College football needs a playoff system.
There. Now that I've gotten that obligatory statement out of the way, one that you're all tired of hearing by now, even if you do wholeheartedly agree with it, we can move on to what is.
Without said playoff, we have once again, what amounts to a large buffet spread of bowl games, none of which get any of their teams closer to the championship — well, not this year's championship, anyway — and the championship game. These bowl games generally only become notable or memorable in one of two cases: 1) a team snubbed from the title game like Oklahoma State is involved or 2) the game has a wild, dramatic finish, even if it didn't win them anything other than that bowl game.
Also, if a future star ends up in performing well in said game, it will vastly improve its replay value on ESPN Classic, but that won't begin to happen until the game has aged some five years.
Otherwise, much of the holiday bowl games are simply glorified consolation games to make the winning team feel good about something to end their season. This is not exactly something America can really sink its hyper-competitive teeth into. At best, they can be looked at as satisfying hypothetical questions of who would win and what would happen if this top team played that top team. Yet in the end, this decides and satisfies nothing more than our curiosity.
So since I mentioned Oklahoma State, they will be playing in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on January 2 against Stanford. This creates a double-whammy of interest as the team supposedly snubbed from the title game does battle with QB Andrew Luck who was supposedly snubbed from the Heisman Trophy. Therefore, both teams should have major chips on their shoulders and doubters who need to be proven wrong. Not to mention Luck will undoubtedly have some scouts from the 0-13 Indianapolis Colts in attendance at that one to see if he continues to be No. 1 pick worthy.
So that makes one non-title game bowl game that will be worth watching. Any others have mass appeal outside of the college football diehard?
Well, let's see, Boise State is usually fun to watch, and a great sentimental favorite of the anti-establishment to crash the party. Ranked No. 7 this year, BSU lost their only game to TCU in the exact same fashion as last year. A 39-yard field goal from freshman kicker Dan Goodale that would have won the Broncos the game may have even taken them as far as the title game had it gone through the uprights accounted for their only loss of the season. Instead, Boise State battles unranked 6-6 Arizona State on December 22 in the MAACO Bowl. So much for that one. Looks like its all the kicker's fault again.
So let's just move on the title matchup itself. Many groaned when realizing that LSU vs. Alabama was set in stone for a couple of reasons. No. 3 ranked Oklahoma State was the fun choice to root for; they are not a traditional powerhouse team, they are this year's BCS crasher to come up just short once again. The denial of a title game for OSU naturally fires up more vain cries for a playoff in college football that will once again fall on deaf ears.
Because every other team sport we follow does have playoffs, it is only natural to think in terms of playoff eliminations, and so many college football fans have used the argument that Alabama already had their shot at LSU and they lost, why should they be given another chance? After all, Oklahoma State won their conference championship, while Alabama was not even selected to play in theirs. Instantly, the mentality is one of playoff advancement, despite being in a system that is not defined by playoff advancement.
The reason Alabama was not in the SEC title game was they are in the SEC West, just as LSU is. Naturally, LSU was the SEC West representative after defeating Alabama earlier in the season in their 9-6 overtime matchup (more on that later). However, this has nothing to do with the computer rankings involved with the BCS. They weight the toughness of the conferences, in which the SEC is the strongest overall, and they factor in strength of schedule and particularly strength of losses. While both Alabama and Oklahoma State defeated four ranked teams on their way to their not-so-identical 11-1 records, OSU had their one loss to unranked Iowa State, while the Crimson Tide lost their one game to the top-ranked team in the nation.
The simple logic here is if you had as tough a schedule in as tough a conference as anyone, and you lost only one game all year to the team that was already ranked No. 1, and it was by a mere 3 points in overtime, don't you still deserve to be ranked No. 2? The answer is yes, and that is how we got here.
That game, played on Saturday, November 5 of this year, is the other reason many were unhappy with the title matchup. There were no touchdowns, not even in the shortened fields of overtime. Fittingly, the defenses of both teams are also ranked No. 1 and 2 in the nation in points allowed, and this was on display that day. The heavily anticipated game was criticized as a snooze-fest for those holding their breath for big plays and offensive drives. Now the fear is we will have another 9-6 game for the title.
Certainly, though, these are not inept offenses, as both teams regularly reach 30 and 40+ points in their games, even against highly-ranked opponents. As the saying goes, "a great throw beats great coverage." At some point, even the top defenses have to have breakdowns when going against potent enough offenses. Plus, football is simply a chaotic game; there are too many variables for the same scenario to repeat itself verbatim just because the same two teams play each other a second time. The odds of this title game being the same type of no-touchdown punt-fest are remote.
My case in point for this is from the NFL, but still valid. The 2007 Giants and Patriots famously met up in Week 17 and battled to a wild 38-35 shootout with drives and touchdowns going up and down the field at a hectic pace. The rematch in Super Bowl XLII was nothing of the sort, as the Giants overcame the Pats, 17-14, in a much uglier defensive struggle that was still 7-3 Patriots after three quarters. The same two teams met twice and played two completely different kinds of ballgames. Whose to say that can't happen with LSU and 'Bama, as well? After all, even a 20-17 type-score is acceptable and entertaining for a title game.
This might not be the year the system gets a playoff, and next year might not be, either. Yet there have been much bigger messes made by the BCS than this. Rather than file the usual complaints, I just suggest you sit back, take whatever you can out of the many smaller bowl game dishes, and enjoy the main course of LSU and Alabama for what it is and what it can be. Happy holiday bowling, everybody.
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