Colorado is going where they should be going, yet they should be playing Florida in the Fiesta while Nebraska goes down to the Orange Bowl to play Maryland. IMO, Oregon should be playing Miami in the Rose Bowl. Blame it on UCLA mostly. Had they not fallen so badly the last half of the season, then Oregon would have had better strength of schedule. Same with Stanford. Oregon is 2nd in both polls, but lagging in computer rankings and strength of schedule, plus getting hardly any quality win components.
What determines the BCS rankings has finally been shown. It's not just how you do, it's how the teams you've played do. Oregon took care of business on the field, losing once. Colorado didn't and lost to Fresno St to start the year off. Yet Colorado is #3 in the BCS over Oregon. I hope the Ducks kick the crap outta the Buffs.
There is a lot wrong with college football, IMO. The BCS is just one of them. Conference championship games are another. Texas and Tennessee both beat Colorado and LSU in the regular season. Why should they have to play them again? You don't see Illinois or Oregon having to play someone they beat again. As a result, Nebraska gets the nod without even winning their division, let alone their conference.
IMO, all the conferences should have a championship game, or none of them should. It's considered necessary in the Big 12 and SEC where you have 12 teams in each and they can't all play each other in the regular season. However, the Pac-10 and Big 10 (err, 11 with Penn St, right?) don't all play each other in the regular season, and don't have a champ game. The ACC and Big East do play each other in the regular season, so there is no need for a champ game. IMO, get rid of the Big 12 and SEC champ games. Since the NCAA has extended the season, play everyone in your conference once; team with the best conference record (or winning via tie-breaker rules) wins conference. This means 11 conference games and 1 or 2 non-conference games for the Big 12 and SEC, but hey, Florida will play 13 games next year if they win the SEC east and Oklahoma would have had 13 this year if it made the Big 12 champ game (BYU did play 13 games this year).
Ideally, you'd have 10 teams in each conference, play 9 conference games, 3 non-conference games. Go to a 16 team playoff system, conference champs get automatic bids (gives the weaker conferences a "shot at the big boys") and at large bids for the other spots (given to highly ranked 2nd place teams or independent teams, i.e. if Notre Dame got good again.) Bowls would still be played, and the big 4 could still be used as part of the playoff system somehow (maybe 2 do semifinal games, the other two get the champ game and 3rd place consolation game).
Realistically, it's a pipe dream. Never will happen. Money is the motivating factor of everything now. BCS is just to get the 6 major conferences richer, SEC and Big 12 make out this year again, with 2 teams in each. It worked fine in 98 and 99, but broke down last year (yeah Deja, here's an FSU fan that knows Miami shoulda gone to the Orange Bowl last year!) and is bad again this year after being tweaked. It's actually just 0.05 points away from letting a 2 loss team jump several legitimate 1 loss teams.
phew! that was a rant and a half!
