USA Today: BCS Proves Itself An Ineffective System Yet Again

I’ve already posted two columnists from ESPN criticizing the manner in which Michigan was robbed of a chance to play in the national championship game. Jon Saraceno of USA Today also weighs in:

The Bowl Championship Series, armed with polls, printouts and pomposity, declared Sunday that Ohio State and Florida are the best teams in college football. Well, at least the BCS got it half right.

BCS might as well stand for Baloney ‘n’ Cheese Sandwich championship, to go with all those big-name sponsor chips. Because that’s about what it is worth, at least from our seat at the debate table. Maybe I was dreaming, but I would’ve sworn I already was served filet mignon last month. I watched the best teams, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 at the time, play an epic contest. If I remember correctly, Ohio State-Michigan was billed a “Game for the Ages.”

When it was over, everyone called it a “classic.”

Ohio State 42, Michigan 39.

Who would want to see Ali-Frazier in a rematch, right?

As far as I’m concerned, I’ve seen the national championship game. I have seen or heard nothing since to change my mind about the Buckeyes or the Wolverines. Instead, without playing a game in the interim, out-of-sight, out-of-mind Michigan finds itself on the sidelines of history. Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, who refused to lobby for his team, might have muzzled himself right out of a title game and a chance to prove he can find a way to bamboozle Jim Tressel.

I only hope voters vaulted Florida into the second position in the polls because they believe the Gators are the second-best team in the country and not because they didn’t want to see Ohio State-Michigan II.

Certainly, a case can be made for the Gators. Florida is 12-1 after a tough schedule in a brutal Southeastern Conference, including three wins against top 25 teams. They lost to a good Auburn team but scraped by South Carolina 17-16 on a blocked field goal on the final play.

A cogent argument also can be made for the Wolverines, so during the next 35 days you’re going to hear a lot of understandable wailing out of Ann Arbor, Mich. The Wolverines feel cheated, and there is room to argue. Is Florida’s SEC championship more meaningful than conference runner-up Michigan boasting a “quality loss” at the Horseshoe in Columbus?

One thing you can’t debate is this:

The present system remains unacceptable or, in Urban Meyer’s words Sunday night, “imperfect.” No system is foolproof, but there is a better way, and we all know what it is, even if we can’t convince enough university presidents of its feasibility. Perhaps now, from their ivory towers, administrators will rethink the legitimate need to implement a realistic, workable format for a playoff system for Division I-A. It can be accomplished despite some obstacles.

In this day and age, do we really need conference championships? Shorten the season and fashion a December playoff bracket for eight teams or even four. Major college football players are de facto pros anyway, so another couple of weeks aren’t going to prevent the serious student-athlete from earning his degree.

These multiple one-loss scenarios we’ve seen in past seasons are as commonplace as hog snouts in Fayetteville. I don’t care how many times the BCS tweaks its formula. Auburn still burns after going undefeated and being shut out of the title game.

Please, don’t tell us how swell the BCS — once described by Oregon coach Mike Bellotti as a “bad disease, like cancer” — worked last season. The BCS bosses lucked up with USC-Texas in the Rose Bowl. How often does the season produce only two unbeaten teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 the entire season? Pretty hard to mangle that kind of a party invitation. More often, the BCS has produced controversy.

This season, the anti-BCS howling could have been more strident. Remember Black Saturday last month? BCS bosses weren’t crying when No. 3 Louisville, No. 4 Texas and No. 5 Auburn all lost in the same weekend. How many fans were pulling for upstart Rutgers, then undefeated, to run the table and underscore what a sham the BCS system is? What if the Scarlet Knights didn’t beat (one-loss) Louisville? Bobby Petrino’s Cardinals would have finished 13-0.

I know Pete Carroll feels miserable right now. But I’m glad USC’s offense gagged like a fat cat with a fur ball against UCLA on Saturday. The Trojans controlled their destiny and managed to drive it right off a Malibu cliff against a five-loss team. Nine points with a championship game hanging in the balance?

In a cosmic sense, perhaps the Trojans took one for the cause. Their pain might be college football’s gain. As long as the current system fails to produce an unequivocal champ, there is hope for significant reform.

Remember, I said hope.

E-mail Jon Saraceno at jons@usatoday.com

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