I never was necessarily a playoff guy. BCS either. If that's fence-sitting then that explains why my backside was so sore.
It was all about the theater for me. Just give me great games. That and the parking pass. Easy in, easy out. No traffic snarls. In my jammies and in bed before midnight.
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| Just one more win and it's BCS party time for the Mountaineers. (US Presswire) |
Anyway, the BCS-playoff argument has ripped this country apart more than the boxers vs. briefs debate.
That's why, as this 10th season of the BCS draws to a close, I have climbed down off the fence. I find it hard typing these words, but I'm becoming a BCS guy. This has been the greatest season in the history of the tortured system and probably in history. Most of it because of the BCS.
Not intentionally, mind you, but this season has convinced me that we already have our playoff. The whole season is a playoff framed inside the BCS race. Unintended consequences? How many remember that I-AA is now and forever eligible for the Associated Press Top 25 after App State beat Michigan?
Maybe it's just me witnessing a lot of these upsets, but there has been earthquake-quality shape shifting every week. I wouldn't have bet you a bag of stale popcorn on West Virginia's national championship chances on the night of Sept. 28. That evening the Mountaineers sleepwalked through a loss at South Florida. Meanwhile, the Bulls had announced themselves to the nation.
Update: West Virginia needs only to beat Pittsburgh on Saturday to go to New Orleans; South Florida just accepted a Sun Bowl bid.
At one point this season I wasn't the only one who thought LSU couldn't be scored on. The defense was that good. Now? Not so much. Not only have the Tigers lost twice, Les Miles has officially fallen off Sanity Mountain -- LSU's coach spent part of this week lobbying for national championship consideration for his Tigers.
After all, he surmised, both of his team's losses were in overtime. His Tigers were essentially 10-0-2 in regulation time.
What Les didn't explain were the reasons his team was in those overtimes: A) blowing a 13-point lead at Kentucky and B) getting blown off the field at home by Arkansas' running game.
I'm beginning to understand why Miles goes for it every time on fourth down.
Now you've got to ask how focused the Tigers are going into Saturday's SEC Championship Game. Miles and defensive coordinator Bo Pelini each have one foot out the door for their new jobs.
All this from a team that was No. 1. Twice!
On opening night, I saw a bad Louisiana-Monroe team lose at home to Tulsa. Even the locals didn't seem to care. Malone Stadium wasn't exactly sold out. Eleven weeks later those same Warhawks won at Alabama.
Two days after Monroe, I saw a rarity: An SEC team get physically pushed around by a Pac-10 team. Yeah, it was that bad when Tennessee lost to Cal. Now those same Volunteers are about to orange crunch LSU in Atlanta.
It's hard to remember that Southern California was the preseason No. 1 with a bullet. A loss to Stanford rightly disqualifies the Trojans from any championship consideration.
That rout of Arizona State came way, way too late.
Michigan went from preseason top five to coach-less. Kansas rose from the primordial ooze to No. 2. Missouri -- freakin' Missouri -- is deserving of the No. 1 ranking until further notice. The Tigers' only loss was at Oklahoma, a top 10 team. The football gods have met and determined that a rematch -- an actual game on the field! -- is the right way to decide things.
Not so for Ohio State -- wearing an ass print into the couch for two weeks -- watching itself climb back into the picture.
If we had even a modest four-team playoff, current Nos. 3 and 4 (Ohio State and Georgia) would be all but in. Where exactly would be the drama? Go back to 2002 when Ohio State upset Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. How fair would that be for the Buckeyes, at 13-0, to play another game (or two, or three) to prove their worth?
If we had a playoff it would merely shift the argument from who's No. 2 to who's No. 4. If we had a playoff the fact that 12 top five teams have lost to unranked teams would mean a little less. Missouri and Kansas would have been playing for playoff position last week instead of the biggest game in either program's history.
I was convinced in 2004 that the BCS as we know it isn't going anywhere any time soon. Auburn went 12-0, won the SEC and was excluded from the championship game. If the BCS can survive an unbeaten SEC champion being shut out then roaches are getting jealous. Roaches, they tell us, will be the only living things left when The Big One hits.
We've lived through The Big One, folks.
Buy an HD, settle in this weekend and catch more of the unscripted drama. There's bound to be more. These BCS guys are pretty smart. Now they've got one more fan.
Or maybe it's just one fan.
Scouting the Nation
• If West Virginia and Missouri win:
BCS title game: Missouri vs. West Virginia
Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. USC
Fiesta Bowl: Arizona State-Kansas
Sugar: LSU/Tennessee-Hawaii
Orange: Virginia Tech/Boston College vs. Georgia
• If Oklahoma and West Virginia win:
BCS title game: Ohio State vs. West Virginia
Rose Bowl: USC vs. Illinois
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Kansas
Sugar: LSU/Tennessee vs. Hawaii
Orange: Virginia Tech/Boston College vs. Georgia
• If Missouri and Pittsburgh win:
BCS title game: Missouri vs. Ohio State
Rose Bowl: USC vs. Illinois
Fiesta Bowl: Arizona State vs. Georgia
Sugar Bowl: LSU/Tennessee vs. Hawaii
Orange Bowl: West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech/Boston College
• If Oklahoma and Pittsburgh win (in other words, chaos):
BCS title game: Ohio State vs. Virginia Tech/LSU/Georgia/Oklahoma
Rose Bowl: USC vs. Illinois
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Kansas/Georgia
Sugar: LSU/Tennessee/Georgia vs. Hawaii
Orange: West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech/Boston College winner or Georgia
• Whether you think it's fair or not, No. 1 Missouri is either going to play for the national championship (if it wins) or in the Cotton Bowl (if it loses).
• And if Missouri loses, the No. 1 ranking will have changed hands five times since the first week of October.
• Don't give up yet, LSU. There is a "5 percent chance," according to Jerry Palm, that LSU could pass West Virginia and get in the top two even if both the Mountaineers and Missouri win. LSU would have to blow out Tennessee in the SEC game -- and hope.
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| Well, it's nice that Pete Carroll is figuring out the BCS method. (Getty Images) |
"It's about who's had the most attractive season rather than who had the best team," Carroll said. "It just dawned on me that's how it works."
It takes an entire season, Pete. Even when USC had everyone healthy it wasn't overly impressive for a team that was the consensus No. 1.
• If USC beats UCLA it will have won at least a share of the Pac-10 title for an ongoing conference-record six consecutive years.
If UCLA somehow beats USC and Arizona upsets Arizona State, UCLA would be the conference champ at 7-5.
Granted, the ASU game was USC's best since Nebraska in early September. But you don't get in the discussion when you've lost to Stanford, Pete. It's about who has had consistent excellence throughout the entire season.
• Quick, what do these teams have in common: USC, LSU, West Virginia, Texas, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech and Louisville. That, dear readers, was, in order, AP's preseason top 10. Those teams have lost a combined 28 games. Only West Virginia, Virginia Tech, LSU, USC, Oklahoma and Florida remain in the top 10. Michigan and Louisville are unranked.
• Seven teams in the state of Florida and only two of them have a chance at winning a conference championship. That would be Florida Atlantic (vs. Troy in the Sun Belt) and Central Florida (in the Conference USA Championship Game against Tulsa). The other five Florida schools are a combined 30-29.
• Outgoing Navy coach Paul Johnson (playing Army, then headed for SMU) has a 9-1 record against the other two service academies. His only loss came to Air Force in his first season.
• The (not so) Big Game once again features two teams on the slide. This season Cal, at 6-5, is one of the biggest disappointments of 2007. The biggest buzz we can come up with for this one is this is the 25th anniversary of the Stanford band intermingling with a Cal kickoff return. You might have heard of it.
• Don't be surprised if Tom Osborne surprises. The assumption is that Bo Pelini and Turner Gill are the finalists for the Nebraska job. Maybe, but that means Huskerville is choosing between a guy who has never been a head coach and a guy who has been a head coach for only two seasons -- in the MAC.
WWL still likes Wake Forest's Jim Grobe or Cincinnati's Brian Kelly waiting in the wings.
• Boston College's Matt Ryan is a first-team All-American quarterback, according to the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). WWL gets the feeling that's the only All-America team Ryan will make.
• They could have been a contendah: What a sad, sad decline for Oregon (8-3) which is just trying to score a touchdown in the Civil War against Oregon State.
• Remember how crappy Kansas' schedule was? Central Michigan, which it beat to start the season, should win its second consecutive MAC title (over Miami-Ohio).
• This long, strange season will actually end Sunday morning (mainland time) with Hawaii needing to beat Washington to have a chance to get in the BCS. Jerry Palm says the Warriors might need to put up a "basketball score" to automatically qualify by finishing in the top 12. Wouldn't it be perfectly natural if U-Dub made it one more upset to end the 2007 regular season?
