Yet another BCS whiff: Alabama’s brand burns the Cowboys
Maybe there'll be a touchdown scored the second time around. Then again ... (AP photo)
Nobody ever said the BCS made sense, and this year it makes less sense than … well, can you make less sense than zero? Alabama did not win its division and did not win its conference but could well be the national champion in a sport where we’re told Every Game Counts.
Actually, what this year’s serving of BCS glop tells us is that it’s good to have an aura. Nick Saban has an aura, albeit one of fire and brimstone, which means Alabama has an aura, which means Alabama got a nod it didn’t deserve.
Bama played its two toughest conference games — LSU and Arkansas — at home. It didn’t play either Georgia or South Carolina, the best teams in the SEC East. It played five teams that finished with a winning record, and one was Georgia Southern. The Tide beat three teams that finished the Top 25 of the BCS standings.
Oklahoma State played four such teams and won all four games. It played seven teams that finished with winning records. The Cowboys did, for mavens of minutiae, win their conference title. The knock on them is that they lost to unranked Iowa State. But they did lose on the road, and in overtime.
Alabama, the counter-argument goes, only lost in OT to the nation’s No. 1 team. But Alabama lost at home. Alabama was favored that night and couldn’t win. But because Alabama is coached by the dark lord Saban and because Alabama is from the SEC, which is the feeder league for BCS titlists, the Tide gets a second chance.
And this time the talking heads on ESPN, who make less sense with every week, had no problem with the concept of a rematch or the reality of a non-conference champion playing for the BCS crown. (Oddly enough, some of those same voices hooted down Georgia’s credentials in 2007. “Can’t consider a team that didn’t win its conference,” the ESPN choir harrumphed.) And Saturday night, moments after Oklahoma State finished routing Oklahoma, which entered the season ranked No. 1, some ESPN boys leaped at the chance to say, “Ah, that doesn’t really matter.”
“SportsCenter” opened with the highlights of the SEC title game and then Oklahoma State’s dismissal of its bitter rival. Then the Bristol anchors tossed, as they say in TV, to Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit. Musburger, who had famously lobbied for Georgia Tech to be promoted above Colorado to No. 1 when calling Tech’s victory in the Citrus Bowl in January 1991, started with a little joke. What’s wrong with a rematch, he asked, and cited the extremely appropriate case study of Rocky Balboa versus Apollo Creed.
Then Herbstreit dismissed Oklahoma State by saying the Cowboys had lost in Ames, Iowa, and, more to the point, didn’t pass “the eyeball test.” Which made you wonder: How could Kirk Herbstreit know just how Oklahoma State had looked against Oklahoma? He (and Musburger) had been sitting in a booth in Charlotte, N.C., calling the ACC title game.
Because big-time college football has no playoff grid, ephemeral stuff like “the eyeball test” and someone’s opinion — yours, mine and especially Kirk Herbstreit’s — are allowed to hold disproportionate sway. Alabama won’t be playing for the (exceedingly mythical) national championship because it had a better season than Oklahoma State but because its has the stronger brand. It’s Alabama. It plays in the SEC. It’s coached by Saban. Good enough for me! Give that team a second chance!
And that’s what big-time college football has become — a game of brands, not reality. Is it mere coincidence that ESPN has a 15-year contract to carry SEC games? (ESPN also has a contract with the Big 12, Oklahoma State’s diminishing league, but the bigger Big 12 package is with Fox Sports.)
This was a year when opinion mattered. Five of the seven computer rankings had Oklahoma State above Alabama, but the Tide finished ahead in both human polls. Why? Because of the brand. You cannot tell me that if Alabama’s name were attached to Oklahoma State’s body of work and vice versa that the results wouldn’t have been different. We all know they would have.
And now we’re faced with this scenario: A winner of nothing save some eyeball test can split two games against another team … and be declared national champ. Some “system” this is.
By Mark Bradley
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1,739 comments Add your comment
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:19 am
Black:
So what? Bama got beat at home by a team you argue they will beat in the Superdome.
Shows what you know.
Realist
December 5th, 2011
12:20 am
Hey Reality, SEC teams that get spanked by Boise State in a virtual home game lose the ability to mention 5 year old defeats by other SEC teams. Have you watched any football since 2007? Cause you would have seen Florida, LSU, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU or Alabama win national championships. See, winning championships in the SEC isn’t that hard, unless you are a sad sack team like Vandy or UGA.
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:20 am
Reality,
Well ma’am if we are going to live in the past then lets live in the complete past rather than picking particular points in time to suit our argument.
Overall head to head record
Alabama 36 wins
Georgia 25 wins
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAAHAHHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAH
Edvis
December 5th, 2011
12:21 am
It’s going turn out this way when subjectivity is involved. Even with a playoff there are easier draws and upsets. After yesterday I’m thinking LSU will render this moot — the Tide will be rising only like the water in my toilet bowl right before it flushes fully…
Blackoutanyone?
December 5th, 2011
12:21 am
It’s been fun… got to get some sleep. Give em hell my fellow Bama fans…. ROLL TIDE!!!
thisguy
December 5th, 2011
12:21 am
best article you’ve ever written mark, nice job.
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:22 am
Tide:
The NFL doesn’t have people with agendas deciding who plays whom.
They use won-loss records. A win is a win and a loss is a loss.
It doesn’t even compare to the BC$.
Realist
December 5th, 2011
12:22 am
Fine Reality, you own the state of Alabama, but the state of Alabama owns the last two national championships… seriously, come join us in 2011. You missed one heck of a first half by UGA yesterday.
DeaconBlues
December 5th, 2011
12:23 am
Reality, interesting the time frame you chose to look at the records. Can you tell the all time record between Bama and UGA? Didn’t think so because you know damn well the Tide owns your team. By the way we have 22 SEC Championships and 13 National Championships. Too bad, so sad!!
GTBob
December 5th, 2011
12:24 am
do I dare say it……. rematches of games that were already played in the regular season.
Rematches make alot more sense in a playoff system then they do in a system determined by popular vote.
Louisiana-Monroe_anyone?
December 5th, 2011
12:25 am
allow the bama fans to crow all they want for the next month….it’ll make that forthcoming “L” on 1-9-12 all the more entertaining to watch!
Sour Grapes
December 5th, 2011
12:25 am
why does it have to be OK state, why not Stanford. They lost to a higher ranked team than OK state. Why is the same system that put one loss Ok State (lost to unranked Iowa State) ahead of one loss Stanford (loss to #5 Oregon) “fair” to OK state but it is not fair when it makes one loss ALA (only loss to unanimous #1) #2?
Explain to me the logic of having a team that loss to an unranked 6-6 team ahead of a team whose only loss was to the current #5 ranked team in the nation.
I can explain all of this: SOUR GRAPES
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:25 am
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:19 am
Black:
So what? Bama got beat at home by a team you argue they will beat in the Superdome.
Shows what you know.
BCS SLAVE,
First of all you cant predict what will happen in the 2nd game. You don’t know. And considering that we outyardaged LSU in the first game and missed 3 field goals in regulation and 4 overall to stipulate that we cant win a rematch is just plain…..well….. dumb.
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:27 am
Sour grapes,
Uh oh. You gonna make their heads explode with that logic about why Stanford was left out. In the end you’re right. Its just sour grapes by the haters.
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:27 am
Tide:
If Alabama plays OkSU you would like your “chances”?
That’s the point. A win is not guaranteed.
Champions win games. You can’t win them until you PLAY THEM.
Bama in Senoia
December 5th, 2011
12:28 am
Bama didn’t need a 1 point, come-from-behind win at a 6-6 Texas A&M. Bama didn’t lose to a 6-6 Iowa State team. Okie St was LUCKY to have their best team during a year when BOTH Texas and Oklahoma were WAAAAAAY DOWN!!!!! Okie States out of conference slate was equally bad. A BAD Arizona team, Louisiana Lafayette and Tulsa. The rest of their games were Big 12 games. I believe the bowl season will reveal how average the Big 12 is this year.
Bama, on the other hand, played VERY dominant football in every game. Even in the OT loss to LSU, Bama held the LSU offense without a TD for the entire game and one OT period. In the other 11 games, the CLOSEST game for Bama was @ Penn St….27-11.
Did you even SEE the interception call in the Bama-LSU game???? It was a call that COULD have gone either way…..and it certainly changed the game. The next week in Oregon, an identical play was called a TD for the receiver.
This Bama team was an eyelash away from being the team in the Georgia Dome this past weekend kicking UGA’s butt! And it would have CERTAINLY been the same type of game. UGA and South Carolina are LUCKY they didn’t have to play Bama this year!!!! Dawg fans just can’t accept it that they are STILL very mediocre.
The BCS, as it currently operates, is setup to match the two best teams in the country. The top two are Bama and LSU and it’s not even close. The best of the SEC East was a mismatch with LSU.
Bama and LSU for the National Championship.
UGA to Tampa…..please don’t embarrass the league against Mich St. Bama faced them last year in the Capital One Bowl….recall?
Donald
December 5th, 2011
12:28 am
Mark,
Nice of you to pont out that Bama didn’t play Georgia, or South Carolina. You failed to mention that Georgia didn’t play LSU, Bama, or Arkansas in the regular season.
Nice homerism
Blackoutanyone?
December 5th, 2011
12:29 am
bcs slave… Bama missed 4 fg’s and had a questionable INT call at the LSU 1 yard line go against us. Add in the block in the back that negated the INT return to LSU’s 8 and too many men in the huddle plus Bama only punted twice in the whole game yet only scored 6 points. All that said the score was tied at 6 at the end of regulation. So yeah… I feel very confident with our chances in the rematch.
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:29 am
GTBob,
Isn’t the regular season akin to a playoff system in that if you lose to unranked teams you get pushed down the ladder? Its imperfect obviously but wins and losses and quality of both wins and losses during the regular season do count sir. Do they not?
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:32 am
Tide:
So…now you are arguing you can’t know if bama will beat LSU in the rematch but would beat OkSU if they played?
Funny. It is always funny when people talk out of both sides of their mouth.
Kookaid drinker…I would never say bama can’t win. That is my point.
We can speculate all day long on which team can beat whom.
Until the play each other…we can’t know.
That’s why RANKING by poll voters and computers is nothing more than a farce.
Its why a so called “national championship” is meaningless.
Only a playoff…only COMPETITION should determine a champion.
The BC$ is a beauty contest.
big d dawg
December 5th, 2011
12:33 am
I’ve already told my friends I will not be watching on Jan 9th. He thinks I’m joking and will show for camaraderie. Not going to happen. I’ll be watching something else, anything else but….
Sour Grapes
December 5th, 2011
12:33 am
@Bama in Senoia:
OK State sounds like the UGA of the Big 12, and we all saw how that worked out for GA (you know they beat LSU in the first half)
Blackoutanyone?
December 5th, 2011
12:34 am
GTBob…. u guys got smoked by… UGA. Please leave the college football talk to the fans of legit teams… well never mind the UGA fans are here too.
Jimmy
December 5th, 2011
12:34 am
Bradley wants some attention.
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:35 am
bcs slave,
You need not lecture us bama fans about championships. We have plenty of them sir. Both conference and national. Might want to check the record books.
Blackoutanyone?
December 5th, 2011
12:35 am
big d dawg.. you’ll be watching, just like the rest of these milkduds. Well it’s been fun. I’m out. Roll Tide!!!!!!!
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:39 am
Black:
Most of us don’t care if bama beats LSU or not.
I won’t even be watching the game.
We are not koolaide drinkers like you.
What most of us care about is going to a true playoff system.
Do you hear me…A TRUE PLAYOFF SYSTEM!!
If we had one this year…bama would not be playing for anything.
And we wouldn’t have their obnoxious fans here defending their “right” to play in the MNC.
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:40 am
Sour grapes,
UGA did do well in the 1st half against LSU. Unfortunately for them its a 60 minute game.
UGA also won the 2nd half of the blackout game against Bama. So officially in the minds of dawg fans that day was a tie. Bama won the 1st half and uga won the 2nd half. Such is the logic of a dawg fan.
Sour Grapes
December 5th, 2011
12:40 am
Stanford got robbed, Stanford got robbed, Stanford got robbed. We need a congressional investigation of ESPN.
Mike
December 5th, 2011
12:42 am
System is flawed, but the best two teams are playing for the title. If you think otherwise, Bradley, then you too are flawed … There’s little doubt in this one. OK State? Are you kidding – not even close.
Sour Grapes
December 5th, 2011
12:43 am
If GA fans don’t watch the NC game will they still play it? If GA fans don’t watch the second half of the SEC Championship game do they get to pretend they are SEC champs?
Realist
December 5th, 2011
12:44 am
So BC$ Slave, the number 2/3 team in the nation (Alabama) wouldn’t be in the playoffs? In what world?
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:44 am
“If we had one this year…bama would not be playing for anything.”
BCS slave.
Really sir? Bama wouldn’t be playing for anything? In every conceivable playoff scenario that I’ve seen regarding a college playoff system there is room for a minimum of 2 at large bids. Do you understand what a wild card is in the NFL sir?
Louisiana-Monroe_anyone?
December 5th, 2011
12:44 am
allow all the bama fans to crow for the next month…..that forthcoming “L” on 1-9-12 will be all the more entertaining to watch!
Peachtree TV
December 5th, 2011
12:46 am
Bama nor Saban had their offices sending out fliers to media all night Saturday and all day Sunday trying to tell voters to put them at #2 like Okie St did. T Boone was threatening investigations while at the same time throwing money at voters to switch their votes just like the Democrats do at every election. The Okie St game was a regular season game not a conference title game because the Big 12 doesn’t have 12 members (there’s a credibility hit to them right there, a league that can’t count, just like the Big Ten)…and oh, Okie St says Alabama had their shot and lost well Okie St was #2, and had their shot and lost to a 6-6 team that is and was unranked. They had their chance…just win…and they couldn’t. They beat a Texas A&M team that was 6-6 by one point. In 11 wins, the closest margin of victory for Bama was 16 points. And Ga. Southern? Looking pretty good for a FCS National Championship….they could beat most Big 12 teams and maybe half of the SEC. And Bama didn’t play Ga or SC? Georgia was brought down to earth hard (32 point loss) and THEY didn’t play any of the BCS 1 2 or 3 as was ranked a couple of weeks ago (LSU, Bama, Arkansas)….lucky scheduling? Instead of 10-2, they would’ve been 7-5 and Richt would be in the unemployment line today. Just look at Tennessee who got beaten up by all three and hardly had any players left at the end which nearly cost them against Vandy and did cost them against Kentucky. I’m all for a playoff system but the one in place worked because it was to get the two best teams and it did. Not Okie St with its moneybagging sugar daddy trying to buy a game or its 107th ranked defense and bragging about routing an Oklahoma team that lost AT HOME to a lousy 6-6 Texas Tech team. And don’t give us the “plane crash” excuse either. I’d be willing to bet not a single player on Okie State football and most coaches even knew who those two coaches were that tragically died in the crash. Most of those players and coaches have probably never attended a womens basketball game at Okie State either. Having worked in a college athletic program myself, I know for a fact that many coaches and players in many sports don’t know each other so I doubt that there was too much emotion among footballers over the tragic accident. Bradley, you’re just trying to stir a pot that is already empty. Your job is to sell papers and if it takes sensationalism and controversy (even if you have to invent it) to do that, so be it. You’re just Furman Bisher Jr. The AJC and Bisher always tried to bury Alabama football and Bisher is a hated man (and a poorer one for it after losing a lawsuit to Bryant for his article in the SE Post in the 60s). You’re simply trying to pick up where he left off.
Sour Grapes
December 5th, 2011
12:46 am
Bradley ate my post so will try again:
@Tide Rising:
If GA fans say they won’t watch the NS game, will it still be played?
If GA fans don’t re-play the second half of the SEC championship game can they pretend they are SEC champs?
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:47 am
Realist:
In a playoff system where conference champions advance to the national title game, you wouldn’t need rankings anymore.
In that world bama, who didn’t win their conference, would be OUT.
In that world where competition determines champions.
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:47 am
Fascinating. BCS slave postulates that if we had a playoff system that Alabama, the no. 2 team in the nation, wouldn’t get in. Apparently in his ignorance bcs slave doesn’t understand the concept of at large bids that have been discussed in every playoff proposal and clearly doesn’t understand that in the nfl that teams that dont win their divisions get into the playoffs via the wildcard. Gawd some people are stupid.
Sour Grapes
December 5th, 2011
12:48 am
Bradley quit eating my posts.
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:49 am
bcs slave,
Please let me know when Bradley or Schultz or some other writer writes a piece on a playoff system where at large bids arent accepted. And please have a discussion with the nfl about those bogus wild card teams that didnt win their division yet get into a playoff.
MarkH
December 5th, 2011
12:49 am
Mark I respect you ant the Ajc however you have not been watching the same football I have. Bama and have one thing in common besides being great teams. DEFENSE. Quite frankly both have NFL caliber defenses. They win chapionships. In a true playoff system indeed Bama and LSu would possibly meet again and play for all the marbles such as the NFL does. Secondly teams that win championships and the fan bases that surround them don’t storm the field after a big game and trample over other fans and tear down goal posts. The Univeristy of Ok State should take full responsibility of what happened after the game with OK. I really feel for the fans that were injured after the game and their families I believe the BCS got it right.
Sour Grapes
December 5th, 2011
12:49 am
and in the case of the Green Bay Packers win it all
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:50 am
What you assume, you slave to the status quo, is that a playoff system would incorporate the current BC$ rankings.
If only conference champions make the playoff, with conferences champions from like the MAC or other lower tier conference vying for a couple of at large berths…we wouldn’t need polls. Current rankings would OUT.
Get it?
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:52 am
“In that world bama, who didn’t win their conference, would be OUT.”
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Every potential playoff system that has been postulated includes a provision for at large bids precisely because of the possibility of 2 of the best teams in the country playing in the same division or conference. You have no credibility sir and its becoming blatantly obvious that you are just another case of dawg fan sour grapes.
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:52 am
Tide:
When you realize the difference between the NFL playoff system and the current BC$ beauty contest…we can talk.
Let me give you a hint: One is about wins and losses. The other is about voter opinion. Can you tell the difference in determining a champion from that?
Sour Grapes
December 5th, 2011
12:53 am
What a stupid playoff system if it would keep a team like ALA out
Realist
December 5th, 2011
12:53 am
So I take it BC$ Slave doesn’t enjoy the NCAA Basketball tournament, where teams who don’t win their conference win all the time, because competition determines champions. And Green Bay? Give back that Super Bowl trophy from last year… BC$ Slave says you didn’t win your division, and competition determines champions. BC$ Slave has gone from ideologue to idiot in one post. Well done. I don’t know any playoff proponent (and I’m one) who doesn’t want “wild cards or at large teams.
Alex
December 5th, 2011
12:55 am
The SEC is weak! OSU has defeated more top ten and more ranked opponents than Alabama because theres more of them in the big twelve to play. OSU got cheated, there needs to be a playoff. And OSU lost on the road, in OT after the loss of members of the OSU family in that plane crash that was learned about that same day.
Tide Rising
December 5th, 2011
12:56 am
bcs slave,
Wrong again sir. If you had a playoff system you would still have a ranking system specifically to determine seedings- after all we need some voting to determine who is more worthy of a no. 1 seed vs being a 3 or 4 seed in years where there are several 1 loss teams. How else do you determine seeding between conference championships who dont play each other until the playoffs. Clearly you never thought this through did you genius???
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
12:57 am
Tide:
There is no reason for anyone to get into a playoff, even at large participants, unless they win a conference.
Get it. If only conference champions make the playoffs…then bama would be out.
I live in Alabama. It is pathetic how deluded you people can be.
And this argument is beyond team loyalty.
I enjoy watching my team play…I want them to win.
But that doesn’t mean I’m going to support the BC$.
I know what winning the MNC means.
It is a farce no matter who wins it.