For its latest trick, the BCS renders the SEC title game moot
"Is this the year you have to win your conference or the year you don't?" (AP photo)
Q: When is a conference championship really just a exhibition game?
A: When the BCS “system,” whatever that happens to be in a given year, gets its maladroit hands on it.
LSU faces Georgia for the SEC title Saturday at the Georgia Dome. If LSU wins, it will play for the BCS title. If LSU loses, it figures to play for the BCS title anyway.
This is college football, where we’re told Every Game Counts. This year another big fat asterisk gets attached: Every game counts except the SEC championship, which lately has counted the most. And that’s not the worst part.
On Sunday I was speaking with Falcons center Todd McClure, who has a figurative dog in this fight. (He played at LSU.) When I mentioned that I’d rather be Alabama, which is guaranteed not to lose another game before the final BCS standings are announced, than the Tigers, he said: “Do you think that’s fair?”
No, I don’t think it’s fair. The BCS is never fair. Occasionally there comes a year in which the outcry is minimal, and invariably some talking head will say, “The BCS worked this time.” Reality check: The BCS never works. The best the BCS ever can hope is to get lucky.
Case study in inconsistency: In 2007 Georgia was ranked No. 4 in the next-to-last BCS standings. The teams ranked first and second — Missouri and West Virginia — lost on the regular season’s final weekend. Georgia didn’t play. It finished atop the SEC East but was shaded by Tennessee on a tiebreaker. LSU, which had lost its final regular-season game to Arkansas, beat the Vols for the SEC title, and the Tigers got to play for the BCS title.
LSU moved from No. 7 to No. 2. Georgia didn’t play a game and slid to No. 5. Why? Because LSU coach Les Miles kept making the point that his team had “won its conference” and because the many talking heads on ESPN took up the cry. (As we know, what’s said on ESPN has an outsize effect on college football, the only sport in which opinions matter.)
Some of the same voices who’d lobbied for an Ohio State-Michigan rematch in the 2006 BCS title game dismissed Georgia a year later because It Hadn’t Won Its Conference. Never mind that winning your conference isn’t a criterion for BCS title inclusion. Never mind that Michigan hadn’t won the Big Ten the year before. This just seemed like the thing to say at that moment in time, and by golly those ESPN chatterers kept saying it until it became reality.
Georgia wasn’t passed just by LSU but also by Oklahoma and Virginia Tech; see, the Sooners and Hokies had won their conferences. After that season, the BCS considered making a conference title a prerequisite for a berth in the BCS title game but decided against it, which is a good thing if you’re Alabama but another pie in the face if you’re a fan of consistent thought.
If you’re a BCS hater — and who isn’t? — you have to root for Georgia to beat LSU and render this ongoing farce even more farcical. Picture the incongruity: The Bulldogs hoist the SEC championship trophy on Saturday night and trot off to the Sugar Bowl to play this year’s version of Hawaii, and 24 hours later not one but two SEC non-champions get invited to the game that’s supposed to reveal the nation’s best team.
And now you’re asking: Don’t LSU and Alabama look like the nation’s top two teams? LSU has been the absolute best team from start to finish, but the Tigers still have a game to play. The Tide lost its biggest game on its home field and has beaten two teams ranked in the BCS Top 25. If Oklahoma State, which is ranked No. 3 to Alabama’s No. 2, beats Oklahoma on Saturday, the Cowboys will have beaten five Top 25 teams and will be the Big 12 champ. Should Alabama get that nod just because it plays in the almighty SEC and is, you know, Alabama?
The problem with the BCS is that it can tweak its “system” until the cows come home and never be prepared for the vagaries of a given season. And with conferences expanding to elephantine size and schedules growing more imbalanced, this will only get worse. Four years ago Georgia was penalized for not playing in the SEC title game; this time Alabama could be handed a de facto semifinal bye.
Do I think the BCS is fair? Yes indeed. A fairly Big Crock of Sludge.
By Mark Bradley
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810 comments Add your comment
ARdawg
November 28th, 2011
7:39 pm
Coffee Bulff
They do wear you down. Thats were depth wins games. Not only that, they are just so much more physical than your run of the mill team. Bama is a mirror image. The thing is, those teams can be beaten. They aren’t invincible. I see a weakness and WV exposed it as did Arkansas for the first half. A quick release QB can eat their lunch in the secondary and pick them apart also if he isn’t afraid to run it he will keep them on their heels
Dawgs1965
November 28th, 2011
7:40 pm
I’m a Georgia fan and I don’t think we should have a shot at the national title, even if we beat LSU. Why? Because we lost to Boise State and South Carolina. Take one of those away and I’d be lobbying hard. But it is what it is. The thing that gets me is that if I were an LSU fan, I’d be thoroughly frustrated that Alabama gets to wait quietly in the wings for another shot at them. What kind of message does that send? If you’re Alabama, you get to play #1 until you win? That’s messed up. They had a shot at beating #1…AT HOME…and they failed. Game over.
GATA
November 28th, 2011
7:42 pm
Got no prob with LSU in the champ. game. Bama on the other hand – didn’t win west or SEC, but sits at 2. You could make a strong argument for the other 1 loss teams, and if Okl. State beats Ok, look the hell out – they should jump to 2nd. So no I don’t agree we’re getting the 2 best teams.
HamptonDawg
November 28th, 2011
7:43 pm
Excellent write up Mark. At this point the idiots at ESPN have almost turned me away from the sport I enjoy watching most. I will watch the SECCG but plan to avoid ESPN as much as possible and refuse to watch any BCS games (I’ll listen to Scott Howard if UGA goes to the Sugar). Until a playoff system is established I’m done once the conference championship games are over. I guess I’ll just go hunting during bowl season.
Kelly
November 28th, 2011
7:43 pm
JDawg: I don’t have any problem with a rematch as long as its a warranted one, which, in this case, I think it [probably] is. It’s just the inconsistency that’s really irritating from the coaches, the media (ESPN, namely) and the fans who are happy about it as long as their team gets in. Rematches happen all the time in all sports. That’s not a big deal.
icedawg
November 28th, 2011
7:43 pm
If only the DAWGS would pull an upset! That would throw a monkey wrench into the matter. The whole LSU – Alabama discussion sounds like a broken record. This is one person who would not watch that rematch.
ARdawg
November 28th, 2011
7:43 pm
Coffee Bulff
They do wear you down. That’s were depth wins games. Not only that, they are just so much more physical than your run of the mill team. Bama is a mirror image. The thing is, those teams can be beaten. They aren’t invincible. I see a weakness and WV exposed it as did Arkansas for the first half. A quick release QB can eat their lunch in the secondary and pick them apart also if he isn’t afraid to run it he will keep them on their heels. LSU’s pass defense is up front. Work around that and they are susceptible
GATA
November 28th, 2011
7:44 pm
I’m all for monkey wrenches in the BCS! Go Dawgs!!
david
November 28th, 2011
7:51 pm
Mark,
Great article. I could not agree with you more!
asa
November 28th, 2011
7:51 pm
not really a Mark Bradley fan but he nails this one give him a 10
Eisendawg
November 28th, 2011
7:53 pm
I wonder how Bama will feel if they are jumped over by another team. Personally, I think Bama probably is as good as any team in the country, but LSU has already beat them, so it’s idiotic to play that game again. Unless you mandate that Bama has to beat LSU twice,it serves no purpose to have a re-match. It’s not fair to LSU, and it’s not fair to the millions of fans that want to see a match-up of two new teams. I didn’t like it when they wanted to pair Ohio State and Michigan again, and don’t like it now. It’s like saying the two best teams in pro football are in the AFC, so let’s just leave the NFC out of the Super Bowl. How many times have we seen a match-up that appeared to be one-sided go the other way. Case in point, Utah over Alabama.
J-Dawg
November 28th, 2011
7:56 pm
I just can’t buy the OSU argument. OSU lost to Iowa St. IOWA STATE!! Bama took the unequivocal number one team in the nation to overtime AND their kicker missed 4 field goals.
macrotech
November 28th, 2011
7:56 pm
WHY is it that college football is the ONLY sport that doesn’t have a playoff system?! The BCS has been BS since it’s inception…let the best teams win it on the field! NOT in a computer system!
Spike 80DF
November 28th, 2011
8:00 pm
i agree that the system sucks but if we don’t give USCe so many points off turnovers and special teams then we’re most likely 1 win over LSU away from playing in the NC game. just like in 2007 when the cocks also beat us in an ugly game. the bottom line is when you lose games the media controls which teams play and we just don’t get the benefit of the doubt like the big names until we run the table and win the big one….sad but true.
Gman 84
November 28th, 2011
8:01 pm
Just love people trying to draw a parallel to the NCAA basketball finals where 2 teams from the same conference can wind up in the finals in a rematch.
This is true precisely because the NCAA tournament is a PLAYOFF!!! Nobody argues about playoff results. The team that wins advances. Pretty simple!
If ESPN ran MLB, they would have voted the Phillies into the World series after losing to the Cardinals because they were the best team on paper. Same with the Yankees. They would manipulate the system to get the highest rated series.
goodsport
November 28th, 2011
8:02 pm
The dogs will not win ,LSU unbeatable this year. Murray has not seen such fury from a defense in his life!
Gman 84
November 28th, 2011
8:02 pm
If the 2007 logic applied to 2011, then UA will fall to at least #3 simply by virtue of them not playing (and winning) the extra conference title game. Similarly, any one-loss team that wins their conference title could jump AT LEAST 5 spots to land in the MNC.
Gman 84
November 28th, 2011
8:06 pm
To all of those people who question why abteam that beats another is still ranked behind the team they beat when the polls come out the following week; If UGA beats the number one team, doesn’t that make them the better team??
Only in NCAA football do you ingnore on-field results in favor of group concensus. “Sure team A beat team B but we all know team B is really better”….what absolute BS
BG
November 28th, 2011
8:06 pm
BAMA should not get to play in the national championship game.
GeorgiaBoner
November 28th, 2011
8:07 pm
I have no problem with a re-match as long as some douchy system isn’t setting it up.
K9 NONSENSE
November 28th, 2011
8:08 pm
WOULD ONE OF YOU HATERS EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS IF YOU PLAY A SEC TEAM IN THE REGULAR SEASON & THEN HAVE TO PLAY THEM AGAIN IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME(WHITHER THEY WIN OR LOSE THE FIRST GAME)………….HOW IS THAT DIFFERENT??!! YOU STILL PLAY TWICE & IF LSU & BAMA ARE THE TWO BEST THEN…………..WTF!!? I EAGERLY AWAIT YOUR LOGIC ON THIS!!!
Big G
November 28th, 2011
8:09 pm
GeorgiaBoner- I understand your point, but the only way a rematch CAN happen is for the douchy system (excellent term) to manipulate it
DogNot
November 28th, 2011
8:09 pm
“Perhaps” are you kidding me? You think LSU, Alabama, Arkansas are only ranked as high as they are because they didn’t play the dogs? Give me a break. You mutts played the weakest schedule in the SEC and are only in the championship game because YOU didn’t play LSU, Alabama or Arkansas. You lost the only two tough games on your entire schedule, barely beat a below average Vandy team and barely beat a very bad Gator team, you think you have a chance against LSU? Mark it down though….you’re about to face your biggest nightmare come Saturday night!
Vince Drooley
November 28th, 2011
8:10 pm
What percentage of UGA fans were alive in 1980? Were folks still listening to 8 tracks back then? It has to be hard to be a UGA fan watching all of your rivals win crystal balls while you can’t finish the drill.
ESPN
November 28th, 2011
8:12 pm
KG Nonsense: Who says they are the 2 best teams??? Voters??
The 2 best teams are whoever we say they are!! Got that??
ESPN
November 28th, 2011
8:15 pm
BTW, preseason polls have a ton of weight on the final results. If we arbitrarily annoint you top 5 in the presseason, then you can withstand 1 or even 2 loses and rise back to the top in time for the MNC.
J-Dawg
November 28th, 2011
8:16 pm
I’m certainly no BCS defender but with the system we have if you are in one of the power conferences you have to look at wins and losses. If two teams have the same number of wins and one loss then you look at who beat them. OSU beats Iowa St. and they’re in. It’s that simple. What one loss team has a better argument than Bama for who beat them?
I’m a dawg fan and I want nothing more than to beat LSU and win the SEC but we still will have lost two games to their one so we don’t get a shot at the national title. Win games = play for championships.
cambone43
November 28th, 2011
8:17 pm
Kudos with the “sludge” comment Mark! But I must say I know exactly what you wanted to say there…and I completely agree with it. The BCS is a crock of “sludge.”
GATA
November 28th, 2011
8:18 pm
I don’t have a problem with a rematch if it’s the best 2 teams, but you have to make a helluva argument if one of them didn’t win conference (possibly 2 teams in this case). And therein is MY problem – making an argument to get in. Too subjective. There are a handful of other teams not named LSU that could “make an argument.” And I don’t HATE any teams so stop with that. I am FOR the Dawgs.
Sharkman
November 28th, 2011
8:22 pm
Umm….can we pretty please just have a playoff system in college football? GEEZ!!!!
jim
November 28th, 2011
8:23 pm
The BCS resembles both pro wrestling . Rules are changed, winners for the championship are “selected” ahead of time, and the most popular gets picked. Fans can only blame themselves. I guarantee that if people would quit watching until they change the process, it would change quickly. Way too much tv money involved to let viewership go down. As usual however, we will continue to watch and play our part in the absurdity that happens every year at this time. The beat really does go on.
Steve Cody
November 28th, 2011
8:24 pm
VERY good article Mark! You tell it like it is!
Kelly
November 28th, 2011
8:24 pm
but you have to make a helluva argument if one of them didn’t win conference Agreed…and there’s the problem. According to Saban and Miles, it’s an impossibility. In years past, that is. It’s pretty clear: the BCS blows.
GATA
November 28th, 2011
8:24 pm
Dead horse = beaten
LOL
11/28/2011 Evening Edition | collegefootballnewswire.com
November 28th, 2011
8:24 pm
[...] OSU Gets Instant Recruiting Boost With Meyer Hire ENGEL: Ohio State Lands Special Coach BRADLEY: For It’s Latest Trick, BCS Renders SEC Title Game Moot LIGHT: Meyer Will Win Big At Ohio State TRAVIS: LSU Wins Share Of National Title With SEC Title [...]
jim
November 28th, 2011
8:25 pm
Strike the word “both”
Steve Cody
November 28th, 2011
8:26 pm
J-Dawg, you totally missed the point dude.
LadyDawgFan
November 28th, 2011
8:27 pm
One of the few times I’d be inclined to agree with Mr. Bradley on every single word. Great points all around, sir.
Kelly
November 28th, 2011
8:27 pm
Nice comeback, Gump.
I suppose you own that one, being so, like, familiar with comebacks, seeing as how you’re wiping it off yours when it’s time to dung the stall. C’mon 2010, you give animal husbandry a bad name. Sexy.
Richmond Braves Fan
November 28th, 2011
8:30 pm
Mark great article however apparently your mother never imparted my mother’s wisdom that the only “fair” she knew of in existence had a ferris wheel and funnel cakes.
GeorgiaBoner
November 28th, 2011
8:32 pm
Sorry, I’m just not sold on Bama at all. LSU, however, has a solid resume and are generally outstanding.
I still don’t get how Bama dropped only one spot when they lost at home, OT or not.
BIG MIKE
November 28th, 2011
8:34 pm
WHY THE HELL ISN’T RICHT OUT THERE POLITICING LIKE EVERY OTHER COACH??? He should be making a case for UGA whether it’s weak or not. Somebody has to be the voice for the dogs and that’s what’s missing. He approached the 2007 National Championship with a weak approach as well. Hell….hire somebody or use a journalism genious from UGA to write a speach for you. Saban and Miles don’t have to say a thing and their getting quotes regarding their national status. UGA won ten games in a row. WHY AREN’T YOU OUT BEATING THE DRUMS ………………MARK RICHT???!!!!
Ron Dawg
November 28th, 2011
8:35 pm
If the SEC is so good as ESPN/LSU/BAMA says, then why not play some other top teams and prove it instead of a behind the door deal and play yourselfs again… Corruption/NCAA/BCS come to mind.
Rollingtider
November 28th, 2011
8:38 pm
Shaded is UGA code for getting drilled by 21
DawgFan (the original)
November 28th, 2011
8:40 pm
Could not have said it better myself, no way Okie state should be left out if they win their conference. Alabama should not play in the NC game in any circumstance. Only conference champs should apply….
DP
November 28th, 2011
8:40 pm
“A fairly Big Crock of Sludge.”
That’s pretty much what I think of whining Georgia homer Mark Bradley.
Since the upcoming SEC championship game has been declared meaningless, should Georgia by some miracle beat LSU I presume Bradley and other Dawg fans will not make any future references to a 2011 SEC championship.
DawgFan (the original)
November 28th, 2011
8:41 pm
BIG MIKE, Mark should not say anything until after the Dawgs Win….saying anything before would just be board fodder for LSU
Neutral Fan
November 28th, 2011
8:42 pm
There are three reasons while Georgia will not win the game on Saturday.
1. Arron Murry is not tall enough to consistly complete passes over a fast and atheletic defense like LSU. Georgia will not have a running game with Crowell only playing a few plays in the game before taking himself out of the game.
2. LSU is a much better offensive team than most people give them credit for.
2. Special teams, LSU is at or near the top in both returning kickoffs and punts and defending them.
NeitherAProphetNorASon
November 28th, 2011
8:43 pm
Seth wrote, on Nov. 28 at 2:00 pm, “Alabama has one lost in ot to the best team in the country. They have blown out everyone else.”
True, except for that little triple option team from right here in Georgia. I’m not sure allowing a “lowly” FCS team to put 380 yards of total offense (341 on the ground) and 21 points is exactly “blowing out” everyone else. Is it?
Boca Baby
November 28th, 2011
8:43 pm
As I recall Georgia made LSU pay for the 2007 fiasco the next year in Baton Rouge where the Dogs blew them out. I look for more of the same Saturday. LSU just does not line up well against the Dawgs. The LSU offense is mediocre at best (77th ranked in the country) and Georgia’s offense is much more prolific than Alabama. Call me crazy but I see Georgia winning by ten.