Running BCS selection show thread

From Dodd today on sportsline:

The common assumption was that Ohio State would play LSU in the BCS title game in New Orleans. If Ohio State gets in, it will be playing in the Big Easy because of the big easy. It did not face a top 20 opponent all season (at game time in AP). The last time it didn't play at least one team in the top 20 was 1936, the first year of the AP poll.

It won a conference rated No. 6 by Sagarin with a schedule rated No. 73 by BCS guru Jerry Palm. And this is the nation's best team?

 

Of all the BCS idiocy through the years, Ohio State playing in the title game this year is by far the most idiotic. I gave up years ago worrying about this crap.

 

Wait, Illinois isn't a top 20 opponent?

 

The story said "at game time". And when OSU played Illinois, the Illini were ranked FIFTH ... in the others receiving votes category.

 

Rankings of OSU's opponents, when they played (coaches' poll, because that's what's easiest to find):

Purdue, 23
Penn State, 25
Wisconsin, 21
Michigan, 21

Those teams' rankings now:
Purdue: unranked
Penn State: unranked
Wisconsin: 16
Michigan: unranked

 

And, FWIW, OSU's nonconference opponents:

Youngstown State -- I-AA
Akron -- 4-8 in the MAC
Washington -- 4-9 in the Pac-10
Kent State -- 3-9 in the MAC

 

That honor still goes to Nebraska playing Miami in the 2002 Rose Bowl. College football history is littered with controversial and undeserving champs, so this actually is in perfect sync with the sport's MO.

The two best teams in America right now are LSU and USC but it won't matter and nobody should be wept for this year. Whoever said this is the perfect situation for the old poll-style champ is right. This is a last-man-standing cage match kind of deal. The music has stopped and there is Ohio State with a seat ... and LSU will probably get the other and the Buckeyes will get another mud hole stomped in their asses by a better SEC squad.

 

Pssst, the real reason Hawaii won't be considered isn't necessarily their schedule so much as their conference. A tougher schedule wouldn't have made much difference for undefeated Hawaii as long as they're in a non-BCS conference, yet you CAN get away with a piddling ass schedule AND a loss or two and still be considered if you're in the Big 12 or Big 10 (see Kansas and OSU).

As the only candidate from a non-BCS conference, Hawaii's the LAST team that the greedy old guys who created this system and block a playoff want to see in that game. The system was created by major conf guys to serve their own financial interests. Last year they were begrudgingly forced to accept a non-BCS Conf team in a BCS Bowl for the first time, and lo and behold, Boise proved they can more than hold their own, but that won't make any difference for Hawaii's fate in this debate.

Hawaii won't get in, but I hope a lot vote for them, if nothing else just to make a statement.

 

If it's LSU-OSU in the BCS final, I'd love to see ...

Southern Cal-Oklahoma
Georgia-Va. Tech

And then I'd like to see the AP title go to whichever team was most impressive in its BCS bowl game.

 

I wouldn't say Ohio State should be a slam dunk that everybody is making them out to be, but isn't USC the team that lost to 40-point underdog Stanford (at HOME) this year?

 

ESPN stunned me with this graphic: SoCal has defeated TWO teams with a winning record.

 

It's utterly beyond me all the love USC gets. Was routing Arizona State really that big a deal?