BCS Madness...

Look I'm a realist, I know that I'll never understand why 1 billion people around the world watch soccer and get all excited over a 1-nil score. I'll never understand why people in Wisconsin are obsessed with cheese. And I understand that college football president are so desperately against a college football playoff, but will never understand their logic (or lack of it) behind it. Louisville took a big step toward a possible BCS title game berth with a 44-34 rout of West Virgina Thursday. With Ohio State and Michigan headed to a showdown in Columbus on the 18th one of these teams will fall by the wayside in the national title chase. Oh the loser will still get to a BCS bowl trust and believe that, but the fact remains that there will be some soreheads whining when the bowl bids are handed out. At the time of this post there are but 5 remaining unbeaten teams. That number will be whittled to three come Sunday November 19th. Louisville has to travel to Rutgers (Rutgers???) Thursday to take on the plucky and unbeaten Scarlet Knights who have never been in this heady company. If the Cards win they should finish unbeaten though a game vs Pitt still could be a test. If the Knights win they would still have to beat the Mountaineers. If all three teams end up with one loss, hte BCS would breath sigh of relief and the football pundits would pat the Big East on the head throw them a lesser BCS game and say begone. Would the college football esatblishment have a fit if Rutgers beat Louisville and complete a perfect season. Oh they would get a BCS bowl bid, if they win out they would be big East Champs outright and get the bid automatically. But I can already hear the carping from locales like South Bend, Gainesville, Austin, Chestnut Hill and Auburn that carp that they should be further ahead in the food chain, becuase of prestige and money...nevermind that the aforementioned teams all have at least one loss. Louisville has a little bit of prestige,t hough they are not that far removed from a 1-10 seasonn. But they aren't a national power.
In the cases of teams like Notre Dame (blown out in their own crib by #2 Michigan) and Texas (Thumped in their own crib by #1 Ohio State) they should keep their collective mouths shut.
But KJ, the other teams advocates cry, we play in a tough tough league we beat each other up, its so hard to go unbeaten. I say save it. Keep winning and the accolades will come.
Then you have the most curious case of the Boise State Broncos, the team that the college presidents wish would just go away. Back in the day, after Tulane threatened to sue the NCAA because they were getting locked out of the BCS after a 13-1 season. The BCS instituted a rule if a team was in the top 12 of the BCS standing they were guaranteed a BCS slot. Yikes. Do you see a Rutgers-Boise State game in the BCS. Dont laugh its a possiblity. Rutgers right now is at 12 and Boise State is at 14 in the latest BCS rankings. A nightmare scenario would be for Rutgers to beat Louisville badly and the BCS would have no choice but to move the Scarlet Knights up. Boise State aint losing the rest of the season but they will get dogged for having a weak schedule. But the bigger conferences will sneer at their competition and say you cant use that as an excuse...but they can for their standard bearer having one loss on their record. Boise State will never ever be on the schedule for an SEC power cause the risk is too high and the reward is not nearly enough .
Nonsensical??? Wait it gets better.
Notre Dame knows that they have a BCS bid locked up. I've railed on their mostly powerpuff schedule before so I won't rehash it here, but the Irish have a higher computer score in 5 of the 6 rankings than West Virginia (this was before Thursday's game) and they were higher than Louisville in all of them!!! But the Irish who will likely get exposed as the BCS fraud that they are when they play (and lose to) USC later this month, will likely get the BCS berth despite 2...count em 2 losses!!! While Boise State and Rutgers who may have one loss between them will go to a minor bowl and wonder why they got the shaft. Also because of contractual obligations Navy will eat one of the Big East's 6 bowl bids when they become bowl eligble in the next week or two meaning my beloved Cincinnati Bearcats might get locked out of a bowl despite being bowl eligble with 6 wins.
I've said before and I'll say it again, the BCS is a bunch of crap. The bowls whine about the prestige and the college presidents say things like they are concerned about the kids. Bull, its about control. Plain and simple, how come a three weekend 65 team playoff is good for the basketball and makes a stinkload of cash for everyone involved but the same cant be worked out for college football??? Simple and plain this is the last bastion of control the college presidents have. A system where even if you aren't playing for a national championship you get the luster of being on tv, the prestige of saying you're a (insert corporate name here) bowl champ. where a 8 or 16 team knockout tourney would diminish the power of the blue hairs that can wield power and the multi-million dollar checks out like halloween candy...
Let the Madness begin!!!