The BCS discussion

[All-American]

Even dumber than the talk of BYU being in the national championship game (there are still 10 games left to play, after all) is the concern that if they DO make it to the national championship game, it will somehow detract from the argument against the unfairness of the BCS system.

Of course it would detract from the argument. Heck, it nearly destroys the argument. But if the argument is that the system keeps worthy teams from outside the six BCS conferences from playing in the national championship game, and a worthy team from outside the six BCS conferences then plays in the national championship game, what's the problem?

Who in their right mind would complain about getting the very thing for which they are clamoring just so they can keep complaining?

[WashingtonCoug]

I don't think it takes away from the discussion. If a non-BCS team makes it to the title game, there will be other BCS schools claiming that they should be in the game. Until there is a playoff, there will rarely be a consensus #1 team. How many times has USC been pushed out of the title game with one loss by another one loss SEC or Big 12 team?

[Fiyero]

What it boils down to is the FBS not having a playoff is grossly unfair to 10 of the 12 conference champions. That's the large percentage of the problem. That aside, over the past ten years how many undefeated teams were not voted into the title game? If an undefeated mid-major finally is voted in, after how many passes, still doesn't solve the problem- it only raises the ratio ever so slightly.

[falafel]

I think lost in all of that is that the BCS still unfairly gives automatic births to some really crappy teams. Just b/c a non-AQ team can make it to the NC doesn't mean that the Big East deserves a trip to the Orange Bowl ever year over MWC or WAC team.

I realize that an automatic bid is only a partial win the MWC, or I guess I should say that getting one is sort of a hypocritcal thing to do. Its basically saying "the system is unfair, unless you let us into to it." To honest, I would be totally fine with the BCS if the MWC were given an auto-bid. But if that were to happen, it would probably not be too much longer before the whole system would come crumbling down.

[jay santos]

I'm moving my position from being the fiercest of all anti-BCS'ists to being pretty BCS friendly actually.

I think the argument that the regular season means more in college football than any other sport with a playoff is pretty compelling.

And as far as making a BCS game, it's pretty easy for a non-BCS now. With the #12 rule, it's going to happen nearly every year. Before the BCS how many times did teams like Boise St, Utah, BYU, etc. play in the top tier bowls?

[il Padrino Ute]

I'm moving my position from being the fiercest of all anti-BCS'ists to being pretty BCS friendly actually.

I think the argument that the regular season means more in college football than any other sport with a playoff is pretty compelling.

And as far as making a BCS game, it's pretty easy for a non-BCS now. With the #12 rule, it's going to happen nearly every year. Before the BCS how many times did teams like Boise St, Utah, BYU, etc. play in the top tier bowls?

Before the BCS, BYU won a national championship by going undefeated. It didn't matter what bowl game the Cougars played in, nor did conference affiliation matter.

[byu71]

It is still the money thing that bugs me. Non BCS team shares with league and all non BCS teams. Meanhile dog crap teams like WSU, Duke, Kansas, I Iowa St., etc. all feed at the trough of the BCS.

[DU Ute]

I'm moving my position from being the fiercest of all anti-BCS'ists to being pretty BCS friendly actually.

I think the argument that the regular season means more in college football than any other sport with a playoff is pretty compelling.

And as far as making a BCS game, it's pretty easy for a non-BCS now. With the #12 rule, it's going to happen nearly every year. Before the BCS how many times did teams like Boise St, Utah, BYU, etc. play in the top tier bowls?

If the regular College Football season is like a playoff, the '84 BYU team had all the top seeds knocked out before they had a chance to play them.

[jay santos]

It is still the money thing that bugs me. Non BCS team shares with league and all non BCS teams. Meanhile dog crap teams like WSU, Duke, Kansas, I Iowa St., etc. all feed at the trough of the BCS.

Don't blame BCS for this. The big conferences get a lot more revenue through TV contract and other revenue streams than they do through the BCS. Schools like Ohio State and Florida have athletic budgets around $80M IIRC. Their share of BCS money per year would be no more than a couple mill.

[byu71]

Don't blame BCS for this. The big conferences get a lot more revenue through TV contract and other revenue streams than they do through the BCS. Schools like Ohio State and Florida have athletic budgets around $80M IIRC. Their share of BCS money per year would be no more than a couple mill.

I see. If the injustice is small it doesn't matter. A couple of beers is no big deal, it's when you have 10-20 that's the problem. I will remember that next time I am in an interview. Thanks.

[All-American]

Don't blame BCS for this. The big conferences get a lot more revenue through TV contract and other revenue streams than they do through the BCS. Schools like Ohio State and Florida have athletic budgets around $80M IIRC. Their share of BCS money per year would be no more than a couple mill.

Although, every time a non-BCS school gets in, their conference gets that money too (minus however much they kick out to the other non-BCS conferences). And there has been a non-BCS team above that #12 threshold every year since 2003.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

It's true, prior to the BCS a team like Utah, Boise State or Hawaii wouldn't have had a chance at getting into a Sugar or Fiesta Bowl (well, the Fiesta Bowl as currently constituted).

There are only two ways a non-BCS team can seriously think about playing in the national title game:

1) Go out and play the big boys and beat them. Problem is, you'd have to think that most big time programs like Oklahoma won't be interested in playing a team like BYU, Utah or TCU any time soon when they get beat (yet Oklahoma got beat by TCU back in 2007 and still scheduled BYU this year). Now that BYU has beaten Oklahoma, other things still need to happen for BYU to go to the title game (two of USC,Texas and Florida need to lose twice, isn't happening this year).

2) Hope that you have a year like 2007 and you go undefeated. It would be interesting to see where Utah's 2008 team would have placed in the BCS rankings in 2007. It was comical to see a one loss West Virginia team in line to play in the national title game. It would have been even more comical had WV actually made it to the game where they probably would have beaten Ohio State. WV national champs! Maybe I'm naive, but I think 2008 Utah would have made it to the title game in 2007. But 2007 was a flukey year (it was almost as flukey as 1984!).

[Flystripper]

I Now that BYU has beaten Oklahoma, other things still need to happen for BYU to go to the title game (two of USC,Texas and Florida need to lose twice, isn't happening this year).

Not so sure about that. It is a very good chance that we jump USC or Texas in the human polls if they lose. The computers are not going to help the Big 12 this year and the PAC 10 may not be a big help to SC yet again. (although UCLA's win against Tenn does not hurt) If Texas and SC lose one game and BYU goes undefeated we could sneak in there. It would be close but with the way that the formula works, it is possible.

We probably could not catch Florida because the human polls overweight the SEC.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Not so sure about that. It is a very good chance that we jump USC or Texas in the human polls if they lose. The computers are not going to help the Big 12 this year and the PAC 10 may not be a big help to SC yet again. (although UCLA's win against Tenn does not hurt) If Texas and SC lose one game and BYU goes undefeated we could sneak in there. It would be close but with the way that the formula works, it is possible.

We probably could not catch Florida because the human polls overweight the SEC.

The only game I see USC possibly losing is @ Cal on October 3. USC still has some decent opponents to play after that which USC will probably blow out. BYU would temporaily pull ahead of USC, but USC always gets better as the year goes on and blowouts of Notre Dame, Oregon and an improved UCLA will pull USC either slightly ahead of BYU in the human poles, or just behind BYU with the computers pushing USC ahead. The Pac-10 looks fairly strong this year (Oregon notwithstanding) and USC's SOS will probably be much better than BYU's.

Texas's fate is a bit more complicated and after looking at their schedule, I would tend to agree with you. Texas has two losable games: OU and @Oklahoma State. I'm not sure how good the Big 12 will look this year and Texas's soft OOC schedule gives it little room for error. Basically, UL Monroe, UCF, Wyoming and UTEP are not going to help the Longhorns out. A loss @Oklahoma State on October 31 could be too late for Texas to recover from (kind of like their loss against TT last year), but a loss @ Oklahoma would perhaps give them enough time to recover IF OU lost again later in the year.

Ironically, I could still see OU going to the title game ahead of BYU if it wins out. If that happens then the BCS has a problem on its hands and if the national title game matches up, say, one loss Florida and Oklahoma teams again, I could see the AP voters revolting if BYU won its BCS bowl game (vs. Texas in the Fiesta) and produce another split title.

[statman]

It's not a dumb discussion. This is the first time that a non-BCS school has had the POTENTIAL to play in a National Championship game - you need both the team and the schedule to get there. And this year, BYU seems to have both.

the hardest part of the schedule is over. They played an amazing game against OU - especially on defense. And defense has been, and probably always will be the question mark at BYU. A very good offensive team coupled with a very good defense, AND a schedule that compares with the best in the NCAA, and IF (again, a HUGE if):

1) BYU can go undefeated, and IF
2) there is not more than 1 BCS team that is undefeated at season's end,

BYU would be in a very solid position to get a bid to a NC game.

The reason this is important is, like I said earlier, that it is the first time that a non-BCS team has been in the position to even broach the subject of the National Championship game. Utah and Boise have done it for BCS games, and proven that they're worthy. If things continue to work out for BYU, it may be in the cards.

I fully agree that talk about expectating BYU to go to the NC Game is premature. But talk about BYU actually having a schedule that makes them possibly eligible to go - should a whole bunch of other things work out - is not premature. The rest of the sports world is talking about it. Why shouldn't we?