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
bjohndawg
December 5th, 2011
3:33 pm
The real loser here is the school’s players. The players work hard only to have a talking Max Headroom tell them their brand the one they signed up for… is not good enough.
Now you will have players go to BAMA, just because they have the football brand that when things are not equal( as they are not here, no matter what BAMA fans say) will get you a shot at a ring.
IT will not matter how you get that shot. Just that you can get it by signing with BAMA.
I am all for the SEC, but this one unfortunately makes no sense.And cannot be justified.
DID NOT WIN OUR DIVISION!BUT WE PLAY FOR A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!
THANK YOU ESPN!
ROLL TIDE!
The perfect t-shirt slogan.
What a country crock!
John
December 5th, 2011
3:40 pm
Mark, try being more of a reporter/columnist and less of a perennially whining UGA apologist. I’m an Alabama fan and am pleased they get to play for the championship, but Ok. State certainly has a good argument for why they should play as well. Either Bama or Ok. State could with come justification feel robbed of a chance to play LSu 1/9. I agree with an earlier comment that not having played UGA or Carolina is not a very persuasive reason to discount Alabama’s season-Georgia just beat three teams with winning records, including Coastal Carolina (which we should by all rights not count). The lack of a conference/division title is really irrelevant; otherwise 2 (or 3) top teams in the same conference/division would by your logic always devolve to just one “worthy” team.
Todd
December 5th, 2011
3:44 pm
I’ve argued with an Auburn alum friend who hates Bama all day long today about the same things you posit in this article. Essentially, that Oklahoma St. “deserved” it more than Alabama. I just cannot see how you (and my friend) can make that conclusory statement. I’ll ask you, just like I asked him, if Auburn is equal to or better than Iowa State. He said that Auburn was equal, if not better. In response, I said would you say Okla. St. “deserved” to be in the national championship game had they lost to Auburn in Auburn. He said no, they wouldn’t deserve it. Well, I think that’s about enough said. Alabama beat Auburn by 28 points in Auburn. Also, Alabama beat everyone they played, except LSU, by 16 or more points. Okla. St. beat a very mediocre Texas A&M team by 1, a mediocre K-State by 7 and a mediocre Texas by 12. They just didn’t dominate like Alabama did. Now, they do have an argument to make that they’re qualified, worthy, etc. to be in the championship, but Alabama most certainly does too. Additionally, Alabama didn’t itself do anything wrong by being voted #2, but all of the naysayers are either directly saying or, at a minimum, are insinuating that they did. It is a flawed system, and I want a playoff. But c’mon, I just don’t see how anyone can say that Oklahoma State deserved it more than Alabama.
Cowboy Dan
December 5th, 2011
3:46 pm
For any of you that say the OSU players and coaches really had no ties to the 2 coaches that were killed in the plane crash…you are wrong. Budke was very close with the football program and several players worked as interns for the womens BBall team. They found out the day of the game. It effected them. Yeah, the human polls should have taken that into consideration.
Mr. Objective
December 5th, 2011
3:47 pm
C’mon, Bama fans. You all know good and dang well you all shouldn’t be playing in this NC. lol
bill in Bham
December 5th, 2011
3:49 pm
Alan/IDIOT
Bama Sucks
December 5th, 2011
3:50 pm
Suck it, Bammers!
MikeC
December 5th, 2011
3:52 pm
If Bama had lost to a 6-6 Vandy, there’d be no discussion about which team would have gone.
Consider this…If Bama lost to a 6-6 Vandy team, they’d be no way they would be considered for the BCS game. Yet somehow OkieSt does the same and they’re supposed to get a pass?
And by Mark’s logic Wisconsin shouldn’t be recognized as BIG10 Champion because it was a REMATCH and they split a 1-1 when Michigan State won the regular season game in regulation.
And as far as “How can Alabama be the the 2nd best team if it didn’t even win its division.” So by that logic, UCLA is somehow this great team, just because it won it’s division right?
And your comment on “Bama didn’t have to play Georgia or SC in the east” argument is just laughable…especially when the West just recently had teams ranked 1-2-3…and the only reason it didn’t stay that way was because we all had to play one another.
This article is a joke. Haters gonna hate and Roll Tide all the way to Nawlins!
Richard
December 5th, 2011
3:53 pm
Todd,
“But c’mon, I just don’t see how anyone can say that Oklahoma State deserved it more than Alabama.”
Allow me to say it…Alabama had their shot against LSU and lost. They are playing to be #1 in the nation when they aren’t even #1 in their conference.
Put another way, in a sample size of 12 teams (SEC), Alabama is #2. Why should I believe that if I add 108 more teams, they’ll suddenly be #1?
Sara
December 5th, 2011
3:55 pm
Don’t be a ROLLTIDE hater! Alabama and LSU ARE the two best teams in the nation, hands down!!!
The Translator
December 5th, 2011
3:56 pm
@Bama Sucks
December 5th, 2011
3:50 pm
Suck it, Bammers!
Translation: WAAAAAAAAAAAWAAAAAAAA WAAAAAAWAAAAAAAA WAAA WAAA
Todd
December 5th, 2011
3:57 pm
Richard – that’s how the system works. If a non-conference winner can’t play for the title, then that should be written into the BCS rules. As is, they can and they are playing. And you still didn’t answer my question about why Okla St deserved it more.
BCS is BS
December 5th, 2011
4:02 pm
So, this year’s Mythical Title Game will be ~5 weeks from now?? Is there a bigger letdown to the end of the season than NCAA division I football? 2 weeks of meaningless scrimmages (Bowl games) leading up to a mythical title game? Wake me when it’s over, zzzzzzzzzz……………
Caligula
December 5th, 2011
4:03 pm
Hey puppy dawgs and barner trash. We are in. Deal with it. All this crying and whining is unbecoming of you . Jealousy is an ugly trait.
He Hate Gator
December 5th, 2011
4:05 pm
It is wrong for Bama to play for and win a NC to a team that already beat them and is currently unbeaten….
TheTruth
December 5th, 2011
4:10 pm
@ caligula….It’s not jealousy. Most other fans other than updykes would be embarrassed to backslide into the NC game the way you did. Just like everything else updyke, its the underhanded and cowardly way that everyone has come to know your program by.
t-plunk
December 5th, 2011
4:11 pm
incorrect. the cowboys are the owners of the 100-and-something ranked defense in the nation. that my friends is not championship caliber. absolutely mind boggling that anyone could watch the LSU vs A game earlier this year and not conclude that A defeated themselves. hello 3 missed field goals in regulation. they should have won the ballgame in regulation, which means in a rematch, it’s very very probable that they will trounce LSU (meaning OSU is a non factor) forget the rankings and study the football being played, if the number two team is actually the number one team then there’s absolutely no room for a number three team in the discussion. period. OSU would lose out-right against LSU or ALABAMA or ARKANSAS or UGA those top SEC teams could take ANY team in the nation ANY day. there’s no conference that prepares and sharpens its champions the way the SEC does. it’s undeniable.
Mike the tiger
December 5th, 2011
4:12 pm
Just ate some dawg meat, looking forward to some elephant!!
jdiddly
December 5th, 2011
4:12 pm
It didn’t play either Georgia or South Carolina, the best teams in the SEC East.- this is just laughable. Are you Timmy B.’s butthurt offspring? What happened to them Dawgs in the ATL? That was a virtual home game and they got ran at their own house. Write something with out bias, you are a biased homer.
SEC: Ole Miss to name Freeze; Bama-LSU set for rematch | My Blog
December 5th, 2011
4:14 pm
[...] Alabama’s code burnt Oklahoma State, writes Mark Bradley of a AJC. [...]
Caligula
December 5th, 2011
4:16 pm
Smells like jealousy to me. Can’t wait to see the faux outrage here after we beat LSU. This place will be a riot.
jdiddly
December 5th, 2011
4:19 pm
Excuse me, did all teams in the FBS agree to the rules when the year started? Most of you are probably from the crowd that believes everyone deserves an “At least I participated” trophy. Do you all forget that Okie St. was up on ISU 24-7, and they screwed the pooch. What ever the rules are next year every one agree to it, and do not complain at the end.
Caligula
December 5th, 2011
4:20 pm
Hey UGA fans, barner trash, and Mark Bradley…..you mad
ckgator
December 5th, 2011
4:21 pm
Bama is sound everywhere, but nowhere near as good as they were two years ago, and not as good as other prior SEC teams (2008 Florida, etc.). Their QB play is barely a “C.”
So of all teams to give a pass to in the last 10 years, this year’s Bama squad is least deserving.
The voters blew it as much as anything else.
He Hate Gator
December 5th, 2011
4:28 pm
The system is screwed up when you can’t win your conference but can win the NC…
roll tide > honey badger
December 5th, 2011
4:34 pm
mark this down–alabama will beat lsu in the rematch by a lot more than 3 in the dome, which is a home game for lsu. by winning by more than 3, alabama will prove they are a better team and the true national title. that earlier loss was a fluke. Title #14!!!
tell me again
December 5th, 2011
4:35 pm
Bama had their shot. They lost. Okie played a better resume overall. End of story. Okie is getting shafted.
By the Numbers
December 5th, 2011
4:36 pm
@ckgator
Bama’s QB had the best rating of all SEC QBs.
QUARTERBACK RATING RAT
1. AJ McCarron, ALA 149.8
2. Tyler Wilson, ARK 148.7
3. Aaron Murray, UGA 146.4
4. Tyler Bray, TENN 144.8
5. Connor Shaw, SCAR 141.5
tell me again
December 5th, 2011
4:41 pm
Sorry Bammers. This is not the best 9 out of 10. Let’s say you do win. So now we have the lsu crowd saying – we’re co champions. And why not? Why would lsu’s logic be any less valid than Bama’s who say they should have another shot because “We didn’t lose as badly to them as everybody else” Has everybody gone crazy?
Ian
December 5th, 2011
4:41 pm
Sounds to me like this guy is salty UGA fan. Bama and LSU are the two best teams in the nation. Why? Because LSU has proven they are the best team in the nation (undefeated season, routing UGA 42-10 in the “conference championship” that should’ve been LSU vs Bama from the get go) and the two teams have already met this year. Does anyone remember the score? 9-6. All scored by way of field goals. THE game of the year thus far. No one can beat LSU. Bama is the only team that has come close. So quit crying.
jdawg
December 5th, 2011
4:41 pm
Bradley, your an idiot.
tell me again
December 5th, 2011
4:42 pm
How many yards did he pass for? Td’s? That’s what I thought.
NATS
December 5th, 2011
4:43 pm
SEC owns the NCAA. Alabama vs LSU….yawn………… Cowboys were hosed big time
Calvin
December 5th, 2011
4:46 pm
It is true that Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State, which finished 6-6. They lost on the road in double over time after one of the greatest tragedies in school history, if that matters. But, they absolutely destroyed an incredible schedule. They gave Texas Tech their biggest loss in school history in Lubbock, beat a top ten A&M team on the road, beat Baylor and RG3, beat Mizzouon the road, beat Texas on the road, beat a Kansas State team that finished in the top ten, and routed their biggest rival the Sooners. Meanwhile Alabama messes around playing D2 schools all the while whining about how hard the SEC is to play in. SEC is tough but not when you don’t actually play the teams in it. Florida and Auburn were pathetic this year and Bama didn’t play South Carolina or Georgia. Bama had the chance to prove they should play the championship and they blew it. At home. OSU had a harder schedule all around. Bama plays great defense against the little league SEC offenses. I’d like to have seen if they could stop Jusin Blackmon. Go pokes.
tell me again
December 5th, 2011
4:47 pm
Plunk. Your whole argument is coulda, woulda, shoulda. Bama had their shot. They lost. It just doesn’t get any simpler than that. I now realize that there are fans out there even crazier than Dawg fans. Okie got shafted. The whole country knows it. It ain’t rocket science.
Atlanta Poke
December 5th, 2011
4:48 pm
Great article in the heart of BC$EC Country…thank you. We know and the rest of the country knows the outright bias ESPN played in to this ordeal. Oklahoma State is a great football program that is not going away anytime soon so get used to that fact. I am proud of the Cowboys and will cheer them on the victory when I attend the Fiesta Bowl!! GO POKES!!
GT I
December 5th, 2011
4:50 pm
Good article Mark, but “do you think they care”.
This is what is wrong with the bowl games now, too damn many!!!
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
4:53 pm
I am not against Alabama really.
My problem is with the hypocrisy and the bias of poll voters.
When the talking heads say, “if you don’t win your conference you shouldn’t play for a title” and they use that line of bull to justify passing over some teams in the rankings…they should stick to it.
The truth is those “unwritten rules” stated in years past were nothing more than excuses for chaning their minds about where teams should be ranked at season end.
This is why the BC$ is meaningless. There is not a set criteria for voters to follow. It is subjective to the point that rationales will change from year to year.
We need a true playoff system…not a BC$/playoff hybrid.
Eliminate the influence of ESPN and other media outlets.
Give us a playoff and dump polls.
tell me again
December 5th, 2011
4:53 pm
It’s true okie s defense is not great. But 60 points of offense makes up for a lot. If I were lsu I’d be frothing at the mouth to put a beat down on Bama. What will the Bammers say if they lose AGAIN? What the country will be saying is that the bcs really screwed the pooch. But we already know that.
PT
December 5th, 2011
4:54 pm
Good job Mark!
Caligula
December 5th, 2011
4:56 pm
Mark….you mad?
tell me again
December 5th, 2011
4:56 pm
Mark. That is the best article I have read on this situation. Fact filled with no chaff. Great job.
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
4:57 pm
We could keep the bowls and still have a playoff between conference champs. The top bowls would host a playoff game. The money would still be there. The arguments between fans would still continue. The media would still cover the games. The only thing that would change would be the influence of media and coaches on the rankings of teams. Rankings would be GONE.
The system of ranking is flawed. It is filled with too much bias and too many agendas to be credible.
By the Numbers
December 5th, 2011
4:59 pm
@tell me again
December 5th, 2011
4:42 pm
How many yards did he pass for? Td’s? That’s what I thought.
————————————————————–
He had enough yards and TDs to win 11 games and be playing for the national championship. He did have 5 INT and Murray had 12 INTs…….in case you’re interested in the facts.
PT
December 5th, 2011
5:05 pm
we’re not
bamadawg
December 5th, 2011
5:07 pm
Tell me again who Ala. beat that was so wonderful…oh yea, Arkansas. Bama beat one decent team…lost to the only good team they played. Nobody but a Tide fan wants to see this game again. I won’t be watching!
By the Numbers
December 5th, 2011
5:07 pm
losers usually aren’t
bamaboy
December 5th, 2011
5:08 pm
Quit your crying! At the end of the day the two best teams in college football will be playing for the National Championship so who cares how they got there. OSU and the Big 12 have nothing on the SEC.
BC$ Slave
December 5th, 2011
5:16 pm
I’m done supporting the BC$. I broke those shackles a long time ago.
Blackoutanyone?
December 5th, 2011
5:18 pm
BCS Slave… 18 hours later your still at. LOL As a Bama fan I look forward to winning the BCS National Championship this year. But like you I’m not a fan of the current system. Unlike the NFL the sheer number of teams prevents a full blown playoff from making sense and in my opinion wreck the regular season. I believe a +1 system would be the best possible solution. LSU vs Stanford and Bama vs Oky State to decide the National Championship game.