How can you finish #1 in both polls and not get into the National Championship game?
What a joke.
You answered your own question. It’s a joke.
What a mess!! I hope the Rose Bowl gets higher ratings. I am going to protest by not watching the suger bowl, I don’t care who wins, one of the teams is in by default. GO NOLES
Simple, 3 teams have 1 loss. 2 teams play for the title. 1 team gets left out.
Oklahoma lost to another BCS team, Kansas State who was 11-3 (7-2) in what was virtually a road game (Arrowhead, KC). Oklahoma was the “best team” in the country all year. Oklahoma beat 2 ranked teams by ~50 points each … the same margin USC beats “sissy teams”
LSU beat 4 ranked teams and won the toughest conference in the country (and I’m a Big 10 guy), LSU beat some of the same teams as SC and by roughly equal margins. The quality opponents is their strong suit. LSU lost to Florida, who was 8-4 (6-2).
USC lost to Cal (7-6, 5-3) and won a weak conference. Who cares by how many points you beat a crappy team?
The days of wins versus weak opponents are over (unless you go undefeated and no one else does). Nobody cares that you beat NorthEast Corner Rhode Island Tech 77-0.
Simplified – Oklahoma beat good teams by a lot of points, and LSU won the best football conference in the country. USC had the same record with lesser opponents. Who gets left out? Isn’t it obvious?
Why is USC ranked #1 in both polls? Because people have a short memory. If USC lost to Cal on the last week of the season would they be ranked #1 of the 3 teams? Obviously not.
The arguement can be made “How can you be a national champion without winning your conference?”, and that is a good question. Wasn’t Nebraska in the same situation Crouch’s senior year when Miami beat them in the title game? Colorado handed Nebraska a horrible loss with Chris Brown scoring 6 TD’s?
But, look at the PAC-10. You could take 2-3 teams from the Big 12 and SEC and win the PAC-10, and win MANY games by 30+ points. USC ain’t going to taste sugar, b/c the teams in their conference are meow. You say “You can’t punish a team because of their schedule!”, I say “You can if there are 2 other teams with the same record with tougher opponents”.
In no way am I defending the BCS. Why a playoff system is such a mirage is confu$ing (not a typo) to me. There’s a playoff (tournament) in other major college sports, and playoffs in football in lower divisions. The answer to why there i$ a BC$ $hould be obviou$.
Yes, I agree Its a joke, someone seems to always get screwed… this year its USC. Ill give Usc some credit for scheduling, Notre Dame, and Auburn, who knew they were both going to suck this year, but they also lost to a crappy Cal team who ended up with 5 losses (I think )this year.
LSu had non-conf. heavyweights UL Monroe, Arizona ( good luck next year with Coach Mike, …at least he’ll bring a bit of D to the Pac Ten) and Western Illinios, but they did have a tougher conference schedule, of beating Georgia (twice) Miss State, Ole Miss, Ark, and Florida.
There were three teams with one loss, two of the teams lost early in the season, one lost at the end. Two of the teams had a tougher conference schedule and played in conference championship games.
I still think OKlahoma is one of the best two teams in the nation, who the other one is, hell I dont know. All I know is OKlahoma played head a nd shoulders above every one else for 95 % of the season, and had all there bad luck in one game at the end of the year. One week ago many of teh national guys were calling this OU team one of the top 10 college football teams of all time, now all of a sudden they are not after one game out of thirteen. Regardles they will get to play for their 8th National championship. It may be a split national championship if they win and so does USC, but I dont care.
Boomer Sooner BABY!!!
LSU is going to need that home field advantage come Jan 4, cuz Coach Stoops has never lost two huge games back to back, with 4 weeks or more to prepare!!! SOONERMAGIC will return…with a VENGENCE!!!
and had all there bad luck in one game at the end of the year.<<
That sounds like a typical Sooner fan. We kicked your ass, no good or bad luck involved.
clm, KSU 1984
Hey CLM …Nice job against MARshall… …A REALLY tough MAC team …I dont care if your quarterback was hurt, you still had Sproles and the same defense…O yeah you also lost to a crappy OSU team to…and some other weak team as well…enjoy the desert…I’m headed to NO BABY…!! and how many Natl Champs does KSU have? I forgot ,please remind me.
I’d vote LSU #1, SC #2, and OU #3. Have LSU and SC play it out. Not to slight OU(I’ve been hyping them all year), but you can’t get absolutely pasted in your last game, not win your conference and then play for the National Championship. I do think you have to look at the season as a whole, but how a team finishes should be part of the equation. OU definitely lost to a better team than did SC, and if if their game had been close, even wih a loss, I would have picked the Sooners for the Sugar. But 35 -7? No way a team that loses that badly in their final game should play in the Championship.
Just my opinion, schu 
I’m not really a fan of any of the three. Hopefully(unlikely) we can get a playoff out of this debacle. I love the idea of an 8 team playoff. That would be 7 games. Let the higher Bowls represent those 7 games and have the Sugar, Rose, Orange, and Fiesta rotate for the Championship game.
You’re right TripleThreat, It’s about the $$$$$$.
Come on man, when a team gets SMOKED in the last game of the year, they shouldnt have any reason to play for the Natl Champsp. Now if they would have lost to K-state in game 1or 3 or whatever and clawed they way back, got some help by top ranked teams losing, then I’d be all for it. But you gotta win out, If your going to have the opportunity to be called the best team in college football on jan. 3rd +/- you gotta play that way in Dec. That was not a national champion caliber team last night, the Cal golden bears that you just ripped only lost by 14 pts to K-state. I say you should have to win out.
Hey, guys, ask Arizona and Auburn who was the toughest team they played this year and I don’t think they’ll say USC. Of the four top teams in the BCS, the only one that matches up with LSU is Michigan. Watch out USC!!!
By the way, what if LSU puts a KSU on OKU and USC squeaks by UM. Who gets screwed in the final polls then?
Bob Sigerson
LSU '60
Got me confused. My vote is for LSU #1.
I don’t know about Auburn, I bet they still have a case of the red-ass, after all,they were #1 in the country according to some fools. So. Cal put a pretty good beat down on 'em 23-0 at Jordan-Haire.
That goes back to my point. That was way back in Aug. anyone can look good then, Oklahoma,FSU, Miami. It should be about who’s left standing, and Oklahoma ain’t one of them. LSU is, and they deserve a shot.
A loss is a loss is a loss. Doesn’t matter if it is week 1 or week 10 (IMO). I understand where you are coming from.
When I look at all 3 teams, I think the 2 best are going to play for the title. The two thathad the “toughest road to 11-1 seasons” made it, the one that had the easiest road didn’t.
Last 3 games … “finishing the season”
USC Opponents – Arizona (2-10), UCLA (6-6), Oregon State (7-5). Total = 15-21
OU opponents – Baylor (3-9), Texas Tech (7-5), Kansas State (11-3) Total = 21-17
LSU opponents – Miss (9-3), Arkansas(8-4), Georgia (10-3). Total = 27-10
Obviously LSU is in. How USC is #1 over them is beyond me. I guess if LSU played USC’s schedule, LSU would win every game by 30+ too. The debate is “How the HELL is LSU NOT #1?”
The debate comes down to OU vs. USC … the debate all year. OU lost to another BCS team. USC lost to a bunch of smart kids. That debate is easy for me. One team was #1 all year and got beat against another really good team. The other was #2 all year and got beat by a mediocre team.
8 teams is too many for a playoff. That adds 3 extra weeks to an already 12 game season. 4 teams cuts out one week and lets the top 4 play it out. Unfortunately football is not basketball where you can play 4 games per week.
The season is too long anyway. I’m all for cutting down season games to 8-9, and having a 8-10 team playoff (10 teams = #1 and #2 get a bye).
We are still trying to pass them off as being “student athletes”. Either cut the season down & add a playoff, or add a playoff and stop making them go to class.
I’m having flashbacks to when washington got left out, then miami got left out, now USC gets left out. Can the bowl system not be incorporated into a national champioship playoff. How hard is to call each playoff game a " Playoff Bowl game"?
Watch USC ruin all the good talk by losing 41-13 to Michigan.
USC is out because they are in a weak conference, and did not have the foresight to schedule tougher non-conference teams. What is the hightest ranked team they beat?..was it like a 15th ranked Washington State? I think the better question is why USC is ranked number 1. LSU and Oklahoma played and beat tougher opponents.
As far as people complaining about the BCS, it may not be perfect, but it’s better than the prior system where you had the bowls that were locked in as far as who they could take (i.e. Rose Bowl always had to take the PAC 10 champ and Big 10, Cotton, Orange, and Sugar were forced to take a champ from other conferences). Think of what the Bowl shedules would be like under that system.
I’d love to see a 4 team playoff, but until then, I think the BCS is alright.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/abcsports/BCSRankings
There’s the total BCS ranking breakdown.
USC’s strength of schedule (37) was worse than the other top 7 teams. That’s what did them in. It can be considered a tough break because they cannot control what the other teams do in their respective seasons.
USC’s slaughter of ND on national TV looked to be a big game, until ND went down the crapper. USC beat NO. 6 Auburn 23-0 in week 1, but then Auburn let USC down by finishing 7-5. I believe that the rankings are re-worked at the end of the season, so USC does not get credit for beating a No. 6 team because Aubrun did not finish #6. Not sure about that.
Even with a 4-team playoff, we’ll be debating why the #5 team didn’t go instead of the #4 team. We could just make it like hockey, where it seems every team except the last place team makes the playoffs and the playoffs last 2 months.
To me, the polls are the goofy thing. You eman all the coahces watch all the different games and look at everyone’s schedules and the schedules of the opponent’s opponents? Or do the coaches & media just vote on impulse, general feeling, tradition, friendships, rivalries, likes/dislikes, etc. I like that they include the AP poll into the BCS, but the PC rankings look at many more things than do coaches and media. (Why the media is involved, I have no idea)
Every year there will be debates. I’m reminded of a co-worker who when I ask “Are you gonna watch the games?”, responds with “I hate the damn BCS, I ain’t gonna watch any of the games 'till they install a playoff” … then when we return to work, he approaches me with “Was that a helluva game last night or what!?” They (NCAA and the networks) know we’re junkies.
Sorry, Jayblack, just hit your reply button 'cause it was on top.
Thrww things, this strength of schedule thing. LSU’s wasn’t so hot, e.g. Div 1-AA, Western Illinois, but the problem is they are made up so far in future that you have no idea how the team will be playing at the time. Arizona was a PAC-10 power when LSU scheduled them several seasons back. In fact, Western Illinois came on to fill the spot Masrhall pulled out of this summer. In other words, it’s beyond the control of many schools.
The second thing, I read comments from players from Arizona after the USC game and Auburn after the LSU game and their comments were that LSU was a better team. These are guys who played the games not just watched them on tv.
Third, as one of our sports writers wrote the other day, if there was a playoff system, would there be this much interest and controversy from the first part of the season til now. Would it college football turn into March Madness, the NFL and NBA playoffs, that is, everyone kind of saying ho-hum in the regular season and only getting interested in the USC’s and LSU’s of the world in mid-December?
My opinion is that OKU, with a loss like they suffered, should have been moved to number 5 or 6 in the human polls and maybe this would not be a controversy. I can understand the human polls using the natural progression of #2 to #1 but #2 would have put a whuppin on #1 in the Sugar Bowl.
By the way, Nick Saban’s, LSU’s coach, contract reads that if he wins the National Championship, he will be paid $1 more than the highest paid coach in college football, now the OU coach. If he wins that’s a $1,500,000 raise. Not bad.
Bob Sigerson
LSU '60
Don’t know what the big thing is. The only game Oklahoma last all year was last week and only by four touchdowns. I hope I have my facts right.
Now that I think of it, I only lose to Tiger Woods by maybe 40 strokes on a typical day. Why haven’t I been invited to play in the Skins game, or the majors?
Now that I think about it, DeBoom and Reid only beat me by maybe five hours on a good day. Where is my ticket to Kona?
I like it when strength of schedule is rewarded.
Lots of good teams can go 11-1 with a soft schedule. TCU was 9-0. 'Nuff said. Unfortuantely, as been pointed out, teams cannot control their pre-made schedule, or what their opponents do for the rest of the season. There are tough breaks al over sports. The nature of the beast.
I like it when a boxer that is 24-2 and is 2-2 vs. the top 10 gets a shot at the title. I don’t like it when a guy that’s 23-0 and hasn’t fought a top 10 contender gets a shot. Especially when I am paying $39.99 to watch the fight.
2nd and 3rd place at kona is more important than winning your regional IM.
How about LSU not getting BCS credit for beating GA (a ranked team) b/c the already beat them once?
Oklahoma lost to a better team than USC or LSU even played.
This is the one thing I HATE about football … there’s only 1 game per week. So, each week is either “life” or “death”. One week OU is the greatest team in the last 10 years, the next they’re punks. One week a guy is a heisman lock (Fitzgerald or White) and the next week he’s a chump (Fitzgerald vs. Miami, White vs. KST). Every week is so over-emphasized, and our memory lasts 6 days, and then we get amnesia all over again.
It sure does make for good discussion. Good point about the regular season meaning something. No one watches NCAA basketball regular season, everyone watches the Tournament. Everyone fills out a bracket.
Now that I think about it, DeBoom and Reid only beat me by maybe five hours on a good day. Where is my ticket to Kona?
If you would have won 11 straight IM races, including 4 major ones by a landslide margin, you ticket to Kona would be a lock.
That’s what OU did.
Heck with the BCS and the whole money driven D1 system! Lets see playoffs. Somehow D1AA, D2, D3 can do it.
Now let’s all root for one of the winningest programs in the country. Grand Valley State Lakers, 46-2 over 3 years, going for their second consecutive D2 National Championship. GO LAKERS!
Last post on B(C)S but think about the legitimacy of the human polls. Georgia loses to a team it’s supposed to lose to #3 vs #5 and falls 6 places. OU loses badly to a team not ranked in the top 25 and falls only 2 places. Go figure.
Bob Sigerson