{"id":2152,"date":"2009-12-06T03:01:11","date_gmt":"2009-12-06T09:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/?p=2152"},"modified":"2009-12-12T08:22:09","modified_gmt":"2009-12-12T14:22:09","slug":"annual-bcs-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/?p=2152","title":{"rendered":"Annual BCS Rant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even though I something of a Longhorn partisan, having spent four years at UT, I was kind of hoping they would lose and throw the BCS into complete turmoil.  A loss would have put the voters in the uncomfortable position of having to either move TCU up into the #2 spot or jump Cincinnati over them (or Boise State over both).<\/p>\n<p>As it is now, the BCS defenders will say, &#8220;Hey! It worked.  Bama and Texas are clearly the two best teams in the country and they&#8217;re playing for the title!&#8221;. Nevermind that this supposition is anything <i>but<\/i> clear.  I am not convinced that TCU, Boise State or Cincinnati couldn&#8217;t pull off a win again Alabama or Texas.  Hell, I&#8217;m not convinced Georgia Tech, Oregon and Ohio State couldn&#8217;t do it.  I <i>do<\/i> know that all eight of the conference champs have earned a shot at the title.  They all deserve a chance to show what they can do on the field.  The only reason Alabama and Texas are getting a chance and TCU or Ohio State aren&#8217;t is because the writers like Alabama and Texas, not because they necessarily showed that they were better teams.<\/p>\n<p>This year will be a big test for the BCS&#8217;s integrity.  Do they serve the big conferences or do they serve the game?  There are two non-major teams that clearly deserve a bid for the BCS.  Are they going to honor those deserving teams?  Or will they give out an undeserved BCS spot to a second-tier squad like Virginia Tech or Oregon State?  My money is on the latter.  The BCS can always be relied on to make a dumb decision. <\/p>\n<p>For what it&#8217;s worth, here would be my BCS picks, bold indicates decisions that are already pre-made.<\/p>\n<p>National Title Game: <strong>Alabama<\/strong> vs. <strong>Texas<\/strong><br \/>\nRose Bowl: <strong>Oregon<\/strong> vs. <strong>Ohio State<\/strong><br \/>\nSugar Bowl: Florida vs. TCU<br \/>\nFiesta Bowl: Boise State vs. Iowa<br \/>\nOrange Bowl: <strong>Georgia Tech<\/strong> vs. Cincinnati<\/p>\n<p>However, I expect the BCS to tap Virginia Tech instead of Boise State.  The rotation in which teams are picked lends itself to dumb decisions.  But if I&#8217;m holding a BCS bid and I look back the greatest BCS game ever &#8212; Boise State&#8217;s upset of Oklahoma &#8212; I know which team I&#8217;d like to take.<\/p>\n<p>Now the playoff system I have long advocated would put eight teams in January 1 bowls with rigid slots for the Big Ten, SEC, Pac Ten and ACC.  The two &#8220;at large&#8221; teams would be mid-major champions.  No loser second-place teams would have a shot at the title in my system.  In that case you would get:<\/p>\n<p>Rose Bowl: Oregon vs. Ohio State<br \/>\nSugar Bowl: Alabama vs. Boise State<br \/>\nFiesta Bowl:Cincinnati vs. TCU<br \/>\nOrange Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Florida<\/p>\n<p>With the winners playing three more games to determine the title.  It doesn&#8217;t bow to the great conferences and TV gods, I&#8217;ll grant.  But it&#8217;s fair.<\/p>\n<p><b>Update<\/b>: Amazingly, the BCS picked both Boise State and TCU, albeit in the same bowl.  I&#8217;m very pleased &#8211; but not as please as I&#8217;d be if they had a crack at the champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though I something of a Longhorn partisan, having spent four years at UT, I was kind of hoping they would lose and throw the BCS into complete turmoil. A loss would have put the voters in the uncomfortable position of having to either move TCU up into the #2 spot or jump Cincinnati over &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/?p=2152\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Annual BCS Rant<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BzKF-yI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2152"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2177,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152\/revisions\/2177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}