Why I Hate The BCS Even More Tonight

[Sports Guy]

Why should Alabama be ruled out of the title game automatically because they had to face LSU in the regular season?

If Bama beats LSU by 3, who is the champion?

The answer is Bama...because of the timing of the win.

Does that mean Bama deserves it over LSU, who they lost to AT HOME? It sure doesn't. It just means they won at the right time.

Its all about when you lose...and that's sad.

Personally, I think Bama is the second best team but does that mean they deserve the rematch?

I really hope LSU wins. They have done more than any other team this year and have done it on the road in many cases. They are the best team.

[Birds of B'more]

Why should Alabama be ruled out of the title game automatically because they had to face LSU in the regular season?

"Every Game Counts"

Except for that one, apparently.

[crissfan172]

I like Bilas' tweet.

All of those "important" games yesterday meant NOTHING!

VT gets blown out, again...Their reward? A BCS bowl.

Mich St plays a great game, loses by 3? Do they get a BCS bowl? Nope...Who does? Michigan? Name one of the teams Mich lost to? You guessed it..Mich St.

OSU blows away a major team in what was perhaps the most impressive win by any team all season..still miss out on title game.

What a joke.

That's what happens when you create conference championships. They need to find a way to make sure that it doesn't work that way, though.

If Bama beats LSU by 3, who is the champion?

The answer is Bama...because of the timing of the win.

Does that mean Bama deserves it over LSU, who they lost to AT HOME? It sure doesn't. It just means they won at the right time.

Its all about when you lose...and that's sad.

Personally, I think Bama is the second best team but does that mean they deserve the rematch?

I really hope LSU wins. They have done more than any other team this year and have done it on the road in many cases. They are the best team.

I really don't believe that LSU is better than Alabama, but they won the game. They deserve the title over Alabama. Period.

[ledzepp8]

It's not even close to a plain fact. You just can't lose to a 5 win Iowa State team no matter how good the rest of your schedule looks. That's a resume killer right there.

And regarding the farce that is the "didn't win their conference championship" argument, I think Andy Staples put it best after the Iron Bowl:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/andy_staples/11/26/alabama-auburn/?xid=cnnbin

The bolded illustrates how stupid this system is. It's not even an argument about who they both lost to, it's about when they both lost (and you know that).

As for Andy Staples arguement, it's completely illogical. Just because Alabama may have a better record than those conference champions doesn't mean they would have won those conferences, seeing as how they didn't play in those conferences. That's like saying Houston is as good as Alabama and applying the same thought process to them. Also, why would Alabama have "won the Big 12"? They have the same record as OK State.

[ledzepp8]

Why should Alabama be ruled out of the title game automatically because they had to face LSU in the regular season?

Because why should LSU have to beat Alabama twice to be champion but Alabama only has to beat LSU once?

The "purists" like to say that college football's regular season is like a playoff, well imagine that the Orioles made the playoffs and had to face the Yankees in a 7 game series. They beat them and then because of a system similar to college football, they have to play them in a 7 game series again, in order to be champion. That's ridiculous.

[JamesI]

The system sucks. I'm hoping the fan outrage at everything this year (a lot of the BCS games suck) will finally get a small playoff. No one would complain if we had a playoff of

Stanford v LSU

Alabama v. OK State

[CrimsonTribe]

Whether or not Alabama would have won the other conferences is an opinion, not a fact. Alabama has beaten two ranked opponents all season, one of which is a Penn State team that is nowhere near as good as their 9-3 record. Oklahoma State's schedule was tougher, and they beat 5 teams that finished in the BCS top 25. Florida lost to Ole Miss in 2006 and still made the national championship over Michigan. It would have been stupid to have a rematch then, and it's stupid to have one now. The whole argument for the BCS is that the regular season is supposed to be their version of the playoffs. If you can't win your conference, you shouldn't get a chance to win the National Championship. LSU shouldn't have to beat them twice. Hell, they're getting screwed even more than Oklahoma State. I'd rather just give the title to LSU than have a rematch.

Obviously it's opinion, but it's the over-arching point that you missed. Do you believe that the second best team in the nation should be left out of the championship game because they share the same conference (or even division of the same conference) with the best team in the nation? Take all specific teams out of the equation and just answer that. If you do, then I don't know what to tell you.

[CrimsonTribe]

The bolded illustrates how stupid this system is. It's not even an argument about who they both lost to, it's about when they both lost (and you know that).

As for Andy Staples arguement, it's completely illogical. Just because Alabama may have a better record than those conference champions doesn't mean they would have won those conferences, seeing as how they didn't play in those conferences. That's like saying Houston is as good as Alabama and applying the same thought process to them. Also, why would Alabama have "won the Big 12"? They have the same record as OK State.

I don't know that. It's definitely about who they lost to, not when they lost.

See my response to crissfan regarding the Andy Staples argument.

[CrimsonTribe]

"Every Game Counts"

Except for that one' date=' apparently.[/quote']

Except that it did count. Alabama would be out of the NC game if any of the teams behind them could have beaten vastly inferior opponents. For one reason or another they all messed themselves and we're back to evaluating them against each other based on their merits and Alabama came out on top, if only slightly.

[CrimsonTribe]

Let me ask this, if Oregon had not lost to USC, there was a good chance that they could have jumped Alabama. Would everyone have been so vehemently opposed to letting Oregon play LSU again as well?

[ledzepp8]

I don't know that. It's definitely about who they lost to, not when they lost.

See my response to crissfan regarding the Andy Staples argument.

That's just false and you know it. If OK St had lost to Iowa St week one and Alabama had lost to LSU in the final week, then Alabama would be going to the Sugar Bowl and OK St would be playing LSU. The BCS has made it abundantly clear during their history that it works that way.

See my response about your Andy Staples post. That logic says that Houston is better than Alabama. Do you think that's true? And why again would Alabama have won the Big 12 with the same record as OK St?

[Hawkigizer]

Do you believe that the second best team in the nation should be left out of the championship game because they share the same conference (or even division of the same conference) with the best team in the nation?

If they already lost to that best team, then yes. Also, we don't know they are the 2nd best team. What we do know is they aren't the best...because we learned that earlier this season. It's just redundant to have them play again because we already know the answer. We don't know the answer to an LSU/OK St matchup. (Or an OK St/Bama matchup for that matter.)

Let me ask this, if Oregon had not lost to USC, there was a good chance that they could have jumped Alabama. Would everyone have been so vehemently opposed to letting Oregon play LSU again as well?

Personally, yes, I would've been saying the same thing. And I would also be saying the same thing if LSU and Bama's roles were reversed. I will say, there is some difference because Bama's loss came at home, while Oregon's loss came at a neutral site. Also, Oregon still won their conference which I believe should at least be a prerequisite. (Although, I understand the argument against that...I guess.)

[CrimsonTribe]

That's just false and you know it. If OK St had lost to Iowa St week one and Alabama had lost to LSU in the final week, then Alabama would be going to the Sugar Bowl and OK St would be playing LSU. The BCS has made it abundantly clear during their history that it works that way.

See my response about your Andy Staples post. That logic says that Houston is better than Alabama. Do you think that's true? And why again would Alabama have won the Big 12 with the same record as OK St?

Again, it's not false, I don't know it, and you're getting dangerously close to calling me a liar. Just because you keep repeating it doesn't make it true. Maybe you should give it a break.

You apparently didn't read what I wrote to crissfan so I'll break it down again. Staples is not saying that Alabama would have won the other conferences because they have a better record. He is saying that they would have won the other conferences because he believes they are the second best team in the nation. He is saying that to get at the over-arching point that the second best team in the nation should not be held out of the championship game because they have the misfortune of playing in the same conference as the best team in the nation. His opinion that Alabama would have won the other conferences is just used to show how illogical it would be to require a team to win its conference to play in the championship game if it is better than all of the other candidates to play the best team in the championship game.

[mweb]

Hawkigizer is making a pretty strong case imo.

[mweb]

I think it's a bit too much to say that Alabama is clearly the #2 in the nation like many are. The computers did not think so and a person can reasonably disagree with that assessment as well. This was the closest the BCS standings have ever been between numbers 2 and 3.

So it's not like people are requesting a clearly inferior team to be in the title game just to avoid a rematch and/or have a non-conference champ from the same conference get a shot.