the Big East busts, and the BCS should be next

We now have the THE perfect storm and the perfect nightmare for the BCS folks. We went into this week with no teams from the top 6 conferences being undefeated, however, no one was questioning the legitimacy of the teams sitting in the top two spots. Missouri and WVU. But with both of those teams losing, one getting throttled by a very good Oklahoma team for the second time in the season and the other pulling one of the greatest choke jobs you will ever see; the BCS standings and who plays for the BCS championship is completely turned upside down.

First, let's talk about WVU and their loss. WVU losing to Pitt did more to hurt the Big East than they did to themselves. WVU will still go to a BCS bowl game, and will likely be able to put themselves back on track and win that game. But the damage they did the Big East by losing to Pitt, IN MORGANTOWN, after being a 4 TD favorite and on national TV, will once again bring back all of the talk about the Big East not being "deserving" of an automatic bid to BCS games. All of those detractors will start coming out of the woodwork again. It was not even important that WVU WIN the BCS champ game, but to GET to it would have completely solidified and legitimzed the BE as both deserving and as a conference that truly is one of the elite. If you want proof of that, look to the ACC where since the expansion there, all but ONE season two former Big East teams have played for the ACC title. And this year was no exception. Former Big East teams have completely DOMINATED the ACC since that expansion, proving just how tough the Big East truly was....and still is. But that will not get noticed.

As for the BCS nightmare, well, the biggest single problem(s), they have are the two teams sitting the #4 and #5 spots in the Nov 25th BCS poll. Those two teams are Georgia and Kansas. With both Mizzou and WVU losing, ONE of those teams will almost positively move into that BCS #2 spot. Not by virtue of what they did on the field, but by what someone else did not do. But that alone is not the issue. The issue is, how can a team play for the BCS championship game, when NEITHER of those two teams were "good enough" to even attempt to play for their CONFERENCE championship, much less win their conference.

But here is the REAL problem that the "playoff proponents" have and that the BCS apologist always point to. In a playoff system it is ALSO possible that a non-conference champion could be playing for a national title. Unless, of course, you only include the conference champs. But then you have as big a mess as before, with bickering as to one conference being "deserving" while another one is not. I do think there is a solution to this, but it would not make ANYONE happy. And believe it or not the orchestator of the BCS, Kramer, is the one that had the answer, IMHO. A SINGLE 80 team conference. I will put a blog entry up about that some day. But for now, just know that a playoff would not solve this dilemma entirely. To prove that, look at the FCS, (formerly Div I-AA), championships where 3 of the top #1 seeds are out of the playoffs, and are NOT competing for the FCS title.

That is the BCS nightmare they have to face. The problem is, can Va Tech, who is the ACC champ, and sitting in the #6 spot of the BCS, over take both Georgia and Kansas to play for the BCS champ title? At least that way with Ohio State and Va-Tech, you would have two teams that WON their conferences!

If the BCS puts either Georgia or Kansas in the BCS title game, we will hear the biggest uproar for some type of playoff system than we have ever heard before. Not to mention it will be a DOG of a TV game to watch. Who would watch it, other than the fans of those teams?

Add to that, that the AP poll will almost 100% assuredly pick a different team as the #1 team in the nation and we will once again, have a split national championship. Something that the BCS was created to alleviate.

This season is the biggest nightmare for the BCS since it was created. And now the BCS apologists are going to have to come up with yet ANOTHER "tweak" to the system to try and make it work.