Quick Thoughts on The BCS Debacle

Show me how Michigan had a tougher schedule. Florida #5, Michigan #24.

Face it, the SEC is a stronger conference top to bottom than the Big 11.

That said, I agree that Michigan is probably a better team than Florida AND that this matchup makes sense because the system is screwed up AND that OSU will most likely run up the score on Florida.

i want 12 teams instead of 8 in the playoff so that the likes of boise state (this year) or utah (a few years ago) are assured a bid. the prospect of the mid-major upset would give the march madness feel everyone wants. also conference champions would have to finish in the top twelve of the bcs (or equivalent) ranking. therefore we wouldn't have to watch wake forest play. no one cares about wake forest. no one.

Michigan has two marquee wins. Wisconsin is one and they did not even play Ohio State. Did ND actually beat someone who is in the current top 25? With Georgia Tech's losses to Georgia and Wake, I do not believe so. I do not think Florida is necessarily the better than Michigan, but when your conference has 4 teams that deserve bowl eligiblility and you are one of them, (I will throw Penn State in mix as a legit bowl eligible club from the Big Ten) and you didn't beat one of them, it dooms you plain and simple. There's a difference between playing the 2006 versions Alabama and South Carolina and getting promised walkovers every week. Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan State, Purdue and Northwestern, at times good mid-tier teams in the Big Ten, didn't come to play at all this year. The BCS did not screw up on the basis of Big Ten weakness. In fact, this is the first time in its history that a "controversial" choice has merit. All the pressure resides with the Buckeyes. Michigan and Ohio State, I grant may be the two best teams in the country, but they must legitimize a conference that allowed their teams to win by 3 TDs every week.

the mighty sec had 7 teams finish at or below .500 this season. florida played 6 of these teams. average margin of victory 12 points. the big 10 also had 6 teams at or below .500 and beat those opponents by a 16.5 average margin of victory. both conferences had 5 teams above .500 with 8 losses apiece. and up until 24 hours ago the big ten had the top two teams in the country. if the big ten has to legitimize 3 touchdown wins by its upper tier teams - the sec might also have to take a look at the fact that their conference champion struggled so mightily against the mediocre to downright awful teams this season. because something tells me that tosu is probably poses a bigger challenge than vanderbilt (6 point win), tennessee (1 point win), south carolina (1 point win) et al.

of course lost in all of this michigan florida hoopla is the fact that notre dame has no business anywhere near a bcs bowl. not to mention the plight of the poor auburn tigers who posted wins against both florida and lsu and yet once again they are left out in the cold.

This year at least, I see little actual statistical evidence to support Florida having played a tougher schedule OR having won the games with anything like dominance. Like PhysicalPants said, a 6 point win against vandy (who had more overall yardage), a win against South Carolina that was owed more to the SoCar kicker missing a ton of fieldgoals, and again, LSU, having had SIX turnovers.

Again, tougher schedule how? who? what games? Arkansas, a team that was blown out by USC AT Arkansas?

Well, addressing a few things. There are certain teams that improve over the course of a season. The Big Ten in my view didn't show any of those teams. The SEC had two. The first of the Arkansas Razorbacks. Everyone likes to talk about how USC wasted them on opening night. But they do not like to talk about the fact that Darren McFadden wasn't close to healthy. I am willing to say that McFadden is the best RB in the entire country and that no other player is more important to the success of his team than McFadden is to Arakansas. They ran on everyone regardless of the ability of the D with him and Felix Jones. It didn't matter the opponent. They ate clock and stayed in games. He would have made an incredible amount of difference against USC. No team focuses on strengths more than Arkansas. Without McFadden, Arkansas is forced to pass. That is a nightmare and fully explains why USC was a nightmare game. But the way they lost at USC was a complete anomaly. Arkansas may not push .500 without McFadden, with him, they are nearly SEC champs.

Georgia is another example. Sure they are everyone's favorite whipping boy after losing to Vanderbilt. But the key was going with the QB of the future in Matthew Stafford. We all like to talk about how Georgia had this atroctious season, but if 8-4 is rebuilding year, and I closed with wins over Auburn and Georgia Tech, I'd say all things considered its a pretty nice season.

Florida played both Arkansas and Georgia.

Kentucky finished 7-5. I know that sounds crazy, but they were miles ahead of their normal selves and stayed in almost every game. My only point there is that this was not a year of traditional Kentucky ball. They scared the daylights out of some people. I mention them, only to say how difficult it was to look past almost every game in the SEC this season. Alabama and South Carolina never got blown out in any of the games they played.

Florida's schedule only included one of the three worst teams in the SEC, 4-7 Vanderbilt. Mississippi State and Ole Miss were not included.

Michigan schedule includes Wisconsin whose only marquee win is over Penn State. Penn State's only marquee win is over Purdue. Michigan didn't play Purdue and although Purdue went 8-5, they didn't really beat anybody. Notre Dame's marquee win is over the loser of the ACC, a weak conference this year. Are those truly signature wins? I don't think Wisconsin, Penn State or ND proved anything to anyone. The just beat all the teams they clearly should have beaten given how poor those teams were. Big Ten teams haven't proven much and those teams are the ones Michigan faced.

We haven't even pulled out Ball State. I went to college near Ball State. They are the worst team in the MAC traditionally, we're talking 0-11 was expected out of them every year. Michigan beat them by 8. It's nice to talk about how Florida bearly one a lot of games. But beating Ball State by eight is more emberassing than any game Florida played. They are so close to a I-AA school its not funny.

Ball State is only scary if you didn't watch the game. Last home game; Lloyd played his seniors and 2nd and 3rd string guys, which he took a lot of flack for.

so florida gets a pass on all of their tight games simply because they are in the sec and the sec is awesome? make all the excuses you want about sec parity but beating a south carolina team that posted one win in the conference is hardly impressive. and georgia beating georgia tech - a team that posted a whopping 9 points in its conference championship game doesn't exactly convince me that they are a team on the rise.

say what you will about the unworthiness of michigan's opponents but with rare exceptions (and without their leading receiver for the second half of the season) they won and they won convincingly. florida played nailbiters against georgia, vanderbilt, south carolina, and a tennessee team that was 2 point conversion away from losing to air force, and in the name of all that is holy florida state. a team that couldn't buy a win if you spotted them 21 points.

and conference championship game or no - how does beating a team 4 spots below you in the rankings suddenly make you better than you were before the kickoff?

tosu only had two marquee victories themselves - over a texas team that tanked at the end of the season and then a 3 point win over michigan in their final game - so they probably aren't as deserving to be in the national title game as florida is either. heck, they didn't even play wisconsin - the 3rd best team in their conference. so let's get rid of them as well and let florida play florida. it's only fair. maybe then the world will bow at the feet of urban meyer and thrust their hand into his pierced side and finally, ultimately believe in the manifest destiny of the sec.

I am not questioning Ohio State. Texas and Michigan for marquee wins are about so good as anyone can do. There was never a point throughout the entire season that Ohio State was close to losing. Even in the Michigan game, I felt they had control. They won on the scoreboard and with style every week.

The ACC Championship was full of rain. One team's offense wasn't fully responsible for winning or losing. It altered the entire game plan. One can't slam ND ands think it helps Michigan's cause. Michigan needed teams on ND's schedule to look good. If Georgia Tech had beat Georgia and Wake, ND would have had a true marquee win. I still respect Ga Tech as the best the ACC has to offer, regardless of their showing in the title game.

Sure everyone likes to go against the SEC parity argument, but which team would you rather face on Saturday? 1-7 Illinois in the Big Ten, or 1-7 South Carolina in the SEC? As much as Georgia is getting ripped Purdue is their closest comparasion. Purdue could have beaten Hawaii, a top 25 opponent, but they didn't even do that. Georgia has a better resume The thing about it is that the Big Ten is usually right there with the SEC. If 2006 had been like most years in the Big Ten, Michigan has to go to the title game. If not, then the door is open. It's not Michigan's fault and I am not against a playoff system. But, all I am saying is Florida getting in over Michigan should not be a conspiracy theory.

Supposing that the NCAA did institute a playoff system, imagine how boring football would be without all this flowery debate. Then again, it would be replaced with similar arguments over brackets and picks...except that in the end the field of play would settle it once and for all.

Josiah, so is Trackback still not working on Chattablogs?

For the sake of accuracy, South Carolina went 3-5 in the SEC. Not too impressive at first glance. But those losses were to Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Auburn, and Florida, whose combined record is 49-13. They lost to UGA bad (18-0), but the other four games combined were by a total of 21 points. I think that's an argument for the strength of the SEC, not it's weakness.

I don't think too many people think Michigan or Florida is much more deserving than the other to play against Ohio State. But Michigan already had its shot against Ohio State. Why not let Florida have a try? The BCS is a flawed system, so of course it's not going to give us a satisfying answer.

i'm not saying florida has no business being in the title game over michigan. actually i am saying that because they don't. it's just ludicrous that a usc loss suddenly makes florida's allegedly tougher schedule the deciding factor when that wasn't the case two weeks ago. and didn't florida get dominated by auburn to the tune of 27-17? if memory serves florida's was shut out in the second half of that game.

also - georgia tech won the acc this year. that should tell you all you need to know about the acc. and for the record ohio state did eak out a 7 point win against the illinois team that is allegedly much much worse than south carolina. both teams are helmed by former gator coaches...hmmm.

also part 2: yes, michigan already had their shot at ohio state - so why not let louisville have a try, or wisconsin, or undefeated boise state. they won their conference too. why is it so unfair that a michigan team that gave ohio state all they could handle get a second shot? why is fairness even part of the equation? are we six?

also part 3: florida is the only team since the inception of the bcs to get a rematch in the title game versus a florida state team that had already beaten them in the regular season...i wonder if urban meyer weiner thought that one was fair.

I have a few solutions. One, The Big Ten and Pac-Ten and Big East need a championship game. Why? A) Because it levels the requirement across the board for all conferences, regardless of the fact that the nations two best teams may have been from the same conference in 2006. They would have had to play again, and it my have settled this debate by itself, if Ohio State had won. Secondly, Michigan didn't play for two weeks. So even if Michigan is better, they didn't get to leave any lasting impression on voters the way Florida did by playing a game on December 2. If the Big Ten had a conference title game they would not have that problem.

The Big East is a complete joke and hardly worthy of even a BCS bid. Same for Boise. I don't even want to get started there.

This article has a good take on it. http://www.slate.com/id/2154861/

Notre Dame plays LSU in the Sugar Bowl; Wisconsin plays Arkansas in the Capital One Bowl; and Penn State plays Tennessee in the Outback Bowl. These outcomes will shed more light on who really beat better teams.

(I'll be surprised if the SEC schools don't win all three of those games.)

Every year I pray that I might become more interested in football. Thus far, God has been infinitely wise in refusing that request.

These might just be the most amazing words I've ever read:

"maybe then the world will bow at the feet of urban meyer and thrust their hand into his pierced side and finally, ultimately believe in the manifest destiny of the sec."

Thank you PhysicalPants...and yes, tOSU will most certainly mop the floor with UF.

GO GATORS! Maybe if you guys didn't suck so bad against OSU you could play for the championship... actually probably not, because you're not that good anyway....

Go gators

OH, and btw, I agree with your score prediction. I don't think anyone could come close to OSU this year... with the exception of one school, that handily beat my fight irish.