Why the BCS Can Suck It!
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by Nola Chick
Here's the old news: the BCS is an unreliable, unpredictable, and plain old un-smart (yeah, I know that's not a word) way to determine the best team in NCAA football.
Here's the new news: the BCS can suck it!
BCS (which stands for Bogus Crap Shoot) is a system based on statistical figures and polls used to determine college football rankings. It ultimately decides who will play in which BCS bowl game, which team gets ranked where, and who goes head to head in the National Championship game. The system has been in place since 1998. That's also about the time when fans of one team or another started realizing they were getting "Al Gored" out of a title that was rightfully theirs.
Just ask the 5 teams since 1998 who've gone undefeated but denied a chance to compete for a national title. (Poor Tulane.) What about when teams don't win their conference championships and still get to play for a national title? (Yeah Nebraska, I'm talking to you!) Or the dreaded split title nonsense like we saw in 2003? It's a cluster I tell you, a cluster! Then there's this year when something equally disturbing about the BCS ranking system hit home for me. It's not even about how many games you lose; it's about WHEN you lose those games.
As it stands, there are 4 one loss teams in the top 5: Missouri, West Virginia, Ohio State, and Kansas. Kansas is ranked 5th behind 10-2 Georgia, even though their only loss is to #1 ranked Missouri. Had Missouri tapped that ass 4 weeks ago as opposed to last Saturday, there's a good chance Kansas would still be #2. Meanwhile, they're stuck looking up the butts of the Bulldogs, who lost to unranked South Carolina and unranked Tennessee. Both are in the SEC, which signifies their opponents weren't complete disasters, but that's still not like losing to the #1 team in the nation. Furthermore, LSU is also 10-2, also lost to one unranked SEC team and a top 25 SEC team, but because the loss occurred so late in the season, the Tigers' title hopes are out the window and they have to live with the notion that Georgia, an undoubtedly inferior football program, has a better shot at a title game appearance.
Oh yeah BCS, you can suck it REAL good!
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that every year some sore loser feels the need to whine about the craptastic nature of the BCS and the need for a playoff system. You're thinking that since I'm an LSU fan, this is just my turn. And while you're partly right, what's also true is that there's something to be said about the fact that every year a handful of teams can walk away from their season feeling robbed of a national title. While to us fans this may just be a source of irritation, this game is everything to many of these players. Should their hard work boil down to some flawed, subjective, statistical mumbo-jumbo invented by a bunch of greedy suits? Why not settle the title disputes on the field instead of in some corner office over cigars and brandy? I mean for the love of Tebow, LSU is ranked below Virginia Tech.... you know, the team LSU beat earlier in the season…the team whose only credible victory against a ranked opponent was versus #16 Virginia last week. I don't know if it's the Thanksgiving turkey rotting in my fridge or Paris Hilton's new perfume, but something stinks!
So I say, suck it BCS! May the thorns of the Rose Bowl prick you like the prick you are. May the sweetness of the Sugar Bowl give you Type II Diabetes. May the Fiesta Bowl bring on a gnarly case of Montezuma's Revenge. And may the Orange Bowl have less to do with Florida Oranges and more to do with lead laced oranges straight from a Chinese street vendor.
Now excuse me while I head off to make my purple and gold "The BCS is a Douche-bag" t-shirt.
(Also published at www.chicksinthehuddle.com)
