Tuesday Question - Did The BCS Get It Right?

At the end of the day, did the BCS get it right? Four CFNers weigh in.

Past TQs
- Who deserves a spot more, OSU or WVU?
- What BCS matchups do you want?
- LSU, Oregon or Kansas
- The leading 5 for the Heisman
- Early Pick It: LSU vs. Ohio State
- Three BCS sleepers
- Midseason Bests
- 3 Big Calls for the Second Half
- The biggest disappointment
- 5 most overrated teams
- I was dead/on right/wrong about ...
- USC, LSU or Oklahoma?l
- Was the App St win good or bad for college football?
- 3 Sleeper Teams
- Predicting the Season
- 3 things we're sure of
- What to look for on Signing Day
- Bears or Colts?
- Early bowl surprises and trends
- 3 things to look for from the bowls
- Do you want the Alabama job?
- What are the 3 best non-BCS bowls?
- Who's 2nd in the Heisman race?
- Michigan-OSU rematch?
- Michigan or Ohio State?
- Should Louisville be No. 3?
- The nat'l title game will be ...
- The best one-loss team
- Rule changes to help the flow
- The Midseason Stuff
- The real top five ranking
- The early coach of the year is ...?
- These three teams are for real, these three aren't
- After 2 weeks, who's better, who's worse?
- 10 Greatest Quarterbacks of All-Time
- 10 Greatest Defensive Players of All-Time
- 10 Greatest Regular Season Games of All-Time
- 10 Greatest Playmakers of All-Time
- 10 Worst Heisman Winners
- 10 Greatest Bowl Games
- All-Time Offensive Team
- All-Time Defensive Team

Pete Fiutak     

Q: At the end of the day, did the BCS get it right?

A: Yes for the championship game, not necessarily for the rest.

My sister could pick the two teams for the BCS Championship if there are two unbeaten teams from BCS conferences at the end of the year, but in lieu of a playoff, the BCS is better than the old poll 'n' bowl system. The idea is to compare apples to oranges, and this year, sure, Ohio State vs. LSU is more than fine considering the Buckeyes were No. 1 throughout most of the year and LSU was basically the best team throughout the season and it won the SEC title. If you're the SEC champ, you get the benefit of the doubt.

Oklahoma is just barely the number three team in the mix and has a beef, but it was too inconsistent on the road. If it's a choice between the Big 12 champion or the SEC champ, the nod, right now, has to go to the SEC winner. USC lost to Stanford, next.

As far as the other BCS games, Illinois should be in the Capital One and Missouri should be in instead of Kansas. Since there's still a silly rule in tact when it comes to only two teams from a league being able to get in, KU was the one who should've been out and Arizona State probably deserved to be in.

Richard Cirminiello      

Q: At the end of the day, did the BCS get it right?

A: Absolutely no one wants to admit this, but, yeah, based on the rules it’s governed by, the BCS did get the title game right.

To answer this question honestly, you’ve got to be able to divorce yourself from your passionate dislike for the system.  Although the system still rots, when the dust settled Sunday morning, Ohio State and LSU were the two most deserving schools to earn a trip to the National Championship game in New Orleans.  The task for the BCS was simple, find the best one-loss team, and pit it against the best two-loss team.  Nominating the Buckeyes over Kansas was child’s play.  The Tigers over the other half-dozen schools with two losses?  Not so much.  While not clear-cut or easy, LSU was the right choice.  Yeah, the loss to Arkansas was hard to digest, but this was a season in which everyone had major flaws.  USC lost to Stanford.  Georgia got butchered by Tennessee, and didn’t even win its division.  Oklahoma had a rotten out of conference schedule.  Virginia Tech lost in Baton Rouge by 41 points.  LSU, on the other hand, went 6-1 against teams that were ranked when they played, winning the toughest conference in the country.  And in a season marked by parity and mediocrity, that should be more than enough to fill the other half of the dance card alongside Ohio State.

John Harris

Q: At the end of the day, did the BCS get it right?

A: This year?  The year when Cal went from number two team in the country to the Armed Forces Bowl?  When Oregon went from contender to 8-4?  When USF and Boston College were once at number two?  When national championship contenders LSU and Ohio State have a shorter winning streak than 3-9 Notre Dame (thanks Brad Edwards!).  Honestly, what’s been ‘right’ this season?  Nada.  Zip.  Nil.  Zilch.  No-thing.  So, is it possible in a year when anything was, and is, plausible, that the BCS could actually get it right?  Absolutely.  Every contending team is flawed, some in a major way, so in some sense any two teams could be in this game and it’d make some sort of sense. 

I’ll put it this way, I don’t have a big argument with anything that resulted from the BCS, other than the fact that the voters saw fit ‘to go vigilante’ on the process and keep a non-championship team out of the final two (Georgia and Kansas).  That’s the one beef I have (and a small one at that) - if the voters didn’t want or didn’t think that Georgia was worthy of playing in the national championship game, then don’t put them at four going into the final weekend.  Other than that, I’m not losing any sleep over what happened, sans Missouri getting screwed for a bid to the Orange Bowl.  But, then again, that has nothing to do with the BCS.

Matthew Zemek  

Q: At the end of the day, did the BCS get it right?

A: No, it didn't.
 
The BCS has "gotten it right" three times in its 10-year existence.
 
Wanna guess when those three occasions were?
 
1999? Good answer. Va Tech-Florida State--two and only two unbeaten teams.
 
2002? Nice going. Ohio State and Miami. Two and only two unbeaten teams.
 
2005? Great! Texas and USC--two and only two untouched titans.
 
The other seven times, including this year, have been disastrous. And as I said in other pieces over the past 72 hours, it's worth noting that the three years with "classic" 1 vs. 2 title games have been really good. The six previous BCS title games with at least one dubious participant (if not two) have all stunk.
 
It's more than a coincidence.
 
If Ohio State and LSU play a classic, I'll eat crow... for this year (not the past nine years of the hauntingly awful BCS era).