Another Year, More BCS Futility

Utah completed their perfect season last night beating a talented Alabama team rather convincingly. The Utes finished the season 13-0, the only undefeated team to qualify for a BCS bowl. Going through a D1 schedule undefeated was the easy part, trying to explain to their family, friends and fans why they will likely finish the year 4th or 5th in the final polls is the hard part.

This Utah team beat everybody on their schedule including tough non conference wins at Michigan and home against Oregon State. The Mountain West finished with three teams inside the top 20 and Utah beat the other two, BYU and TCU. Their final win of the year came against a team ranked number 1 in the country for several weeks during the season. What else could they do?

Instead, this year's national champion will be a 1 loss team from the Big 12 or the SEC. Florida and Oklahoma are both worthy candidates but it is sad they are the only two. What makes Oklahoma more worthy than Texas (the only team to beat the Sooners) or what makes Florida more worthy than USC? For my money, no team in the country is playing better football than the Trojans right now.

This is all a round-about way of highlighting just how stupid the BCS system is. Even when the pundits claim they got it right, it proves to be horribly wrong. Why was 1-loss USC held out of the title game? Because they play in an inferior conference with a weak schedule. Never mind the fact that the Pac 10 is 5-0 in bowl games beating some pretty impressive teams along the way.

Why was it just assumed that the top two teams had to come from the Big 12 and the SEC? Because those two conferences were just so much better than everyone else top to bottom. Really? Then how come the Big 12 is being embarrassed this bowl season losing to teams like Ole Miss and Oregon? Why did they need overtime for a one-time Heisman candidate led Mizzou to beat lowly Northwestern? Why are they desperate for a dominating Texas win on Monday night just to save face?

With two big bowl games left, we have found out a lot this year's top teams and top conferences. Mostly we have found out that the national perceptions were horribly, horribly wrong. The Pac 10 was painfully underrated, the Big 12 painfully over so. The SEC was just like the ACC - as we expected, no better, no worse. And Utah? Well maybe this will be the catalyst towards small conference recognition on the big stage. But I doubt it.