With apologies to Hap, here's my...er...Carl's take on the BCS this year.
This comes from adultswim.com. There's nothing real offensive in here (by my standards), but you also might not want to crank the volume if you work in a cube farm (like me...sorta).
3 comments:
Alas, I am visiting from the cube farm, so...
I could see OSU not getting in - if the Big 10(11) had been good, then they would have played probably four highly ranked teams (Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State) and some crap. Unfortunately none of them were really good - just OK, and so our schedule looks like crap. (Out-of-conference against Akron, Washington, and some more crappy teams doesn't help). Of course, these arguments apply to Hawaii, as well, except that they have fewer losses (though it is the Mountain West, producing one or two good teams a year...maybe.). Or we could be Missouri, who got screwed over for Kansas (one of the teams who played an easier schedule than us). And of course, if our conference was only OK (at best), why did IL get in the BCS - IL did play (and lose to) Missouri, so their OOC schedule doesn't suck as much, but they were ranked below both Michigan and Wisconsin for most of the year. Someone in the Big Ten must have given someone in the BCS a special gift to get a second team in.
The BCS is too much like diamond sales - the diamonds have to be perfect, but not too perfect (because if you bought them lab-grown then the people who are in the cartel wouldn't get their money). The teams have to have as few losses as possible, but not without playing a reasonable schedule (aka being in one of our BCS conferences). And, you have to ignore where the money is going (DeBeers in one case, the BCS conferences in the other) and take lots of drugs to think it all OK.
Remember - you can't spell BCS without BS.
I'm actually okay with Ohio State in the Championship game. With the current system, they worked it in their favor. Play a non-conference schedule filled with games you can win (don't forget, the NCAA fed into this by allowing the game against a 1-AA school to count toward your bowl eligibility) and then ride out a schedule in a power/BCS conference. Nothing against the Buckeyes (or should I say Suckeyes, yeah, I'm putting that on visors and mesh t-shirts), it's that they've got the system working for them.
I still don't get Kansas over...pretty much anybody else. Especially Missouri. Yeah, Missouri looked like dog crap in that second half against Okalahoma, but they still beat Kansas. Even though Va. Tech came into the weekend ahead of LSU (and won over another highly-ranked team), LSU jumped Va. Tech in the BCS because LSU buzzsawed Va. Tech early in the season. Shouldn't the same logic apply to Kansas and Missouri?
As for Illinois...they had some good wins, and the rest of the Big Ten seemed to fall away at the end of the year. And the Rose Bowl wanted to keep the Big Ten (+ 1) vs. PAC-10 thing...fine. Illinois isn't any less deserving than Georgia or Kansas.
My dad spends most of his year in Florida now, and he likes Florida - their defense is suspect but their losses were close and they played a good schedule (well, other than FIU). I don't like Georgia (probably becuase they have played a defense-heavy and offenseless style), and I'm not really sure why they are preferred to FL having the same number of losses. He's not unbiased, but he has a point.
If I had had a choice, I might have taken Arizona State over Illinois - the Pac-10 was better than the B11, and they were pretty good. Oregon would have been good if Dennis Dixon weren't hurt (but if that were the case, the title game would probably be Oregon-LSU or Oregon-Oklahoma instead of OSU-LSU). Kansas would have been better than Missouri (instead of Illinois) in a BCS bowl, but only if Missouri got in. Missouri probably would be better than Illinois. Illinois getting in being as fair as either Kansas or Georgia getting in isn't a ringing endorsement for Illinois, IMO.
The fairness of the BCS system escapes me, because of the ability to take teams that wouldn't go otherwise (for fan support, or TV, or ?). The logic does too, though I think the logic is to have the pretense of putting the best teams together while ensuring that both of them will be from the BCS conferences.I wonder how the basketball championship would work if it were done similarly - would it work better or worse, and if worse, why are football players and fans less deserving of fairness than basketball players and fans?
I am hoping we don't get waxed by LSU like we did against Florida.
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