Wasn’t it so disrespectful, so unfair? We can whine and swing our arms disappointed, gripe over the unsound PCs that generate a debate each year and complain all night that Oklahoma State was devoid of earning the right to meet LSU in the BCS title game. So they’ll meet again, LSU and Alabama in New Orleans on the national stage.
It’s the equivalent of discounting the sexiest women for a beauty pageant and perhaps giving the honors to the ugliest woman in the contest. It may shock you to discern that Alabama, the second-ranked team in the nation finishing second in both the Harris and coaches’ poll by a large enough margin, qualifies for the national title to contend for the crystal football. We, the people, are disgruntled by the BCS formula, a chaotic situation unless there is an eight-game playoff system instituted to crown the true champ. So it should surprise no one that the formula is a testament to the madness and hysteria this season, as there are heated debates over the second-best team in the country, the one worthy in meeting LSU for the title.
If you were to make an argument, a reasonable argument, you as the voter might have craved LSU-Oklahoma State. The point is, maybe the vast majority wasn’t so fascinated with the notion that an overhyped SEC rematch is scheduled to alter the texture of college football. Like it or not, the current formula determines the BCS, a system not created to choose the honest championship and, no matter what we say, it’s not our call to establish a playoff but the committee’s responsibility to culminate the tumult.
The dysfunction, I’m afraid, is doomed to rise before the selection committee has a remedy to inevitably erase the flaws in the current computer formula from manipulating the teams’ fate and stopping all the political absurdity that has drawn more publicity than the game itself. The victims, of all people, is the self-righteous Oklahoma State after pleading their case with a towering 44-10 beatdown of No. 10 ranked Oklahoma Saturday night.
This time, in fairness, the Oklahoma State had proven that it was the nation’s second-best team, but the SEC monopoly continues to manipulate the formula and there’s a sense the best conference in football for years will dominate the BCS until one’s principle is fairly to orchestrate a playoff. The composition of fixing the unbalanced BCS is clearly to design an unbiased and nonpartisan scheme that chooses a championship matchup.
The rest of the nation can dissect any numbers – computer rankings and try to distinguish the nonsense. The rest of the nation can analyze the schedules and margins of victory, but no matter what the BCS are winners every time, until a playoff is inaugurated. There is not a trace of doubt that a playoff would be the right way to crown the winner, a quick fix to please the vast majority of the nation and even fraudulent voters that would end any prejudice and idiocy in a disoriented college football season.
The rationale is that we don’t have a playoff, as we all know, and until we get one, the BCS fraud will continue to insult the team most deserved to play for the national title. The guess is here that the Cowboys were screwed by the system which is a fraud and insult to the third-ranked team in the nation, neglecting them for the national title bid. The voters omitted the Cowboys, arguably the second-best team in the nation, brainwashed by the overexposed and far more superior conference and overwhelmed by the television ratings. It is what it is, unfortunately, a damn rematch that some desired to see again, while others were longing to witness LSU-Oklahoma State, two national powerhouses in the country.
Given the system, LSU-Alabama is the correct call. This is something we have to deal with, until changes are made to improve the system after Oklahoma State was denied of a trip to the BCS title game, even though it had the body of work and could’ve competed against LSU. The masses say that Oklahoma State deserved a shot, and it would have had it won their final two games. The shocker to Iowa State, at the time the Cowboys were only two wins away from securing a spot in the title game, smeared their national title hopes – stunned by a 29-point underdog.
Since then, the Cowboys were automatically ineligible to win the national title, one game that determined their season. The thing is, Alabama lost by three to the undeniable No. 1 team in the country, when Oklahoma State shockingly dropped a loss to the unranked Cyclones, a team that finished 6-6. That’s what the committee saw, if nothing else. That’s where the committee was incorrect. Just because a team loses to one of the mediocre teams in the nation, doesn’t mean they are unworthy of qualifying for the national stage.
It could be a convenient excuse to keep Oklahoma State out of the national title game, just as it’s another way to praise Alabama and observe the rematch over again. We can assume, by now, that the Big 12 was as superb as the SEC, probably even better had it not been for LSU. At least, the large range of computer rankings says the Big 12 was the best conference in the nation, but sadly blinded by the obsession with the SEC. In the end, four-one loss teams weren’t eligible for a shot at the national title. This is, though the Cowboys may have been the second-best team in the land, the society of college football – a system that is mired in much disarray.
It never makes any sense but as we’ve always said, you have to deal with it, live with it. The fact that Oklahoma State defeated seven teams with winning records and five teams that were ranked in last week’s BCS Top 25 wasn’t good enough. The fact that Alabama had beaten only three winning teams was good enough. It’s the time we live in, a period in college football that the SEC is adored and evidently claimed to be better than most leagues. To us, though, well, to most of us anyway, the Big 12 deserves the nod rightfully so.
There’s nothing in it for Oklahoma State, now that it is ranked No. 3 in the nation but deservedly so it was worthy of the No. 2. And, in this case of college football, we can now suggest perhaps it’s all about politics with evidence that the SEC is overly appreciated and has a top-dollar TV deal with ESPN. And then, just in recent years, the Southeastern Conference had more star power and appreicated athletes from the South, where folks care about football and has been an integral part in the Southern culture, much like a Saturday ritual for the folks in the dirty South.
The presence of Alabama in the BCS title game creates a controversy, but it’s not an absolute travesty either. If that sounds incorrect, you probably haven’t seen Alabama’s defensive dominance, you probably haven’t seen their old-school style defense. This can actually make for a watchable BCS title game, although I’d have preferred LSU vs. Oklahoma State. The Crimson Tide and the Tigers play the best defense in the nation, ranked 1-2 in scoring defense and total defense. As I say so often, defense wins games, whether you like it or not.
By now, you know that each team is fast and physical and had no flaws defensively. If that’s pretty damn good, then why are we startled? It’s because there’s no playoff, there’s no actual proof that Alabama earned the nod over Oklahoma State, yes, maybe on paper but we don’t know if they legitimized that they are better than the Cowboys. This season alone, LSU averaged 41 points per game, while Alabama amassed 39. And then, when they faced each other in “The Game of the Century,” a campaign that was hyped and brainwashed our senses to become infatuated by a rematch, they scored two field goals apiece in regulation.
Still, because Oklahoma State thrashed Oklahoma, there is a sense it was not taken into consideration as the Sooners are the Big 12, not the SEC. Believe it or not, Georgia is an SEC school, and with further evidence, the Bulldogs even played in the SEC title game on Saturday ranked ahead of Oklahoma in the Top 25, albeit that they hadn’t won anybody in the Top 25. What’s a true honor for the Bulldogs, not the fact that they played in the SEC championship game, but the fact that they are in the SEC, which may explain why Georgia was ranked No. 12 entering Saturday’s game.
Being in the wrong conference doomed Oklahoma State, and as a result, they had fallen short of stepping onto the national stage. It’s admittedly good to state that the Cowboys have trounced almost everybody this season, and unfortunately lost once, a heartbreaking loss in overtime that came hours after a plane crash killed two OSU women’s basketball coaches. The Crimson Tide already once lost 9-6 to LSU back on Nov. 5. I recall that night, because I covered it.
Why see it happen again?? It has been a season of controversy, from the BCS fraud to the damn expansions and realignment in conferences. The computer formulas are mathematically incorrect and make the average person cringe. The formulas aren’t honest — the formulas are deceiving, and with plenty of debate about how inaccurate a treacherous system really is when trying to award the real winner. Each season, it seems, the BCS is politically incorrect.
The wise thing is to eliminate the BCS. Until then, we’ll never know the legit winner.
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