Posted on 01/09/2012 1:50:51 PM PST by kathsua
For the first time since the BCS held its first "national championship" game after the 1998 season, there won't be any bowl game that can realistically be portrayed as a "national championship" game.
This year's game can only be considered as giving the University of Alabama an opportunity to avenge its loss against Louisiana State University(LSU). The two schools can only play for the championship of the western division of the Southeast Conference(SEC). Alabama cannot even claim the championship of the SEC from a victory because that would require Alabama to defeat eastern division champion , the University of Georgia.
LSU cannot prove it deserves a national championship by defeating a school it has already defeated, particularly a school that mostly defeated the same schools that LSU defeated. LSU needs to defeat the champion of another conference in the championship game to prove it is the best team in the country
An Alabama victory would indicate the two schools are equal rather than that Alabama is the best because they would each have one victory over the other. A third game would be necessary to prove Alabama was the better team. In those sports in which the champion must win multiple games against the other team, the champion must win a majority of the games.
The SEC will be the big loser in the game because it will lose its undefeated record in the game regardless of which team wins. Alabama and LSU are both undefeated in the so-called championship game. One of them will lose that status.
The NCAA does allow a conference runner up to play the conference champion for the national basketball championship, but only after the challenger has defeated the other teams in its bracket to get into the championship game.
The NFL allows the runner up in a division to play the division winner in a conference championship but only after the runner up has defeated two other teams. Two teams in the same division cannot play each other in the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl participants must be from different conferences.
Those who suffer from the delusion that a computer or sports writers, etc can choose the best two teams ignore the fact that it isn't unusual for teams rated by writers or computers to lose to teams that are rated lower.
It's time for people to realize that the claim that a BCS bowl game is for a national championship is just a public relations gimmick. The only valid way to determine a national football champion is for teams to earn their way into a championship game by defeating other teams that aspire to be the national champion.
Determining a legitimate NCAA major college football champion wouldn't necessarily require extending the college football season longer than it is now with the phony BCS championship game. There would need to be a way to get the number of teams playing for the championship down to 8 for a 3-round tournament which could include some of the existing bowl games.
With the ongoing conference changes, the number of conferences could change in the next few years. Champions from smaller conferences could play qualifying games after the end of the season, possibly the same weekend some of the large conferences have their championship games. The extra game would provide money for the schools and their conferences.
The first round of the tournament could come just before Christmas or be part of the New Year's day bowl games. Having the first round on New Year's would be especially attractive for the Big 10 and Pac 12 because it would allow their champions to play in the Rose Bowl and still participate in a championship tournament.
The college bowl games aren't nearly as important as they used to be. Most of them are on cable because they don't attract sufficient advertising to be worth a bidding war among the broadcast networks like there is for the Super Bowl.
A true championship tournament could be as popular as the NCAA basketball tournament is. At the very least the schools participating in the tournament would make money for themselves and their conferences.
Woulda been great to see Weeden and Blackmon taking on the Alabama D. What a freaking waste.
What a huge pile of horse crap! I’ve watched high schools raises money with “cow pasture bingo” that were of more significance than this game. Where was the LSU that beat Oregon at the beginning of the season? My end-season Ducks would have gone through either one of the jokes that were at the top of the BCS and ended with 100 points. When will the idiots that call themselves administrators and athletic directors realize that the BCS is a sham?
Nonsense. I have no particular animus for the SEC nor do I even like Oklahoma State. I still maintain that they were robbed of their chance by a flawed system, and the computers agree with me, though the sportswriters don't. (And on the whole, I have more use for computers than sportswriters.)
You’re the one spreading the nonsense. A team loses to a third rate opponent and then should be in the national championship game?
OSU had a clear path and blew it, and had wins over what were proved at the end of the season to be overrated opponents. Remember that great, early season clash between #1 Oklahoma and #5 FSU? And ranked Texas? And how does KSU now look after their game with Arkansas, which Bama beat by four touchdowns?
Looking at the full year including the bowl results shows which teams were overrated due to weak opponents.
The SEC fans would agree with you if you brought up the 2004 exclusion of Auburn (12-0) from the BCS title game where USC (now disqualified) played Oklahoma. Man, there was much whining on the FR boards that year.
Remember, Alabama was #1, and lost at home in the world's most boring field goal kicking contest, therefore not even making it to their conference championship game, let alone winning their conference. Meanwhile, OSU's lone loss was worse, but they had more quality wins and won conference title in the second best conference in the country.
I'd say there's at least a reasonable argument in favor of OSU. The only people who seem to dismiss that out of hand are SEC partisans.
(For the record, I'm a Big 10 partisan, but I have the good sense to not claim that any Big 10 team should have even been included in a playoff...)
A playoff would have settled that as well.
As far as disqualified teams are concerned, let’s not even get into the whole murky scenario of how Cam Newton was mysteriously investigated and cleared last year between the end of the regular season and the Heisman award, when his did was out shopping him to the highest bidder.
And of course, we have the Reggie Bush era USC teams. Just as well that Texas beat ‘em anyway thanks to an all-time great effort from Vince Young.
But while that is another significant topic, it’s kind of irrelevant to this discussion, as unless/until teams are DQ’d, the case of BCS standings vs. playoffs is unaffected.
Whine some more but get your facts straight. Alabama was ranked #2 when Alabama and LSU played the first time. So Alabama lost in overtime to the number one team in the country. Quality wins? Unfortunately, the quality loss counted more in the minds of those who vote on this stuff.
SEC has how many in a row?????
That's just a bad joke that people keep repeating. OSU beat several grossly overrated teams. Try to find those teams in the final rankings after twelve or thirteen games have been played.
Bama played two top five teams. The first OSU opponents that can be found are down at #15 and #16. The final rankings give us the real relative strengths of the two teams' schedules. OSU played a weak schedule and lost to a third rate opponent.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/polls
Overtime? OVERTIME?? Everyone whines about the BCS set up being a joke, but the rules of CFB overtime makes the BCS decisions seem brilliant by comparison!
As far as I'm concerned, the first LSU-Alabama matchup was a 6-6 tie. The ADHD public DEMANDS a winner and a loser, so there is an after-the-fact contrivance called overtime to keep the masses happy.
This, of course, is some delicious irony, given the fact that, in kiddy sports, they don't even keep score. EVERYONE is a winner. Can't hurt little Johnny or little Janie's self-esteem, after all.
Here are a couple of those great OSU wins:
OSU 52 KSU 45
OSU 30 A&M 29
The Big 12 is a league unfamiliar with defense. And KSU didn’t finish so well with a 29 - 16 loss to Arkansas, a team both Bama and LSU beat by four touchdowns, and both could have been worse. And A&M was 7-6 this year.
The Big 12 should change their name to the ‘Arena Football League.’
Lol, and the more someone looks, the less impressive that great OSU “body of work” looks. They played a bunch of overrated teams that didn’t look so good after playing a full schedule.
I still recall the great clash between #1 Oklahoma and #5 FSU.
I agree, I’d rather go back to ties.
OSU would have woken up in a roadside ditch.
How did either one of those schools beat Arkansas? Arkansas looked more like a national champion than either LSU or Alabama.
Neither one looked like it belonged in the top 10. There were very few plays that were worth remembering.
The New Year’s Day were much better.
So if the two best heavyweights fight for 15 rounds and there are no knockdowns, that means they aren't the best?
If you enjoy games with Arena League scores. All I saw was a lot of bad defense. Bama or LSU wipe the floor with any of those teams.
Except when they played LSU or Alabama.
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