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
10:41 pm
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.
Should have typed “Oklahoma St.” not Oklahoma….
Cloudodust
December 4th, 2011
10:41 pm
Let’s just approach it like the good old days. Go out and win your dang bowl game…SEC
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:42 pm
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!!
_______________________________________________________________________________
At least OKie state won their conference
puppies
December 4th, 2011
10:42 pm
if any of you watched the first game i think you seen who really is the best team in the country. the #1 team in the country was held without a td.
The Bear
December 4th, 2011
10:42 pm
@kerryb its all about money period! Sad but true
DP
December 4th, 2011
10:43 pm
Bradley, you’re so in the bag for Georgia as to be pathetic. Tell us again how Georgia was the “standard bearer of the SEC” from 2002 to 2005 while LSU won a national championship, Auburn had a perfect season but didn’t get to play for a national championship and Georgia did neither.
In 2007, Georgia lost 2 games including one to Tennessee by 3 touchdowns, and you whine like Bulldog Nation that they should have played for a national championship.
Alabama is #1 nationally in every defensive category while OK State’s defense wasn’t in the top 100 before last night’s game. They lost at home in OT by 3 to LSU, which has blown out everybody else they’ve played, and Alabama blew out everybody else they played. They beat Georgia yesterday 70 miles from Georgia’s campus by 32 and you say that’s a sign of improvement for Georgia. That’s the same LSU team Alabama played to a tie game for 60 minutes. Yet you pretend to believe OK State, which plays in a league where the games look like flag football and lost as a 27 point favorite to a team that lost 5 games, has a better body of work than Alabama?
You regularly have written about Georgia’s 10 game winning streak without mentioning that they only won the SEC East because they didn’t play LSU, Alabama or Arkansas. And now you write about Alabama not playing Georgia and South Carolina, as if they wouldn’t have smoked them both?
You are a complete homer and a joke.
Ken Stallings
December 4th, 2011
10:43 pm
Bradley,
This is exactly why so many people say you post stuff you don’t believe in merely to get a reaction.
The Tide wasn’t selected because of their “brand.” They were selected because their RPI was #2, and they were ranked #2 in all the human polls. The system worked precisely as it is supposed to work, as it was written to work, and as it was designed to work!
I’m not even an Alabama alum, not even an SEC alum.
Blackoutanyone?
December 4th, 2011
10:43 pm
Atlanta87… lol sick but funny
GTBob
December 4th, 2011
10:43 pm
Realist, I understand that argument, but watching Oklahoma St destroy a good Oklahoma team, and win a pretty tough conference overrules the Iowa St mishap. Ok St missed a field goal late in the Iowa St game. If they made it then would that make them a better football team then Bama?
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:44 pm
Blackoutanyone? I think Okie State has the offense that has a better chance than Alabama does. Your offense is 90% Trent Richardson. They are just going to load up to stop Richardson because they know McCaron can’t
DEEP THROAT
December 4th, 2011
10:44 pm
WHY DO YOU THINK ADAMS (UGA PRESIDENT) DIDNT GET THE NCAA JOB? IT WAS ABOUT THAT SAME TIME THAT ESPN HASHED OUT THEIR CURRENT 15 YEAR CONTRACT WITH THE SEC. HOW INAPPROPRIATE WOULD IT APPEAR, IF THERE WAS A FORMER SEC SCHOOL PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF A (CORRUPT) SYSTEM COLLUDING TO PLACE THE CONFERENCE HE WAS ONCE REPRESENTING AT THE FOREFRONT OF ALL OTHER CONFERENCES, TO ENSURE ESPN IT’S LARGE PIECE OF FISCAL PIE.
By representing the conference as powerful and unyielding each and every year and not pairing them with the most powerful out of conference teams in bowl games (ala UGA vs HAWAII vice UGA vs. USC in 2007), it ensures that the best High School athletes (the one’s with NFL aspirations) will give SEC schools the benefit of the doubt and consider them first and foremost. They can only take so many of the best athletes each year. Usually the most athletic and smartest. Everyone else gets the rest. To gain some equal footing those schools have had to break a few rules to entice these athletes away from the SEC. The media (ESPN has their hands in a lot of pockets) has created this powerhouse conference but refuses to allow them to prove it on the field. Yeah, you get the token games like a young talented but inexperienced UGA team against a seasoned Boise St team in the first game of the year. And LSU vs. OREGON, again early in the year, knowing that with their “strength of schedule” a loss could be overcome and explained when referencing their “BODY OF WORK” at the end of the year. All of this is thought out well in advance. It’s calculated and no other college sport has that kind of open end of year format that allows for politicing and smoozing to determine who is going to play for a championship that doesn’t even exist in any kind of official records.
REDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!! WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WISE UP??? BOYCOTT THIS GAME AND MAKE IT VOCAL. IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER WHO WINS OR LOSES THIS GAME ANYWAY. NEITHER TEAM HAS AN OFFENSE THAT CAN MOVE THE BALL ON THE OTHER and LSU HAS ALL BUT BEEN DECLARED NATIONAL CHAMPIONS REGARDLESS. I WONDER HOW OK ST WOULD DO WITH THEIR POWERFUL OFFENSE. Would it be a scoring duel? UGA proved that if you have players that can execute and hold on to the football, you can score against LSU’s vaunted defense (they dropped two sure touchdown passes in the first half…youngsters). And their offense can be stopped or slowed down. I believe OK ST would give them a run for their money….no pun intended.
After this season is over, ESPN has some explaining to do. AND I HOPE THERE IS A CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE GETS INVOLVED BECAUSE I DON’T TRUST CONGRESS EITHER. You can bet, with the kind of money involved in this thing, anybody can be bought.
Dan
December 4th, 2011
10:44 pm
Because you got blown out by tennessee kerry you dumbass. alabama lost in ot by 3. lsu lost twice that year like you but both losses were close, 6 and 2 points and in triple ot. again you got BLOWN OUT and lsu BEAT the team that BLEW you out. DUH Dumbass.
BC$ Slave
December 4th, 2011
10:44 pm
kerryb:
You hit on the beauty contest aspect of the BCS.
WHY WOULD ANY SCHOOL OR FAN BUY INTO THAT HYPOCRISY?
The voters who love you this year might just hate you next year.
The so called, “RULES” the talking heads claim to follow change each year.
This is a beauty contest. The resulting matchups are meaningless.
OkSU has a legitimate argument for playing against LSU. The problem is ESPN has deemed them unworthy. So they won’t get their shot.
I wonder….if LSU loses to Alabama and OkSU wins their bowl…is is possible they would leap over Bama for #1?
Eric C.
December 4th, 2011
10:45 pm
the inconvenient truth, are you Bama Stan? Chill out dude…it’s just a game.
puppies
December 4th, 2011
10:45 pm
they didnt stop us last game but we sure stopped them.
GT Fan
December 4th, 2011
10:45 pm
All of those bellyaching about the NC game should take a deep breath and remember that all of the schools involved sold their souls to the television/BCS/ESPN devil for financial gain. Why else do we have college football on Tuesday and Thursday and three times as many bowl games as can reasonable be construed to be rewarding excellent performance? A set of rules exists, contracts exist, and the rules were followed in the naming of the final two contenders for the crystal football. Whether you like it or not, the procedures were followed. Those who don’t like it should convince their favorite institution to drop out of the BCS and give up the money. Don’t hold your breath on that outcome! At the end of the day, the crystal football is only of importance for a short time. Anyone remember who won it in 2003 without looking at a reference?
puppies
December 4th, 2011
10:46 pm
espn didnt vote. the coaches did.
bamaboy
December 4th, 2011
10:46 pm
Georgia you and The Atl rag are a joke. You got a taste of the SEC West yesterday.
When is the next Black out at the Dog Bowl.Remeber that one? I wish we played
GA. every year. Roll Tide!
Blackoutanyone?
December 4th, 2011
10:46 pm
kerryb… Southern Miss won there’s as well. What’s your point? Look I understand being upset about 2007. Who wouldn’t be? But if you know football.. which I would guess you do.. then you can’t deny Bama is one of the two best teams and Oky State isn’t. Beyond that the rest is fluff to argue about.
Dick
December 4th, 2011
10:47 pm
Enter your comments here
Dacusville Bill
December 4th, 2011
10:47 pm
Why bother with a National Champ Game? Just award it to whoever wins the SEC and let whoever beats Vanderbilt in a bowl game be Number 13 behind all the SEC teams–
cmon man
December 4th, 2011
10:47 pm
uga fans are so jealous of any other sec school having success, particularly Bama. if uga nation would focus the energy on their own program they would be much better off than wishing the worst for others in the sec. in 2007 uga got blown out by Tenn and lost to unranked South Carolina team but still believe they deserved to be in the big game. they lobbied so hard that in 2008 they started the year at number 1 but then said it was too much pressure to be number 1. also at the beginning of this year most uga fans wanted richt gone, now he is a great coach after 10 low quality wins and blown out in their own house by LSU. UGA needs to stay on the porch because they never have nor they never will run with the big dogs. should change their name to the uga puppies.
DEEP THROAT
December 4th, 2011
10:47 pm
WHY DO YOU THINK ADAMS (UGA PRESIDENT) DIDNT GET THE NCAA JOB? IT WAS ABOUT THAT SAME TIME THAT ESPN HASHED OUT THEIR CURRENT 15 YEAR CONTRACT WITH THE SEC. HOW INAPPROPRIATE WOULD IT APPEAR, IF THERE WAS A FORMER SEC SCHOOL PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF A (CORRUPT) SYSTEM COLLUDING TO PLACE THE CONFERENCE HE WAS ONCE REPRESENTING AT THE FOREFRONT OF ALL OTHER CONFERENCES, TO ENSURE ESPN IT’S LARGE PIECE OF FISCAL PIE.
puppies
December 4th, 2011
10:47 pm
i know it wasnt ga for sure
DP
December 4th, 2011
10:48 pm
It’s too bad Georgia doesn’t have a “brand”, isn’t it? This Alabama team would whip any team Georgia has ever fielded.
The Bear
December 4th, 2011
10:48 pm
@GT Fan there was alot of talk by several schools dropping out of the NCAA this year.
SEC Fact Finder
December 4th, 2011
10:48 pm
Lets ask one more question.
Put Oklahoma St, Oklahoma, Texas and Baylor in the SEC. Give them Florida or Tennessee’s schedule, where do they finish. This was just an odd year where UGA did not play the top three teams in the conference, in normal years they play at least two of the top 4 teams in the conference and yet UGA still has a heck of a team, played LSU great for 33 minutes.
My opnion is that Oklahoma St would have lost two to three, Oklahoma would have lost 4, Texas would have lost 5 to 7, and Baylor would have lost 5 to 7. Got to have more respect for Texas A & M for realizing that finishing 6 and 6 was not good enough, fired their coach and know that playing in the SEC means upgrading their entire program.
Eric C.
December 4th, 2011
10:48 pm
BC$ Slave, absolutely no way that would happen…would be funny though
Realist
December 4th, 2011
10:49 pm
GTBob, I don’t know who would win if Bama and Ok State played. But I watched Bama dominate a lot of teams this year, and I’m not sure how good a banged up Oklahoma team is at this moment. Fact is, both teams had control of the situation, both lost on missed field goals, and left it up to a bunch of voters and computers.
DEEP THROAT
December 4th, 2011
10:49 pm
By representing the conference as powerful and unyielding each and every year and not pairing them with the most powerful out of conference teams in bowl games (ala UGA vs HAWAII vice UGA vs. USC in 2007), it ensures that the best High School athletes (the one’s with NFL aspirations) will give SEC schools the benefit of the doubt and consider them first and foremost. They can only take so many of the best athletes each year. Usually the most athletic and smartest. Everyone else gets the rest. To gain some equal footing those schools have had to break a few rules to entice these athletes away from the SEC. The media (ESPN has their hands in a lot of pockets) has created this powerhouse conference but refuses to allow them to prove it on the field. Yeah, you get the token games like a young talented but inexperienced UGA team against a seasoned Boise St team in the first game of the year. And LSU vs. OREGON, again early in the year, knowing that with their “strength of schedule” a loss could be overcome and explained when referencing their “BODY OF WORK” at the end of the year. All of this is thought out well in advance. It’s calculated and no other college sport has that kind of open end of year format that allows for politicing and smoozing to determine who is going to play for a championship that doesn’t even exist in any kind of official records.
Jay
December 4th, 2011
10:49 pm
So I guess the ny giants didn’t deserve to win the sb in 2008 cause they lost to NE the last week of the season and they also didn’t win their division. Nice logic.
the inconvenient truth
December 4th, 2011
10:50 pm
HEY ms– NO ONE GIVES A RAT’S ass WHETHER OR NOT you WILL WATCH BAMA AND lsu AGAIN………………BET A lot OF FOLKS will WATCH– DID YOU SEE THE RATINGS FOR FIRST GAME?
GOD YOU UGA FANS ARE LOSERS– JUST LIKE YOU COACH, AND YOUR SPORTS WRITERS……………HEY BRADLEY– BAMA’S “BRAND” HAS WON A BOATLOAD OF NC……….GUESS TO A BAMA HATER LIKE YOU THAT ACCOUNTS FOR NOTHING………….THANK GOD most of the country, who actually WATCHED these games, saw that bama can do what NO ONE else in the country can do…………stand toe to toe with LSU
your choice of ok state explains why you can watch Mark Richt led teams year after year and actually think you can win anything of importance with tat collection of underacheivng, undisaplined thugs.
DEEP THROAT
December 4th, 2011
10:50 pm
REDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!! WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WISE UP??? BOYCOTT THIS GAME AND MAKE IT VOCAL. IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER WHO WINS OR LOSES THIS GAME ANYWAY. NEITHER TEAM HAS AN OFFENSE THAT CAN MOVE THE BALL ON THE OTHER and LSU HAS ALL BUT BEEN DECLARED NATIONAL CHAMPIONS REGARDLESS. I WONDER HOW OK ST WOULD DO WITH THEIR POWERFUL OFFENSE. Would it be a scoring duel? UGA proved that if you have players that can execute and hold on to the football, you can score against LSU’s vaunted defense (they dropped two sure touchdown passes in the first half…youngsters). And their offense can be stopped or slowed down. I believe OK ST would give them a run for their money….no pun intended.
After this season is over, ESPN has some explaining to do. AND I HOPE THERE IS A CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE GETS INVOLVED BECAUSE I DON’T TRUST CONGRESS EITHER. You can bet, with the kind of money involved in this thing, anybody can be bought.
Yankee
December 4th, 2011
10:50 pm
Bradley, you are a minor scribbler/flack, and you have no more credibility than the BCS or any pundits. You are merely a little pimp for the Braves, Falcons, UGA, GT — or whatever loser you desire to flog in that dinosaur for which you toil.
Dick
December 4th, 2011
10:51 pm
damn alabama fans, you guys have to come in the great state of GA to get the 4/5 state recruits, the state of bama dont have the caliber of players that GA does ….hahaha
bitter michael jackson
December 4th, 2011
10:51 pm
TREE KILLERS—————–trolls with a rebel flag
War Dang Dawg
December 4th, 2011
10:51 pm
Who cares, it’s all nonsense anyway. I’d rather be in Okie State’s shoes than Bama’s anyway. Okie State won the only legit title they could play for, and Bama lost the only legit title it could play for. A mythical championship is good for bragging rights, but not much else.
Eric C.
December 4th, 2011
10:52 pm
Bama choked during regulation, and especially in OT vs LSU…they gave up 300+ yds rushing to the mighty Ga Southern. They don’t deserve to get another chance.
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:52 pm
Dan, LSU needed a INT for a TD near the end of the game to barely beat TN in the championship game and lost their last game at home in 2007. UGA after that TN game was beating all of their opponents by 30 points. That UGA team would have crushed that LSU team in the title game on 07 if they had a chance to play them
puppies
December 4th, 2011
10:52 pm
if you think they are mad now, just wait till BAMA blows them out like the blackout.
DEEP THROAT
December 4th, 2011
10:52 pm
After this season is over, ESPN has some explaining to do. AND I HOPE THERE IS A CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE GETS INVOLVED BECAUSE I DON’T TRUST CONGRESS EITHER. You can bet, with the kind of money involved in this thing, anybody can be bought.
Dawgs1965
December 4th, 2011
10:53 pm
Hey, Mark? If Alabama loses to LSU on January 9, what are the chances the BCS can organize another game in early February to decide the national championship? Because it appears that if you’re Alabama you get to play the number one team until you win.
Dick B
December 4th, 2011
10:53 pm
damn alabama fans, you guys have to come in the great state of GA to get the 4/5 state recruits, the state of bama dont have the caliber of players ….hahaha hahaha
Lamar
December 4th, 2011
10:53 pm
HEY INCONVENIENT TRUTH!!! YOU HAVE TO BE A BAMA FAN!! WHY? Because only somebody from a REDNECK state with a THUG FOR A COACH would like to see this NCG! OLD MILES TOOK OVER FOR SATAN AT LSU AND HAS WHIPPED OLD SATANS BUTT EVERY TIME THEY PLAY! TRUTH BE TOLD, I BET OLD SATAN WOULD RATHER BE COACHING LSU OVER THE BAMA JOB!! BY THE WAY, NEXT YEAR WE GET YOUR REDNECK BUTTS, AND WILL BEAT YOU LIKE A DRUM! AT LEAST WE COULD SCORE A TD ON LSU, HOW MANY TDS DID OLD SATAN SCORE????? ZEROOOOO!!! REDNECK!
Dick B
December 4th, 2011
10:53 pm
Enter your comments here
Eric C.
December 4th, 2011
10:53 pm
When this season is over, UA will have nothing to be recognized for…no division title, no conference title, no BCS title. At least UGA has a division title, lol.
kerryb
December 4th, 2011
10:54 pm
Jay
December 4th, 2011
10:49 pm
So I guess the ny giants didn’t deserve to win the sb in 2008 cause they lost to NE the last week of the season and they also didn’t win their division. Nice logic.
___________________________________________________________________________
You’re comparing apples to oranges. If you can’t see the difference you have no sense. the NFL has a playoff system. The season IS the playoff system in college football.
puppies
December 4th, 2011
10:54 pm
bama has gave up 9 tds in 12 games. you can have all the yards you want buddy.
DP
December 4th, 2011
10:54 pm
Georgia loses to LSU by 32 and Bradley writes of Georgia that “progress is evident”. Alabama took LSU to overtime, blew out everybody else they played, and Bradley pretends that he believes that makes Alabama’s body of work less impressive than Oklahoma State. He pretends that Georgia, which lost 2 games in 2007 including a 3 touchdown beating from Tennessee, had a claim to the BCS championship game in 2007 that is comparable to Alabama’s case this year.
Steve Spurrier was right about Bradley.
5IML
December 4th, 2011
10:55 pm
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