Sports Sunday

Those of you who know me know I'm not a sports fan. I never watch pro football or any pro sports for that matter. I do like college sports in small doses though. That brings us to NCAA football and the horrible Bowl Championship Series (BCS). I agree with Dan Wetzl here:
Anarchy reigns

When it comes to the Bowl Championship Series (or at least the inevitable death of the stupid thing) I, like any right thinking person without a direct rooting interest, have become a situational anarchist.

The more profoundly screwed up, controversial and embarrassing the college football championship system gets, the better.

Only something completely ridiculous can spur a storming of the castle, a rebellion by the television folks or the SEC deciding to stand up for its self-interests. The BCS does a terrible job of determining a champion. It's designed not to serve the players, coaches or fans, just the corporate coffers favored by the commissioner of the Big Ten.

But while the BCS shares many similarities with the cockroach, it can be killed. A nuclear winter would do it and after Kentucky beat Louisiana State in triple overtime and Oregon State stunned Cal, well, let's just say the missiles are in the air.

Boston College vs. South Florida in the BCS title game, anyone? How about either of them against an Ohio State team with exactly zero quality wins?

The two strongest Conferences ate the SEC and the PAC-10. They have depth and kill each other in Conference play. The likely number one this week will be Ohio State.

Consider Ohio State, which considered this a rebuilding year. Its non-conference schedule consisted of Youngstown State, Akron, (last-place) Washington and Kent State. Not surprisingly, they won them all.

It's not Ohio State's fault that everyone else lost and the Buckeyes are now the likely No. 1. But it doesn't change the fact that perhaps no team has ever reached the top of the polls this late in the season with a less impressive body of work.

It also isn't Ohio State's fault that the rest of its league has tanked the last few years – it's possible there won't be one other ranked Big Ten team this week.

But suddenly the Buckeyes are in the driver's seat and have a dream slate lined up in front it.

That's the problem:

But that's just the kind of schedule the BCS rewards. Play no one but win and you've got a heck of a shot of making the title game as the rest of the country beats each others brains in. The best route to the title game is to play in a mediocre to moderate league with no more than one or two other good teams.

That's the Big Ten, ACC and, to maybe a slightly lesser extent, the Big East.

None of which means that an unbeaten champion of those leagues are better than a one or even two loss team from the SEC, Pac-10 or perhaps even Big 12.

While Ohio State may be number one this week there probably won't be another ranked Big-10 team. Meanwhile:

For the second consecutive week, the SEC should have seven teams ranked teams. Seven! The Pac-10, meanwhile, had four of the top 14 teams last week.

This is your BCS, though. It punishes good leagues and rewards bad ones.

And Wetzl concludes:

One loss, to a ranked team, on the road, in triple overtime will send you reeling behind someone with no losses, but no challenges either. It's quite a system. It needs to go.

Let anarchy reign.

Amen