Like most right thinking Americans, I abhor the BCS system and await the day when a playoff system is implemented in College Football.
Today, the sports commentators attack the BCS and to some degree Pitt.
First, though, a little love to some of our regular commentators. Guys like JFC who having long abandoned his own brief attempts at blogging, is a reliable commentator and staunch defender of partying in Arizona — and as Lee said, e-mail us with your insider view on why Pitt fans should make the trip to Tempe (as that appears more and more to be Pitt’s destination) for the Fiesta Bowl. Another regular contributor (more commonly during b-ball season), B.B. who made a smart observation that most sports commentators happily forget:
Isn’t it true that prior to the BCS, the major bowls picked from conference tie-ins, so under that system Pitt would likely be headed to the Orange bowl this year (that’s not a rhetorical question, but I think its true)? So why all the fuss about them getting in this year? I don’t think the BCS was ever designed to pick the top 8 teams, I thought it was designed to pick the top 2 teams to avoid a Nebraska, PSU type situation like back in the day (seem like forever ago). I’m sure the power’s the be would never have created the BCS if they thought there was a chance that their conference would be left out.
The BCS was all about the 2 best teams playing each other. The other bowls in the BCS mix ponied up the huge cash just to be in the rotation to host the big battle at the end. The rest of the BCS bowls are there to reward (give big paychecks to) the best of the big conferences and/or the best teams. Even without VT and Miami and before Louisville in the Big East, looking back and forward, which of these 3 conferences would you expect to be consistently better: Big East, C-USA or Mountain West?
Anyways, the national sports media is having its fun. Dennis Dodd at Sportsline gives the typical blast.
Only the Sun Belt, among I-A’s 11 conferences, has performed worse than the Big East this year. The Sun Belt’s top two teams (North Texas and Troy) each had four losses. BC, West Virginia and Pittsburgh each have three losses. Syracuse has five. Fledgling I-A member Connecticut (7-4, 3-3) actually finished with a better overall record than Syracuse, beat Pittsburgh and finished a game behind the mediocre logjam.
Going forward, the outrage shouldn’t be directed at any mid-majors that get to BCS bowls. Like Utah, they will have to achieve a certain amount of excellence to qualify. The Big East’s only qualification is that it knows the right people.
The commissioners cut the Big East a break allowing it to keep its automatic bid through the 2005 season. After that, all bets are off. In fact, the Big East’s status is one of the touchiest subjects among the commissioners now that the new TV deals have been signed.
It’s clear that even with newcomers Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida replacing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College, the Big East is a notch below the other five major conferences. For example, what’s to differentiate that lineup from, say, the Mountain West?
Dodd conveniently ignores that ND essentially shares the Big East BCS bid, and is he prepared to throw them out too? Sure. Right.
Or this piece complaining from CollegeFootballNews.com/Fox Sports. Thow even here, they had to give some props to Pitt:
The best moment was the pure joy on the Pittsburgh sideline after beating West Virginia. With the turmoil the program has gone through and the rumors of Walt Harris being on double-secret probation, Tyler Palko and the rest of the Panthers came through when they had to and are now a win away from the BCS.
Matt Hayes at the Sporting News/Fox Sports places the blame on TV money and greed, not Pitt. Of course two weeks ago he had been calling for the Big East to have its automatic BCS bid ripped away (after previously saying the Big East should be happy with the current situation). Matt, baby, you’re one of my favorite college football columnists, but a little consistency, please.
In a shock to Lee, Trev Alberts is no longer blaming Pitt and the Big East for the BCS issues — as much as he despises the outcome.
The real loser is Utah. The Utes have struggled all year to gain some legitimacy but are now in line to play the Big East champ in the BCS, which puts them in a no-win situation. They will be expected to beat Syracuse or Pittsburgh by 25 points, and a loss would brand Utah a fraud. What’s good about that?
That said, don’t blame the Big East for this mess. Neither commissioner Mike Tranghese nor anyone else should be held accountable for the two best teams in the league deciding to leave. The Big East might not be deserving of that automatic bid, but it’s not the fault of Tranghese or the teams still there.
The system is what it is. And in one of the only columns that echoed B.B.’s comments you have John Walters at SI.com:
The ABC, CBS and ESPN announcers (as well as many a sportswriter) like to use the example of B.C. (before the Eagles lost to Syracuse) and now Pittsburgh or Syracuse playing in the Fiesta Bowl as proof that the system has failed us. Um, no it hasn’t. If Pitt were playing in the Orange Bowl this year, then yes, it would have failed us. But as long as we can be assured that arguably the two best teams throughout the season are facing one another for the national championship (Read that again — that’s a promise that NCAA basketball cannot make), then how has it failed us?
Because, after the Orange, all of the other bowls are just bowl games. From a fan’s perspective, the three other bowls have no more relevance than the Insight.com Bowl or the Humanitarian Bowl.
When it comes time to discriminate between which of the 573 bowl games I’ll watch, I choose the most compelling matchups. I don’t care if a bowl has the BCS stamp of approval on it. Case in point: I attended the Cal-Virginia Tech Insight.com Bowl in Phoenix last December. It was a lot more exciting than the Kansas State-Ohio State contest played a week later in the Valley of the Sun.
I’m not going to apologize for Pitt getting a BCS bowl/big money payout. Any more than I heard Oklahoma fans apologizing last year, Kansas State fans for getting a BCS bid last year, or any other program that didn’t “deserve” to go.
