A New Kind of BCS Blunder

Bashing the BCS has become terribly trite. Hell, even in the midst of a presidential race Obama found a little time to wax poetic on the injustices of the BCS system. So I'm not going to criticize the BCS for its usual ills but instead I'll just wonder why it has erred in a choice that easily could've been avoided.

Why is TCU playing Boise State?

Now, for those who don't follow college football, TCU and Boise St. both reside out of the major (i.e. BCS) conferences and rolled through their regular seasons without a loss. Until Texas and Cincinnati escaped Nebraska and Pitt respectively in their last pre-bowl weekend, there was even a legitimate chance that TCU could meet the Alabama-Florida winner for the national title.

One of the things I absolutely love about college football (or any sport for that matter) is seeing an underdog take their best shot at the champ. Call them Davids or Rockys or Cinderellas, it's one of the elements that makes sports great. I was lucky enough to watch Boise St. defeat an Adrian Peterson led Oklahoma team in the Fiesta Bowl back in 2007 and the stunning win coupled with the gutsy play calling of the Broncos made for one of the most memorable games I've ever seen in any sport. I remember standing up and falling to my knees as Boise executed that hook and ladder to tie the game. Outside of a Friday Night Lights episode a game never ends like that. It was unbelievable. Furthermore, it didn't even end like that. We still had a halfback option on 4th and goal and then a Statue of Liberty play on a two-point conversion. I've never been so shocked watching a sporting event.

But, I digress. So, this season gave us the gift of not one but two potential giant-slayers: TCU and Boise State. However, instead of letting them prove their mettle against, say Iowa or Georgia Tech or even Florida (i.e programs that already have respect) for some unexplainable, moronic reason the BCS decided that TCU and Boise State should play each other.

For shame.

We see these mid-major schools play each other all the time. We saw TCU take down Utah and BYU this season. Boise St. sharpened its skills against Nevada and even has an opening weekend win over Oregon to highlight its resume. But, why oh why oh why do we need to see them just do the same thing again? These programs are fighting to be in the public eye, to prove they can take down schools with intimidating reputations. At the very least, we can put all debates and conjecture aside and see how these teams stack up against known quantities.

Some might argue that we already know Boise St. and TCU are good, even great, teams. But nobody can say we know exactly how good they are. If the BCS gave us the chance to see TCU go toe-to-toe against Tebow and the Gators we would know just what we were dealing with when the game was over. No excuses. No ifs, ands, or buts. We'd either know they were good but not great or that they deserve a shot at Alabama/Texas. Georgia's dismantling of undefeated Hawaii a couple seasons ago proves, at least to me, that until we see these peripheral teams play the big boys we might as well not even see them play at all.

Whoever wins this year's Fiesta Bowl (which by the way is a rematch of last year's Poinsettia Bowl which TCU won 17-16) will be proud of their W and end the season with a lofty ranking, but will anyone on that team really be satisfied? Knowing that they could've played with Florida? I doubt it.

The BCS robbed each of these teams of the chance they deserved. They shouldn't have to play to be champions of each other, they've been doing that for decades. Two great bowl games got turned into one poor one.

Thanks again, BCS.

I'll have to cheer myself up with this...



And, yes, that's right: That is the star RB, Ian Johnson, proposing to his cheerleader girlfriend after the game-winning score. You can't make this stuff up, people. Well, you could, but then it would be lame.