I prefer the old poll system because it didn't pretend to be something it wasn't. There were 2 polls. They could select their own champs. It was clearly a beauty pageant. No ifs ands or buts. What we have now is a beauty pageant that is pretending to be a playoff system, when the reality is that it is anything but. It starts by eliminating half the teams before a game has ever been played. Now once the games start playing, only teams from 2 or 3 conferences really stand a chance at playing for the title with 1 or 2 losses. Of the other conferences 'eligible' to play for the title, they will need to produce an unbeaten champion or face replacement by a 1 or 2 loss team from the super conferences. The BCS is just a fraud. It is not what it claims to be. When the integrity of it is challenged, they point towards all the controversy the system creates and tells you that justifies its value. Only those directly rewarded by this system find any value in it. There is no credit to be had in the BCS system... None
I don't know Corey. A system that pits #1 vs. #2 no matter what bowl tie ins exist is a helluva lot better than the bowls lining up their games by early November the way the old system had evolved in to. I would venture we had less legit champions in those days.
But it pits #1 vs #2 based upon who THEY say #1 and #2 are. regardless of other unbeaten teams. It is a beauty contest. Like I said, at least the poll system didn't pretend to be something that it wasn't. This entire system is ********. In time, hopefully, it will be replaced by a 16 team playoff. And I take great exception to their being less deserving NCs before. At least using the poll system, we had multiple NCs in some years. The system had the humility to say... we don't know without them playing. Now we have a system that says 'we know' when the reality is that they don't know a damned thing except that they are getting richer and pissing people off in the process. For all the clamoring you do for regulation in other areas, it is REALLY ironic that you back the BCS system. It is the ultimate haves sticking it to the have nots.
BCS Ultimate Nightmare. All 5 BCS conferences produce unbeaten champs, Mtn West and WAC produce unbeaten teams, and Notre Dame goes unbeaten!! Lol...talk about a fight!! Terry
Corey, if you had the power to get this done I think you can tell we all agree. However since you don't then you are shoveling crap against the tide and railing to hear yourself talk. And while you haven't done it in a few posts, congratulations by the way, you set the SEC up as your personal straw man and punching bag. That's why it's kind of hard to take you serious. By all means use all the power at your disposal to get the 16 team playoff. I believe 90+ percent of the posters here would love that.
Dave, Remember.. the AP 'doesn't count' anymore. Sure they can award it, but it falls in line now with the great number of unrecognized titles. Bill, Hardly, as I've mentioned before.. I've unloaded on the Big12 before. You just continue to attempt to marginalize me and my opinion by making this about the SEC and it is not. No Bill, I can't tell that at all. I don't hear many of you guys say you'd prefer the 16 team playoff over the BCS... at least not too many Gator fans. You are correct, I am absolutely powerless in all of this. However, Congress is not and I do hope that they push this forward. The BCS does not have any solid ground to stand on. Their very best, last defense is to blame it on the NCAA for turning it over to them.. and as we've seen, the NCAA can be bullied. I'd like to see the issue forced, and I think one day it will.
I haven't chimed in on this in quite some time. 1) I am in favor of a playoff. 2) Congress has far more important issues to conquer so they can keep thier dirty noses out of it. 3) Be careful what you wish for. When an unbeaten Notre Dame loses their star QB to injury in the semifinal and loses to a 3 loss Troy in the final game, I don't want to hear "If we had the BCS we would be the champs already." :?
Corey has said before he doesn't think injury is a part of the final determination of things in college football. You just buck it up and move on he says but really...this is not the NFL and when Michigan goes with a one armed Chad Henne vs. OSU a couple of years ago it was because the healthy back-up was an untested freshman. If Tebow goes out vs. Alabama I am almost certain that Oklahoma wins the NC. So of course I couldn't disagree more with Corey's thinking on that and I agree with you that by the time we get to a national champion in a 16 team playoff we either have a very diluted product or an extremely lucky team injury wise. I want neither of those as the last team standing....I want the best product on the field that we can get with all the pieces in place as much as possible and even a plus one format may not achieve that because of the injury factor. Heck...if OU and Florida had played the week after Bama the Gators would still have been without Percy Harvin and that could have been the difference also in favor of the Sooners.
Tom, Quite possibly the greatest ND season in recent memory came in a year in which super phenom (now QB coach to give you an idea of how long ago it was) Ron Powlus went down right before the start of the season. What followed was one of the single greatest seasons a QB has ever had at ND. If not for the 'Bobby Bowden lifetime Achievement Award' national title, they would have won the NC that year.. Still, a damned fine season and nothing to be ashamed about. You can read more about KevinMcDougal if you want. You wouldn't hear me crying about that because, as Dave pointed out, you play with what you have. Dave, Why play these games at all? What you're calling for is the beauty pageant, so why bother with this BCS mess? Go back to the poll system. You said: Its a garsh damned contact sport!! Why not just declare the winner of the SEC and the Big12 according to the media, and then accordingly let them play for the title? Play it out on the field where it should be decided.
Injuries are a part of the game and they do determine champions. No doubt there are more than a few Champions in any sport who might not have gotten there except for a key injury to another team. It's the breaks.
I don't think any major sport college or pro depends as much on it's stars as does college football. The NFL always has a player that teams can plug in if need be and college basketball is more prone to being disrupted than NFL football but not as much as college football because of the infrequency of injuries in roundball and also the great BB teams have the talent to make up for it usually. In CFB the top guys on either side of the ball can make or break the team's performance especially in the toughest...playoff type games. In any event I like the 5-6 weeks the teams get to heal up a few dings and major injuries and then show what they've got. Witness LSU last year who was far and above a better team when they played Ohio State after a 5 week rest than when they had to play Tenn at the end of the season. And I do not subscribe to it's fair for everyone because some teams get snakebit by injury and some do not and that's just luck of the draw.....or bad luck in having to play a criminal mind like the Seminole's Darnell Dockett when UF's Earnest Graham was purposely injured vs. FSU the week before UF played Tenn. in a crucial...SEC East deciding game in late 2001.
IMHO the 1966 ND football was the best team that they've had during my lifetime. I say that even though they didn't go undefeated. However the tie that spoiled their season might have been there best game. Somehow on the way to E. Lansing to play 9-0 (ranked #2) MSU the Irish lost their first team AA RB Nick Eddy. In the first half they lost their starting QB Terry Hanratty and their other starting running back. Their first team AA center George Goeddeke had a severe ankle sprain but played the second half limping to and from the field. What was left of this team trailed 10-0 on the road. Despite the injuries, they fought their way back and just missed a game winning field goal in the 4th quarter. The following week they took their beat up squad out to LA and beat SC 51-0 and won the NC. And how was this heroic effort reported by the national media? Oh yeah, "Ara played for the tie."
Geez Gipper you sure have a long memory and grudges from the past. As I recall, that playing for the tie eded up with Notre Dame winning the National Championship. Why in the world you would still have negative memories about that it beyond me. Here's the way I feel about all those folks that complain about the Gators winning our last two National Championships. Tough beans. And I think 90% of the critics and second guessers and people who think Utah should have won reside right here on Skybox. Which of course is not the same as saying the majority of Skyboxers think Utah should have won, but that there are significant little bunch who feel that way. Mostly a few Notre Dame fans who seem to remember back to 1966 and beyond.
I'm not saying that there were no teams that played through injuries and were successful. If Tee Martin had gone down in 1998, I think we were prepared with backups. Tony Robinson did go down in the 1985 season and Daryl Dickey took over. He was considered a huge drop off in talent from Tony. However, it was Daryl that led Tennessee to the 35 - 7 victory over the Hurricanes in the January 1986 Sugar Bowl.
Florida beat a great Tenn team in 1985....and it was solidified by Robinson going out for the game early. Maybe it didn't make a difference but I think it did.
There probably have been more NC's won by teams who benefited from some other teams misfortune than have just swept through the season destined from day 1 to win the NC. I don't really want to do the research to find all the circumstances that luckily put the NC in the position to win the NC. And I also want to point out that there are more poll voters outside the SEC states than there are inside them. No doubt that '66 ND team (actually it was more Ara who took the brunt of the criticism) was unfairly criticised for the tie in E.Lansing that day. But in the end they were rewarded with the NC and they clearly were the best team in college football that year. Until we have a 16 team playoff there will always be teams who some say didn't deserve to be in the game that decides the NC. Might be better to go back to awarding the title before the bowls like they did for so many years. Terry
gipper, Still stealing my yawn I see. Any miscarriage of justice to Notre Dame that you want to tell us about from the 1940's or 1950's? Terry, always the man of logic and common sense.
How funny that you'd say that just 2 weeks after North Carolina wins the basketball title.. Without that guard who had been injured, they go out way before the Final Four.