December 02, 2007
Gene Wojciechowski rails against the BCS (again), but he is all about who should be in the so-called "national championship." Sure, LSU v. Ohio State is silly, but can you name any single game that would not look silly as the "national championship" after this season? Would this problem be solved with a Plus One? No. Yet there is no prospect of a playoff in college football ... at least in the largest division.
The problem with our national championship fetish is that it distracts us from the other perverse effects of the BCS system, all of which relate to the huge dollars sloshing around the BCS. Most teams have no shot at the mythical national championship, but getting into a BCS bowl is a realistic aspiration for many programs, if they game the system. And the payoff is huge. The lesson from this year: schedule like Kansas, whose non-conference games were against Central Michigan, SE Louisiana, Toledo, and Florida International. ALL AT HOME!!!
A subsidiary lesson -- this time for conferences -- is that you shouldn't have a conference championship game. The Big 12 knocked Missouri out of the "national championship." The ACC may have cost Boston College a chance to represent the conference as a second BCS team. The big winner is the Big Ten, which gets Ohio State into the big show and three-loss Illinois into the Rose Bowl. (Sorry Christine and Vic, but that is the biggest scandal after Kansas making the Orange Bowl.)
What about Hawaii? Shouldn't the only undefeated team be playing in the "national championship"? Not if they come from the WAC. Hawaii takes a scheduling penalty in the minds of pollsters because they have a soft schedule. The problem here is that no one wants to play Hawaii! They might lose!
Hawaii coach June Jones wanted his football team to open the season at Michigan. The Wolverines wouldn't play the Warriors and instead hosted Division I-AA Appalachian State, which beat Michigan 34-32 in one of the biggest upsets in college football history.
Hawaii was scheduled to play Michigan State this season, but the Spartans paid $250,000 to cancel the game. Jones tried to replace the Spartans with Southern California, but even the Trojans wanted no part of quarterback Colt Brennan and the Warriors' high-octane offense.
By the way, I just heard an interview with Bronco Mendenhall, in which he was talking about a hole in BYU's schedule created by Nevada's decision to replace BYU with Grambling State on Nevada's 2008 schedule. (The reason? Nevada's schedule was too difficult!) Bronco said that BYU has had inquiries from some Division I schools (rumor: Florida State), but BYU is not interested. After watching Hawaii march into the BCS by beating the likes of Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern, BYU has learned its lesson. When you have a choice, schedule like Kansas.
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1. Posted by Lawrence Cunningham on December 3, 2007 @ 7:12 | Permalink
Gordon Smith for Commissioner of College Football!
2. Posted by Ben on December 3, 2007 @ 8:49 | Permalink
I'm not really sure how Kansas got the invite over Mizzou, that was pretty obviously a mistake. I wouldn't have been upset if Illinois did not get in, but the only team that got hosed by that decision was ASU. BC ranked worse and Florida and the 3rd Big 12 team were ineligible.
In defense of Illinois, they put up a couple of stinkers but they did give Missouri a pretty nice scare and #5 Wisconsin and a #1 Ohio State.
3. Posted by the Rising Jurist on December 3, 2007 @ 10:21 | Permalink
I personally like the conference championship games, but it's needs to be something done by all the conferences, or by none.
4. Posted by Gordon Smith on December 3, 2007 @ 12:49 | Permalink
Larry, I humbly accept the nomination. I'll get those bowls and conference commissioners into line.
Ben, I may have misunderstood your point, but Florida was not getting in no matter what. They were behind both Georgia and LSU. If Tennessee had beaten LSU, then Georgia and Tennessee would be going from the SEC. In either event, BC probably was headed for a BCS bowl before it lost to Virginia Tech.
RJ, I like the conference championship games, too. That's some good football. I understand that the other conferences are pressing the Big Ten and Pac Ten to move to a conference championship, and you can see why based on last weekend.
