The BCS and the Stoppage of Talking

Go back and read about it and you will find out that No Owens is not into the BCS. Football is about hitting people in the mouth, not computer averages. That being said, the NFL is proving that the hitting in the mouth concept is going to be a lost art. That holding call in the endzone last night? This isn't soccer. It's too bad that the hard-nosed NFL defensive team isn't going to be able to make it in the league anymore without a finesse offense.

You can't listen to the radio without hearing some idiot fan call in about his solution to the BCS. Some guy talking about "his idea" for a playoff. Let's get this out on the table...there are 3-4 possible playoff concepts. That's it. For those of you who think that your are the one with the best idea ever, everyone has already thought about it so get off you soapbox and go ask your neighbor for some space on his because chances are, you are talking about the exact same thing.

The question comes up all the time of, "Are Ohio State and LSU the best teams in college football right now?" And then there's the, "No, but they are the most deserving teams" business. You're never going to get a complaint out of me that the SEC champion plays for the title. Best conference, best teams, best competition. You win that conference, odds are you should be in. We know how we feel about Ohio State. I think they're frauds playing for an administration that has aspirations of financial prowess and not titles.

People want to say USC is the best team right now, or Georgia. USC lost to Jim Harbaugh, that's enough. Georgia was dismantled by Tennessee, who lost to LSU.

Those are my arguments. Here's my question for you. Everyone talks about strength of schedule and how no one has played anyone, blah blah...but you can say that Georgia is the best team in the nation right now, even though they lost to Tennessee? They you can turn around and say...they play a hard schedule and that's some sort of addition. Are you not following? Good because it doesn't make sense.

If you're going to talk about right now, you can't talk about the strength of teams losses. Especially with Georgia, people talk about how they are a different team now than when they got manhandled by Tennessee. But don't talk about their schedule because if you are talking about "right now," what happened then just didn't matter. Now, you are making excuses about them not being as good then, but oh, they are now. Oh, they beat Florida, they have one good win. Great. Georgia has won one big game all year. Auburn peaked mid-season, that's why they are ranked in the 20's. This being said, they are still better than Ohio State.

So, Georgia isn't as good as advertised. USC has done what? Arizona State wasn't that good all year. And USC hasn't been that impressive. West Virginia is done, Mizzou is done and somehow Kansas stayed int he BCS picture after Mizzou beat them head to head. Sorry, but that's a crime and any Jayhawk fan knows it.

Last year this was easy. Ohio State was undefeated and #1. Some of us knew that they weren't the best team in the land going in. But you can't argue with them being there. Florida won the SEC. That's proof that they should have been there over Michigan. I think the outcome also proved they belonged there.

I don't believe the BCS Bowls or whatever you want to call them should measure on who were the best teams over the course of the season. Because if you have no losses, you aren't going to get penalized. But you could make the argument that LSU and Florida were in fact the two best teams last year. But, if you are undefeated, you belong. That's how college football has been played for a hundred years. All of a sudden, someone loses a game and now, oh, it's about who is the best team right now. Unless you aren't a big-time power a la Kansas. Where is the line drawn?

The bottom line, to me at least, is who's going to be the best team when the bowl season kicks off? I'd say LSU when they get healed up. Now. Here is where I am right and everyone else is wrong. All of you Ohio State haters out there...imagine if we had the old system. Ohio State would be playing USC in the Rose Bowl by definition. This wouldn't be a topic of conversation! If the past decade of bowl lunacy would have always stayed the same, the competition of the bowls would be better! You would see the games that you want to see!

So now, you are going to get split polls? Split national titles? Let me tell you something...I spend a lot of time every fall in Neyland Stadium and there are a couple of signs that claim that the Vols were National Champions about three times more than anyone else knows about. It's probably good for the programs. You think Mark Brunell is caring right now about split titles? What about Scott Frost?

This is what I'd like to see. The old system...including the Cotton Bowl being a big time game and ditching the Fiesta Bowl. The game that was made bigtime by a tortilla chip. There is more history in the Cotton Bowl than maybe any other bowl in history. Bring it back. By rule, should there be a split title, there would be a playoff between the two teams splitting the title with some big payoff. You want closure, there it is. No computers, no elaborate playoff system that you didn't come up with before anyone else. The old way with one more game for all of you who need closure.

This has been a major rant on the end of No Owens. For that I apologize. But it was necessary. We have some covered some good topics today. The hypocrisy behind the cases for "who's the best now," as well as the old bowl system. But most importantly, there won't be a playoff. Not going to happen. But what's most important is that you, whoever you are, aren't the genius who came up with "your" playoff format. Everyone has thought of the same thing that you claim to be the genius behind at the sports bar. So stop talking about it. No one cares.