[Tommy]

By Jimmy G.

So the BCS got it right this time, did it?

The top-ranked USC Trojans of the Pac 10 and the number two Texas Longhorns of the Big 12 have each finished off their undefeated regular seasons (in eerily similar blowout fashion) and are locked and loaded toward a winner-takes-all battle for college football's national championship on January 4th in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. 2004 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Matt Leinart, this year's likely Heisman winner Reggie Bush and the rest of laid back genius Coach Pete Carrol's two-time defending national champions will put their 34-game win streak and place in college football history against the Longhorns of super-quarterback Vince Young and Coach Mack Brown. To throw in some added drama, these two storied programs have not faced one another in almost forty years!

It also pains me to say that the other three BCS bowl games look like real good matchups with some genuinely intriguing storylines sprinkled in.

First and foremost, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are back in the BCS after a five-year absence. The Irish -9 and 2 under first-year Head Coach Charlie Weis, who left his job as offensive coordinator for the three-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots to take over the premiere program in college football- will take on the Big 10 runner-up Ohio State Buckeyes in a matchup between the BCS's two at-large teams in the Fiesta Bowl. Heisman Trophy contending quarterback Brady Quinn will be looking to find a way to score points against A.J. Hawk and Coach Jim Tressel's outstanding Ohio State defense in what could easily end up being an "instant classic." Plus, any time Notre Dame is involved in a big game, that game becomes much bigger and more prestigious simply because of their presence.

Elsewhere, one-loss Big East Champ West Virginia will take on red-hot SEC-winner Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, which will be played in Atlanta's Georgia Dome this year because of what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans a couple of months ago. So Mark Richt's Bulldogs - whose only losses were in close games to rivals Florida and Auburn and were both played either without their best player and leader, quarterback D.J. Shockley- who suffered a shoulder injury- or with him in a limited capacity. They could have very easily won them if it weren't for that cruel twist of fate. Rich Rodriguez's Mountaineers earned their way in by going undefeated in conference play and losing only to former Big East rival Virginia Tech. As much as we all complain about the Big East still receiving an automatic BCS bid after Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College jumped to the ACC, this young West Virginia team is outstanding and just itching to send a message to a national audience.

Finally, the Orange Bowl lucked out when four-loss Florida State upset Virginia Tech in the ACC Title Game. The Seminoles' unlikely win gives the O.B. a historic matchup between the two winningest college coaches of all-time- living legends Bobby Bowden of FSU and Penn State's Joe Paterno, who's Nittany Lions won the Big 10 this year. Bobby B., 76, and Joe Pa, 79, are living, breathing college football royalty. And they haven't faced off against one another since Florida State's 24-17 win in the 1990 Blockbuster Bowl. Not to mention that Penn St. was just one play- the last play of their loss at Michigan- away from going undefeated and possibly playing USC for all the marbles.

Again I hate to say it, but each and every one of this year's BCS bowl games has the potential to be an exhilarating, stomach-churning all-time classic. All the major conferences and Notre Dame are represented. And the national champion will be 100 % legitimate with no room for any argument whatsoever. So the system works great, right BCS bureaucrats and pundits? WRONG. Let me tell you why.

First of all, this is just the third time in its eight year history that the Bowl Championship Series has a legitimate 1 vs 2 matchup in the championship game. Three times in eight years! Can you imagine if any coach won games with that frequency? He would have been long-gone by now. What if a school had a graduation rate that abysmal? How long would the President last? Or let's say ABC's ratings were only good in three of those same eight years. How soon would the top executives and producers or even the announcers have been replaced? Yet somehow this boring, illogical and flat-out absurd method of deciding the championship in what is perhaps America's greatest sport is astonishingly allowed to continue? What a joke!

Earlier I mentioned the three times this system has actually worked. In 1999, Florida State and Virginia Tech were both unbeaten and clearly the best two teams in the country. The same can be said about the classic 2002 Miami / Ohio State game and of course, this years USC / Texas matchup. Again, the system actually worked in these three years, except that there were and are deserving teams left out of the big bowls because of the idiotic contracts the BCS and those bowl games entered into with the big conferences that make sure their champions get in. What a joke!

But In those other five years, the BCS has baffled us worse than Britney Spears did when she married that loser Kevin Federline. And to tell the truth, the system is still harder to understand than a "Dan the Man" rant when he talks so fast it seems like Mario Andretti is stepping on a pedal to propel his tongue.

In 1998, one-loss Florida State- which backed in over fellow one-loss teams Ohio State, Wisconsin, Kansas State, Arizona and UCLA- lost to unbeaten Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl. That same year, Tulane finished tenth despite finishing 12 and 0, a snub that would play a key role in a future lawsuit brought by the smaller conferences against the BCS and the bigger conferences to challenge what they say is an unfair system.

In 2000, it was the once beaten Seminoles losing to undefeated Oklahoma after getting the nod over one-loss teams Miami, (which had beaten Florida State earlier that season) Washington, (which had beaten Miami) and Oregon State (which had - you guessed it - beaten Washington)

In 2001, Nebraska went to the Rose Bowl to face unbeaten Miami- sneaking in over fellow one-time loser Oregon- even though the Huskers had just been manhandled by Colorado in the Big 12 Championship Game. In fact, the two-loss Buffaloes even finished ahead of the Ducks. What a joke!

But even though the 1998, 2000 and 2001 games were embarrassing to say the least, the last two years have been far worse.

In 2003, a pair of one-loss teams faced off for the first time when LSU beat Oklahoma after both teams got in over Matt Leinart and USC. The Trojans then breezed by Michigan in the Rose Bowl and won the AP Poll to split the national championship with the Tigers and in effect render the BCS meaningless. What a joke!

And the worst case of the BCS not working was last year, when three teams - USC, Oklahoma and Auburn- finished unbeaten and the Tigers (who played in the tough SEC and had three future first round picks in running backs Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown and quarterback Jason Campbell) were left out. Of course, the Trojans went on to destroy the Sooners, a predictable result that left EVERYBODY- at least those of us with any common sense whatsoever- insisting that Auburn (which beat up on Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl) would have given USC a much better game. How can an undefeated team from the SEC get left out? What a joke!

And those are just the TITLE games. How about the fact that every year deserving teams ranked fifth through eighth that are either undefeated or have one or at the most two losses are left out of the other so-called "major BCS games" so that three, four and even five-loss conference champions can be rewarded for mediocre seasons. It's truly pathetic, and it needs to stop.

I don't even know which matchups have been worse and more ill-conceived- the title games or the other BCS Bowls. How can we even decide? They've both been bad about 60 to 70 percent of the time. Again, I say- what a joke!

But again I have to say that this year the BCS actually worked the way it's designed to. We have the only two undefeated teams playing one another for the national championship. So it worked. It's as simple as that. But we still have to acknowledge that ACC Champ Florida State (four losses) should be nowhere near a major BCS bowl game, that the Big East shouldn't either and that everyone still hates the Pac-10. (just ask 10-1 Oregon, which was left out even though the Ducks have a better record than every team except USC, Texas, Penn St and West Virginia.

Let's also remember that we were still just a miraculous Michigan touchdown on the last play against Penn State, a D.J. Shockley injury that cost Georgia two games, a late Ohio State defensive stop against Texas and/or a Notre Dame stop on either Matt Leinart's miracle 4th down throw to Dwayne Jarret or his quarterback sneak for the game-winning touchdown away from TOTAL DISASTER. That's the bigest problem with this system. There's ALWAYS at least a good chance it will blow up in college football's face.

So why won't the powers that be allow us the simple luxury of having a clear-cut national champion at the end of a playoff tournament that would likely be the greatest in all of sports? Money, that's why. The big conferences are guaranteed to get a HUGE cut of the enormous amounts of cash generated by the bowl games (which is then split amongst the member schools, regardless of how good their teams are), the bowls themselves make a fortune in ticket sales, concessions, parking, merchandise and TV revenues and the networks (most of the time) generate enormous ratings, which means all kinds of cash for ABC, ESPN, CBS and others.

But the biggest reason why the BCS continues to be the method used to rank college football's elite teams and determine who plays who for the national title and in the other "major" bowl games is probably US - YOU and ME. That's right. Think about it for a second. What's the hottest topic in college football every year? You got it- this one. As long as all of us in the media keep thinking, writing and talking about the flaws in this system and the lack of a playoff tournament AND all of you continue to do the same, the sport will continue to enjoy the inconceivable amount of promotion we're giving them by doing so.

So of course the powers that be are saying the BCS system is just fine the way it is. But deep down, they HAVE TO know how badly they're lying to themselves, to their conferences and schools, to their athletic directors, players and coaches, to all of us and most importantly- to their sport. If they're OK with that, that's on them.

So get used to the B.C.S. You don't have to love it. You don't even have to like it. Just learn to live with it, because it's not going anywhere.

Oh yeah- and no matter how you feel- make sure you enjoy USC and Texas in the Rose Bowl. I have a feeling it's going to be an all-time classic.

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