TRAVIS’ COLLEGE TOUR
BCS system shows itself to be a complete travesty
Travis Marmon
Division I college football’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS) has been under scrutiny since its inception in 1998. Oklahoma went to the 2004 national championship game as the number one BCS team after being dominated by Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship. Auburn went 12-0 in 2004 but was kept out of the title game. Louisiana State made it to the 2008 game despite having two losses and went on to thoroughly dominate Ohio State.
All of this controversy did no harm to the BCS because its supporters could make the claim that every game mattered during the regular season. This season, that notion was made into a joke.
On Nov. 9, No. 2 Alabama took on No. 1 LSU at home and lost 9-6 in overtime. Because LSU won all of its remaining games, this meant that Alabama would come in second place in the SEC West and their championship dreams should have been crushed. Meanwhile, in the Big 12, Oklahoma State rose to the No. 2 ranking before they fell in an overtime game to unranked Iowa State on the road, leaving LSU as the only remaining undefeated BCS team.
As other contenders like Oklahoma and Oregon fell to two losses, it became clear that Oklahoma State was the team that rightfully deserved to play LSU in the BCS National Championship. Alabama had its chance, and if every game matters, it certainly shouldn’t have a do-over, right? Sadly, no. The Crimson Tide was selected to play a rematch against LSU for the national title, while the Cowboys were forced to play against Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl, guaranteeing the SEC its sixth straight championship.
While there is no doubt in my mind that Alabama is a fantastic team and that the game will be a classic (regardless of the lack of scoring), this is an absolute travesty from the system. The controversial computers that factor into the BCS rankings actually had Oklahoma State ranked ahead of Alabama, but the human voters pushed the Tide into the title game because they play in a conference that has been arbitrarily determined to be better due to its best teams being powerhouses.
Never mind that Oklahoma State beat five currently ranked teams while Alabama only beat two. Never mind that the 6-6 Iowa State team that pulled the upset played the hardest schedule in the nation and were on the bubble of the Top 25 all season. Never mind that LSU had to play Georgia in the SEC Championship while the Crimson Tide watched. Alabama is the second-best team in the nation because they’re Alabama, damn it. Football played outside of the SEC might as well be high school level in the eyes of many viewers.
The entire point of college football’s postseason is to present match-ups that we normally wouldn’t see, yet we find ourselves with a rematch of two teams that play each other annually. There’s nothing national about a championship game between two teams from the same division of the same conference. I won’t complain about how “boring” the LSU-Alabama game is going to be, because anyone who truly loves football should be salivating at these two playing each other, but the fact that the rematch is happening at all is a huge middle finger to the rest of the football landscape.
If Alabama wins the game, their championship will be disputed because they got a second chance. If LSU wins, we’ll all be wondering what could have been.