Alright, I’ve kept quiet on the whole BCS controversy thing so far because I wanted to see how things shook out. And now that Florida and Oklahoma are slated to play for the national championship someone needs to explain something to Texas. How on earth you do you beat both of the Big 12 division champs, lose in the final second of the game to an 11-1 team and get left out? SEC fans will claim the same thing happened to Auburn. However, there is one major difference. Auburn didn’t beat or even play either of the teams ranked ahead of them that year. Here are just a few of the things that should change.
1) The Big 12 needs to change their tiebreaker to that of the SEC. If three teams are tied and and all other tiebreakers are equal, BCS rankings should decide the top two and then it should go head-to-head from there. This allows greater wait to be placed on games played either earlier in the season or head-to-head..or both in this case.
2) The BCS needs to boycott computers which give more weight to to November victories. I understand reworking rankings later in the season based on a teams total body of work over the course of the year. That only makes sense. Alabama’s win over Clemson (and over Georgia for that matter) does not look as impressive now as either win did when it occured. However, Billingsley’s computer rankings purportely simply rate a late season victory higher than an early season victory. Under this rationale Oklahoma’s victory over Missouri will not simply be comparable, it will actually be worth more than Texas similar victory early in the year. I wonder if there isn’t an argument to be said that beating a team for the first time is actually the hardest thing to do. It takes away some of the teams mistique and also reveals to teams that play it later in the season how to beat it. For instance, beating Oklahoma’s defense should be easier now than it was earlier in the season since Texas and Oklahoma have dropped more than 40 on them.
3) Pollsters should be forced to make every ballot public. Hidden agendas by coaches or by those who simply want to validate their pre-season rankings is ridiclous.
4) How impressive a team looks late in the yea (or any other time of year) is not the final criteria for deciding ranking. Wins and losses are.
Either way, here’s to hoping that Florida absolutely destroys Oklahoma! Oh, and Tim and Urban if you need any advice you know who to call.
