Idiots Write About Sports

Somewhere out there, there is probably a very insightful commentary on the BCS and its ability to put together compelling match-ups that leave no question as to who is college football’s undisputed champion.
This offering, from the AP’s Ralph Russo, is not one of them.

The BCS has been hammered in the past for putting the wrong teams in its championship games. Two years ago, USC was left out and college football ended up with two champs. Last season, many felt Auburn should have played USC for the championship instead of Oklahoma.
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.

Ralph, I hate to break this to you — but when you have just two teams from the major conferences who have undefeated records, are one and two respectively when it comes to average points per game, and boast the three most likely Heisman Trophy candidates on their rosters, it’s real easy to come up with who should be playing in the championship game. I’m fairly certain we don’t need fancy computer algorithms or sportswriters polls to tell us that, yes indeedy, USC and Texas are two awfully good football teams who should face each other for college football’s championship. I’m pretty certain my grandmother could reach that conclusion and she’s been dead since 1981.
Ah, but Ralph also goes on to argue that the BCS also did a super job of lining up teams for its other games, thus making up for all those years of screwing the pooch. This seems likes an awfully insignificant thing to go praising the BCS for, considering that four of the six slots are determined by whoever happens to win a conference championship. That leaves two spots open to the BCS’s machinations — this year’s choices were Notre Dame and Ohio State, which Ralph Russo contends, should please any college football fan. Well, any college football fan who didn’t matriculate in the vicinity of Eugene, Oregon, I guess.

While some complain that Notre Dame has bulked up this season on a weak schedule and gets too much credit for a 34-31 loss to USC, the Fighting Irish are college football’s top drawing card.
Ohio State (9-2) out of the Big Ten was assured of an at-large bid by finishing fourth in the final standings released Sunday.
That left no room for Oregon, which had a better record than both the Buckeyes and Irish and lost only to USC.
“I didn’t quite understand the Notre Dame deal. But obviously I have not been a student of the BCS,” said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, whose Ducks will play in the Holiday Bowl.
Last season, California was 10-1 but got bumped out of the Rose Bowl by Texas, a slight that caused an outcry from the Pac-10 and elsewhere.
The Ducks won’t get as much sympathy this season.
And for once the BCS gets to gloat.

Yeah, but should it? To recap, Oregon has only one loss, to the aforementioned best team in the country. Notre Dame has two — one to that same best team in the country and the other to a Michigan State squadron that couldn’t even win enough games to qualify for one of the 73 bowl games that will be played in the next month. Also, that loss to the sub-part Spartans? Happened in South Bend. As for Ohio State, it also lost two games — one to the other best team in the country and a second to a Penn State team that, while very good, ain’t making anyone forget the Todd Blackledge years.
So, because Oregon got passed over for two teams solely on the basis of marquee value as opposed to actual wins and losses, this is a testament to how the BCS works? You’re a far more charitable man than I am, Ralph Russo.
Ah, but perhaps, I’m being too negative. Maybe the BCS does work. Oh sure, certain things have to fall into place — like there being only two undefeated teams who are obviously superior to all other programs and that there’s enough big-time programs that had good-if-not-great-years and when the schools that get the shaft are from out-of-the-way places west of the Rockies. But whe all that happens, the BCS is golden. I can’t think of a better way to determine a national champion.
Except, you know, for every other way.
Update: The estimable Jake Curtis informs me, via this article, that I am mistaken about this year’s at-large selections — the BCS had no free will when it came to selecting either Notre Dame or Ohio State.

Notre Dame was guaranteed one of the two at-large berths because BCS rules give any team that’s not from a BCS conference an automatic BCS berth if it finishes in the top six of the final BCS standings. The Irish, who are not in any conference, were sixth. The rules also give any team from a BCS conference a guaranteed spot if it finishes among the top four. Ohio State was fourth. So the Fiesta Bowl could pit Ohio State against Notre Dame in the matchup it wanted without having to apologize to anyone.

Which doesn’t weaken my argument in the least, really — if anything, a system that devises ways to mathematically shaft superior teams out of better bowl games so that the idiots behind it are somehow absolved of any resposnsibility (“Hey, it’s out of our hands… the computers tell us what to do”) is not one deserving praise from any self-respecting sportswriter.