BCS Horsepucky, Part 2a
If you're just joining us, BTP is engaged in a bitter blog war with Joetown, web home of my buddy - wait for it - Joe.
The subject is how clilege football's BCS has completely hosed the fighting Wliverines of the University of Michigan. Below is the first part of my latest salvo. You can join the fun by adding your own comments to either - or both - sites.
Previous posts on this topic:
In all honesty, I owe Joe a much more detailed response. Specifically, I owe him a bunch of Urban Meyer bashing after his classless appeal for a title shot. But that will have to wait until tomorrow, because it's way too late to get into all that.
For today, I just want to call attention to Michael Rosenberg's column in the Free Press today.
But to all those people who insist that a playoff system is the only way to find the true "best team" in college football, I have five things to say to you:1. The reigning NBA champion, the Miami Heat, had the fifth-best record in the league.
2. At this time last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers were 7-5. They squeezed into the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the AFC, then won the Super Bowl.
3. The reigning college basketball champ, those very same Florida Gators you know and love, tied for the third-best record in the SEC last year.
4. The reigning Stanley Cup champion is the Carolina Hurricanes. They had the third-most points in the league. But Carolina needed seven games to beat Edmonton, which tied for the 13th-most points.
5. The reigning World Series champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, were 83-78. How weak is that? Arizona State's football team had a better winning percentage each of the past three years -- and the coach got fired.
In other words, for all the flaws of the BCS -- and there are many -- college football still does a better job of crowning the best team than other sports. Even the current controversy will finish with a clear champion: either Ohio State, which will have beaten the next two best teams, or Florida, which will have beaten No. 1 Ohio State.
These five points are absolutely devastating to the argument FOR a playoff. Every year around this time, we hear the battle cry, "The only way to settle it is on the field." Horsepucky, I say. Every other big time sport proves it. Every single one.
All will be right with this when Florida wins the title game in a stunning upset. First, for their loss to Florida, the Buckeyes will be unprecedently embarrassed before the world, which is how God wants it to be. Second, since everyone knows that Michigan is better than Florida, we can then conclude that Michigan is indisputably better than Ohio State, and those ignorant farmboys to our south will suffer even more from our well-deserved jeers throughout the coming year.