The Fan Solution To the BCS Controversy

As you may have read earlier today, Kevin McGuire emailed me today wondering why I have not posted lately with all of the BCS Controversy swirling among us.

To be polite, I’ve been predicting this perfect storm of a season coming as far back as 2005, but most everyone thought I was an idiot, who had obviously never played, coached or watched college football for that matter.

So in response, what else is left for me, or better yet, what else would you like me to say? The system that we have in place is not a fair system on so many levels that it boggles the mind in terms of how inept the fans must be, when they can’t tie this smelly rat together.

In case you disagree, follow this link and visit many examples of bias exhibited with the major networks, and then ask yourself, how many of these commentators have major ties to the CFA schools or Chuck Neinas himself.

I’ve tried as much as I can and I’ve battled this battle as far as I want to take it.

The playoff (the current NCAA regular season) the BCS cronies talk so much about is really only for 15-20 schools, which are the elite powers of the SEC, Big-12 and ACC schools.

Throw in Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC, UCLA, West Virginia and Louisville to that mix and that is basically the only teams that matter.

I’ve often wondered why the BCS heads have failed to form that super-super conference that so many of the CFA coaches wished upon a shiny star 30 years ago, back during the CFA civil war. This would consist of 24 of the following teams, divided into two divisions of 12, which would feature an 11 game inter-division schedule between each other, and make the conference championship game within this super-duper “State Trooper” division qualify as the defacto national championship.

This is what it would have looked like years ago.

SEC-BCS Super-Duper Conference:

West Coast Division:

1. USC

2. UCLA

3. Colorado

4. Texas

5. Oklahoma

6. Nebraska

Midwest Division:

1. Ohio State

2. Notre Dame

3. Michigan

4. Penn State

5. West Virginia

6. Syracuse

South East:

1. LSU

2. Auburn

3. Alabama

4. Georgia

5. Arkansas

6. Tennessee

East Coast Division:

1. Florida

2. Florida State

3. Miami (Fla)

4. Virginia Tech

5. Clemson

6. Georgia Tech

Today, you could plug Rutgers, Louisville or Boston College into this scenario in place of Syracuse, since the Orange have gone south since firing their long time successful coach in pursuit of greener pastures several years ago. They are not alone. Arizona, Notre Dame, Washington, Colorado, Nebraska, UCLA and Miami have followed the same devastating path, with similarly disastrous results!

Thirty years ago, when the civil war over football broke out between the College Football Association and the NCAA, many big-time college coaches (Joe Paterno, Howard Schnellenberger, Vince Dooley, Barry Switzer, Bear Bryant, Frank Broyles, Darrell Royal and Johny Majors) wanted a super division within college football to be played only by the elite powers. It was a classic oligarchy.

Although this never came to fruition, you could conclude the pollsters essentially only vote for these particular teams and they hold many unfair advantages when compared to those teams who are excelling today, but were outside of this inner circle during the CFA days.

The next time you hear the BCS heads talk about the sanctity of the regular season, how every game is a playoff in itself…it is only a playoff for these twenty four teams, and even among these teams we can clearly see that there is another elite class within this chosen few.

To name a few, LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech and USC.

Whenever a team like Oregon, West Virginia, Kansas, Illinois, Boston College, Wake Forest, Louisville or Arizona State loses, their results by seasons end are quickly diminished, even though the records and strength of schedule are virtually the same, or even in certain circumstances, vastly superior.

Better yet, why not just form the ultimate conference of the universe…a community like:

“Austi-norma-southbaton-rougebend-anacolumba-gainblacks-berg-oligarchic-elite-ville”!

I think we could even find some serious cellular advertising for this campaign, maybe even naming a stadium or even the bowl game after this newly created conference juggernaut.

Why so cynical you might ask? Well for starters, how about the fact that the fifth best team in the SEC is going to play the 4th best team in the Big-10 in an elite New Year’s bowl game, while two other teams who are vastly superior to both Michigan and Florida will meet down in the West Texas Town of El Paso.

So Kevin, I’m not sure what else I can say that I haven’t said many times before.

Yes, there is a way - and a relatively simple way- to solve this (and I’m not talking about an NFL playoff or using the bowls and playoff sites), which can be done within a 12 game regular season and can save the bowl games and solve 100% of the controversy quickly, efficiently and equitably.

I don’t know what else I can say that I haven’t already said, other than college football is about to lose one of its most passionate and constant supporters.

If you think I’m kidding, I haven’t watched 10 minutes of an NFL game in the past 6 years, nor have I watched a single NBA game in the last 10 years. I’m on the fence right now in terms of if I will ever return to college football after this BCS book manuscript research project terminates. Seriously, this is hard to stomach when you know the background and more importantly where it will head every year, in spite of the parity storm. Even more amazing to me is how people have become brainwashed into accepting it.

Since Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, John Elway or Joe Montana have walked off the field due to retirement, I haven’t watched an hours worth of professional sports.

I find it hard to support a bunch of men who pout like a 5 year-old, or who have so many tattoos and ear rings you’d think you were at a hip-hop concert, and finally - honestly- it is hard to support a bunch of men who break just about every law (principled or written) by taking steroids so they can make millions, or killing dogs for illegal gambling profit when they have more money than they will ever need.

College football has began to reek with the same stench as far as I am concerned.

The only way the BCS will change is if the fans strike and stop attending all of the games…

and I’m not just talking about boycotting the Rose Bowl - a common theme I have heard in the last 72 hours - I mean just look at the PAC-10 bowl slate compared to the SEC, ACC, Big-12 or Big-10?

The Rose Bowl is the last card on the table for the PAC-10. The conference has been taken to the woodshed by just about every CFA connection known to man, including mainly the networks, bowls and pollsters.

I mean seriously folks, lets compare the Big-10 with the PAC-10 bowl slate.

It is bad enough that Ohio State back doors their way into the title game, and Illinois gets the Rose Bowl (That’s about 30 million dollars for the conference by itself for those of you who can’t add up the big picture), but when you throw in the Wisconsin match-up with Tennessee in the Outback Bowl, and the Michigan-Florida match-up in the Capitol One Bowl, you can begin to see why the PAC-10 isn’t going to budge on this one.

Wisconsin struggled to beat Washington State and UNLV, but then suddenly finds itself when they enter Big-10 play?

Or is it the fact that the Big-10 itself isn’t very good this year, and in my mind, they have not been very good for the past several seasons.

The PAC-10 has pretty much had their way in the key match-ups with this conference for the last decade.

Oregon absolutely thrashed not only Michigan, a team Wisconsin once again struggled to beat, but completely bush-whacked Washington State, another common Badger opponent as well.

Arizona State played a much tougher schedule than Kansas, beat a common opponent of the Jay-hawks (Colorado) by significantly more and had a vastly superior defense, and yet will play in the Holiday while their home state Fiesta Bowl (controlled largely by a bunch of Ohio State alums I might add) chose CFA stalwart Oklahoma and Kansas gets to play in a BCS Bowl in Miami?

Or how about Oregon State, the third place team in the PAC-10 who gets the Emerald Bowl against Maryland?

Or How about Oregon, who with a healthy Dennis Dixon, even in spite of all the other injuries (13 starters - 7 on offense, 6 on defense), just might be the best team in the nation this year, and they get South Florida, who is in my mind the best team in Florida this year when their team is healthy.

Is it any wonder why the PAC-10 struggles in meaningless bowl games? What exactly is the reward for going to El Paso when most of the players have already been there numerous times before?

And what of South Florida, do they have a beef? I don’t know, Auburn - a team they beat as well - gets Clemson closer to home in the Chick Fil-A Bowl. The difference is about 2.5 million dollars for each team.

In the meantime, Arkansas and Missouri hook up in the Cotton? If you take the patsy wins Arkansas (like the rest of the SEC) accumulates against the Sun Belt they look like a 5-4 team to me. Everyone goes completely nuts over their 3 OT victory over LSU, when Oregon completely dominated USC in their victory.

I say dominated because if Oregon doesn’t try to sit on the ball and run out the clock late in the game against the Trojans it would have been a two or three touchdown victory margin.

So the next time people rip on the Rose Bowl connection to the BCS Controversy, explain to me what else should the PAC do? What other card do they have left on the table?

The only real Bowl game they have is the Rose Bowl and lately, the CFA brotherhood has invaded Pasadena (Oklahoma, Nebraska, Miami and Texas) like the Cowboy clan who took on Wyatt Earp back in the OK Corral.

I think the PAC-10 would be in favor of a plus one if they felt that the conference was actually taken seriously in the polls. Everyone has ripped on the USC and the nine dwarfs scenario dropped like an atom bomb by Les Miles at the start of the season.

But would you like to know how many non-PAC-10 teams have beaten the Trojans in the last five years?

One - and Vince Young and the national championship Horns had to come from 16 points down in the final minutes to secure the victory!

The list of challengers includes Arkansas (twice), Nebraska (twice), Hawaii (twice), Notre Dame (five times), Fresno State, Virginia Tech, BYU (twice), Auburn (twice), Colorado State and Colorado.

Kansas State did beat the Trojans 27-20 in 2002, as Washington State did as well 30-27, but after those dates early in the 02 season, the Men of Troy are a combined 66-6, with five of the six losses coming to PAC-10 foes.

PAC-10 teams (and one infamous Texas team) have been the only teams who have beaten the Men of Troy in the past five years, and the Trojans were so bad this year that they were 8 points away from another perfect season.

However, were you paying attention to the poll shuffle that occurred in the last two weeks?

Did you notice Georgia’s meteoric rise, along with Virginia Tech? Can you seriously look me in the face and tell me that Virginia Tech is the third best team in the country, ranked ahead of USC, Oklahoma, Missouri or even West Virginia?

And exactly how can LSU drop from first to seventh during the last week of the season, and then rise all the way back to second in less than 24 hours after coming from behind again to beat an average Volunteer team, especially considering Georgia was ranked 3 spots ahead of them at fourth?

It’s called ranking Virginia Tech and Georgia high enough so LSU can reclaim what was virtually given to them in the pre-season before a single game was played, which was the primary purpose of over-ranking these teams because without the lofty status of Virginia Tech, Florida and Georgia, LSU’s best victory falls to a team outside the Top-10.

Virginia Tech had to be ranked high for LSU to get such a high computer ranking and the overall strength of the SEC had to be high to place the critical computer formula in the SEC’s favor.

I boldly predicted an LSU-Oklahoma match-up for the title a month ago and in light of what has transpired I would prefer this match-up to an Ohio State team who hasn’t played but two games since Halloween.

Actually, I think USC and Oklahoma are the best teams right now and we would have likely gotten this match-up if we in fact utilized my college football model for solving the BCS. I will be coming out with this article in the near future, breaking down how all 120 teams and the bowl picture would have played out using this scenario, which is well chronicled within my book project.

Funny thing is that Georgia lost to Tennessee by twenty one, while Tennessee was taken to the woodshed by California by 14. Cal earned the PAC’s last bowl bid and finished ninth in the PAC-10. Ninth!

Why would I mention this? Well for starters, Cal and Tennessee had exactly the same seasons last year and this year in reverse order.

Tennessee dominated Cal last year in the season opener, and fell to an average level as the season progressed, while Cal finished second in the PAC-10 at the end of the 06 season.

Anyone care to remember how this was portrayed by the media? ESPN and every other major network wouldn’t let it die, even going as far to remind us after nearly every commercial break coming into week one of the season (Reece Davis are you listening - “the beat down in Knoxville will forever be burned in our souls”).

This was exactly the opposite this year and in both occasions, the PAC-10 has withstood an avalanche of criticism, while we haven’t heard a single word regarding the instability of the SEC.

Once again, the CFA gets to have their cake and eat it too, in the face of the PAC-10.

And remember how the PAC-10 couldn’t play any defense? It was front page news all over the networks for the last decade.

Have we heard one single word of the ineptitude regarding the SEC defenses this year? What we have heard is how great Tim Tebow is as his great stats are against SEC defenses mind you!

Let’s see, California 24 - Oregon 17…Arkansas 50 - LSU 48…Oregon 24 - USC 17…Georgia 45 - Florida 32…Oregon 35 - Arizona State 23…Florida 59 - Tennessee 31…USC 24 - UCLA 7…Alabama 41 - Tennessee 17…Oregon State 38 - Oregon 31…Georgia 45 - Aurburn 20…anyone see a pattern of behavior here.

And remember how great the SEC is each and every year, every game so tough inside the confines of this conference?

South Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Florida State, Wake Forest, California and Clemson were all better than SEC teams.

Hell, Houston played Alabama tougher than Tennessee and UL-Monroe beat Alabama and Tennessee played in your conference title game. Could you imagine if this scenario played out in the PAC-10.

Lou Holtz would swallow his tongue, Craig James would “wake up the PAC-10 bashing Pony Express,” and Reece Davis would continue to be Reece Davis, a total schmuck who disses the PAC-10 every chance he gets. But he is not alone, John Saunders and Kirk Herbstreit will jump into the fray, and when they tire, we can always get Charles Barkely to tell us how important the Alabama - Auburn game is and how the Sun Devils are not on the same playing field with a team like LSU.

Of course, the last time ASU and LSU played the Tigers were so dominant they had to score twenty one points in the last quarter just to survive 35-31, and this coming via two blocked punts and an incredible hail-Mary from their future NFL quarterback who is bigger than a house.

Did we hear much of this in the news? Aw, but Tim Tebow is a man isn’t he? He will have a shelf life of less than three years in the NFL - go ahead and run the ball Tim, Ray Lewis awaits you.

Hawaii’s Colt Brennan drew the favor from his coach, and this was major news to the networks, for how can we crown a Heisman when a former NFL coach believes the front runner for the Heisman couldn’t hold his Brennan’s jock in the NFL?

The comeback from the SEC? We did hear how Alabama won’t return to the islands, shoddy officiating from the natives was the excuse for the Rainbow-Warrior victory a couple of years ago.

Excuse me for a moment while I laugh out loud uncontrollably…thanks for the break.

Let’s see here, the rainbows - who play a weak schedule on an annual basis according to SEC-ville - proctore the boys from Tide-ville in the Islands (on the field), while the Rainbow-Warriors get reamed by the BCS and CFA led polling mechanism (off the field).

Anyone care to take a crack at which is more impractical or heinous?

And how does Virginia Tech rise so fast when they barely beat Virginia (a team that 5-7 Wyoming manhandled 23-3) and lost to the two best teams on their schedule by a whopping 63-19 prior to their ACC championship game?

Let me remind you again in case you missed it - So LSU can regain the top pole position.

And what do all of these controversies exhibited within the BCS era have in relation to the past?

It is spelled CFA and one man who has had both privy and influence over all of it because he has been on the inside from the initial television resolution created by Walter Byers in 1952, to the CFA uprising in the late 1970’s - 1984, to the rise of the cable television platform, to Notre Dames defection from the CFA to NBC, to the Super-Conference movement and the Bowl Coalition, Alliance and Championship Series methods of determining a champion and finally to the creation of the Harris Poll (in which 85% of the members are directly tied to the CFA movement) which spawns and supports this system of fraud we have in place.

His name is Chuck Neinas, responsible for hiring all the key administrative players and coaches for the schools who whole heartily supported the CFA agenda.

What else would you like me to say Kevin? It has been said enough already and if you can’t see it, I guess you can’t see it.

The poll controversy isn’t happening by accident, nor is the continual refusal to move the game forward, and it isn’t hard to figure out who benefits from the BCS as the median and internet is full of butt-wipes who constantly tell us the BCS is the greatest invention on the planet every December as we head into the Holiday Bowl season.

The BCS formula isn’t flawed? The people who vote and support the BCS are not flawed? The BCS is the most distorted convoluted system ever and this years results have solidified my hunches I developed nearly four years ago. The only teams who will be rewarded by this system are the same teams who end up in the key BCS games and championship events.

And by the way, the bullshit that SEC Commissioner Slive is slinging about searching for and open to any and all playoff solutions is a flat out lie.

I’ve emailed him over 20 times regarding mine and I can’t get past his gatekeeper Mike Riley.

It makes you wonder how hard they are really trying to push this thing? Actually, and sadly, it has made me ask the question - “why would they want to change the system?

The elite schools of the CFA get to have their cake and eat it to, even in spite of all the controversy. When will the fans wake up and strike back by not attending or watching the games, because this is the only scenario that will make Mike Slive, Jim Delaney, Chuck Neinas and the CFA brotherhood take notice.

If this is the system that they really want to have, why not just come out and say it?

Why not form that elite super union of schools (about 40 members) that the CFA coaches like Vince Dooley, Frank Broyles, Barry Switzer, Joe Paterno, and Bear Bryant wanted in the first place, because in spite of all the parity evidenced due to the 85 scholarship rule this past season, we are still living with the same polling mindset we had 30 years ago, and the same elite teams dominate the bowl games in spite of inferior products on the field?

If you disagree or question this, consider the following: Here is the breakdown of schools who have competed in the BCS events since 1992. It is important to note that we are including the Cotton Bowl from 1992 through 1996, simply due to the fact that the Rose Bowl did not become a part of the BCS Alliance until 1997.

Florida State - 12 appearances - (6-6 Record)

Ohio State - 8 appearances (5-2 record)

Florida - 8 appearances (5-3 record)

Nebraska - 8 appearances (5-3 record)

Notre Dame - 7 appearances (2-5 record)

Miami - 7 appearances (3-4 record)

USC - 7 appearances (6-1 record)

Oklahoma - 6 appearances (3-3 record)

Michigan - 5 appearances (2-3 record)

Virginia Tech - 4 appearances (1-3 record)

Texas - 4 appearances (2-2 record)

LSU - 4 appearances (3-0 record)

Colorado - 4 appearances (2-2 record)

Georgia - 3 appearances (1-1 record)

Penn State - 3 appearances (3-0 record)

West Virginia - 3 appearances (1-1 record)

Texas A&M - 3 appearances (0-3 record)

Tennessee - 3 appearances (1-2 record)

Syracuse - 3 appearances (1-2 record)

Oregon - 2 appearances (1-1 record)

Washington State - 2 appearances (0-2 record)

The discouraging factor to remember is that these numbers or ratios are going to continue onward, in spite of the parity factor which races onward as well. Other than that Kevin, what would you like me to say?