Well, here's my 2 cents on the college football controversy. Take it with a grain of salt.
First of all, I think things shook out ok. Would I be ticked off as a USC fan? Darn right. But you know what? Playing in the Rose Bowl against Michigan (what the Rose Bowl should be) is pretty great. The BCS standings are what they are: imperfect. But there is not going to be a "perfect" system. Someone's always going to be angry. In this case, there are 3 teams in the country that had a bad game, and all have a legitimate claim to the Sugar bowl. In years past, non-conference winners have unfairly played in the NCG (nebraska). Even if we went to an extremely different system with playoffs where teams had 10 regular season games, and then there was a 16 team playoff for the national championship (which isn't a half bad idea), the seedings would be argued vehemently, and the number 17-20 teams would gripe! All in all, this year was complicated...and in the end the BCS got it almost right. The only caveat I would say is to give less preferential treatment to conference winners and florida schools. I think the 4 major bowls should go to the top 8 BCS teams, regardless. That would look like this: Sugar - OU/LSU; Rose - USC/Mich; Fiesta - Ohio State/Texas; Orange - Florida State/Tenn. And the BCS was darn close. Where they got it wrong was awarding Miami and K-State major bowls just because of their conference wins. The Big East? ACC? Big 12 even? For crying out loud, Tennesee BEAT miami AT miami, and K-state has 3 losses!! But that's our system, and I guess the bottom line is that there is no perfect system, and flawed as it is, the BCS was close. Just get those florida schools out of there and it'll be perfect:)
Posted by at December 9, 2003 12:15 PMI dont think that I would want a playoff system because, unlike in the NFL, every reg. season game is critical--that is where so much of the excitement of being a college football fan comes from.
However, I am seriously bitter over my Vols ending up in the freaking Peach bowl with Clemson, and not only did ESPN mention the fact that it was even a littl odd that the #6 team ended up here, one of the guys actually picked Clemson! Arguably though, N. Illinois has more of a gripe than we do--they got hosed big time.
Posted by: Matthew at December 9, 2003 01:39 PMI meant to say that ESPN did not mention the fact that it is a little odd...
Posted by: Matthew at December 9, 2003 01:40 PMi agree, a playoff system might not work. i just mentioned it to show that even WITH that system, people would still gripe. that said, i think the experts might be able to figure out a way that it can work, and still have an emphasis on every regular season game.
Posted by: UJ at December 9, 2003 02:29 PMFolks might gripe about their teams not being IN the playoff's, but fans of their teams that made it IN the playoff's can never gripe that they didn't get a shot at what they may or may not have earned, like the current situation with USC.
Bring on a playoffs. Then we'd see my Wolverine's take it all.
Posted by: JosiahQ at December 9, 2003 03:33 PMYour Wolverines? I thought you were an Oregon guy.
Posted by: the booth at December 9, 2003 09:26 PM