Justice in the BCS Poll

[WCBias]

The first BCS poll came out this morning and for the first time in five years, a team from the Little 12 was not ranked 1, 2, or both.

No knock on Oklahoma, which is a very good college football team, but it is long due that people/computers who vote recognize this conference is not nearly as good as hyped. In fact, the entire north division would be the basement in the ACC, SEC, Big 10, and Pac 10. That one of those teams gets to play for the conference championship is a joke.

Anyone that has watched college football must be able to recognize that beyond Oklahoma, there is not one team deserving of being in the top 10, and the one team that is, Texas, should not be in the top 20. I will say that I am now a huge fan of Texas A&M, and hope to god they finish the year undefeated.

As for Miami being #2, subjectively I would have to say Auburn should hold that slot, followed by Oklahoma, then Miami, and Wisconsin.

As for the one-loss teams...I am not westcoast biased in picking Cal...they are a complete team and would beat Florida State, Georgia, Texas, Purdue, and Michigan on neutral turf.

 

[DanTanna]

Auburn should be ranked #1. They have beaten alot better teams, including last year's national champions. While teams like Auburn and Georgia and UT get the shaft from playing in a tough conference, teams like Oklahoma and Texas benefit from playing in a weak conference and being the top dogs.

The system is flawed.

 

[LSUpete]

Don't even get me started on Texas.

How a team with some many resources and support could be so fvcked up is a mystery to me.

 

[WCBias]

Dan,

I agree with you. Auburn has proven itself to me and are deserving of being #1.

 

[EveryGamblersDream]

Purdue would beat Cal on a neutral field. I agree Cal would beat the other teams you listed. Auburn as #1 is a joke. As much of a SEC fan as I am, I'm not buying the hype just yet on these guys.

 

[WinOne]

EGD,
While I respect your opinion, I doubt Boilers could beat Cal on a neutral field. One thing to remember is speed. The speed you see in the B10 is completely different from what you see in the Pac10. There are LB's in the Pac10 that can run with "Some" WR in the Big10. Purdue has no weapon to threaten an average Cal Defense. What would Purdue concentrate on in defending Cal, the passing game or their run game, both of which have gamebreakers? Also remember that Cal went to SC and played them even...do you think Purdue could do this? Ask the Michigan team about how fast SC is? Quoting HC Carr, "We have kids in our conference that are fast but we don't have players at every position on the field that can run like their whole team".

Just a thought.

WinOne!!

 

[SHSUHorn]

I guess by your handle you are correct about the west coast bias. Trust me I hate OU more then anyone in this planet not named Mack Brown but your off...way off.

Not sure if your a USC fan that is still stinging from the fact that OU played LSU, and not SC (and I agree USC should've been in that game) but OU rightfully deserves to be either #1 or #2.

You could make a case for USC on why they are ranked #1. A questionable call away from maybe losing to Va. Tech, almost losing to Stanford, and getting doubled up in yardage vs Cal, and barely escaping with a win AT HOME.

Parity in college football has reared its ugly head more then ever. If your going to talk about the Big 12 and how week it is you might want to mention the South as well not the North. Since the 5 best teams in the entire conference are from the South, the conference OU is in.

That would be like me talking about the Pac 10 and only mentioning Arizona, WSU, Washington, Oregon, and Oregon St.

I agree the Big 12 is down..big time. But isn't every conference?

The Pac 10 has...

USC (solid)
Cal (solid, the best one loss team out there IMO)
ASU (what have they done? Iowa?)
UCLA (Oklahoma St went in there stadium and steam rolled them)
Stanford (cmon)
And the above 5 mentioned teams.

The Big 10 has..

Wisconsin (didn't they almost lose to Zona?)
Michigan (loss to ND, and should've loss to Minny)
Purdue (who have they beaten?)
Iowa (got trashed by ASU, and almost lost to IOWA ST!)
Michigan St. (already have 3 losses)
Minnesota (see losing to above team)
Ohio St. (I won't go there)
Others Northwestern, Penn St., Indiana, Illini.

SEC

I like the SEC, I think 1-5 they are by far the best conference.

The Big 12 has...

OU (solid)
Texas (too many question marks on offense, still has the athletes and the defense, may get exposed this weekend)
A&M (trashed by Utah, made some changes on defense and look legit)
OSU (beat 4th best UCLA easily, did get trashed by hot A&M squad)
Tech (loss to shitty NM team)
Remaing 5 would be Mizzu, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas St., Colorado.

If you were a Division 1 team and you had to schedule a 10 game schedule would you schedule the big 12's top ten, the Pac-10, or the Big 10?

Too early to tell who the pretenders or the contenders are. Give it a couple of weeks then let's have this discussion.

 

[WCBias]

SHSU,

Can have the discussion now. The point of this thread is simply that the Big 12, year in and year out is overrated, yet rewarded for its long tradition of great programs.

Nebraska had no right playing in the national championship game in 2001 over Oregon. Even Colorado was ranked higher in the BCS than Oregon to end that year. If there was any doubt about which team was better, watch the tape of Oregon and Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl.

Oklahoma really had no right playing in the BCS game last year. Had any other team in the country lost their last game they would not have been awarded a chance to play in the BCS...
Texas is ranked in the top 10 to start the year, every year, no matter what. I thought they got exposed pretty good last year against Washington State in the Holiday Bowl. They will be exposed again this year. Who has Texas played this year? Who do they ever play OOC? The one top 25 team they played pitched a shut-out against them, and they get rewarded by staying in contention for a BCS game. When was the last time Texas won a big game...the 2001 Holiday Bowl?

I'm definitely not say Oklahoma isn't a good team. They are certainly one of the top 5 in the country. But I see just as many holes on that team as I see on USC, Auburn, Miami, even Wisconsin. Still, if one of those other teams lose, they will drop 5 spots, Oklahoma would drop two or three, just because there seems to be a national bias towards the Big 12 due to its impressive tradition. Tradition should not be used as a reason for rankings, as it is so often with Texas and Nebraska. Two years ago the Big 12 had five teams in the top 12 to start the year...rediculous!

As far as the Big 12 South...that is a damn good group of football teams, much better than the North. As good as any in the country. If Oklahoma gets through unscathed then I think they deserve to play in the BCS game....but would not mind at all to see them stay behind Miami or Auburn or USC if they too go undefeated.

You are right...lots of football to play and like we see every year, expect some surprise losses at the end of the year. Just tired of the gimme cards handed to the Big 12...especially after they're performance in bowl games the past couple years.

 

[EveryGamblersDream]

I thin Purdue would beat USC on a neutral field as well. I thin they are a top 3 team & shouldn't have lost to Wisconsin. I still believe in the Boilermakers.

I do agree with you about the Big 12 bias. I'm laughing my ass off at how Texas gets rated so high every year & every year lets their faithful down. If you are rating on recruiting classes then sure Texas should be up there but if you are going by what they do on the field, they are barely a top 25 team much less top 10.

Nebraska playing for the title in 2001 was the biggest CFB ripoff of ALL time! Once again the Cornhuskers got trashed & got rewarded just like Oklahoma did last year.

My problem then becomes you shouldn't base the spot on one game but more on a whole season. This is why the playoff system needs to be put into place as the injustices will go away for the most part.

 

[WinOne]

Agreed. I am a strong advocate for a playoff system but that would expose some coaches who get outcoached even though they have a ton of talent.

WinOne!!

 

[GoSooners]

BCS argument

As you can tell by my name I'm an OU fan. I agree that the Big 12 is way down this year. Especially the North Division. But playing in a weaker conference doesn't necessarily mean you don't have the best team. Overall the Pac-10 is a weak conference. With only USC and Cal the top dogs. But those 2 teams stack up well with anybody in the country. Remember what USC did to Auburn last year at Auburn? The Big 10 has basically 3 good teams. Michigan, Purdue and Wisconsin. Michigan is getting better with that freshman QB. Purdue is a good team, but remember they lost 10 starters off of last years team. Mostly on defense. That's never good. Wiconsin exposed that a bit last weekend. The Badgers have a killer defense which could carry them a long ways. Remember Ohio St. who barely got by everybody but won the narional championship 2 years ago? Wisconsin reminds me a lot of that team. And they don't have an overly difficult schedule left like most of the top dogs do. They stand the best chance of going undefeated this year in my opinion. As for the SEC, Auburn still has alot of football left to be played. The SEC has traditionally beaten up on each other and nobody goes undefeated in that conference. Auburn still has to play a mad Georgia team. And then turn around and play the SEC championship game, which has pulled a few surprise upsets over the years.
The ACC has Miami and Florida St. And that's about it. They do have a few good second tier teams like N.C. St., Virginia Tech and Virginia. But that about it. Miami lost 12 starters off of last years team. That's alot, even for a team who reloads every year like Miami. That could catch up with them when they get out of the friendly confinds of the Orange Bowl and hits the road.
As for the Big 12 and OU. The jury is srill out on the Sooners. They play the next 6 weeks without a bye week. And they're getting ready to go into the meat of their conference. They play an angry OSU team that fumbled away the game with Texas A&M last week and will probably lose to an improved Missouri team before they play OU. As a witness to many OSU-OU shootouts I can tell you that OSU plays like demons when they play the Sooners. If they don't win any other game, they want to make sure they win that one. Then the Sooners have to face Texas A&M at A&M. That's never easy. Their QB Reggie McNeil beat OU down there 2 years ago. Believe me Bob Stoops hasn't forgot that one. I think OU will be ready for that game. It still won't be easy. If OU wins out it's on to the Big 12 Championship. Played in Kansas City at night in December. You never know what the weather is going to be like there. I can't remeber when that game has ever been an easy win. I don't care what 2 teams are in it. But if OU can get through all of those games undefeated I think they deserve to go. Remember nobody has beaten OU in regular season play in almost 2 years. I think that should tell you just how good of a program they have.
The jury is still out on everybody. The teams who lost the early games aren't necessarily the same teams at the end of the year. Under good coaching a team can improve tremendously over the year. Texas A&M is a good example of that. My prediciton is by the end of the season you'll only have 1 or 2 undefeated teams still standing. I just hope one of em is the Sooners.

 

[Conan]

Here here. MAYBE... just MAYBE the BCS has taken a step in the right direction. I like the secret coaches balloting too. This is smart. Coaches above all, probably even more so than sportswriters know where the real talent lies and though W/L records need to be counted and all that computerized strength of schedule crap, TALENT and good coaching reign supreme.

Just look at USC in that way and tell me that they don't have SUPERB talent and EXCELLENT coaching. There's probably only one West Coast team that can beat them and that would be the Seattle Seahawks. Note that I didn't mention the 49ers, Raiders, Chargers or Cardinals.

 

[Conan]

OK that was just a jab...

But what would be sooooooooo hard to arrange bowlwise, schedulewise, travelwise and yadda yaddawise if the top 7 major conferences and one team from the minor conferences and independants (who could settle the issue a few ways) formed an 8-team BCS elimination tournament?

Two games consisting of 4 different teams on each of 2 consecutive weekends (i.e. 4 teams on weekend #1 in 2 games produces 2 winners who play each other on weekend #3 to determine one finalist... 4 teams on weekend #2 produces 2 winners who play each other on weekend #4 to determine the other finalist. It's an elite 8 format and I think that could fly.

OR

Make it a sweet 16 tourney and do it in 8 weeks instead of 4. That could be done in November-December with the BCS championship game in January. There's plenty of time to set up travel, print tickets book hotels in cities where the games are to be played. Major bowls could be used as regional finals, national semifinals etc... there are scores of ways it can be arranged to work.

All you need to do is get Nokia, Tostitos and FedEX etc. to agree which they will do as long as each game is played exclusively with no other games played at the same time. You could even have a bye week for the winning teams at each level.

I know it's doable but who is going to make it happen?

Last man standing wins.