A Little Last Minute Late Bowl Season Breakdown.

Bowl season is over and there are a lot of teams happy with the results, and a few who were not. The Big Eleven continued to struggle in the Bowl Games going 3-5 and losing both BCS games to superior conferences. Illinois was thrashed by USC and Ohio State lost to an SEC contender for the second straight year. Here are a few wrap up thoughts on the Bowl Season that was.

I still think that a playoff system is necessary in college football. Whether it’s a 4 team, 8 team, or my super special 16 team bracket is up for discussion. Unfortunately for some, Georgia stomped on Hawai’i in the Sugar Bowl. Hawai’i, and really the WAC in general over the last 2 years was a major catalyst for my reasoning of a playoff system. The irony is after that game was over Georgia President, Michael Adams is saying we need a playoff. Mere days after his victory suggested otherwise. But he’s still right, the 3 loss Bulldogs deserved a chance as much as Oklahoma, LSU, Ohio State, West Virginia and others.

It was only mildly mentioned by me, and I haven’t read it any where else but the irony is amazing in Tallahassee. The Noles were playing in the Music City Bowl. They lost because about 20 of their players were academically ineligible. They were ineligible because they cheated in a Music History class. Irony.

Because of this seasons flip flopping of the rankings every week the folks in El Paso, TX got to witness the Brut Sun Bowl as they have every year since the Depression. The Oregon Ducks soundly defeated the South Florida Bulls. Why is this important, it’s a December Bowl game. It wasn’t even a BCS game. It’s important because both of these teams were ranked #2 at one point in the season and they played their last game in 2007. Had this game taken place during the season prior to November this would have been the game of the week by far. Instead it was a pre-New Years Bowl Game. That is rare, but I suppose it will happen when there are 8 different #2 seeds (I don’t feel like going back and re-researching this I’m just guessing 8 seems about right to me).

Does the name Tony Temple mean anything to you? Probably not unless you follow Mizzou. The Senior back rushed for a Cotton Bowl record 281 yards and 4 TDs. He only had 3 games over 100 yds all season and actually finished with 40 of less in 7 of the season’s contests.

The Alamo Bowl was the 500th game of JoePa’s career and his 23rd Bowl Win. With the Penn State semi-success over the last couple seasons and Florida State slowly slipping into futility, it looks like JoePa and Bowden will be going head to head until one of them actually does die on the sideline. JoePa has 3 more Bowl Wins and 1 less win overall. JoePa could pass Bowden before conference play opens up next year.

Colt Brennan looked a little less than Heisman worthy against Georgia. It will be interesting to see how far he falls in the draft and if the chip on his shoulder can make him a really good NFL QB, or if he’s gonna be the biggest bust since Leaf. Time can only tell on that one.

Notre Dame did not play in a Bowl game. This was a big story in one of the worst seasons in ND Fighting Irish history. It however isn’t all that uncommon for the Irish who have gone from unstoppable to laughable in the last decade. From the 1987 (‘88 Bowl) season to the 1998 (‘99 Bowl) The Irish played in 11 Bowl games. Since the 2000 (‘01 Bowl) season they have played and lost in 5, 3 times in BCS bowls. They have also lost they’re last nine. Next year is not looking that promising either for Touchdown Jesus’ tribe.

The Pac-10 went 4-2 in Bowl Games this Bowl Season. UCLA had an interim coach, was still hampered by injuries, and barely lost to BYU. Look out for the Pac-10 next season with parity (except for USC) becoming more prevalent in the conference the Pac could surprise some folks next year.

And on that note it is becoming more and more obvious that the SEC and Pac are becoming the top two conferences by far. Environmentally more people want to live in California (4 schools) and Arizona (2 schools) then in Ohio or Nebraska. There is also better football being played at the High School level in the western states. We are looking at a major paradigm shift in the college football world. They play is much better in the SEC and Pac-10 and the recruits are going to these schools for a reason. And if USC gets hit with sanctions because of the Reggie Bush fiasco and if Carroll leaves the Pac will be stealing a lot of those recruits further evening out the Pac-10. It could be the beginning of a good decade for the West Coast teams. There is an outside shot that there could be as many as 5 (USC, Oregon, ASU, UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona, and Cal all have a chance) Pac-10 teams in the top 25 at some point next season, perhaps all at once, and at least 3 (Oregon, USC, ASU) in the preseason rankings.
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How Things Could Have Lined Up

What if Pat White wouldn’t have injured his thumb?
If White hadn’t injured his thumb in the 2nd quarter of the Backyard Brawl with Pitt would the Mountaineers offense have stumbled so profoundly. WVU lost by 7, wouldn’t the dual-threat Heisman Candidate White have scored at least those 7 points, if not more? With White still in the game and WVU possibly winning it leads us to another thought.

What if West Virginia won?
I think it’s pretty obvious, West Virginia, then number two would have moved up to number one after Mizzou’s loss to Oklahoma, and thus would be playing in the National Championship, most likely against (current) number one Ohio State. If that’s the case then LSU would not be in the National Championship led by Les Miles which again brings us to another point.

What if LSU was not in the National Championship?
There wouldn’t be as much pressure on Miles to make a decision. And reading into his original words in the pre-game , “Thank you very much, Have a Great day” speech before the SEC Championship, he said “I am the coach at LSU” not necessarily I will be the coach next year. LSU had made him an offer, but he had not signed it yet. Michigan, his dream job, had also made an offer. Had LSU lost that game I’m about 40 (stay)/60 (leave) on whether he would be in Purple and Gold or Maize and Blue next year. Even if they won that game they would not have been in the National Championship, does Les stay or go?

How does this affect West Virginia?
If Les traded in his purple tie for the block M, Rodriguez would still be at West Virginia. Would LSU have offered him to replace Miles? Probably not, he would, most likely, still be in Morgantown.

How bad is Rodriguez leaving for WVU?
Pretty bad, not many people saw Rodriguez leaving for Ann Arbor. He met with Michigan on Friday, he signed with them yesterday. This coming after Rodriguez said he wasn’t going to leave for Alabama last year and that his alma mater (WVU) was his place. This was a shock to many and there is no possible way that West Virginia was prepared for this. Now they are in full panic mode. They have to find a coach to fill in at WVU and most of the programs looking for coaches, have already picked a lot of the market. And if Rutgers coach Greg Schiano isn’t going to Michigan, why would he go to Morgantown. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few Mountaineer recruits who haven’t signed their Letters of Intent yet, dropping out soon. Especially if they were looking forward to playing in the WVU spread.

When all is said and done, you can’t trust a coach until he signs something, and the buyout clause that Miles has in his new LSU contract should start popping up in all contracts. Erickson isn’t destined to stay more than his typical 3-5 in Tempe, he’ll walk out, Saban can’t stay in one place too long as we’ve seen. Rodriguez actually was the most honest of all of these guys, but he’s just another in the line of coaches who leave after saying they won’t. What is the point in even signing contracts in this day and age in college sports. Other than the guys who are long termers (JoePa, Tressel, etc) these guys get fired before their contract is up or leave for somewhere else before their contract is up. It’s a sick fact in today’s game. I guess when it’s over Rodriguez will be in Ann Arbor, and if he needs someone to show him around, he can call former WVU/current Michigan basketball coach John Beilein.
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The BCS 60% of the time...

...it works every time.

That doesn't make any sense. And neither does the BCS. In NCAA football the now 9 year old cure for the common split title is the equivalent of Sex Panther. It reeks and needs to be stripped down, cleaned, and possibly burned. I'm not saying we need to institute a 64 team playoff or even 16 teams but something needs to change.

Let's look at the last (almost) decade of college football and the glory that the BCS has bestowed upon us, and I'm not just talking about the BCS title game:

1998/99 season: #3 Kansas State is passed over for a BCS game (11-1 regular season record) for #'s 4 and 8, Ohio State (10-1 regular season record) and Florida (9-2 regular season record).
The number 3 team in the land and they don't even go to a BCS game, I'm not even talking the Nat'l Championship here, but how does this work? Oh and C-USA champion, undefeated #7 Tulane did not go to a BCS bowl game either, and they beat 3 Big East teams (a BCS Conference), did I mention they were undefeated.

2000/01 season: FSU, Miami, and Washington all had a valid reason to expect to play undefeated Oklahoma in the Nat'l Championship game. They were all 1 loss teams and the kicker? FSU lost to Miami (#2 in both human polls) who lost to Washington (#7) who lost to 2 loss Oregon. How was FSU able to leapfrog the team that was ahead of them in the polls and that they had lost to? the BCS at its' finest.

2001/02 season: 1 loss Nebraska (#2 in BCS, #4 in both Human polls) selected to play in the Nat'l Championship despite not winning their division or conference championships. Meanwhile, 1 loss Oregon (#2 in both Human polls, #4 in BCS) beat Colorado by 22 points (the same Colorado who beat Nebraska by 36) and Nebraska fell to Miami 37-14.

2003/04 season: At season end there were 0 teams undefeated and 6 teams with 1 loss. Oklahoma, Louisiana State, and Southern Cal in the major conferences, and Miami (OH), Boise St., and TCU also stood with 1 loss. USC was #1 in the AP and Coaches Poll but had a "weak schedule" according to the computers, and though Oklahoma lost to KState in the Big XII Championship they were #1 in the BCS but #3 in the Human poll and LSU was #2 in both. LSU upset "#1" Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl earning the Nat'l Championship, BUT the Human polls still thought that USC should have been in that game (seeing as how they had SC ranked #1 before the game anyways) and in a lopsided vote gave USC the #1 ranking at the end of the season and LSU the #2 ranking giving us the first split championship in the BCS which had promised...No Split Championships. To further confuse things, in the Coaches poll, LSU did not get unanimous #1 votes, though the coaches are Contractually Obliged to do so. 3 votes went to USC to show that they thought USC was the best team in the country and the there were a few coaches who were not recognizing the BCS as a legitimate answer to the championship problem.

2004/05 season: 5 undefeated teams ended the regular season, #1 USC, #2 Oklahoma, #3 Auburn, #5 Utah, and a surprising #10 Boise State team. Auburn was undefeated in tough SEC play. Really, Boise State and Utah had less convincing regular seasons but were nonetheless without a loss and deserved a shot at the title as much as the 3 other undefeated teams. And with Bowl wins by Utah and Auburn USC, Auburn, and Utah all ended the 2004/05 season without a loss, but there was only one Nat'l Champion and only 2 teams that had a shot.

2006/07 season: Undefeated Boise State, 1 loss Louisville, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida all worthy choices to play undefeated #1 Ohio State in the BCS Championship game. Human polls had Florida higher than Michigan (perhaps because Michigan had lost in the Big 11 finale vs Ohio State), Computer polls had Michigan and Florida tied for #2 spot. After all was said and done Florida upset #1 Ohio State convincingly, and Boise State upset Oklahoma leaving a mess at the end of the season. Ohio State, Florida, Louisville and Wisconsin all had 1 loss, and lowly Boise State was undefeated, without even a chance to play Florida. Florida received all but one 1st place vote at the end of the season, with the one remaining vote going to Boise State. .

That's a lot of information. In Summation, there is something seriously wrong with the BCS and the "quality wins" and "strength of schedule" and everything else that goes into it. Hawai'i is undefeated right now and might not even get into a BCS game let alone having a chance at the Nat'l Championship. Meanwhile in the BCS rankings there are 4 1 loss teams in front of them 6 2 loss teams and a 3 loss Florida. #11 Boston College lost to unranked Maryland and Florida State, #10 Florida lost to Georgia, LSU, and Auburn in the way overrated SEC, #9 Oklahoma lost to unranked Colorado and unranked Texas Tech, USC lost to Oregon and unranked Stanford, LSU lost to Kentucky, barely beat an unranked Auburn, and lost to an unranked Arkansas (not to mention their coach doesn't even want to be there anymore), #6 VT lost to BC and LSU (who were both #2 at the time and both have 2 losses since then), #5 Kansas lost in their only tough game of the season thus far to Mizzou (beating teams with names like Central, South Eastern, International, and Toledo don't really count for too much, especially for a BCS division team), #4 Georgia's losses are to unranked S Carolina and Tennessee, #3 Ohio State dropped one at home to previously unranked Illinois, #2 W Virginia couldn't get past South Florida who since starting 6-0 is 3-3 with wins over Syracuse and Pittsburgh, and #1 Mizzou on the capable Heisman winning arm of Chase Daniel lost to an average Oklahoma team as discussed earlier. Now Hawai'i doesn't have a whole lot of quality wins but did beat a ranked Boise State team this past weekend. In fact their schedule looks awfully similar/similarly awful, compared to #5 Kansas. This season more than any other should prove that there needs to be a playoff.

One idea is 16 teams. Each of the 11 major conferences sends their champion with 5 other at large bids for the independents and high ranked other teams. There could be stipulations that if the minor conferences (C-USA, MAC, MWC, WAC, and Sun Belt) don't field a top 25 team, their playoff spot would be given to one of the other top teams instead. Based on the ranking playoff games would be set as one would expect 16 vs 1 and so one. It could even be scaled down to 14 teams or 12 teams and allow for byes and follow a typical bracket set-up. This way teams like Hawai'i or last years Boise State squad can prove that they deserve a shot or that the voters/computers are right in rating them where they are. Yes this, or something like it, has been suggested and the bowl tradition would be ruined and there would be less impact of a loss in the regular season, and universities would lose money. This just goes to show that there isn't a perfect solution here. I said earlier that a playoff is not necessarily the answer, and it's true but I can't think of a better one at this point. A playoff would make the BCS and other voting and ranking obsolete, who cares you can play these playoff games at neutral sites and call them bowl games, and can even award a trophy if you want. Something needs to change.

Am I saying Hawai'i is the best team in the land, no. Am I suggesting they deserve a chance to prove everyone wrong and that they very well might be the best team in the land, absolutely. So did Utah and Auburn a few years ago, and a USC vs LSU would have been nice to watch in '03.

A playoff would once and for all end all post season speculation, vote changes, and there would never be a split championship.

Wait, wasn't that what the BCS promised not too long ago?
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