Oh-klahoma! Swooners take ‘C’ out of BCS

Monday, Dec. 8, 2003 | 9:44 a.m.

Acouple of weeks ago in this space, I wrote that college football fans should wait until the BCS runs its course until once and for all removing the "C" from its title.

Actually, that still holds, I guess. If LSU beats Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and Michigan does the same to Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl, travesty avoided. The Bayou Bengals would be national champs, and without an asterisk.

But would that mean the system works?

That, I must admit, has been reduced to a rhetorical question. Anytime a rabbit's foot is just as important as win and losses in deciding which of college football's fat cats gets its name emblazoned on the commemorative football for new Sports Illustrated subscribers, the system, which tried to turn Spam into filet mignon, needs tweaking. With a king-sized tweaker.

Or a hammer.

In that I've got letterman jackets from Ridgemont and Rydell High hanging in my closet, I'm one of those old-school guys who would like to go back to the old system with one notable exception -- after the bowls are over, let the sports writers, coaches, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Beano Cook and Ralphie the Buffalo determine the two best teams at that point, and have them square off.

Do not let Trev Alberts vote, and please, can we unplug the laptop computers? Common Sense is still a touchdown favorite over Raw Data in my playbook. Teams that do not win their conference championships should not be allowed to win the national one. Not even in the NFL, although nobody seems to have a problem with it on that level.

So why not make it simple? One game, winner take all. Like a prizefight. Only without Don King.

I remember writing something similar about three or four years ago, when the BCS was experiencing its first growing pains. But I was amazed to learn Sunday through a wire-service story that the one-game, post-bowl scenario will receive strong consideration after the current contract expires in 2005.

A full-blown playoff system doesn't work for me, not because of the logistics, which probably could be worked out, but because it cheapens the importance of the regular season. The beauty of college football is that a game in September is just as important as one in November. You don't get five or six Mulligans, like in the NFL.

Likewise, there are a lot of reasons to like the bowls, at least when they were named for fruit rather than Fortune 500 companies. Without them, the only thing the good teams from the Mountain West and Conference USA and the other Little Teams That Could conferences would have to look forward to is cramming for final exams.

But before you are too hasty to criticize the BCS, look at the bright side. Although I'm not sure how it happened, it wound up giving us a Rose Bowl that looks like our old man's Rose Bowl.

Call me old-fashioned, but the granddaddy of all the bowl games is going to be a lot more enjoyable this year without the fake nose and glasses.

The starting 6

KANSAS STATE 35, OKLAHOMA 7: How thorough was the Wildcats' dominance of the vaunted Sooners? K-State had four plays go for longer than 60 yards -- the first-, second-, third- and fourth-longest plays allowed by the Sooners this year. Kansas State had 519 yards and averaged 8.9 yards per play against a defense that supposedly was more efficient than NORAD. Not that OU's Bob Stoops isn't an outstanding coach, but I think Bud Wilkinson's legacy is safe for at least another year. Ditto Barry Switzer and Chuck Fairbanks.

LSU 34, GEORGIA 13: Give Tigers coach Nick Saban credit. After LSU routed Georgia and before he learned of Oklahoma's fate, he didn't accept an invitation to the Sour Grapes Bowl, even when it was conceivable that LSU would be odd-man out at the Sugar Bowl. "If we had not lost that one game, we wouldn't have the problem we have right now," Saban said. "We believe in the system and we will live with the system. It's probably not a perfect system. Until we have a playoff, which I've never been in favor of, we'll probably never know who the best teams are."

SOUTHERN CAL 52, OREGON STATE 28: If the Trojans didn't seem totally outraged when they were shuffled out of Sugar Bowl despite their No. 1 ranking, it might be because many of them as kids dreamed about playing against Michigan or Ohio State in the Rose Bowl -- which is their lovely parting gift, after the BCS failed to hammer three square pegs into two round holes in New Orleans. Guess it beats the home game of "Concentration." As USC offensive tackle Jake Rogers said: "Growing up, I dreamed about putting on the cardinal and gold and playing in the Rose Bowl. Playing for the national championship would be a tremendous honor. But the Rose Bowl has been my dream since I was a kid."

NAVY 34, ARMY 6: The victory gave Navy the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy, awarded annually to the NCAA team that runs the option the best with little guys (the three service academies). "It's huge," Navy quarterback Craig Candeto said. "It's something none of us have experienced." In fact, it's something no Navy player has experience since 1981, the last time the Midshipmen won it. If you count the Falkland Islands, which, is kind of like playing The Citadel in September, that was three wars ago.

SYRACUSE 38, NOTRE DAME 12: It was the first meeting between the teams in 40 years and the outcome dropped the Irish to 5-7 -- their third losing season in five years, something that had never happened in the storied history of the program. Not even when Gerry Faust was coach. It also may have helped Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni's quest to spend another winter freezing his butt off, as his future is said to be tenuous despite a 101-53-1 record in 13 seasons.

BOISE STATE 45, HAWAII 28: In the last game of the regular college football season, the 12-1 Broncos WAC-ed the Warriors in Hawaii. I know what anybody who don't reside in the least regarded of the panhandle states is thinking: Big deal. Exactly. In that Hawaii also was one of USC's victims, it knocked the Trojans a little farther down in the strength-of-schedule criteria that is so crucial to the BCS standings, thus opening the door for LSU a little wider.

Big men on campus

Stats enough

Kansas State's 35-7 win against top-ranked Oklahoma gave the Wildcats their first conference title since taking the Big Six in 1934. Kansas State also beat a top-three team for the first time in school history and will play in the Fiesta Bowl, its first BCS game. ... Ted Roof was hired as Duke football coach after going 2-3 as interim coach. Under Roof, the Blue Devils snapped their 30-game conference losing streak with a victory against Georgia Tech and a 13-game skid against rival North Carolina.

Division I-A Lite

A look at the top teams in the non-BCS conferences:

1. Miami of Ohio (MAC): Ben there, done that with QB Roethlisberger.

2. Boise State (WAC): Book 'em, Dan-o. Broncos repel Hawaii challenge.

3. Bowling Green (MAC): Big Ben clocks Falcons again.

4. Northern Illinois (MAC): Cinderella almost forgotten.

5. Southern Mississippi (USA): The Eagles have landed in the Liberty Bowl.

6. TCU (USA): Frogs right at home in Fort Worth Bowl.

7. Utah (MWC): The joy of Utes being felt in Memphis.

8. New Mexico (MWC): Dontrell Moore vs. Steven Jackson in Las Vegas: What a rush.

9. Navy (IND): Middies sail into Houston Bowl after routing Army.

10. Connecticut (IND): Not half-bad for a basketball school.

Games we'd like to see

In this space each week the Sun usually presents a dream college football matchup, with statistics and highlights provided by Lance Haffner Games' 3-in-1 computer simulation.

This week, the game we'd like to see is 2003 Southern Cal vs. 2003 LSU in the Sugar Bowl.

So out of protest, we'll use this space to contemplate what should have been.

archive