serious playoff is established. 
, you're #1 to me this year and you've more than proved your worth. OU and USC have legit claims as well -- why else would that one coach vote a three way tie for #1 in the final CNN poll? Utah needs a voice in this mess as well, heck I'll even throw Boise in the mix because matching up with the big boys is what you need to see who is the pretender and contender, especially at the mid major level. They said no one who goes through an SEC schedule unbeaten and untied will be denied a shot at the national championship. And when you make that same promise to the Big 12, Big 10, Pac 10, and ACC... you get just what you asked for.
The soapbox is open.
