Posts tagged BCS at FanHouse

It's not called the No Fun League for nothing! OK so when pulling in esteemed members of the media maybe "expert" isn't the appropriate nomenclature but we'll roll with it because it suits our ideological agenda today. Deal with it.

CollegeFootballNews.com is hosting a discussion panel between various NFL and college football media types. Today's question was "how should college football be more like the NFL, and vice versa?" Almost across-the-board the reactions went something like "DON'T!!! R U CRAZY?!". Only slight exaggeration there. Salient excerpt:

Stewart Mandel: College football should never, ever be more like the NFL. The NFL is boring, sterile, artificial, unimaginative and basically the antithesis of everything that makes college football special.

So there ya go. Not much was actually said about the whole BCS/Playoffs thing in here, which is surprising and leaves us with an incomplete discussion. Personally I'm rabidly against a playoff for college football, but here's guessing that even the most partisan pro-college guys amongst the panel had mixed feelings about the current situation. ESPN's Bruce Feldman did admit to liking the NFL's playoff format.

If they had more time methinks the panel would have quibbled with this comment from the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein:

The NFL's only superiority is its dearth of four-hour games.

Maybe us college football fans are just crazy, but it seems like a good majority of us could care less how long games take so long as there's quality football going on (which is in many ways the NFL's undoing with some of us college football nuts).

Annoying 'Bama-bot Ray Melick:

The brick wall blocking a playoff will still be standing Wednesday afternoon.

But maybe - just maybe - the blockheads of the Big Ten and Pac-10 will begin to see the cracks.

SI's Austin Murphy:

Springing to the defense of his Pac-10 counterpart is Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, who together with Hansen forms a kind of Axis of Obstruction.

Matt Hayes:

Please, everyone. No more questions about who runs college sports. We give you Jim Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten.

Dick Harmon, man who does not watch college football:

A true college football championship is being held up by two conferences - the Pac-10 and Big Ten.

ESPN's Mark Schablach:


In the immortal words of Buzz Bissinger: sorry, various media members, but you're full of s---. Why after the jump.

This is a good week for LSU coach Les Miles. He's certainly basking in LSU's BCS National Championship. He's miraculously not at beloved alma mater Michigan while they endure bad press for questionable academic practices within the athletic department.

And he got a big raise.

So big, in fact, that it makes him the highest-paid coach in the SEC by $1,000 over rival and former LSU coach Nick Saban.

Saban, who is guaranteed $3.75 million, was the SEC's highest-paid coach. Miles' new contract states he will be paid no less than the highest-paid coach at a public university in the conference, plus $1,000.

Sometimes in the SEC there's no need to be sneaky when it feels so good to be obvious. This is one bold, blunt example. I guess it pays to not be able to pronounce the word Arkansas so long as you are holding that glass football.

Side note for LSU fans: that's an AP National Championship Trophy in the picture. USC won one in 2004, you won one in 2008. Just so you know that we know that your coach knows it counts. That is all.

It hasn't been pretty, but in this years college football season the only real prerequisite to a shot at the national title game is to keep winning. Outside of West Virginia's win against Western Michigan to start the season off or the Mississippi State game, nothing has come easy for the Mountaineers. And in their last two games against Louisville and Cincinnati, West Virginia did everything they could to keep their opponents in the game with untimely fumbles.

But despite all that, they find themselves in the number three spot in this weeks BCS poll. And looking at their closest competition, Kansas and Missouri, there is a very real possibility that both will suffer another loss before the season is over. It's by no means a lock, but one of those teams will lose this weekend and the other will most likely face Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game.

And that takes us back to the title of this post. Just keep winning and you're in the title game. It might not seem fair to those that think West Virginia doesn't belong in this position because of a less than demanding schedule. But life is seldom fair and sports even less so. There's been 11 top five teams that have lost to an unranked team this year. And all 11 of those teams have no one to blame but themselves for the position they are in. Make no mistake about it, a top five team should never lose to an unranked team.

Being a West Virginia fan, I'm probably a little biased and don't think the schedule is all that bad. And I think they deserve a shot at the title if they win the rest of their games. The Mountaineers have played five teams that have been ranked this year. Which is the same as Missouri, three more than Kansas, and at least the same as Ohio State. Forgive me, I can't remember if Purdue was ranked this year. No need to mention LSU since they played everyone that was anyone this year and are totally deserving of a shot if they win out. But as for the rest, I see no reason why any of the above would be more deserving that West Virginia.

I might have just made the best argument in like forever as to why college football needs a playoff system. But there won't be a playoff this year or any time in the near future. And until then, winning is all that matters.

Check out this lead:

ABC let 80 percent of the BCS out of its grasp three years ago. If given the opportunity to get any or all of it back, the network won't let it happen again.

"I don't like looking back," Chuck Gerber, ABC/ESPN executive vice-president for college sports said during Tuesday's BCS meetings at the Hotel Intercontinental. "But if it does come up again, and it makes business sense, we would love to be there."

Ever see two boys fighting over the same pretty girl? It's kind of like that with the BCS. Unless either gentleman finds some principle to stand up, the girl gets to name her price with the suitors. And so it goes with the BCS and potential broadcast partners.

I mention this because Florida President Bernie Machen is due to present his playoff proposal to the SEC this week. One of the arguments by playoff supporters is that a playoff could match or exceed the revenue generated by the BCS.

To sound like Lee Corso for a moment, not so fast. One year after losing its BCS contract and another year out from negotiations, ABC is champing at the bit in hopes of renewing a broadcast contract with the BCS. This is prelude to a major bidding war and pours cold water on a hypothetical and unknown cash argument presented by playoff advocates.

I can't believe this is even a topic of discussion.

As discussed earlier in the week at College Football Resource, there's a fledgling effort to destroy the Rose Bowl. Why, you ask? Because it's in the way. Take it away, Terry Bowden:

I don't want to get all our Big Ten and Pac-10 readers in a hussy, but many people think it will be those two conferences that ultimately will come between college football and a playoff system. Florida president Bernie Machin, who is spearheading the drive to persuade college presidents to consider a playoff, believes the only real problem will be the Big Ten and the Pac-10 because "they like their sweetheart deal with the Rose Bowl." Maybe fans can visit www.boycotttherosebowl.com, a site that reader David Barnes of Dallas emailed to me.

I'd be more lighthearted and sarcastic and mock Bowden's inability to spell Machen, but this is taking things too far. Have you ever become deeply passionate about something but maybe lost your focus along the way, advocating counter-productive things? Taken things too far? Have friends ever told you to 'check yourself'?

Well I'm telling the playoff nuts out there right now: check yourselves. I'm not in favor of a playoff, but I can reasonably disagree with its proponents and listen to rational arguments and let the marketplace of ideas do its thing. This, however, is taking things too far. I cannot believe the desperation to make one consider boycotting essentially one of the greatest things the college game has going for it.

My colleague Brian Cook - himself a vocal playoff advocate - has this much to say about a boycott:

Sure, I'll boycott the Rose Bowl, along with puppies and sunshine

In general, a movement's gone too far when it starts shedding former allies who realize things have gone too far. Something's very French Revolution about the idea of a boycott, no? Not good.

The BCS got lucky. Score one for mankind. When it was all said and done on Sunday night, the national championship game was decided by the voters. What a novelty. Those pesky computer polls found a way to deadlock Michigan and Florida and defer to real live breathing humans to decide who plays for the national championship. The polls made the final choice.

The BCS is still a joke. Using polls to determine who plays for the national championship is still really dumb. But fortunately, the two most deserving teams are headed to Glendale, Arizona to play for all the marbles.

Anyone who's a proponent of a playoff couldn't possibly support Michigan's effort for a rematch. They lost to Ohio State in the last round. It's time for the next one and Florida deserves to be there. Are the Gators dominating? No. Could they have stayed on the field with Auburn's 2004 team? No chance.

First things first. I no longer have a dog in this BCS hunt. My Auburn Tigers have been eliminated. With that said, I'm still hot over this BCS process. Just as Auburn was bent over in 2004, it appears likely that the winner of the Florida-Arkansas contest will face the same fate.

Many in the South believe that Arkansas is the best team in the conference and will win the SEC Championship on December 2nd. I don't share that feeling. I believe that Florida is a better team and will be even faster on artificial turf. Something tells me that Urban Meyer is a better big game coach. Time will tell.

Regardless of who wins, it appears that the winner will settle for the consolation prize, the bronze medal game if you will. The idea that a one loss SEC Champion will be left out is just as incredible as it was in 2004 when Auburn went undefeated.

Writing about the BCS the night before the Georgia game is probably stupid. But I'll do it anyway. Yes, I'm as worried as anyone else about tomorrow. I think I'd rather Georgia come into the game on a roll than be wounded and dangerous. And history backs me up on that point.

With that said, I wanted to weigh in on the BCS. After Louisville's loss to Rutgers last night, that's all we've heard today both on television and radio. So where does Auburn stand? That's a very good question. I tend to worry more about the offense than the Bowl Championship Series.

If you subscribe to Inside The Auburn Tigers, you get the weekly newsletter prior to each game. This week, Mark Murphy does a 10-game comparison of this year's team against all of Tommy Tuberville's prior teams. This year's offense is struggling in every statistical category compared to Auburn teams of the past five years. We obviously have some work to do in the next two weeks. That will go a long way in determining whether the BCS matters to Auburn or not.

How can your team be 9-1 and you feel so bad about it? Never has one loss cost a team so much. The chances of Auburn finishing the season 11-1 are very good. Make that extremely good. And what will they have to show for it? How about second place in the SEC West?

That's SEC football. That's big time football. That's what makes the SEC so wonderful and heart-breaking at the same time. After watching Arkansas dismantle South Carolina Saturday night, it looks like the longest of longshots that the Razorbacks will lose two of their final three games.

If I had bet you before the season started that Auburn would be LSU, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Alabama, but wouldn't win their division or play for the SEC championship, how much would you have put on it? That's what kind of year it has been.