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
Alphare
December 4th, 2011
10:27 pm
GTBob,
I am a Tech fan. Tech didn’t get to play LSU, how do I know Tech cannot beat LSU? should I blame BCS and ESPN too?
puppies
December 4th, 2011
10:27 pm
ga fans should love repeats. every year yalls is a repeat.lose 4 or 5 games to ranked teams. wait for outback bowl.
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:27 pm
51ML, In 2007 all of the top teams has 2 losses but all the media types like now was saying UGA and USC were playing better than anyone at the end of the year. Saturday night before the selections Herbsteit, May, and Holtz began stumping their,”UGA didn’t win it’s division or conference so they can’t play in that game, no one that does not win their conference should play in the game” line. The next day the BCS jumped LSU from 5th to 2 over us. That’s why Dawg fans are completely pissed about all this.
Shine
December 4th, 2011
10:28 pm
And hear the fans as the Alabama Mulligans take the field for a do over….gag
haha
December 4th, 2011
10:29 pm
Sure Okie State that lost to Iowa State should go to the Championship game. Really, think Bama would of lost to them. Okie State would score 36 against Bama or LSU, would of taken them 10 games to do it Marky Poo
Dan
December 4th, 2011
10:29 pm
Kentucky was also ranked 17th when lsu played them and lsu didn’t get blown out like you did idiot
Dunwoody DAWG
December 4th, 2011
10:29 pm
Come on Mark – none of us like the BCS but there’s little doubt who the two best team in the country are and Okie State’s not one of them. Losing to a punk team killed their chances..
LSUTigerinATL
December 4th, 2011
10:29 pm
Either LSU or Bama would crush OSU like we crushed everyone else this season! Stupid article by a dawg loving moron.
BCS Hater
December 4th, 2011
10:30 pm
Seriously…If Alabama had one loss to a 6-6 Vanderbilt, they would not have been considered for the BCS title game….So why should OK State be considered when they lost to a 6-6 ISU team?
5IML
December 4th, 2011
10:30 pm
Instead of whining about BAMA and Saban, you guys should be upset with Okie St, Oregon, Stanford, and Boise St for losing. It’s not BAMA’s fault we dominated everyone on our schedule (except LSU) while the other contenders suffered really bad losses.
GTBob
December 4th, 2011
10:30 pm
Alphare, if Tech only had one loss, had more wins against winning teams then Bama, and has beaten more top 10 teams then Bama, then you would have a very good argument.
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:31 pm
The bottom line is that if you were #4 in the BCS the last week of the season and #’s 1 and 2 lose then you should move up to #2 and play in the game. That’s it. And if they are going to say in 2007 you dont win your division you cant play in the game then it should mean that now.
puppies
December 4th, 2011
10:32 pm
ga fans should love repeats. every year is a repeat for yall. lose 4 or 5 games to ranked teams and then wait for outback bowl
CJ
December 4th, 2011
10:32 pm
Who even cares? Roll Tide Roll………14 Natl Champs……..We just beat the hell out out of you!
5IML
December 4th, 2011
10:33 pm
Wasn’t 2007 four years ago?
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:34 pm
51ML, does not matter. If that was the standard four years ago it should be now.
the inconvenient truth
December 4th, 2011
10:34 pm
wow- Bradley proves once again that he knows less about college football than………well, just about anyone on the planet. Hey Mark (aka- tool) how about THIS fact……………anyone with a pair of eyes and the brains of a 10 year old KNOWS that the two BEST teams in the land are LSU and Bama. FACT you foolish moron. The BCS was designed to do ONE thing; bring #1 to play #2. It has. Ok State? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????????? They would get boat raced by either LSU or Bama…………they play in an inferior conference. DEAL WITH IT PINHEAD. Of course, you follow UGA and that clown Mark “thugs r u” Richt that you wouldnt know a great team when you saw it. Shut your stupid inbred pie hole and accept reality; the two best teams in America ARE LSU and Bama…………and they will play in the game DESIGNED TO MATCH 31 AGAINST #2. DONT LIKE IT? COME UP WITH SOMETHING BETTER. Til then, Bama nation doesnt give a rat’s ass if any of you dawg poop fans watch the game or not. You clowns got humiliated by LSU. You would get a foot up your sorry ass had you played Bama. YOU played a cupcake schedule this year, and even more embarrassing next year. See if you can focus on winning BIG games against GREAT temas. When has Richt last done that??????????????????? (The man is a glorified recruiter– he is NOT an elite head coach) Bradley, you are a lousy and pathetic judge of college football talent. AND a long time Bama hater. Its gotta hurt, dont it? UGA won its NC WHEN? Bet they didnt play Bama that year either. Bama penis envy is a terrible thing buddy.
DawginTX
December 4th, 2011
10:35 pm
Mark, you make excellent points. Here’s the breakdown of Bama’s strongoints vs Ok State’s:
Overall record: Tie
Better Loss: Bama
Better Good Wins (vs BCS top 20): OSU 3 to 1
Better Decent wins (vs FBS teams with winning records): 7 to 3
Conference Champions: OSU, champion of the conference with the 2nd highest power ranking
Your piece last week about opinion mattering most in college football said it all. The ESPN propaganda machine dropped Georgia from 2 to 5 in 2007, kept Michigan out in 2006, robbed Peyton Manning of the Heisman in 1997, and now has kept OSU 0.013 points behind Bama in the BCS.
BC$ Slave
December 4th, 2011
10:35 pm
I don’t get it with fans who argue against a playoff.
Of course, Alabama fans really want the current system THIS YEAR because their team gets in.
If we have a playoff, no way Alabama gets in if the 2 at large selections were conference champions of lower tier conferences.
Alabama lost in fair competition to LSU and should not be playing for the mythical NC.
If the berths for a championship were decided on the field of play rather than in cyberspace…the Tide would be out of it.
Alphare
December 4th, 2011
10:35 pm
GTBob,
SEC doesn’t have many good ranked teams than BIG12 is because LSU and BAMA are too strong, whoever played them have big losses. One or two more slips they become unranked.
So BIG12 ranked teams and SEC ranked teams are 2 different stories. Hope you don’t read too much into it.
Bob
December 4th, 2011
10:35 pm
From what I read here, Bama’s loss to LSU was a “quality loss.” “Our loss was better than their loss.” Hmm. I wonder what Bear would have thought of that concept. He probably would have noted there are only Ws and Ls, not QLs.
Dan
December 4th, 2011
10:35 pm
Wrong kerry. Teams often jump over other teams. Lsu beating tenn, which blew you out made sense to jump over you. Their body of work was better and you both had identical records. Nothing you write is logical.
The Bear
December 4th, 2011
10:35 pm
@kerryb that is a good point and that was discussed at length with an NCAA official not long ago on one of the networks. Guess what there is nothing in the NCAA rule book saying you have to win your conference to go to the national Title Game.
just sayin'
December 4th, 2011
10:36 pm
It ain’t about determining a national champion….it’s all about money. Get over it.
Hamilton
December 4th, 2011
10:36 pm
The BCS just made an enemy of T Boone Pickens. Bad for them, good for fans.
Vote with your dollar. I am done with college football until they get a playoff.
Blackoutanyone?
December 4th, 2011
10:36 pm
Bradley… sadly you are paid to post this garbage. My guess is you don’t hold a Harris poll vote and for good reason. If after 12 games you couldn’t see that Bama was a better team than Oklahoma State… I would suspect you just don’t know the game of football.
DelServDawg
December 4th, 2011
10:36 pm
As far as I know by rule the winner of any football game is the team that scores the most points, regardless of how they were scored. The BCS, and the polling system before it, doesn’t recognize that simple fact. Those systems are based on the “look” of one football team against another, for example Alabama and Oklahoma State. The ONLY fair way to decide a national champion is a play-off system that rewards the conference champions, decided by regular season victories, with the opportunity to play other conference champions in a single-elimination bracket that ultimately brings two teams together to play for the national championship. This eliminates all of the “talking heads,” opinions, strength of conferences, strength of schedules, and just about anything else you can think of. It ain’t rocket science and it can be done. Only big money prevents it from happening.
Keno
December 4th, 2011
10:36 pm
I agree 100%. We’ve seen Alabama and LSU play once, and we know Alabama is fully capable of beating LSU, but the point is they didn’t beat them. Let somebody else play LSU. Let LSU prove they can humble a Big Twelve (or whatever) passing team. I’m sure they can win, but who knows. What I saw of the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game looked awful for Oklahoma. They kept screwing up and giving up opportunities. I was surprised to see an Oklahoma team play so poorly. Nobody wants to see Alabama get another shot at LSU.
DawginTX
December 4th, 2011
10:37 pm
I meant “strong points.”
Rodney Dangerfield
December 4th, 2011
10:37 pm
Herbie should give every team the eyeball test before the season starts, then declare two teams to play in the BCS and end it right then and there instead of leading us along all season saying we don’t need a playoff because every game counts. No every game does not count unless you are in the SEC.
Realist
December 4th, 2011
10:37 pm
GTBob, Bama and Ok State each beat one top 10 team (Arkansas for Bama, Kansas State for OSU). Bama beat 3 teams in final BCS top 25, Okie State beat 4. Fact is, resumes were close, final numbers were close, but Bama is in championship game largely because they lost to a better team, and their best win was to a higher ranked team.
Shine
December 4th, 2011
10:37 pm
What other sport does college football remind me of now? WWE and TNA wrestlin. Its only worth watchin or discussin for entertainment and drama puroses, ya know, like a play at a theatre.
Shameful, disgraceful, pathetic, rigged. Wont be any coming back from this bs.
CJ
December 4th, 2011
10:38 pm
I am buying the fist round in NOLA. Roll Tide!
Blackoutanyone?
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
kerryb…. haa haa suck it up son. There’s always next year. You don’t really want some Big 12 school playing for all the marbles do ya? SEC baby!!
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
Now that’s funny, a ranting Bama person calling someone inbred. That’s like the pot calling the kettle black. When are these stupid Bama fans going to realize that if it wasn’t for the great state of GEORGIA they would not have enough players to beat Ole Miss. There sure isn’t enough players in that in bred state to field decent team.
Cloudodust
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
5IML , Please note not everybody is whining. Those whining have a beef with the BCS 2011 vs maybe 2007. They don’t but they do make the point and if the shoe were on a rematch foot of, say, Ohio State and Michigan, I’d probably be peazzed too.
Atlanta87
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
Because OK State won their conference and Bama didn’t. You bammers are more retarded than you look. Has this turned into best out of 3 now? Idiotic system and fans supporting it.
Dick
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
No matter what happens in the NC game, LSU can already call them selves National champions:
They can beat Bama and be out right , OR lose and be co-champions(it would be their first lost)
but bottom line I hope LSU beats the hell out of bama
MS
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
The BCS does not determine a national champion. College football is about college football fans getting to go to fun places for bowl games. This year, what is labeled the BCS championship bowl game is just the SEC championship rematch. I won’t be watching it, I did that the first time around.
vic the mick
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
There was a simple way for Iowa State to fix this, JUST WIN… They didn’t and now they want to cry about it. Please…Luckily for UGA that they didnt have to play BAMA, cause it would have been South Carolina playing in the Championship game Saturday. When the schedule was made FOUR years ago it was Bama playing Florida at the swamp, right in the middle of the Tebow phase, nobody could envision UF’s fall, so don’t whine about strengh of schedule. The SEC proposed a playoff of four teams in 2007 but nobody lisitend. So now all we have is the busted BCS. Oh, and Mark the Alabama “brand” has 13 National Championships, so it aint all hype and sunshine.
SEC
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
What if this was Notre Dame with one loss??? They have never been conference champs or won any divisions. Lou Holtz would have stood up on his desk to get them in the game. Tell them to join a league!!!!!!!!
LesMiles
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
I think I just crapped in my pants. Why couldn’t it have been the cowpokes dear Lord? I got to go and see if I go find a way to get Alabama to leave 19 points on the field again and gift us a win – I’d sure love to have me another championship – it’d be the second one Saban gifted me
Lamar
December 4th, 2011
10:39 pm
BOY YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD!!! I have watched college football for years, about 32, but I AM TIRED OF THE CROOKED CRAP THEY CALL A FAIR SYSTEM!! A team like Bama, gets in on the NCG on SOMETHING THAT LEFT GA OUT OF IT ON! College football has to be breaking FAIR ACTS LAWS. IF I WAS RICHT AND GA, I WOULD SUE THE SYSTEM THAT CHEATED ME IN 2007 ! They all will DIE AND GO TO H**LL!!
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:40 pm
The Bear, I know. so why were they applying that rule in 2007?
SEC Fact Finder
December 4th, 2011
10:40 pm
tmc
December 4th, 2011
9:33 pm
SEC Fact Finder-
Your argument is false. The “body of work” of which you speak favors OSU not Alabama. You might want to do a little research before you type.
(unless you want to show your ignorance? in that case, job well done!)
tmc, I am not one to argue with people who do not read my entire post. I know I am BIASED. That is a fact. I also compared the loss to Iowa St by Oklahoma to and SEC team losing to Vanderbilt.
You want to call someone out, please read my previous post. The next thing you need to catch up on is the fact that Iowa St. lost again on Saturday. The body of work of playing the SEC week in and week out is much greater than playing teams( who some have deemed) as the best conference in the country. I will gladly argue that teams like Mississippi St, Florida and Georgia would be right at the top of that conference if they played those teams. The fact that even Vegas Odds makers had OKSU as a 10 point underdog to LSU makes my point very relevant. UGA started out as a 10.5 point underdog to LSU. The opening line as LSU by 2.5 over Alabama.
My final point is this. I have seen every team in the SEC from the sidelines or pressbox with the exception of Kentucky, I watched the Oklahoma at FSU game from the sidelines, the LSU and Oregon game from the pressbox, the Texas A&M verse Arkansas game from the sideline and trying to compare those teams athletes on both sides of the ball to SEC teams is so far off that it is funny.
Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma St( T. Boone Pickens) all decided they were better than everyone else in their conference and wanted to guarantee that two of their teams would end up in BCS games, keep more money in their pockets and you saw teams leave the conference in packs. Then they saw they were getting left out and tried to join a weak Pac 10 ONLY to get Rejected. The next order of business was to fire their commissioner and bring in a guy who was the former Big 8 Commissioner to sell an idea of unity. Well folks that horse left the barn and he ran to the neighbors farm. The fact that losing to a 6-6 team who by all accounts is probably a 4-8 team in this conference says a great deal how ineffective a conference and poor those teams really are as a whole. When your 5th and 6th best teams are averaging 40 plus points a game it indicates that your conference is more worried about scoring points than they are about stopping teams from scoring.
And just in case you did not get the memo, Defense wins championships, offenses just sell a great deal of foam fingers pronouncing a team is No.1
Atlanta87
December 4th, 2011
10:41 pm
“I am buying the fist round in NOLA. Roll Tide!” Yeah I bet you would like a fist up your @ss CJ. I’m sure Saban will do it for you, you sick loser.
Blackoutanyone?
December 4th, 2011
10:41 pm
SEC tried to push the +1 system…. only the ACC would have it. Best of both worlds… Bama will get #14 and rest of nation is pissed off enough to force the +1. It’s great to be a BAMA fan!!!
the inconvenient truth
December 4th, 2011
10:41 pm
sorry all you UGA clowns…………….you got boatraced by LSU………………you dropped a load on the field……………..so maybe you all should SHUT YOUR REDNECK BUBBA PIEHOLES and stop talking about whether Bama does or does not deserve to be in the BCS title game. THEY ARE….YOU WILL GET TO PLAY IN THE TIDY FLUSH BOWL. SEE IF YOU CAN WIN THIS YEAR, AND NOT CRAP YOUR PANTS LIKE YOU DID AGAINST……………WHO?……….LAST YEAR
YOU ARROGANT HOLES– YOU WIN ONCE IN 31+ YEARS AND YOU THINK YOU ARE AN ELITE PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lololololololololololololololololololololololol
GO RECRUIT SOME MORE 5 STAR HIGH SCHOOLERS THAT RICHT WONT BE ABLE TO COACH UP…………..LOOK WHERE SABAN AND MILE’S 4 AND 5 STARS ARE HEADING………………AND WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN
Shine
December 4th, 2011
10:41 pm
Blackoutanyone? Did you watch all 12 Bama games and all 12 OSU games? Does anybody watch all the games?
aol.com
December 4th, 2011
10:41 pm
You tell the truth , fans are get screwed again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!