The University of Texas vs. the University of Southern California is a no-brainer for the National Championship game in the Rose Bowl this year.
In fact, this is the most compelling matchup in the BCS’s troubled-history.
Sports Illustrated, however, loves all the matchups in the BCS and thinks the selection committee got it right:
The other common complaint is the BCS doesn’t create compelling matchups beyond the title game. Well, it all worked out this season. Even before a bowl is played, the BCS can declare victory.
Uh, not so fast. A lot of sports fans would disagree with you. A lot of us believe that Notre Dame and Florida St. have no business playing for the big paydays guaranteed by playing in a BCS game.
- Notre Dame — the Fighting Irish played a cupcake schedule to get their 9 victories. When they did play a real opponent (USC), they lost. And don’t let how “close” Notre Dame played USC fool you (as it did the BCS voters) — USC let everybody (except UCLA) play them close. Even Fresno State took USC to the wire. The following week Fresno State lost to Nevada.Notre Dame’s other loss? To Michigan State — who’s not even bowl eligible this year.Face it — Notre Dame is network television’s (and thus the BCS Committee’s) favorite child. They have an inherent and unfair recruiting advantage over every other school in the nation (their own national television network…”if you come to ND, you are guaranteed to be on national television every single week”). Notre Dame is the only school that can lose 3-4 games a season and still end up in the Top 25 rankings.
- Florida State — Had lost their last 3 games before winning their Conference Championship game against Virginia Tech. No way should a team with 4 losses ever be playing for anything after Christmas.
The BCS is a joke as long as “guaranteed” spots are reserved for certain conferences. We end up with a joke of a 4-loss team like Florida St. while a great 1-loss team like Oregon gets to go to the lesser Holiday Bowl.
If I had the sole responsibility of selecting the BCS game this year, the matchups would be:
- Rose Bowl — as it is and as it should be: Texas vs. USC
- Orange Bowl — Penn St. vs. Oregon: these two teams deserve the next best BCS game because of their outstanding records and level of play.
- Sugar Bowl — Georgia vs. West Virginia: Georgia got through the toughest conference in the nation with only two losses. Put them in the Big 10 or the ACC and they probably go undefeated. Georgia gets a home game and West Virginia gets rewarded for sharing the second best record in Divsion I football.
- Fiesta Bowl — Ohio State vs. Auburn: the two best 2-loss teams in the nation. Alabama and Virginia Tech are the next two best teams, and if there were a fifth BCS bowl game, that’s who should be in it.
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Robbie,
Florida State playing in the BCS is a joke. While the BCS avoided the high profile hijinks from last year, ND and Florida State still serve to high light the flaws inherent in the system. The BCS is what happens when college football takes the UN approach to determine a winner. Read more here.
whoa whoa whoa there…let’s not get so hasty complementing the SEC. it was flat-out horrible this year. I was shocked by the Florida-FSU game…’til I remembered how bad the ACC was, too.
there is little to like about college football this year. Alabama looked like that BCS buster…till they met the end of the season and played two decent defensive lines. they were a miracle fumble away from losing to Tennessee, too, and we know what a disaster their season was.
you could really say that Georgia was the least sucky of the SEC teams, followed closely by Auburn. and Virginia Tech now is not the VT at the start of the year. Vick has really fallen back to Earth.