Hope For Change in the BCS

It’s November, and you know what that means: Pete Carroll will be trying to keep his No-Loss-November streak alive, the Minnesota Gophers will start to wonder if their open air new stadium is such a good idea, the tundra will begin to freeze in Green Bay, and we’ll all start bitching about the BCS. Proponents of a playoff system got a huge boost last week from our newly crowned president-elect (for a complete review of Iowa’s experience with the election, check out Sophie’s blog at http://www.blogger.com/www.sophiehouse.blogspot.com) . On Monday night football, on the eve of election day, Barack Obama was asked what the one thing he would change about sports and said that it was about time that college football decided its champion with a playoff, suggesting an eight team field. Without plagiarizing Dan Weztel’s outstanding 11/5/08 Yahoo column too much, Obama reflects the mood of the nation with this opinion on vital policy (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-obamabcs110508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns) .

The debate over the need for a playoff is so pervasive that we all need to ask the critical question: who exactly is against the idea? As near as I can figure it, the people against it do not number more than 23: the commissioners and presidents of the Pac 10 and Big 10 conferences. And that’s about it. 23 people holding up the wishes of 300 million? That’s not very democratic. In the spirit of hope and change ushered in by the remarkable events of Election Day 2008, it is time to move the BCS into its next logical step: the “plus one” game. The infrastructure is in place for this four team playoff- now all four major bowls play a game near New Year’s day and one venue hosts the “BCS Championship” a week later.

The race for this year’s BCS became slightly clearer last weekend. Thanks to the leg of Iowa City native Daniel Murray, Penn State was effectively eliminated from the national championship race. Now, JoPa will have to “settle” for a Rose Bowl date with USC, assuming they can beat Michigan State (which is not a done deal by any means). Murray, on the other hand, gave up a full ride playing soccer at Kentucky to walk on for his hometown Hawkeyes. What seemed like a crazy choice last year has now yielded him everlasting fame and fortune. He will never have to pay a bar tab in Iowa City . . . ever.

Florida’s impressive play of late has moved them up in the rankings and landed them in the SEC championship game. Assuming the Gators and Tide stay perfect until then (again hardly a done deal- see “2007 season” for more details), we will have a national semi-final for the BCS in the SEC Championship. So says Brad Edwards of ESPN, and he is usually right. The SEC champion’s opponent is a little more murky but it is a safe assumption that they will come from the Big 12. Texas Tech controls their own destiny for now, but they face their stiffest test of the year Saturday when they travel to Norman and take on the Oklahoma Sooners. An Oklahoma win will result in a three way tie atop the Big 12 south, with each team having beat the other (OU beat Tech who beat Texas who beat OU- ouch). The Big 12 tiebreaking procedures for a three way tie read as follows:

1.The records of the three teams will be compared against each other
2. The records of the three teams will be compared within their division
3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5 and 6)
4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents;
5. The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of Big 12 regular season conference play shall be the representative
6. The team with the best overall winning percentage [excluding exempted games shall be the representative
7. The representative will be chosen by draw.

Since Tech, OU, and Texas can finish with only one loss each (to each other), methods 1- 4 are bypassed. That leaves #5, and the fate of the Big 12 champ in the hands of the BCS voters. Since pollsters usually punish teams that lose late, in the aforementioned scenario, Texas Tech would probably get the short end of the stick and Texas has the edge at this point. But we’re getting way ahead of ourselves- let’s see what happens Saturday.

Fight On,
Hans

PS: An Oregon State- Penn State rematch in the Rose Bowl? It is not as ridiculous as it may sound. Although folks in State College cringe at the thought of it, if the Beavers win out they still are the Pac-10 champs over USC. And looking back at their season, they only have one bad loss- the opening day stumble to Stanford. Since then, they have only lost to two teams, both of whom happen to be in the top 10 (Penn State and Utah). If they can get by Cal (unlikely) and Arizona (impossible) in the next two weeks, the Civil War would decide the Rose Bowl. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing USC being “forced” to accept an at-large BCS berth and play Alabama in the Sugar Bowl or Utah in the Fiesta Bowl. We’ll see . . . .