Stanford coach David Shaw says that the BCS system is broken. Well, of course it is. And of course it is for Shaw, whose Stanford team lost to Oregon and is now all but out of the BCS championship game.
Yes, Coach Shaw, the BCS is flawed. And this year could prove it more than ever.
LSU GETS SCREWED: First off, we could see LSU be the lone undefeated (well, other than Houston). This LSU team will have had to have win the SEC West division ... which right now owns the top three ranked teams in the BCS standings. Back in the day, if LSU won the Sugar Bowl ... no matter who it was against ... they'd be national champions. Now they'd have to play a one-loss team with the winner being named champion. How is the BCS better, again?
ALABAMA GETS REMATCH: The big winner of the LSU-Arkansas tilt Saturday could be Alabama. No matter who wins, Alabama is sitting pretty. If LSU wins, that means Alabama (provided they beat Auburn) would finish 2nd in the SEC West and NOT have to play in the SEC Championship game ... which could have been a loss ... and still get to play in the BCS Championship game.
We could get an Alabama-LSU rematch for the championship. If Alabama won that game, they'd be National Champions despite splitting with LSU (both teams only loss would have been to each other), not winning their conference championship and not even winning their division. Yep, our NATIONAL Champion was neither a conference nor division champion.
***Note, I do see the irony in the statements I make about "winning conference" and all of that. I do understand that our defending Super Bowl Champion (Packers), NBA Champion (Mavericks) and World Series Champion (Cardinals) all finished in 2nd place in their divisions during the regular season. But those sports have playoffs and those sports don't harp that "every game counts". The entire point BCS backers and college football fans say is that every game counts and your season makes your champion. ***
LSU LOSES TO ARKANSAS: If Arkansas beats LSU ... there is a huge mess. If Alabama beat Auburn and won the SEC West, they'd be in the SEC title game and (with a win) the BCS title game. This is despite Arkansas beating the team that beat Alabama ... who did beat Arkansas earlier this season. And where does that leave all those one-loss teams like Stanford? Where does that leave undefeated Houston?
Not wrap your head around this: Say Arkansas barely beats LSU and Alabama beats Auburn. Most likely the BCS rankings would be Alabama #1, Arkansas #2 and LSU #3. Alabama goes to the SEC title game and somehow loses it. That would move Arkansas and LSU into the title game despite NEITHER team winning their conference or division championship. Amazing.
And what about Georgia? In this scenario, they would have beaten Alabama in the SEC title game and would have actually been the champions of the conference that house both of the BCS championship participants. Wrap your head around that.
WHERE DOES HOUSTON FIT? Every game counts? Tell Houston that when one-loss teams are playing for a title. And you wonder why all this realignment crap is going on. The BCS has caused this entire mess.
FORGET THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME FOR A SECOND: Remember that the BCS runs five bowls ... not just the title game. While some good teams will not get a BCS bid, Louisville could. Louisville could become Big East champions with a 7-5 record.
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