Can't say it any better so here it is from "The Life Of Riley" on ESPN.com
Some gifts people give are pointless: Styling mousse to Dick Vitale. An all-you-can-eat card to Kate Moss. The BCS Championship given to Oklahoma or Florida.
It means nothing because the BCS has no credibility. Florida? Oklahoma? Who cares? Utah is the national champion.
The End. Roll credits.
Argue with this, please. I beg you. Find me anybody else that went undefeated. Thirteen-and-zero. Beat four ranked teams. Went to the Deep South and seal-clubbed Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The same Alabama that was ranked No. 1 for five weeks. The same Alabama that went undefeated in the regular season. The same Alabama that Florida beat in order to get INTO the BCS Championship game in the first place.
Yeah, that's how it is now in the shameful, money-grubbing world of college football. If you're Florida and you beat Alabama, you get a seat in the title game. If you're Utah, you get a seat on your sofa.
Hey, remind me: What do they give out for one of those BCS things anyway? It's been so long since I cared. Something from Sears? This is the sixth year in the past 10 that the title has been in dispute under this cash-grab, fan-dis, monopoly that the BCS has created. Which is why the title game just doesn't matter anymore. It's like being named Miss Ogallala. Or Best Amish Electrician.
Just take a look at the teams that think they're worthy of being called national champs:
USC? Great year. Wonderful. Let's all go to SkyBar and celebrate. But it lost to Oregon State, a team Utah beat.
Texas? You think beating Ohio State by a nubby three points gets you the title? The Big Ten was 1-6 in bowl games! That's like pinning David Spade!
Florida and Oklahoma? They lost. Utah never did.
So that's it. Utah is the national champion. The Utes should probably have two now, actually. They went undefeated in 2004, too, and their coach still thinks they were the best team in the land. Smart fella named Urban Meyer. Coaches Florida now.
By the way, we're calling our title the "national" championship because it actually includes the whole nation—all 119 Division I schools—unlike the BCS, which includes 66. Yeah, the BCS somehow eliminated the middleman—the NCAA. The conferences these schools play in take their dump trucks full of cash straight from the TV networks and fairness can go suck a lemon.
The Utes won't get the trophy they really deserve, so we gave them one of our own design.
Do me a favor. Call Ohio State president Gordon Gee and ask him why he won't support a playoff. He's one of the most powerful presidents in the NCAA. He could get it done. If he says anything other than, "We don't want to share the loot" then you know he's lying his bow tie off.
"This is not how we normally do things in America," says Utah president Michael Young. "In America, quality usually wins, not conspiracy. And there's a reason people usually enter into a conspiracy. It's money. You make money doing it. And those that are in on the conspiracy want to stay in and keep everybody else out."
Sure, BCS blowhards will hand you schlock about how the college football season is like a playoff, how it's an elimination tournament every week. Really? Well, how come Florida and Oklahoma weren't eliminated with their losses? Utah ran the table, beat everybody set in front of them, including Ala-damn-bama in no less than the Sugar Bowl, and gets the bagel.
Oh, by the way? It was Utah's eighth straight bowl win, the nation's longest streak. Among the losers during that run? Let's see USC, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, and now the legendary Houndstooth Hats.
"What else do we have to prove?" asks Utah's magical quarterback, Brian Johnson. Good question. He and the Utes essentially whipped Alabama at home. Handed Nick Saban a garlic necklace to wear the entire offseason. Stepped on his team's neck 21-0 in the first three possessions and never looked back. Let's see. Who was it that was losing to Alabama until nearly six minutes into the fourth quarter? Oh, yeah. Florida.
What, you want the Utes to win a spelling bee? Make a prize-winning souffle? Knock up Angelina Jolie? What?
It just slays me. It really does.
Call Myles Brand, president of the asleep-at-the-wheel NCAA, and ask him if he and his greedy presidents are going to stand in defiance of president-elect Barack Obama, who said again this week he wants a playoff and wants it yesterday.
Call Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner and BCS bully John Swofford and ask him what he's going to do if Obama starts asking the Justice Department to look into anti-trust violations against the BCS. The Utah attorney general has already launched an investigation into that very thing.
Ask him what he'll do if Obama asks the Department of Education to consider withholding federal funds from these schools that have entered into his secret club. You don't think playing in the title game means millions in general-fund donations for a school? That's as unfair as anything Title IX fought against.
Until all these people do the right thing, I'll be celebrating with the true national champions — the undefeated, untied Utah Utes. (Our new slogan: Utahk about a team!)
Lemonades for everybody!
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There are two great traditions in college footbal that apply to this post. One is an old one. It is college football fans watching bowl games, and now BCS games, in large numbers. Over 26 million people watched Florida beat Oklahoma. The other one is a new one. Which is, people complaining bitterly about the BCS format of choosing a National Champion. It seems to me as long as tradition number 1 continues tradition number 2 will continue right along with it for the forseeable future. ESPN is so confident that tradition 1 will continue that it paid 500 million for the BCS tv rights for just 4 years. 500 million, let that sink your brain. Maybe President Obama can get things changed. But he will not be able to just snap his fingers and have it done. It will cost him polital capital. Will he want to spend it when he may need all he has to work with congress on the economy? Time will tell but I have a feeling tradition number 2 is going to be rolling around next year and the year after that and the year after that and so and so on. I hope I am wrong.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama should have the CIA waterboard a few presidents of the major BCS conferences until they agree to let the rest of the Nation have a shot at the title.
ReplyDeleteThat wouldn't require too much political capital. Hell, you'd only have to re-task about 8 guys from the CIA, and they'd have a Hell of a lot easier time blending into the background in the USA. Tape the torture and you could do a new show on Fox called "Who'd Like to Torture a University President?"
I sense a hit reality show and an improved NCAA football format....
I like it. And you know Fox would be behind it because they lost the BCS to ESPN.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Rick Riley is a worthless piece of crap, but I don't think you are wanting that opinion. The problem with the BCS is that it is an imperfect system created by the biggest and wealthiest conferences to replace an imperfect system that put money into the pockets of the biggest and wealthiest conferences. Until the championship is settled on the field there is always going to be some ass (Rick Riley) that wants to give the national title to a team that did not "win" it. While I think Utah is worthy of a chance to play for the national championship, I am not ready to give them the title because they are the only undefeated team in the country.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to solve this is via a play-off of some kind. This year I think three teams are worthy: USC, Florida, and Utah. You can throw Texas in there too since they beat Oklahoma who got to the title game because of a screwed up tie breaker system used by the Big 12. I saw Florida play in person this season. They were by far and away the best college football team I have ever seen in person, but you never know how they would match up on the field with Utah.
--Lloyd
I am surprised that Jay would be worried. Since Mr. Obama has stated that he wants a playoff, this undoubtedly will be the last year for the current format, for when he speaks, men are amazed and do not even the wind and waves obey him?
ReplyDeleteOn the second day, I expect he is going to cure AIDS, after casting the demons in Rush Limbaugh into some swine. Probably Razorbacks.