Another year and another potential melt down for the BCS has all of us who long for a play off system in Division 1a College Football (I refuse to use the contrived names they have to 1a andd 1aa) hoping that it comes to pass. Even President-Elect Obama said that if he could change one thing about sports, he would install a play off system. More of the major college coaches are vocally attacking the BCS system.
Today some more pieces fell into place that could lead to a laughable situation for the BCS. As has largely been reported, the Bowl game that has been the most strident opponents to a playoff system has been the Rose Bowl, arguably the most prestegious and richest of the bowl games. Well, because of their desire to retain a connection with the Pac 10 and Big 10 Champions, they may very well find themselves with a game that doesn't feature a top 10 team. Penn State lost today and may very well find itself out of the top ten tomorrow (they were arguably the weakest of the top ten teams anyway). But even worse, should they lose to Michigan State next week and if Oregon State should win out, those two schools would be in the Rose Bowl. This would make the Rose Bowl about as relevant as the Chickfila Bowl in terms of national importance.
Alabama barely won today and coupled with Texas Tech's much more impressive win, they should drop to at least #2. Alabama has not been all that impressive this year either despite their record and the BCS Championship game people got one of their wishes (Penn State's loss) and are expecting their other wish (getting rid of Alabama in the SEC Championship game) will come true. The Championship Game people were probably already having nightmares about a game between Penn State and Alabama; while USC and Texas were playing in the Rose Bowl and Oklahoma and Florida were playing in the Fiesta Bowl, with undefeated Boise State and Utah were playing Texas Tech and Oklahoma somewhere else.
There are a more than a few problems this year. For my favorite team, USC, they have one loss, on a short week, to Oregon State. Since then they have pretty much plowed under everyone winning their last five games by a combined score of 237-23; today holding #21 Cal to one field goal and under 200 yards of total offense (about half of which were caused by penalties). But USC is hurt because although they are very, very good, they are playing in a relatively weak conference. But, on the plus side they did no schedule any 1aa schools in their schedule either.
The Big 12 has four really good teams who may end up defeating each other once, but they are all in the Big 12 South. Oh, if you really want to add to the mess, just imagine if the Big 12 North team, probably Missouri, actually wins the Big 12 Championship and steals one of the spots in the Fiesta Bowl. But the four South teams , Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State may all end up in the top ten.
The SEC has an undefeated, but really marginal Alabama team and a really powerful Florida team. Florida should win the SEC Championship game and that would give the pollsters an excuse to drop Alabama out of the top ten.
The Big 10 is just horrible this year and no one wants another Big 10 team in the Chamionship game getting blown out. About the best Penn State can do now is get the Rose Bowl and hope USC is playing somewhere else. The thought of Michigan State winning the Big 10 is rather amusing though.
The ACC is simply laughable. There isn't a team in that entire conference that is or should be even in the top 12, and none of them should, in a sane world, be going to a BCS game. But the BCS system is hardly sane.
The final broken cog in the BCS machinery is undefeated Utah, Boise State, and even Ball State. What to do with them? Potentially the only undefeated 1a schools could be from non-BCS conferences.
The BCS system is racketeering, plain and simple. It was designed to make sure a team like BYU and a game like the Holiday Bowl never sullied the January 1st Bowl Games again. Every Division 1a coach should be able to tell his team in spring practices that if they win out they have a chance to win the national championship. But they can't, the BCS system is designed to make sure they can't. And that should change.
Although it might adversely effect my USC Trojans, I hope Oregon State gets the Rose Bowl against Michigan State. I hope Missouri wins the Big 12 championship game and further messes up the BCS system. I hope the BCS games are saddled with teams they don't really want and that a couple of the "lesser" bowls get some front line teams and match ups that people are interested in. In short I hope this is the year that the BCS system finally and completely melts down and the fan and sponsor outrage finally brings us a Division 1a playoff for the championship.