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
SEC Fact Finder
December 4th, 2011
9:09 pm
OKSU had the every open door needed to play in the BCSCG. However, with that opportunity being right in front of them, they took a loss to a Iowa St( which in SEC terms is a Vanderbilt equivalent).
The system is not fair as it currently sits, however the best two teams in the country are playing on January 9th and there is no other way to look at.
ramguy68
December 4th, 2011
9:09 pm
Well at least all of the people that are drinking the haterade will be happy that a SEC team will finally lose a BCS Championship game.
Sid Hill
December 4th, 2011
9:09 pm
Your jealousy is showing pretty badly, Mark.
MJS4BAMA
December 4th, 2011
9:10 pm
Sorry it took so long to chime in with all of you crybabies. It was hard to type with all “13″ of my “National Championship” rings on.
Oh, and as to what one of you cow proders said about ALABAMA being on a mountain…………….get your facts straight.
Thats our trophy case! Roll Tide Roll!
GT GRAD
December 4th, 2011
9:12 pm
The BCS system is simply ridiculous. OK State should be playing LSU for the NC. What happens if Alabams wins 9-6 against LSU on January 9th…………would we have a split National Championship??
We should all keep calling for an 8 team playoff system! 8 vs. 1, 7 vs. 2, 6 vs. 3 and 5 vs. 4. Use four of the BCS games for the first round. The four winners play two weeks later and then the two remaining teams play two weeks later (the weekend prior to the Superbowl). All existing bowl games remain in place and NCAA Football fans get three additional HIGH PROFILE/MUST SEE games! It is a absolute no brainer!
Taco Meat
December 4th, 2011
9:12 pm
I agree. What a complete JOKE the BCS has become!!
Sloan
December 4th, 2011
9:14 pm
I would prefer to see LSU vs. OKie State. Not because I think Alabama is a lesser team than Okie State, but because LSU has already passed that test at Tuscaloosa! And Bama failed it. No, I would rather LSU put an a$$ whipping on Okie State to show the naysayers just how superior they really are!
Dunaway
December 4th, 2011
9:14 pm
osu lost to a unranked team bama lost to the #1 ranked team osu aint got a defense to stop lsu or a offense to score against them the system is designed to put the two best teams against one another and thats what it did osu wouldn’t have a chance in hell against lsu in new orleans and like it or not the sec is the hardest confrence and 9 times out of 10 the best the bama lsu game was true hard nose football with 2 evenly matched teams battleing it out who really wanted to watch lsu just man handle osu for 4 quarters but cry all u want you gotta settle for #3 just be happy you ranked that high RDT!
No Rematch Please
December 4th, 2011
9:14 pm
Mark,
What do you think of Virginia Tech being in the Sugar Bowl?
P.S. Couldn’t agree more about Bama in the NC game. Great blog!
Johnny Tucats
December 4th, 2011
9:16 pm
For those of you that want a playoff system…I present you with what you would get in the finals nearly every year: SEC v. SEC.
bamaguy
December 4th, 2011
9:16 pm
Does anyone, emotions and past BCS decisions aside, seriously think Oklahoma State is the second best team in the nation? LSU blew the doors off everyone they played, with one exception. They beat Alabama by a field goal in overtime.
The two best teams, in 2011, will play for the national championship. If LSU played Oklahoma State, it would be a repeat of LSU/Georgia, except worse.
Mark Bradley
December 4th, 2011
9:16 pm
I’m shocked about Virginia Tech, No Rematch.
01HAWK
December 4th, 2011
9:16 pm
BAMA had an AURA long before SABAN came to BAMA.
Winningest program in the SEC
6TH winningest program in college football
JEALOUS
JEALOUS
JEALOUS
JEALOUS
GET OVER IT
Herschel Talker
December 4th, 2011
9:17 pm
MB:
“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.””
This is all you need to say. That jerk Herbstreit changed his opinion, hosing us in 2007, but giving it to Bama this year. ESPN is a disgrace.
THIS IS MARK BRADLEY’S BEST COLUMN EVER! BRILLIANT STUFF, MB!!!
HT
DetroitBraves
December 4th, 2011
9:17 pm
Absolutely fantastic Mark! Lost in all this is how not fair (the ongoing theme of college football) this is for LSU. Why on Earth should they have to beat the same team twice? I also wonder what the national title game would be if Oklahoma and OSU were to somehow switch their bodies of work. Maybe Alabama and the SEC still wins out but Oklahoma and Stoops does have a brand as well. So much for the notion that the BCS makes the regular season a playoff.
Coffee Bluff DAWG
December 4th, 2011
9:17 pm
SEC Fact Finder,
I agree with you that AL is a better match-up with LSUand better than Okie St . If AL wins they’ll be 1-1 for the season so who is nat’l champ?
Wouldn’t they have to play a 3rd game tie breaker? How can you say that AL is better if they go 1-1?
01HAWK
December 4th, 2011
9:17 pm
I guess it is fitting since BAMA and LSU started the SEC.
jod
December 4th, 2011
9:18 pm
the ncaa is in bed with espn, who is in bed with the SEC. if u don’t think the system is rigged, you are mistaken. all about $$. what a load of crap.
whats a three point shot worth ?
December 4th, 2011
9:18 pm
lol…The SEC bought and paid for this……OKSt got robbed !! half of America will check out and not watch. I wont…
GTBob
December 4th, 2011
9:19 pm
Does anyone, emotions and past BCS decisions aside, seriously think Oklahoma State is the second best team in the nation?
I do. Prove me wrong.
evil empire
December 4th, 2011
9:19 pm
been tired of ESPN for a while…hoping NBC Sports taking over Versus will mount some kind of challenge to those rectums in Bristol, Connecticut…the way they shove that stupid NBA crap down our throat is sickening enough…too many smug yankees there for me to watch…
BIG MIKE
December 4th, 2011
9:19 pm
Good article Mark. All I can say is, it’s about time someone with a voice “CALLED LIKE IT IS”. Follow the money and you’ll see why ESPN has more sway than any one entity should have. They can beat the drums and override even the computers with massive support for their teams of choice. That’s not media and they don’t report news. They are in the business of making news and money. It’s time the three branches of our government got involved and put a stop to this corruption.
ESPN, with their greed, has gone over the top this year and showed their cards without fear of reprecussion. They probably make more money on DIVISION 1A College Football than any other sporting event on the market. That’s their bread and butter. It’s what allows them to employ all these ‘talking heads’ or spin meisters (and they have an army of them). They start the spin long before the season starts, too. This ensures that the teams they favor begin the year in the top 10, so a loss can be overcome by the end of the year.
Doesn’t it occur to anyone that all of their employees have the same screwed up opinioned. This isn’t a no brainer, it’s a toss-up. Yet they all have the same opinion concerning Alabama getting a second shot. If one of them spoke otherwise, you probably wouldn’t see them back next year.
daddo
December 4th, 2011
9:19 pm
Daddo knows. Listen to Daddo.
Just the most fair and objective facts.
You Fifth Place Georgians go off to your nobody cares bowl.
Alabama playing for yet another national title.
Georgia doesn’t have a defensive player who could start at Bama.
Bama has best defense in college history.
Bama will win number 14.
Not a single running back at Georgia would PLAY at Bama.
Georgia recruiting in the tank ranked 30th by Scout.
Georgia about to extend contracts for horrible coaches…..hahahahahaha.
Georgia so bad you guys shouldn’t even have an opinion on this topic.
Your fans, like your team, doesn’t matter.
Listen to Daddo. Daddo knows football.
Just the most fair and objective facts.
Johnny Tucats
December 4th, 2011
9:20 pm
Who got robbed in 2004 when USC pounded “mighty” Oklahoma? Auburn! The BCS remembers that one, apparantly.
Bart Simpson
December 4th, 2011
9:21 pm
Anyone who is being unbiased knows in their heart LSU would beat OKST by 42-13 or something like that. Do we really want another SEC vs whoever blowout in the NC?
Johnny Tucats
December 4th, 2011
9:21 pm
Enter your comments here
Skitty Fritty
December 4th, 2011
9:22 pm
Bama didn’t even win their division much less their conference. Bear Bryant would turn down the offer to play for the title because he would say you have to win your conference.
The BCS is officially dead to me now.
WHAT?
December 4th, 2011
9:22 pm
This has nothing to do with jealousy. I would feel the exact way if LSU had lost at home to Alabama, and got a shot at the title. This is all about knowing what BS looks like and calling it for what it is. Total load ‘o crap!
tmc
December 4th, 2011
9:22 pm
LSU vs OSU is not about anti Alabama.
It’s about what has been a precedent over the last several years.
It’s about what has been said by the pundit’s for similar situations.
It’s about what kind of message it sends to all the schools like OSU.
The NCAA changes the rules whenever they see fit so they can make as much money as possible… smaller schools or programs be damned. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. They’ve been doing for years in the bowl game selections… they’ve just transferred it to the BCS Championship selection.
Jake
December 4th, 2011
9:23 pm
I will never watch this game. Total fix to sell more tickets and commercials! What a joke! You can’t win a NC without winning you conference! PERIOD!!!!!!!
Old Dawg
December 4th, 2011
9:23 pm
16-team play-off, just like 1-AA. It’s the only way, so get ‘er done!
Frank Lane
December 4th, 2011
9:23 pm
If Alabama wins the national championship without winning either its conference or its division, maybe we will finally get a playoff.
Johnny Tucats
December 4th, 2011
9:23 pm
It’s messed up. Them Okie state boys will have to go undefeated next time. Why so many losers this year?
Les Miles
December 4th, 2011
9:23 pm
I own Nick Saban.
PB Jelly
December 4th, 2011
9:24 pm
Every game counts – what a joke!
LSU 9 Bama 6
At Home no less.
That should be the end of it. Rematches are for losers. Conference losers. Game losers. Bama losers. ESPN should be ashamed. Alabama fans are too far up Saban’s rear to be ashamed.
The BCS is a BEAUTY contest. Nothing else.
coloradobulldog
December 4th, 2011
9:24 pm
It’s an embarrassment as an SEC fan that Bama made it. Let the SEC winner play the winner of a conference like Pac 10 or Big 12 to continue to prove we rule. Does nothing to show an SEC team can beat an SEC team. And what in the world are they doing picking Va Tech for BCS Bowl. Please! Maybe this will be the death of the BCS.
Orange11
December 4th, 2011
9:24 pm
The BCS did exactly what it was suppossed to do matching #1 LSU and #2 Alabama. I have no problem with this. There is not going to be a playoff in the foreseeable future. Maybe you would like to go back to the old system where just conference tie-ins go to certain bowls. #1 and #2 would seldom meet. It’s still a little like that with West Virginia getting an invite to a BCS bowl and a team like Boise state ranked high and going to the MAACO bowl, not a Boise fan and would like to see them get B-Slapped but fair is fair.
Skitty Fritty
December 4th, 2011
9:24 pm
The other travesty is how did the ACC put two teams in the BCS?
Proposal
December 4th, 2011
9:24 pm
We have a Conference System as our primary framework for determining who plays who for MOST of the season. Non-Conference games are arranged 6 to 8 years in advance and are based on nothing more than inside relationships and TV ratings. There are +’s and -’s to it of course, but this is the underlying framework by which we determine who is ranked and, hence, who plays who in the post-season.
Beat everyone necessary to win YOUR Conference, and this should be the PRIMARY determinant for who plays in the NACG … PERIOD!!! Nick “2-faced” Saban said it himself.
PROPOSAL: every team in every conference plays their required number of in-conference games (typically 8 or 9 games). Play them all during the first 8 or 9 weeks of the season. Then, based upon the same ranking system we already have, start matching up the ranked teams to play each other for the last 3 or 4 weeks of regular season. Let this continue on into quarter-final, semi-final and final match-ups in the post-season in the form of bowl games that (again) we already have.
At the end what you have is 2 teams playing each other for a National Championship who have PROVEN their worth by WINNING ON THE FIELD!!!
If it still turns out that there are 2 SEC teams playing in the NACG, then so be it … but at least everyone would know those 2 teams got there by BEATING everyone else who has a legitimate shot ON THE FIELD (not in some abstract polling booth).
bamaguy
December 4th, 2011
9:25 pm
College Football 2011: 1. LSU, 2. Alabama, 3. Everybody else.
Outside the sec
December 4th, 2011
9:26 pm
We do have a choice, boycott the bcs/Espn. I for one will until a playoff is in place.
Troof
December 4th, 2011
9:26 pm
Butthurt Dawg fan writing this article as if Bama wouldn’t have run UGA just like LSU did this weekend. Please. UGA just needs to worry about a POed Sparty who got hosed.
SEC Fact Finder
December 4th, 2011
9:26 pm
The only game that counts now is the BCS title game. The AP pollsters removed themselves from the Big Picture. If the AP wants to call a different champion than the winner of the BCS title game then they have the right to do so. The winner is the winner in the BCS eyes.
Body of work, is more of the criterior than each loss or each win. I think we have all seen how poor a whole a BIG 12( is it Big 10 or Big
it is now. The schools of Oklahoma, Texas and OKSU( or soon to be name Boone Pickens University) all decided they wanted less competition across the board. The blame should be placed straight on the shoulders of those few men who wanted to control the conference without Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M and Missouri.
Skitty Fritty
December 4th, 2011
9:26 pm
bamaguy
You are right. You are #2 and smell like it to.
PB Jelly
December 4th, 2011
9:27 pm
Hey Daddo -
I don’t like Georgia either. BUT YOU LOST. On the field. Fair and Square. Every Game Counts – right? Except the ones the Tide doesn’t win. Then they don’t count anymore.
Give me a break. Put on your bikini for the Swimsuit competition. Sing a pretty song for the audience. The BCS is nothing but a glorified beauty contest. If it was about football, Bama would be in the Sugar Bowl – cause they already LOST.
Jake
December 4th, 2011
9:28 pm
Get over it men Myer left because he had to face Alabama and LSU to win the sec.They are by far the best teams this year.
Les Miles
December 4th, 2011
9:28 pm
I own Nick Saban
Alice
December 4th, 2011
9:30 pm
PS- Mark Bradley is a 2 bit hack writer for the local fishwrapper AJC and doesn’t have sense enough to poor piss out of a boot beofre putting it on. He hates Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee…..most SEC schools, seems to love GA TECH and GA in some sentimental ways, I guess because it’s the Dog and Jackets fans that buy his rag newspaper and subsequently, pay his bills…..he fancies himself a “blogger”…. he pulled the same crap last year when he hopped on the Boise State bandwagon…… “Boise State is gonna get screwed and what is the NCAA gonna do about it”??? “Now he’s on the Oklahome State got screwed” bandwagon….who will it be next year Mark??
Tired of College Football
December 4th, 2011
9:30 pm
Won’t be watching the game. Already saw it a couple of weeks ago. Why not let the winner of this game play the winner of the Super Bowl for the World Football Championship. They are semi pro anyway. Might tune out until there is a playoff system. BCS bowls is a joke. One or two fewer games during the season, then a playoff. Won’t happen though. No one wants to give up there home game with a FCS team and the money it generates.
James
December 4th, 2011
9:31 pm
bwahahaha