Monday, December 01, 2008

Big (12) Mess

Ivan Maisel has a good article up about the situation in the Big 12. The heat is going to be on the BCS, but it's really the conference's fault for using the BCS as a tie breaker. I found this website that lists the tie breakers for the BCS conferences. The Big 12 had to go down to the fifth tie breaker to send Oklahoma to the the championship game. But if they used a different set of tie breakers, say the Big Ten's, the results could have been different. The third tie breaker in the Big Ten is least number of Div. I-AA (FCS) schools played. By my count Texas Tech played two, Oklahoma played one, and Texas played... zero. Texas would be going to the Big 12 championship game, and no one would get to complain about the BCS. Doesn't that sound easier?

4 comments:

Ump said...

Okay, who isn't praying for Oklahoma to lose in the Big 12 championship game? If they lose, Texas will be sent to the BCS National Championship, yet, they weren't even good enough for their own conference title.

I'm officially on board for a 4-team or 8-team playoff. I'm even considering that if there were to be a 4-team playoff, I'd make every conference play a championship game. If they elect an 8-team playoff, I wouldn't let any conference play a conference championship.

Big Daddy said...

Let's not blame the BCS for this mess. It's job is to pick the number #1 and #2 teams in the country, not pick championship games. The BCS has 1 Job to do and that is after the last week of the season. One of the biggest problem is "Championship games". Either everyone or no one. Furthermore when is the Big Ten going to either get a championship game or move the season back to finish with everybody else. Nothing like a 2 Month prep time for a bowl game. (If there were no championship games how many times would the system been screwed up? Someone should research that.)

I am not in favor of a playoff, if there was a playoff then only a four team. Furthermore, what do we hear in starting in mid January, "who's on the bubble". We hear arguments for a month and a half about who's number 66. If there was a playoff (8 Team) there would be the same argument because well were does Ohio State fit and what about Penn State and what about 2 loss "Blah Blah" who's playing well.

Is there injustice in the current system about timing of a loss, absolutly, but I would rather hear that argument then water down the playoff that is every week in college football. No one would care about 1 loss. I love March Madness. I couldn't care less about College Basketball in december. The only team I even remotely pay attention to is my team and frankly if they lose a game to #5 UCLA or win one against #5 UCLA. It means very little in the overall picture. Bottom line, if there was an 8 Team playoff the key to success is just don't lose 2games. Ivan's got it right, the BCS gets the heat for most of the other injustice in college football.

Late

Stack said...

I'm with Big Daddy on the playoff thing. The only reason college basketball gets away with it is because the tourney is so large no one really cares about the last team to get in. If they had to only pick 16 teams to play fans would go nuts.

Ump said...

I'm rooting for a 4-team playoff, but only if they figure out how to hand the conference championship inconsistencies. It would be unfair if 12-0 OSU gets in the playoff yet Texas is bounced because they were 12-0 but lost their last game (the Big 12 Championship).

Really though, it never really matters what they do. It all comes down to one game. Alabama might beat Texas in the National Championship, but they could play two more times and Texas wins both. So, who's the better team then?

It sounds to me there needs to be more regulation. If a team doesn't play in or can't win their own conference championship, I don't care how good they were, they have no excuse to be included in the 4-team playoff.

Heck, some teams (USC, Florida, Texas, T. Tech) start Aug. 30 and don't finish until Dec. 6 and they had two bye weeks during the season. Texas and T. Tech don't play on Dec. 6 but they still had two bye weeks. USC will play 12 games and have two full bye weeks plus one week they played on a Thursday following a bye week. You could make the argument they had three bye weeks.

You may say you aren't in favor of a playoff, but nothing has worked to get the "two best teams." Right, the arguments will always be there about "bubble teams", but standards could be set in place (i.e. You must win the conference championship, etc.).

Here is what I think would help the BCS and avoid the Playoff chatter:

1. Make every conference play or not play a championship.
2. Make all teams play the same number of games.
3. Set limits or regulations on the number of 1-AA teams on a team schedule.
4. Teams cannot lose 2 conference games.