The Merits of the BCS

Why is college football revered in so many parts of the country and college basketball not? Yea, college basketball has it's little month in the sun where the whole country gets up and acts like they were paying attention the whole time. It's funny, and I love to take part in it.

I'm not going to lie, I honestly could give two shits less about college basketball. All the good athletes went to the NBA, and now that there are good ones in college, it's basically one giant one-on-one matchup. "It'll be good to have these kids attend college and play in the NCAA for a year." Really? Better for whom? For guys like Andrew Bynum and Robert Swift, definitely. For guys like Michael Beasley and OJ Mayo and Eric Gordon who have ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS playing college basketball...not so much.

Great, I get to watch Eric Gordon score 40 points per game because he's just better than everyone else.

I'm diverting. Listen, the tournament is fucking fantastic. I love it. I love the brackets and I love the drama. But, it's completely manufactured. What is the point of the regular season if pretty much every major school is going to get in? Why do we waste hours debating whether or not Southern Illinois should have been invited. It's pointless. I don't care about Valdosta State getting in only to be waxed by North Carolina in the first round. "But there could be an upset!!" Awesome. Actively watching for the sole reason that some team might lose, a team you could give two shits less about.

If gambling wasn't involved, the tournament wouldn't be a spectacle. But my point isn't to ridicule college hoops, it's to highlight why the BCS is better than a playoff.

Why waste everyone's time? Just cut to the chase. Sure, in some instances, playoffs are great, but only when the playing field is relatively level and the teams that are in deserve to be there. That's why the NBA playoffs blow during the first round. That's why hockey's playoffs are the best around (even though nobody watches) because a low-seeded team can gel and make a huge run against teams with a lot better talent. It'd be like if the Warriors had kept winning last year during the NBA playoffs.

The BCS gets rid of all that bullshit. Yea, in some cases a 3rd team has a legit beef about being excluded from the National Championship game, but usually, it boils down to that team not taking care of business. The most obvious example is 2004's Auburn team which went undefeated and was left out. They got it wrong, but the idea was right. CUT THE BULLSHIT, GET TO THE MEAT.

This year is a great example. The popular thing to say is that this year is the reason we need a playoff. I disagree, this year exemplifies why the BCS is better than a playoff. All these teams are bitching about being left out or how they're more deserving than either LSU or OSU. Hey, if you're so worthy, don't lose to Stanford or South Carolina, did that thought ever occur to you? It's not a fucking popularity contest. You want to get in, beat the teams on your schedule.

Then, of course, you get the assholes who like to say that strength of schedule is skewed between certain conferences. Well, who's fault is that? Just because all these NFL-starved Southern states only have one hole to fuck they should be given preferential treatment? Give me a fucking break. These SEC schools have their heads so far up their asses, if you hear them talk, it sounds like their brand of football is completely better than anywhere else's, where their speed and power is unmatched and every other school trembles in the wake of their footsteps.

Last time I checked, great teams don't lose to Kentucky...and no, that is not a signal of how deep your conference is, it's a sign of how shitty you actually are. Great teams don't lose to Vanderbilt. Great teams don't lose to an Arkansas team that didn't know the forward pass existed. It's a copout.

The BCS disregards such bullshit, such homeristic crap that people can't see beyond. It gets rid of all the crap like, "oh, but our team beat so and so which beat your team so our team must be better." It lays down the law and says, "you didn't take care of your shit, so you don't deserve to go."

Would a college football playoff be awesome? FUCK YES. Who wouldn't want to see a 3 or 4 week stretch where the best teams in the country play each other? Wait, they pretty much do anyways? It's called bowl games. Would you sacrifice 64 different teams matching up against each other, stretched out over a month for 16 teams (which would be there pretty much every year) play a few games over the same month?

By the end of the college basketball tournament, nobody could give a shit about the final game, other than the two schools involved. It's because people are just plain sick of it, plus their teams are probably already gone and their brackets fucked. Without looking it up, can you name the last 7 NCAA basketball champions? Conversely, the last 7 champions in NCAA football roll of the tongue like hotcakes.

There are certain teams that just don't deserve it this year in football. Sorry VT, a team doesn't lose 48-7 and get a chance to play for the National Championship. Sorry Georgia, you didn't win your conference, which means at least one team is better than you. Sorry Oklahoma, but beating Missouri twice and Texas isn't really impressive. Sorry Hawaii, but when Boise State is laughing at your schedule, youre SOL.

Most years there are 2 demonstrably dominant teams, or at least teams that manage to take care of their business enough that it leaves room for no debate. Sure there are years like 2004 where the system fucks up, but those years are easily overwhelmed by the number of years when we get a USC vs. Texas or an OSU vs. Miami. Hell, even a Tennessee vs. Florida State. Why risk the possibility of one of these top teams getting beaten or injured when you can pit the two top teams at full strength against each other while having a fucking full month of football appetizers?

Plus, there is always going to be the debate over who's left out. ALWAYS. A playoff wouldn't solve that, if anything, it would ruin the debate's intensity, ruin the argument. When the stakes are already this high, then the debate heats up, there is a definite vigor and hate towards other places and an inflated sense of school pride. There isn't a gray area, the BCS gives us 2 black schools and 115 white schools. It's as clear as it can be.

This year isn't muddled. If anything, this year forces us to acknowledge the system got it right. The two most deserving schools are going to face off for the National Championship game. Would a playoff be more exciting? Who knows? But why should Georgia and VT get a third chance when they blew their second chances? Why should Oklahoma be allowed a third chance when they got absolutely smoked when they got their second chance?

This isn't basketball where a team can get hot and ride it out. Football is about physical dominance and strategy. Would Boise State have had such an awesome game plan given only a week to prepare? Would injuries derail superior teams? Why even risk it?

The BCS has it's problems, and to be honest, yea a playoff would be sweet but at what expense? A playoff would ruin the bowl system. We'd lose out on great games between teams we normally don't get to see. Is that worth seeing the same 16 powerhouses battle it out every year? Is it worth making the regular season essentially pointless? The thing that's great about college football as opposed to the NFL is the fact that there is something on the line every game. If the season didn't fuck itself like it did, OSU wouldn't be in the NC game only because they lost to Illinois. LSU wouldn't be in because they lost to Kentucky and Arkansas. You can't sleep through a season like you can in the NFL (2005-06 Steelers).

The BCS has a few flaws, but it's better than a tournament. It's better than the manufactured drama that exists in the NCAA basketball tourney. Last year, all the top seeds one, there was little drama, everything happened like they said it would. The final rounds were awesome, but the first rounds were BORRRRIIIINNNGGGG. In football, there wouldn't be the upsets. The better teams would realize where they're at and rise to the occasion. The thing that makes the NCAA football regular season so great is when the good teams DO sleepwalk and get beat by a Stanford (I won't say App. State because the better team won in that instance) or a Pitt.

It's a cliche, but the regular season is the playoffs. Some teams have easier roads than others, but that's what makes it great. The BCS just gets rid of the bullshit and creates a 30+ game appetizer of pure football goodness. The BCS gets rid of all the obnoxious underdogs and replaces them with teams that can actually play the game at a high level, where gimmicks don't work. To say the NCAA tournament is the greatest tournament in sports is a joke. It's the biggest, but it's far from the best. Upsets are fun, but do you really want to see a shitty team advance in lieu of a much better team? So instead of the first round being boring, the boredom carries over to the second round.

This has gone on too long, I'm debating myself. I'm done with this shit.

Well...that was Pathetic

Seriously...fuck these teams.

How dare critics say OSU doesn't deserve to be in the National Championship game...what a fucking joke. Fuck Mizzou. Fuck West Virginia. What a fucking crock that was.

After all this bullshit throughout the year, it boils down to two powerhouses. Georgia/Kansas (blech)/VT/LSU/USc vs. OSU, OSU is the number 1 team in the country...again. After all this talk about being the year of the upset, two bullshit teams fuck up their season because they sucked.

Yes, they suck. There isn't anything you can say. Both of these teams had the NC game in their hands and they couldn't close the door. Mizzou has at least a little decency remaining...Oklahoma is a pretty good team and they're always going to be talented, but WVU? West Fuckin' Virginia? Losing to Dave Wannstadt?

Let's be frank here, Boise State was a nice story, as was Kansas and MIssou this year, as was West Virginia and Louisville's little claim to competency. But that's where it ends. None of these little teams have any chance of being the big dog, none whatsoever. I don't care how great your offenses are or how good you look in your endless array of alternate uniforms, you just suck.

Really, it's not your fault, the big schools get the actual football players. Don't give me this shit about NFL guys coming from small schools or bullshit about Steve Slaton and Pat White and all that crap. Yea, they're nice players, they'd probably be decent on a real football school's team. But schools like Texas and Florida and USC have an entire roster of these guys. No matter how good you think you are, you're nothing more than a big fish in a small pond.

Yea, the Big East is a powerhouse. Whoever fucking said that garbage should be shot. Listen, upsets happen, it's a way of life in college football, but if you're team is so gutless that they choke away a sure-fire trip to the NC game against DAVE FUCKING WANNSTADT then you do not deserve to say you could beat teams like Ohio State. Give me a break.

Yea, Mizzou was a nice story with some good talent. But when you get a chance to go to a NC game, whomever you face, you should at least be able to look like a competent team, regardless if you win or lose. Oklahoma didn't even look like they were trying out there. Could they have called a more basic offensive and defensive package? Basically they said, "here's what we're going to do...stop us."

So shut the fuck up. I'm sick of hearing that OSU sucks and that they don't deserve to be there, because the bottom line is, the teams above OSU and USC simply blew, and THOSE were the teams that have no business in any type of BCS game. It's a nice story when it happens, but the talent just isn't there to truly deserve the title of best team in the country.

So the question boils down to whom will the awesome, amazing, sweet ass Buckeyes play? LSU? 2 losses? Georgia? They didn't even win their division. Kansas? HAHAHAHAHAHA. USC? 2 losses, one to FUCKING STANFORD. VT? Can they go over LSU who demolished them 49-7? Ugh...

Well, we'll see what happens, I'm sick of this shit. Fuck Mark May.

Just Shut Your Mouth...

You know whats really scrambling my eggs? College football analysts. Guys, I know that Ohio State and Boston College aren't the teams that you guys want to see on top of the BCS, but why is it that you guys must say that they aren't worthy of that honor for taking care of business? Lets see here, Ohio State has played Youngstown State, Akron, Washington, and Kent State out of conference. Who has your top teams played? USC lost to Stanford, and I'm sorry to the Cardinal, but losing them is no different than losing to a D1-AA squad. They are awful. Lets see who SC did beat: Idaho, Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Nebraska who was #14 at the time, and Notre Dame. That really sounds like a schedule worth a Top 5 Ranking... Give me a break. How is that any better than the Buckeyes?

We all know there are flaws in the system and perhaps a playoff system should be implemented, but I still have trouble understanding why teams are given less credit for beating the teams that they should beat. Sure, I'm an Ohio State fan, but lets try to see the big picture here guys. This is the system that is in place and contrary to what you think, your bitching isn't changing anything. If a change happens it won't be implemented immediately. These guys just don't seem to get it. There is a process and it takes time, but for now this is the way it is going to stay. Deal with it or shut your mouth.

I'm not going to sit here and preach to whoever reads this about how I have the solution for College Football. I don't have any say in the process and nor do I want any. I must be the exception here, but I can accept the format that is laid out for us and enjoy what happens throughout the season. Do I have an opinion on the matter? Yes, everyone does. But does that mean that I'm going to sit here and say that certain teams are more deserving of certain honors than others. The positions that these teams are in are the positions these teams are it. Deal with it and offer something insightful about the games are played, not what's out of the control of the teams. If you have a vote in the rankings, just submit it and don't preach to me about how stuff should be, comment to me on the way things are.

So what if you think that Ohio State making its second straight National Championship appearance in as many years will result in a beating similar to last years game versus Florida. They are still the No. 1 team in the nation and until they prove that they are unworthy of that ranking, who are you to tell them that they aren't worthy? Why is it that your opinions and thoughts should be considered above the rest? Get off your high horse.

Boston College is No. 2 in the nation, again for taking care of business. They beat Wake Forest, a team that played in the Orange Bowl in 2006. They also beat Georgia Tech, who at the time was ranked No. 15 nationally. They also should not be penalized for doing what is expected of them. They played and defeated: NC State, Notre Dame, Bowling Green, Army and UMass.

Now, had these two teams stumbled over the course of the season so far, then you might have an argument here. I fully understand that certain aspects must be considered when ranking a team, but lets not fail to realize one thing: the season is not over yet. Much can still happen throughout this year. Any one of the nation's top teams can stumble and any one of the nation's bottom tier teams can pull off the unexpected upset. I just want to sit back and watch what cards are dealt to what teams. BC has a game tomorrow night vs #8 Virginia Tech and OSU still has to play the top tier teams in the Big 10. They still have tests they must pass in Penn State, a previously ranked team, Wisconsin: a previously ranked Top 5 team, Illinois: a team that also cracked the Top 25. There is also a game versus that team from that other state to the west to consider, who was also ranked in the Top 5 in the nation entering the season. The season is not over and anything can happen as you all know. I say we just wait until the season is over to see what pieces fall into what place.

I just absolutely hate listening to analysts talk about scenarios that haven't played out. And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the reason why we actually play the game? To see what scenarios pan out and what coaches and players execute where they are expected to? Maybe I'm just old school, but I really just can't keep my mouth shut anymore. Just shut your mouth and comment on something you have some knowledge on, don't just run your mouth because your pre-season predictions have not come true, leaving you to try to homer teams who have done what is expected of them to make you feel better about being totally wrong.