BCS snake oil salesmen have seen their stock plummet to an all-time low in the wake of yet another Bowl Championship Sham.
That's what happens when you peddle poisonous propaganda that sickens a nation of college football fans.
Maybe the bogus BCS hasn't violated fans' trust as ruthlessly as some of the nation's financial institutions have violated John Q. Public's.
But BCS power brokers have been selling a bill of goods in much the same manner, by promising something they know they often can't deliver: a legitimate national champion.
Thursday night, the top two teams in the BCS standings, Oklahoma and Florida respectively, will play for the BCS title. It's billed as a national championship game, but fair-minded, logically thinking fans aren't about to be duped.
They realize the best claim to the national crown has already been staked by a team not even playing in the title game: Utah, also the only team in the Football Bowl Subdivision to achieve perfection by going 13-0.
Maybe if the Utes hadn't played anybody, hadn't beaten a single ranked opponent, you could dispute their claim. But that's not even close to being the case.
They capped their unbeaten season last Friday night with a 31-17 victory over No. 4-ranked Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. It was, for the most part, utter domination.
Remember, Alabama held down the top spot in the polls and in the BCS standings for five straight weeks. The Tide led Florida 20-17 heading into the fourth quarter of the SEC championship game, before falling to the Gators, 31-20.
And Alabama isn't the extent of the Utes' impressive wins. Their championship resume also includes victories over TCU (13-10), Oregon State (31-28) and BYU (48-24).
TCU (11-2) handed Boise State its only loss, 17-16, in the Poinsettia Bowl, and will end up ranked in the Top 10 of the final Associated Press poll, as will 12-2 Alabama.
Oregon State (9-4), which handed No. 5 USC its only loss, 27-21, will be ranked in the Top 25 in the final rankings, along with 10-3 BYU.
The BCS doesn't release standings after the bowl season; its final edition immediately follows the conference championship games. For the sake of salvaging some semblance of credibility, that's probably a good idea. How would it look if, after a final analysis, the computers and polls wised up and ranked Utah No. 1?
Oklahoma and Florida may be the two best teams in the country. But without a playoff, there's really no way of knowing for sure, unless you trust the BCS system to be infallible. And chances are most fans have seen enough by now to know that's not the case.
In fact, most have come to realize it's terribly flawed and more often than not, one or more teams are going to get the BCS shaft. Along with Utah, this year you could add the Fiesta Bowl and Rose Bowl winners, 12-1 Texas and 12-1 USC (for a second time), to the growing list.
One thing we do know about the Sooners and Gators is that they're beatable. They've proven that. Oklahoma lost 45-35 to Texas on a neutral field, and Florida lost to Mississippi, 31-30, at home.
And one of them is going to end up with two more losses than Utah and, in all probability, with a lower ranking in the polls.
Ironically, the very argument used to defend the BCS system can also be used to declare the Utes national champions: If the regular season is the playoff and you take care of business week in and week out, and if your body of work justifies it, in the end, you will be the undisputed champions of college football.
In that vein, for what it's worth, The Unbalanced Line declares Utah the 2008-09 national champion.
Hopefully, the Associated Press poll will give Utah its just dessert as well. Shame on any of the sportswriters in the AP poll -- which no longer is tied to the BCS -- that don't cast their No. 1 votes for the Utes.
There's absolutely no harm, no foul in a split championship, especially this season. At the very least, Utah deserves a share of the championship.
As for the BCS title game, The Unbalanced Line picked the Oklahoma-Florida matchup at the start of the season. But unlike last season, when it reneged on its preseason pick of LSU and went with Ohio State to win it all, The Line has no intention of making a similar mistake this time around. The call: Oklahoma 34, Florida 31.
Some college football bigwigs -- university presidents and conference commissioners -- are bound to continue peddling their poisonous propaganda. But it's killed enough spirits to wise up most people.
Fortunately, there won't be any bailout for the BCS. Its collapse is imminent; it's just not happening quick enough.
(Contact John Tucker at jtucker@unionleader.com)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnUNBALANCED LINEMust credit New Hampshire Union Leader
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