College Football: The Argument Against a Rematch or How the BCS Got It Right
So the final pre-bowl Bowl Championship Series (BCS) poll is out, and guess what? Everybody's pissed about something, except for Ohio State and Florida, the two teams that received Golden Tickets to the big game. Different year, same BS for the BCS.
There is no dispute about who should be on one sideline in beautiful Glendale, AZ this January 8 to play in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game. Ohio State (12-0) has handled all comers this year and clearly stands out as the best college football team in the land. But who should they play? Who indeed?
Coming into this past weekend, it looked like the nation was headed for an Ohio State v. USC matchup. The Troy boys had only to beat their crosstown rival UCLA, who came into the game a mortal 6-5 to USC's haughty 10-1. But it was not to be. Apparently grown soft on their success in recent years, USC played like a spot in the BCS championship game was their birthright, and all they had to do was show up and the game was theirs. UCLA wanted the game more and it showed. For their effort, the Trojans backed into the Granddaddy of Them All.
The Southern California condoms will be joined in the Rose Bowl by this year's BCS third wheel, the Michigan Wolverines. The Ann Arbor ankle biters missed out on their chance to play in the national championship game by losing to the Buckeyes earlier this season in Columbus, Ohio. It was a close, exciting, well-played, hard-fought game decided by a last-minute field goal -- hardly a decisive blow in the battle to determine the best team in the country. But when it was all said and done, Ohio State had the game, and Michigan had their chance.
There is no M in Fiesta Bowl. Photo from Ozone.net.
Now Michigan is all busted up because they won't get a chance to play OSU again to really decide who the national champion is. Michigan claims they are clearly the second-best team in the country and deserve another chance to prove they are the best. With USC, Notre Dame, Arkansas, Louisville, and Rutgers all falling in the last few weeks, that left only undefeated Boise State (12-0) and one-loss Florida (12-1) as legitimate contenders to Michigan for the coveted spot opposite Ohio State in the Chip and Dip bowl.
Playing in the WAC, Boise State never had a chance. They could've gone 112-0 and they wouldn't have made the big game. Maybe rightly so, maybe not. On the other hand, Florida has been getting the serious Rodney Dangerfield all season. Despite winning the SEC, which most pundits agree was the toughest conference in the nation this year, and losing only once, on the road at Auburn, some nattering nabobs are decrying Florida's rise to number two in the BCS standings as unfair.
Even if you take away contributing factors such as conference strength, strength of schedule, margin of victory, cheerleader hotness, and the like, logic dictates that Michigan should not be part of the mix. Michigan has played Ohio State once already this year and lost. Why should they get a second chance when Florida hasn't even had one chance yet? Even if Michigan was invited to the BCS title game and beat Ohio State, what then? Both teams would be 12-1 and each team would have given the other its only loss? So what does that prove? How do you determine a national champion out of that toss up? A Michigan win would almost assure a co-National Championship, which is the Granddaddy of All Cop-outs.
If Michigan wins, but Ohio State still gets the national championship, then why even play the game? If Ohio State is going to be ranked number one whether they win or lose, what's the point? And what would be the point of putting OSU in an alleged national championship game against an opponent who won't get the national championship even if they win the game? Conversely, how is it fair to Ohio State to give Michigan the national championship just because they won the game in January instead of November? Does that mean OSU's win in November was meaningless?
An OSU-Michigan matchup would settle nothing, and be about as exciting for the rest of the country as a New York Mets versus New York Yankees World Series.
Michigan and their fans can cry all the crocodile, er 'gator tears they want -- and many are pointing to Florida's vault from fourth to second in this week's BCS poll as evidence of a conspiratorial screwing -- but this year the BCS got it right. The national championship game should be between the two best teams in the nation, and by all systems of measurement currently in place, including common sense, that would be Ohio State and Florida. Winner take all.