Gentlemen, Start Your Boilerplate Columns: BCS Standings Released

The projection was for the BCS rankings if they had come out last week, not what they would be this week.

That said, it's surprising how different they are.

 

Not really when you consider two of the projected top five teams - Nebraska and Ohio State - both lost.

 

They were projected 5th and 7th last week.

 

They were both in the top five in the human polls - which is a big piece of the overall BCS rankings. With those two losing - other teams moved up not too mention teams moving up in the computer polls.

It was a monkey wrench.

 

AP story said Boise curb stomping San Jose hurt the Broncos more than it helped them.

Here's my theory on why the playoffs for DI haven't happened.

It mostly has to do with travel. Most teams, with Notre Dame being the notable exception, couldn't range that far from home. While it seems crazy nowadays, loading up 100 players, and 50 more coaches and support staff then jetting them from the Southeast to the West Coast was really only possible about once a year. And all but the wealthiest fans couldn't have afforded to follow the team anyway.

It wasn't until the mid-60s or so before the bowl games, once considered a very glorified scrimmage game, began to even matter and then being your league champ was as good as it got.

TV and easier travel began to enter into the equation in the 70s but, by then, the bowl system was ingrained and had so much money behind it, scrapping it and starting a 16 team playoff was out of the question.

The only real success of the BCS has been busting the Rose Bowl to allow Pac-10/Big 10 teams to play outside of Pasadena.

If you ask how the NCAA was able to pull off basketball, well with maybe a total of 20 players and coaches traveling and the ability to play an entire tournament in a week, makes it much easier. Crap, the NAIA still does that.
And, until just a few years ago, you had to win your conference to even get a bid so it wasn't like the 65 team March Madness of today.

 

But their losses, especially Ohio State's, helped increase the standing of Oregon and Oklahoma in the human polls, which helped push them over Boise State. Oregon State also lost, which probably hurt Boise State's computer ranking. Boise pretty much only has Virginia Tech and Oregon State to boost those numbers right now and any dings to those two are going to really hurt the Broncos.

 

And that word will be "ouch" after they get trucked by Utah.

 

Actually, the NCAA tournament has had 64 or more teams since 1985, which is 25 years ago. Hardly a few years ago.

Plus, travel squads for BCS schools, is, I believe, 72 members. While that is considerably more than basketball teams, the hoopsters travel every week for a month when you factor conference tournaments in. The NCAA's claims of travel issues and missed class time is hogwash.

You are correct about the bowl history. There weren't that many of them until the 1970s, and it was a real novelty for a team to travel out of their region. Hard to believe, but NYC was a college football hotbed until the 1950s, and teams from all over the country would travel into NYC, and those games were almost as big as the bowls.

My theory, which I've stated here before, is that the NCAA knows they can still use the bowls as a way to claim the players are being rewarded. Having the players beat themselves up for an extra month for playoffs games wouldn't look too seemly.

 

I remember Miami was supposed to annihilate Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl, too. Funny things happen when teams play each other on the field as opposed to in the polls, lobbying for votes.

The only reason Nebraska -- No. 2 in both polls entering the bowls -- jumped to No. 1 in the coaches poll isn't because the Huskers whipped Peyton Manning's Vols, but rather, because Tom Osborne announced his retirement weeks prior to that game. Nebraska could've won on a botched/controversial call, the coaches were hell-bent on giving Osborne a retirement gift.

 

That's a nice sentiment but it is wrong and it is revisionist history.

And this comes from a guy who had no dog in that race --

Nebraska was jumped up because the Big Ten was exposed as being horrible that year and they played nobody and really weren't ever impressive for most of the season.

Nebraska, meanwhile, stampeded most everyone except Missouri and when you saw both teams play it was clear which team was more impressive.

 

Man, I covered that Miami-Penn State game (covered the Rose Bowl the day before). Feels like three lifetimes ago.

 

Glad you brought up that Mizzou game. The one where the Huskers benefited from an illegal kick to score a game-winning touchdown.

Without that, Nebraska has a loss and doesn't enter the national championship discussion. Highly controversial play and game. Michigan didn't have one of its wins in dispute.