Should Boise State get a shot at a national title?

Conference champions only, until the tourney was expanded.

That's why the ACC tournament was so great, because only the winner advanced. Hence the classic NC State-Maryland game of 1974 (I think), when NC State won in 2 OT and then defeated UCLA and Marquette (I think, the final game was anti-climactic) for the NCAA title while Maryland won the NIT, which at that time was still an outstanding tournament.

 

You see that's the era I was thinking of right there. I thought there was a point when it was conf. champions only to the NCAA tourney.

 

Sure, the N.C. State and Villanova teams were a great story . . . that night.

But I don't get any thrill seeing 10- and 8-loss teams crowned as champions.

And I wouldn't like to see a 3- or 4-loss team win an NCAA football championship, either.

Just makes me wonder, "Just what did that regular season mean, anyway?"

 

IN a 16-team playoff, with every league champion getting an automatic berth, that wouldn't happen, unless a Sun Belt, CUSA or MAC team made an incredible run. With only 5-6 at-large teams, they'd all have two or fewer losses.

And I believe 1975 was the first year that more than one team from the same conference could make the NCAAs. I do remember Indiana-Michigan in 1976 being the first time two teams from the same league played in the finals.

 

But isn't the point that the playoff everyone appears to be screaming for would be for a max of eight teams. That would basically mean the most a team would have lost is two games if we go by the teams playing in the BCS games this year.

 

Wish that were true.

But it's not.

In 2001 LSU lost to Tennessee, lost to Ole Miss and lost to Florida.

But it won the West Division, which advanced it to the SEC championship, where it won a rematch with Tennessee to become SEC champions . . . with three losses.

Can easily happen.

 

I don't think the NCAA could exclude conferences that want to participate. All conferences are kincluded in volleyball, baseball, basketball etc.

Not all I-AA conferences get automatic NCAA football bids, but many, like the Ivies and SWAC, opt out and others are non-scholarship conferences.

 

FYI ...

For those with viewing capabilities, FSN Rocky Mountain and FSN Northwest are replaying the Fiesta Bowl now ... 4:24 left in the fourth quarter.

I love DirecTV. The DVR is running.

 

It's not supposed to mean more than the postseason. That's completely missing the point of the whole thing. The regular-season is to whittle the field. The postseason is where things are truly supposed to be determined. The Cardinals' mediocre season is long forgotten; their World Series title will be remembered a lot longer. So to me, 12-0? 12-schmoe! All that should mean is the top seed in the tournament. And last I checked, Boise State had infinitely fewer losses than 3 or 4, unless you're giving them 3-4 Pythagorean losses.

 

Maybe not, but I don't ever want to see Ohio State and Michigan meet in the final game of the regular season --- with both teams assured of a playoff berth --- and have a discussion wondering whether the starters will be pulled early to avoid injury.

And I don't want to see that game rendered meaningless, which it would have been this season had a playoff been in effect.

The loser of that game --- and the loser of Alabama-Auburn and Texas-Oklahoma --- should feel PAIN. That kick-in-the-stomach feeling is what makes college football different.

 

So they could schedule the game on the second October in Saturday, to make sure it's not meaningless.

Bottom line, there are a lot of traditions that are gone, even from when I grew up. The Rose Bowl isn't always a 3 p.m. Central start, starting in daytime and ending under the lights. The Rose, Cotton, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta aren't on New Year's Day anymore, and they're not in competing time slots.

Those things came and went because college football needed a better way to conduct business, to try and ensure that the sport's national champion came without debate. In some ways, it's been great because we had games like USC-Texas last season. In other ways, it sucks because we've had tons of debate as to whether the best two teams were indeed in the title game.

The BCS was a step in the right direction. We're not done walking yet. This system is far from perfect.

 

Sounds like your issue. I doubt that millions of Ohians and Michiganders will ever see that game as meaningless, same with the other rivalries you mention. And you can't express worry about regular seasons being made meaningless and in the same breath say that Boise State's 12-0 regular season is essentially meaningless. Can't have it both ways.