BCS revisited

Regular readers of this column who do not have damaged brains know my general opposition to the BCS. Now I descend into that hell of a system just to play devil’s advocate.

Long live the BCS!

(I should go to confession for that lie).

To those who would like to go back to the good old days when writers and coaches voted for the champions, I say, “There were never any good old days; they were just days.”

And to those who push for playoffs like that meddler Obama, I say, “Sure, right after you pay the players, oops—students, more since they are the ones missing school and time with their families during the holidays just to satisfy your insatiable need to pig out on college pigskin, you selfish pigs.”

With an eight-team playoff, the two teams in the finale will have played three games after the regular season. That would give Florida a total of 16 games, same as 24 NFL teams. So I say, pay the boys like the pros and then I’ll agree with a playoff.

Here’s what we learned, not just from this season but from the last two which gives a better overall picture of what’s going on with conferences.

The most underrated, over maligned league is the Pac10 with a record of 9-2, thereby justifying a miffed Trojan Nation for being excluded from the champs game.

The SEC is right there with them making six more bowl appearances, thanks to more quality teams, to compile a gaudy 13-4 record. The SEC has won the last three championships and is now 5-0 in BCS championship games. That makes the case for automatically putting the SEC champion into the BCS final.

With a 7-3 record the Mountain West conference is a surprisingly third best, meaning Utah deserves more respect.

The Big 12 is an impressive 9-6, similar to the Big East at 7-4. In retrospect, Texas may have given Florida a better game than Oklahoma.

Here’s the fact: the Gators blanketed the Sooner receivers and held the highest scoring team in college history to 40 points below their average. There is no reason not to believe that Florida would also shut down Texas. For the record, no team played more bowl teams this season than the Gators who went 10-1 in those contests. Those opponents went 8-3 in bowl games.

In other words, the BCS got it right by getting a deserving champion.

The most overrated conferences have to be the ACC and Big 10. No conference has sent more teams to bowls over the last two years than the ACC which has gone 6-12. Likewise, the Big Ten stinks up the postseason with a sorry 4-11 record.

The worst conference record belongs to the Mid-American at 0-11. The Western Athletic is next at 2-7.

The final argument for keeping the BCS is that it makes college football one of the most talked about and hotly debated sports in the country. Seeing how arguing is one of sport fan’s favorite pastimes, that’s a good thing.

President Obama should not worry about getting a college playoff system. Instead he should concentrate on more important things, such as getting a Russian-Chinese visa waiver program going for the CNMI.

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