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Lindsay: Follow Obama to end of BCS?

Submitted by SHNS on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 15:42

Leave it to our popular president-elect to tap into the passionate issue of college football fans.That's what Barack Obama did last week when he mentioned that he favored a Division I college football playoff. Noted to be almost as astute of a sports fan as a politician, Obama would hardly need to cross party lines to find bipartisan support for the end of the Bowl Championship Series.It's hard to get Democrats and Republicans to agree on the economy, taxes, the war on terror, to name a few issues. But one thing donkeys and elephants can unite over is the distaste for the BCS, a clumsy, cartel-like albatross that has hung around college football's neck the last 10 years.This year looks like another train wreck. This week's BCS top five -- Alabama, Texas Tech, Texas, Florida and Oklahoma -- features the Big 12 and SEC, easily the nation's two best conferences.But then consider that Texas Tech travels to Oklahoma on Nov. 22. A Sooners' win there would likely vault them up the BCS standings. But uh-oh, OU fell to Texas, 45-35, last month. So presumably Texas would stay ahead of Oklahoma, right?Wrong. The Coaches' poll this week ranks the Sooners fourth, a spot ahead of the Longhorns. Both schools are 9-1, except that since the loss to Texas, the Sooners have scored a combined 231 points in wins over Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska and Texas A&M.Of course, these are the same coaches that voted several years ago to remove margin of victory from the BCS system. Talk about a political flip-flop.Meanwhile, unbeaten Alabama and Florida already have a date in the SEC title game Dec. 6. So what happens if the Gators, who will be favored, prevail? Do they move ahead of once-beatens Texas, Oklahoma or Texas Tech, not to mention No. 6 USC? After all, the Gators are the only team in the top eight with a loss at home to an unranked team (Ole Miss).It's always this way -- controversy leading to chaos. Remember that the BCS has given us two national title game participants (Nebraska in 2001 and Oklahoma in 2003) that weren't even Big 12 champions. And don't forget how Miami was hosed out of the 2000-title game in favor of Florida State, despite having an identical 10-1 record that included a 27-24 win over the Seminoles.The BCS model only works when there are two and only two unbeaten teams from the BCS conferences, as happened in 1999, 2002 and 2005. That scenario actually came about six times in 1988 to 1997, when the BCS began. But three times the schools didn't meet due to existing bowl agreements, resulting in a pair of split national titles (Miami-Washington in 1991 and Michigan-Nebraska in 1997).Yet the inherent problem with the BCS is that it is a con game -- merely the old bait-and-switch. Disguised as a way to promote a No. 1-vs.-No. 2 national championship game, the BCS was simply cash grab by the 65 schools that make up the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, Pac-10 and Big East.Don't believe it? Consider that in the year before the BCS debuted, the Sugar, Rose, Orange and Fiesta Bowls paid out roughly $8.5 million per school. This year's games will pay around $19 million. To quote another ill-fated political motto: Mission Accomplished.Obama, commentators, columnists and fans can moan all they want about the BCS. But it's simply not going away anytime soon.So let's try to appreciate its few strong points. Two of the best championship games ever (Ohio State's 2002 overtime win over Miami in the Fiesta Bowl and Texas over USC in the Rose Bowl three years later) came about only because the BCS was around. They weren't possible under the old bowl system.ESPN analyst and former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie also astutely pointed out that if there were a playoff, coaches of top teams would be forced to rest players for late season games. As any frustrated fan, bettor or fantasy football player can attest, the last two weeks of the NFL season often are as meaningless as the pro game's wretched preseason. We don't need that on Saturdays.Face it. We'll get a D-I playoff only when TV decides it's time and comes up with such obscene money that strapped college presidents will have no choice but to ram it past the NCAA powers-that-be. We're nowhere near that point yet -- especially with ESPN and Fox reportedly battling to ante up as much as $500 million for the next four-year extension keeping the current BCS system intact.UPSET PICK: Feeble Clemson dropped us to 4-7. With hopes dwindling for our first winning season, let's try host Houston to knock off 5-point favorite No. 25 Tulsa on Saturday.LINDSAY'S LOSER: Can it get much worse at North Texas? The Mean Green fell to 1-9 with Saturday's 46-13 embarrassment at Florida Atlantic, NTU's eighth loss by 27 points or more this season. North Texas is 8-37 since the start of the 2005 season and coach Todd Dodge recently suspended 15 players for failed drug tests. Hard to believe the Green once ruled the Sun Belt, winning four straight league titles from 2001-04.(John Lindsay is sports editor of Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com. Contact him at lindsayj@shns.com)