The Institute (協会)

Can this be my place to vent? First of all, I'm a Georgia fan and in the end I do NOT feel that they got completely hosed. I have no problem with LSU passing them. Any team that wins the SEC should be the first considered.

But the BCS should drop its 'C.' Yesterday's results demonstrate why. No credibility whatsoever. And the media has no credibility either. the media first: they have been soooo wrong sooo many times this year. one example..."there is no way pitt beats wvu." why do we let them now choose who they 'think' is best when they are wrong week in and week out? Also, here is my UGA complaining: though the BCS doesn't have a rule against those who don't win their conference playing in the championship, the media automatically ruled out UGA, almost politicking against them for the last two weeks.

And the computer rankings? Anthony, please tell me you saw that? VT #1?!!! Are you kidding me? This is where I'm screaming: KANSAS FINISHED AHEAD OF MIZZOU AND MIZZOU FINISHED AHEAD OF OKLAHOMA IN THE COMPUTER RATINGS!!!!!!! What else do you need to delegitimize the whole system? How come no one is talking about this?

Unbelievable. I feel helpless. Though most of the country (except the Bigjoke 10 and Pac 10) wants a playoff, I don't have hope in getting one. In the end, how can anyone make an argument in this season who is the most deserving? How ANYONE who doesn't financially profit from this system can think this is a good system (and don't anyone say the whole season is a playoff - that is ridiculous) is so beyond me that I....okay, I'm done. This is just wrong!

As a Sooner fan, I'm pissed too. The best thing that happens to OSU was that they got to stop playing games for 2 weeks. I'm also sick of hearing LSU fans (and coaches) brag about how close their losses were. Well, if close matters, then look at the close wins too. They barely beet Florida, Auburn, and Tennessee. Oklahoma lost 2 games as well and both of them were close (and 1 was without their starting qb) but all their wins were huge.

I think was really ticks me off is that several coaches voted OU behind Missouri and Kansas. What? Kansas I can at least understand the, "they only lost 1" argument, but how do you vote OU behind a team they beat twice? Now we have to watch LSU play a home game against a mediocre Big 10 team and get handed another national championship. I'm hoping that LSU barely wins and that Virginia Tech or OU wins huge just so we can get another split championship (i.e. I'm hoping for even more chaos at the end).

Yeah, the good old Bowdens both ranked Mizzou ahead of Oklahoma.

Hey why isnt Hawaii playing for the Championship...does 12-0 mean nothing???

Pat Forde: "...the BCS doesn't exist to serve college football fans. It serves to protect the rich and help them get richer."

Dillon asked, "Hey why isnt Hawaii playing for the Championship...does 12-0 mean nothing???" I would typically tend to agree with you there, but I think Hawaii would have to at least put a few college teams on their schedule for that to be a valid arguement.

I second Paul's complaint about LSU. Yes, their losses were close. But look who they were playing. It's as if they are bragging about almost beating Kentucky and Arkansas. How does that make sense? I can see how they made it to the Championship game being SEC champions and all, but I watched four or five LSU games this year and was unimpressed by them as a team. They were athletic enough to squeak by, but not a good team. Michigan dodged a bullet by not getting Les Miles (if it is true).

And yes, Ohio State's season is a joke, Missouri got ripped off big time, and a 12-0 Hawaii does mean nothing.

The Auburn - Clemson match-up should be interesting, not on a national level but for those of us who follow those programs.

George, LSU..."not a good team?" Are you serious? I'm not sure anyone could argue that someone is obviously better. For as long as I have been watching football, every season, every championship team squeaks by with a few games that they probably didn't deserve to win. That is the way it goes. No team blows everyone out. LSU has had its 3 best players hurt at various, crucial parts of the season. If Bradford for OU doesn't get knocked silly, then OU beats TTU. But those things happen.

Honestly, in it's own strange, ironic way, this seems like a fitting end to the season, don't you think? That said, I totally agree about OSU having no business in the national title game.

But in any event, my Huskers got Bo Pelini (the next Bobby Stoops?) as our HC so I'll be in a good mood for the entire bowl season no matter what happens.

Jeremy, I am serious. They are talented and they get by on that, but they should be way better than they are as a football team. In every game I've seen them in this year I've walked away wondering how they won (or when they lost, how it was so close?). The teams that beat them played well with lesser talent and won. And when they won the close ones it is only because they had the talent to last longer. I'm not saying they shouldn't be in the championship game, I'm saying I'm not going to watch it because I don't think they are a good 'team'. They aren't fun to watch and it's hard to root for a bunch of guys who play terrible football and just get by on their natural size and talent. And I'm certainly not interested in watching them play a boring team like Ohio State.

In a way, I feel vindicated by the Ohio State/LSU match-up. Ohio State is an overrated team. They're not very good and they've had a ridiculously easy schedule. Their constant presence in the top 10 has been a sore spot for me all season long.

LSU on the other hand has been the best team this season. Their schedule was tough and rigorous. And I think this game will only serve to validate SEC fans' claims about our conference as well as point out the complete sham of the BCS system. As Jeremy pointed out, it's time for the BCS to drop the 'C.'

But I still don't understand why Georgia didn't play LSU for the conference title in the first place.

George, since you're an Auburn grad, I must now consider you an "enemy combatant" until after the new year.

I hope you file our grades before the game. After Auburn proves that they are the superior orange-colored, southern-college-town-named tigers you may not be inclined to be as gracious.

davidm: Why couldn't you make a case for OU, or USC to be "the best team this season"? The SEC is a good conference, but they're not too far above the Big 12 and even less above the Pac 10. Tennessee is terrible and LSU barely beat them. I think, given our system, one should just deal with what they get because there is always going to be a team that can make the case that they got screwed (e.g. Michigan last year). But that doesn't mean you can automatically say that OSU & LSU are the two best. LSU got really lucky that both OU & USC lost while their qb was out. And yes I know that LSU's was out on Saturday but they ran a lot of the "two-qb" system before that injury, neither USC or OU did. LSU also had time to prepare for the backup to play before the game (he didn't get hurt mid-game and screw up the gameplan).

Can I gripe that LSU is in? No because our system sucks and someone is always going to bitch and moan. But I can still maintain that LSU isn't necessarily the best in the country.

Hawaii totally deserves their shot at facing Ohio State. You cannot argue with a perfect 12-0 season in the midst of this year's amount of teams with 2 loses. How quickly everybody has forgotten about Boise State's victory of Oklahoma last year in the Fiesta. I think this year would have been the perfect year to give a team like Hawaii a shot.

Hawaii's opponents went a whopping 53-102 and that includes the one ranked team they played, Boise State. Yes they're 12-0, but only 2 of those 12 teams have a winning record and 2 of those wins were against I-AA teams. Hawaii may be a good team and they should get a chance to prove it by playing a ranked team with a winning record that's not in their conference. They shouldn't get that chance in the national championship game though.

Boise State proved last year that they were a good team. They beat Oklahoma and should be congratulated. Should they have gotten a shot at the national championship though? No way. Last year OU wasn't nearly as good as Florida, OSU, Michigan, or USC and it took a couple of miracle plays at the end for Boise State to beat them. They go their shot, made the most of it, and won. But that doesn't mean they should've played OSU instead, and neither should Hawaii this year.

The Sooner is right. It is ridiculous to say that LSU is the best team this season. There is no way to know that. They lost twice, for crying out loud--once to a team that fired its coach because it so underperformed and once to Kentucky. Yes, I said Kentucky.

Can we please, please stop idolizing the SEC here? The SEC is as overrated as Ben Affleck was after Good Will Hunting. The difference in quality this year between the SEC, Big 12, and PAC-10 is negligible. Then the Big 10, Big East, and ACC are in another indistinguishable pack a little bit behind.

I hold no illusion that Hawaii is the best college football team. But it was the only team to win every game it was asked to win. How else are we supposed to judge who the best team is?

Here is my dream: OSU and LSU play an ugly, boring 13-10 game (which is very possible); OU and KU each win by 20 or 30 points (which is very possible); and either HAW or UGA win big (either of which is very possible). Then you will conceivably have 4 teams with legitimate claims to "best team" considerations. That would bring us right up to the brink of a mini-playoff or at least plus-one championship series.

"Can we please, please stop idolizing the SEC here?"

No.

"The SEC is as overrated as Ben Affleck was after Good Will Hunting."

Nice bit of rhetoric, but no one is that overrated.

"The difference in quality this year between the SEC, Big 12, and PAC-10 is negligible."

The PAC-10 is as overrated as Ben Affleck was after Good Will Hunting.

"Then the Big 10, Big East, and ACC are in another indistinguishable pack a little bit behind."

True.

Since the only thing you can count on this year is the unexpected, here's how it will end: Ohio State will beat LSU by 30 points and be declared the undisputed champion. :)

george: It's not often that I laugh out loud in response to a post. The bit about the Pac 10 (instead of the SEC) was quite nice, thanks.

I think a lot of you forget that the polls, INCLUDING the COACHES poll, are factored into the BCS as well. I'm not a BCS apologist, but the more people talk about how corrupt the system is the longer it is going to stick around. Ohio State received 15 first place votes to LSU's 2 in the MCS poll. For those of you wondering what the MCS poll is...

"The Master Coaches Poll, an advisory poll comprised of 17 former college football coaches, includes 11 College Football Hall of Fame Members and represents eight national championships and over 3,000 victories combined. Based on the MCS system, the voters review all of the relevant game tapes following each week of competition, discuss each teams’ performance during a weekly conference call, then establish a ranking of the Top 25 teams."

I think those people know a whole lot more about football than everyone who has posted here.

Jeremy R.
A quick look at how current coaches voted it's obvious that more than football talent goes into this. Is it sheer coincidence that the Bowdens voted OU lower than anyone else? Why would former coaches not allow personal grudges to influence their decisions too?