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By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
October 13, 2007
When it comes to the Bowl Championship Series (or at least the
inevitable death of the stupid thing) I, like any right thinking person
without a direct rooting interest, have become a situational anarchist.
The more profoundly screwed up, controversial and embarrassing the college football championship system gets, the better.
Only something completely ridiculous can spur a storming of the
castle, a rebellion by the television folks or the SEC deciding to
stand up for its self-interests. The BCS does a terrible job of
determining a champion. It's designed not to serve the players, coaches
or fans, just the corporate coffers favored by the commissioner of the
Big Ten.
But while the BCS shares many similarities with the cockroach,
it can be killed. A nuclear winter would do it and after Kentucky beat
Louisiana State in triple overtime and Oregon State stunned Cal, well,
let's just say the missiles are in the air.
Boston College vs. South Florida in the BCS title game, anyone?
How about either of them against an Ohio State team with exactly zero
quality wins?
Think that might do it?
There isn't frost on the pumpkin yet and the college football season is
a befuddled mess that won't get any clearer when the first BCS
standings get released on Sunday (4 p.m. ET).
Ohio State (7-0) might wind up No. 1, but the Buckeyes have
beaten exactly no good teams. And due to their cupcake non-conference
slate and the horrific state of the Big Ten, they won't have to beat
anyone really good to waltz into the BCS title game with an unblemished
record.
The Bucks toughest game the rest of the way? Try Michigan. (Don't laugh).
Of course, do you like BC (7-0), who played an equally weak
non-league slate and comes from the Atlantic Coast Conference, aka SEC
Lite?
How about South Florida (7-0) which has the best resume
(victories over West Virginia and Auburn) but has been playing Division
I-A football for all of 11 years and feels more like a mid-major in the
Sweet Sixteen than a bona fide, believable title team.
Of course, that's just perception. And in this season we've learned again perception means nothing.
The problem is perception, in the form of two popularity polls,
still plays a critical role in determining how college football sets up
its championship game matchup.
If there was ever a year crying for a playoff, this is it,
when just about everyone has already lost and the gap between teams
playing strong schedules and weak ones is so pronounced.
Consider Ohio State, which considered this a rebuilding year.
Its non-conference schedule consisted of Youngstown State, Akron,
(last-place) Washington and Kent State. Not surprisingly, they won them
all.
It's not Ohio State's fault that everyone else lost and the
Buckeyes are now the likely No. 1. But it doesn't change the fact that
perhaps no team has ever reached the top of the polls this late in the
season with a less impressive body of work.
It also isn't Ohio State's fault that the rest of its league
has tanked the last few years – it's possible there won't be one other
ranked Big Ten team this week.
But suddenly the Buckeyes are in the driver's seat and have a dream slate lined up in front it.
But that's just the kind of schedule the BCS rewards. Play no
one but win and you've got a heck of a shot of making the title game as
the rest of the country beats each others brains in. The best route to
the title game is to play in a mediocre to moderate league with no more
than one or two other good teams.
That's the Big Ten, ACC and, to maybe a slightly lesser extent, the Big East.
None of which means that an unbeaten champion of those leagues
are better than a one or even two loss team from the SEC, Pac-10 or
perhaps even Big 12.
If Michigan is Ohio State's big challenge, what of the
Wolverines 32-point loss to Oregon (not to mention Appalachian State)?
And if Virginia Tech is what passes for serious competition for BC in
the ACC, how do you explain the Hokies' 41-point pasting at the hands
of LSU?
But LSU is now playing catchup thanks to a wild loss in Lexington. This
was surprising in the specific but not the general – the chance of the
Tigers surviving the SEC meat grinder was unlikely.
For the second consecutive week, the SEC should have seven
teams ranked teams. Seven! The Pac-10, meanwhile, had four of the top
14 teams last week.
This is your BCS, though. It punishes good leagues and rewards bad ones.
Former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer might have designed the
original BCS, but in its current form in this current landscape it is
killing his old conference. In a sport with such a disparity in
schedule strength, a playoff is most needed, not least. Let 16 teams
play it out, and you might wind up with all-SEC title games or three of
the final four.
Every week isn't a playoff, as the apologists like to claim, when not everyone is playing playoff competition.
But until the SEC and its current commissioner Mike Slive
decides to stand up and fight for his teams, rather than following the
Big Ten's lead in protecting a system perfect for the Big Ten, then
nothing is going to change.
One loss, to a ranked team, on the road, in triple overtime
will send you reeling behind someone with no losses, but no challenges
either. It's quite a system. It needs to go.
Let anarchy reign.
Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist. Send Dan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
