Let's be clear about this: The last time there was an undisputed national champion was the 2005 season, when Texas defeated USC in the epic 2006 Rose Bowl. Every season since, the legitimacy of the championship could be cast in doubt.
The 2009 season is no different.
While Alabama was the unanimous choice in both the AP and Coaches polls, a reasonable argument could be made for Boise State. TCU
might be better than Texas - with or without Colt McCoy. And while
the body of work of Alabama was more impressive than Boise's, who's
to say that the Broncos couldn't have beaten the Tide in a one-game
championship?
So here's how I voted on my
final ballot, with comments below:
Make that. Fast enough. Aggressively enough. Not half bad.
So just what happened? Last year, the Big Ten went 1-6 in bowl games
and, after Ohio State's back-to-back drubbing in the BCS national
championship games the previous two seasons, the conference was
officially written off as an anachronism.
But the 2009 bowl season is bringing a Big Ten renaissance. The
conference is 3-2, having won the Rose Bowl and lost a 1-point game
and in overtime. Two more teams have yet to play, with Iowa in
another BCS game against Georgia Tech, in the Orange Bowl.
(Check out the Guru's Bowl Chart,
breaking down how the conferences are doing against each other.)
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BOWL EXTRAVAGANZA
Call the Guru a glutton for
punishment.
Two years ago,
I handicapped all 32 bowl games ... and let's just say I was as
successful as the French army was in May 1940. It was so bad that I
didn't even bother tallying the damage.
But since time heals all wounds, I'm diving into the muddled waters
of bowl predictions again. So here are my picks, along with a nugget
or two, on
the 34 bowl games this season, listed in chronological order:
New Mexico - Fresno State over Wyoming.
St. Petersburg - I thought Rutgers was a fraud all season long. Not
changing that view here, going with Central Florida.
New Orleans - Middle Tennessee over Southern Miss.
Las Vegas - Oregon State deserves so much better than this.
Take the Beavers over BYU.
Poinsettia - Utah gets one back for the Mountain West, over
Jahvid Best-less Cal.
Hawaii - SMU's June Jones makes a triumphant return to the islands,
but Nevada wins over his Mustangs.
I'm
not a Heisman voter and have no intention to ever become one. For
what it's worth, I think it is possibly the most overrated trophy in
all of sports.
But I've been asked to cast a blogger vote - similar to my weekly
ballots in the BlogPoll - for the Heisman this year by the
Blue Work Horse. So I'll
bite. And there is actually a reason for me to care this year. I
feel very strongly that Stanford's Toby Gerhart should win the
Heisman.
Let's get this first part out of the way. Gerhart went to
Norco High School, which
happens to be my alma mater (Class of '87). And his daddy is the
Cougars' football coach. Yes, I have to admit, it'd be kind of cool.
But Gerhart deserves the trophy, and my admiration, for much more
than that. If you're still clinging to the myth of the
"student-athlete" in big-time college sports, then he's your Atlas.
Besides gashing Oregon and USC on the field, he also carries a mean
GPA - not in kinesiology or general studies - but a 3.25 in
management science and engineering. At Stanford, where its motto is
Die Luft der Freiheit weht.
The following is a guest column written by the co-founder of Playoff
PAC. This article also appeared in
RealClearSports.
By Matthew Sanderson
The college football world received good news Sunday night.
Deserving and undefeated teams from Boise State and TCU received
bowl invitations from the Bowl Championship Series. This will be the
first post-season in BCS history that two teams from the five
non-automatic qualifying conferences will receive BCS bowl berths in
the same year. TCU automatically qualified for the invitation under
BCS rules, while Boise State received an "at-large" invitation - a
first for a "non-AQ" conference team.
These bowl invitations are a positive development, to be sure. But
the BCS' new PR mercenaries, led by former Bush White House Press
Secretary Ari Fleischer, are certain to over-inflate their
importance. Even before yesterday's selection, they've compared the
BCS to apple pie, motherhood, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day
Parade. Wonder what they'll come up with now.
BCS officials will undoubtedly claim that the
Broncos' bid, in particular, is proof positive that the door of
opportunity is wide open to "non-AQ" schools under the BCS system.
We need only look at the circumstances surrounding Boise State's
invitation, though, to realize this is not true.
UCLA and Notre Dame are rivals. Maybe not so much on the gridiron, but there was a day that these two schools competed fiercely in basketball. After all, it was Digger Phelps' Fighting Irish who ended the Bruins' historic 88-game winning streak in 1974.
But today, UCLA should send a thank-you note to South Bend. For it was Notre Dame's decision to sit out the bowl games that opened the door for the Bruins to extend their season.
As of Friday, UCLA looked to be the odd team out: The only BCS conference school that's bowl eligible but unable to find a spot to play anywhere. The Pac-10, once again, had eggs on its face, with its inability to get more attractive bowl matchups for its conference teams, never mind enough of them to place all bowl eligible teams.
Take a look at the conference tie-in table here:
SEC - 8 (12 member schools)
ACC - 8 (12)
Big 12 - 7 (12)
Big Ten - 6 (11)
Big East - 5 (8)
Mountain West - 5 (9)
Pac-10 - 5 (10)
Conference USA - 5 (12)
WAC - 3 (9)
MAC - 3 (13)
Sun Belt - 1 (9)
Army/Navy - 2 (2)
A dropped hold on a PAT. An
errant kickoff out of bounds.
Two plays, they're all that kept a non-BCS team from crashing the
BCS title game party for the first time.
But it wasn't to be. Pittsburgh's dropped PAT attempt allowed
Cincinnati to escape with a 45-44 victory. Hours later, Texas
squeezed by Nebraska with a 13-12 victory, in large part thanks to
the kickoff that went out of bounds following the Huskers' go-ahead
field goal.
So the BCS conferences can breathe a sigh of relief. Alabama will
face Texas in Pasadena for the BCS national championship. TCU, Boise
State and Big East's Cincinnati will be left to fight over the
scraps.
For what it's worth, the Bearcats will edge the Horned Frogs for the
third spot. And had Hunter Lawrence missed his 46-yard field goal as
time expired, Cincinnati would've been the team in Pasadena.
Boise State, on the other hand, should be sending some roses to Mr.
Lawrence. Texas' victory just about assured the Broncos' safe
passage to their second BCS bowl appearance in four years.
The BCS bowl matchups:
BCS national championship game: Alabama vs. Texas Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. Cincinnati Fiesta Bowl: Iowa vs. Boise State Orange Bowl: TCU vs. Georgia Tech Rose Bowl: Oregon vs. Ohio State
Projected Final BCS Standings: 1. Alabama (expected to score
a perfect 1.000 in the BCS ratings), 2. Texas, 3. Cincinnati, 4. TCU,
5. Boise State, 6. Florida, 7. Oregon, 8. Ohio State, 9. Iowa, 10.
Georgia Tech, 11. Penn State, 12. Virginia Tech, 13. LSU, 14. BYU,
15. Miami (Fla.).
Oklahoma State was exposed as
unworthy of a BCS bowl bid. So Boise State is in, right?
With apologies to Lee Corso ... not so fast, my friend!
There is still one scenario where the Broncos would be left out of a
BCS bowl bid - if Texas loses to Nebraska in the Big 12 title game,
then the Longhorns will gain the final at-large bid over the
Broncos. At this point, with six unbeatens and no one-loss teams,
it's unlikely that any two-loss team will be chosen over Boise State
for the final at-large spot.
But the next conspiracy, if you want to call it that, is on the
horizon. With potentially five unbeaten teams heading into the BCS
bowls, conveniently only the BCS title game will pit two undefeated
teams, denying a claim for a "people's champion." In fact, two of
the other three likely unbeatens will be facing a team with at least
two losses in BCS bowl games.
This is how the bowl picture will shake out should Texas as expected
meets the SEC champion:
BCS Championship Game: Florida/Alabama winner vs. Texas
Sugar Bowl: Florida/Alabama loser vs. Cincinnati/Pittsburgh winner
Fiesta Bowl: Iowa or Penn State vs. Boise State
Orange Bowl: TCU vs. Georgia Tech/Clemson winner
Rose Bowl: Oregon/Oregon State winner vs. Ohio State
If Texas loses to Nebraska:
BCS Championship Game: Florida/Alabama winner vs. Cincinnati or TCU
Sugar Bowl: Florida/Alabama loser vs. TCU or Pittsburgh
Fiesta Bowl: Iowa or Penn State vs. Nebraska
Orange Bowl: Texas vs. Georgia Tech/Clemson winner
Rose Bowl: Oregon/Oregon State winner vs. Ohio State
TCU's blowout victory cemented its claim to be the first team to
finish the regular season undefeated, but it came with a price.
Because New Mexico is so terrible, the Horned Frogs will take a hit
in the computer ratings, so much so that it may cost them a spot in
the next BCS standings. It will be close, but the Guru expects
Cincinnati to jump TCU for No. 4.
America may be suffering a
decline in social capital because everybody is busy texting and
tweeting instead of going out and bonding with real people. Robert
Putnam was simply ahead of
his time.
But that's not a problem in college football. Unless your team
really, really sucked, everybody gets to bowl, even if it costs your
school money for the privilege.
Once again, we have 34 bowls in this postseason for 68 teams. And on
the eve of Thanksgiving, we officially have 69 bowl eligible teams,
meaning every bowl slot will be filled, with at least one 6-6 team
being sent home despite its excellence perfect mediocrity.
The odd team out could be Notre Dame, either by its own choosing or
by being squeezed out of a bowl slot. If the Irish lose to Stanford
this weekend - as expected - they may decide to clean house instead
of making an appearance at a minor bowl and risking
Jimmy Clausen being sucker-punched by one of their irate,
drunken alums.
Once upon a time (yes, I'm old,
I'm 40), the third weekend of November brought us the de facto end
of the football season. The biggest rivalries were played on this
weekend. From the wind-swept desolate plains in the Midwest to the
sun-splashed Pacific Coast, arch rivals lined up to settle things
once and for all.
Now, we got Florida-Florida International, and Alabama-Chattanooga.
Thanks a lot, SEC, but I think I'll tune to the History Channel and
watch a rerun of the Six Day War.
Today's best rivalry game was The Game. Yeah, Harvard-Yale actually
meant something. Michigan-Ohio State? Not so much.
As for the BCS standings, we're in Ground Hog Day mode. In fact,
maybe I should just shut down this site for the rest of the year and
see you next August. I mean, even a chimp or Brad Edwards can do
these projections. Shouldn't I try to win the Nobel Peace Prize (I
hear you don't have to do much to get that, but it comes with a cool
million)?
Save for Iowa's dropping from the ranks of unbeatens, the top of the
BCS standings has stayed virtually static for the past four weeks.
The order of the top six teams shuffled around slightly, but nothing
much has changed.
There are still 16 teams in contention for the 10 BCS bowl berths.
Bad news for Boise State: Either Iowa or Penn State will earn an
at-large bid, and Oklahoma State probably will, too, if it can beat
suddenly-disintegrating Oklahoma. And there's still a chance that a
9-3 USC team might be chosen over a 13-0 Broncos.
But that's a discussion for later. Here's the projected BCS
standings for this week (and no, it's not Memorex):
The following is a guest
column written by two economists on the merits of a college football
playoff. This article also appeared in
RealClearSports.
By Michael Davis and Tim Kane
College football decides its champion in a unique way that has
become somewhat controversial because every other major sport in
America uses a playoff. Over time, the sizes of those playoff
systems have expanded, making college football stand in ever sharper
contrast.
College football crowns its Bowl Championship Series (BCS) champion
after pairing the top-ranked two teams in a single game. The top
teams are determined largely by expert polls with some input from
computer algorithms. The team ranked third often has a
semi-legitimate case that it deserved an opportunity to play in the
championship game, especially since the BCS formula has been
repeatedly tweaked. The issue of fairness is a common attack thrown
at the bowl tradition by playoff agitators. But fairness is
impossible to measure. Or is it?
Any playoff system requires a cutoff that leaves a single team out.
The wider the net, the more arbitrary that cutoff becomes (requiring
ever more complicated tie-breaker rules). The result is that any
playoff introduces another kind of unfairness. An 8-team playoff
gives an arguably weaker team the chance to defeat a squad that was
much better during the regular season. That may make for enjoyable
entertainment, but it is definitely unfair in its way. The argument
is that a playoff cheapens the regular season and all its games.
As we get closer to the finish
line, it seems like amateur hour all over the web. All sorts of
people who have as strong a grasp on college football as they do on
grammar are coming out with incredibly nonsensical scenarios.
First of all, Wisconsin cannot win the Big Ten. It's not unlikely,
but impossible, per the Big Ten's tiebreaker rules. And if Alabama
wins the SEC championship, even with one loss, it's guaranteed to
play in the Sugar Bowl. Furthermore, since in this scenario the
Orange Bowl has the first pick, there is no way on God's green earth
it'd take the Big East champion over all other qualifiers.
So, Sean, please go back and study up a little more before you
venture into something that's slightly above your pay grade.
The only item in this juvenile
fantasy that's not a mathematical or procedural impossibility is
the first one - a BCS national championship game between TCU and
Boise State.
When it comes to propaganda and
publicity, the Pac-10 is woefully ill-prepared in this arms race. Of
all the BCS conference, no one undersells itself better than the
Pac-10.
If USC isn't such a media darling and hated around the country for
its glitz and glam (not to mention excellence), the Pac-10 would be
completely unheard of. Out of sight, out of mind. It's a pity
because you can make a reasonable argument that the Pac-10 really is
the best conference in college football,
perhaps 10 years running.
But in the BCS Era, the college football cognoscenti (the
self-anointed ones, that is) have been lapping it up at the SEC
trough. And the last three seasons, coming on four, an SEC team has
been crowned the BCS national champion.
That isn't so much affirmation of SEC's superiority as the sign that
it's adroitly winning the media war. If the old Confederacy wasn't
able to conquer America, its rightful descendants have made sure
that the South indeed has risen.
Don't blame the SEC for understanding and leveraging the system to
its maximum benefit. But do blame the Pac-10 for not doing its job.
While you're digesting all of
those scores from Saturday night, the most important one might've
flown under the radar: 220-215. Those five votes could mean the
difference of all the bowl money ever spent in the history of
college football ... and then some. Yep, the price tag for that
health care bill is in excess of $1 trillion.
(Sure hope you have an offshore account somewhere, preferably with
funds not in U.S. dollar.)
OK, staying on point and returning to our frivolous sporting pursuit
...
It didn't turn out to be Upset Saturday exactly, but the BCS picture
definitely became a bit more clear, if not quite crystal clear. This
much we do know:
* It appears that a BCS championship matchup between Texas and the
SEC champion, either Alabama or Florida, is all but inevitable.
* Iowa finally went down with a thud. However, the Hawkeyes can
still win the Big Ten and earn a Rose Bowl bid by beating Ohio State
next week in Columbus. If the Buckeyes win, they go to Pasadena.
* The winner of the Oregon-Arizona game will own the inside track to
the Pac-10's Rose Bowl bid. However, if the Wildcats win that game,
USC would be back in the picture with a win over Arizona in the
regular-season finale. That race, because of the Ducks' upset loss
to Stanford, is suddenly very much in the air.
* Georgia Tech, by pulling out an OT win against Wake Forest, is
closing in on the ACC Coastal title and should be the odds-on
favorite for the conference's Orange Bowl bid.
* Notre Dame is done, as far as a BCS bowl berth is concerned. And
the likelihood of having two Coalition teams in BCS bowls in the
same season - for the first time - increases.
And here are the projections for the next BCS Standings:
Like the Byzantine, Ming and Romanov empires, all good things must
come to an end. Such was the case for the Trojan Dynasty that has
ruled the Pac-10 since 2002.
In retrospect, it was easy to see that this was a rebuilding year
for USC. It lost most of its defensive stalwarts, including an
entire linebacking corps that went among the first 38 picks in the
NFL draft. It lost its star quarterback, who now hot dogs it for the
New York Jets. It even lost its offensive coordinator to a rival
Pac-10 school.
But because it's USC, it was assumed that it'd go on like business
as usual ... until Saturday night, when the Oregon Ducks formally
pronounced the fin de siecle with a resounding quack.
Since Pete Carroll's arrival in 2001, the Trojans have never been on
the business end of a beatdown ... until Saturday night. Oregon's
47-20 victory was by far the worst loss in the Carroll Era (they
have lost by double digits just once previously, by 11 to Notre Dame
in 2001). It was also the most points the Trojans have ever allowed
under Carroll (and the most since 1996).
The loss to Oregon effectively ends USC's bid for a short ride to
Pasadena - either for the Rose Bowl or the BCS title game. The
Trojans, of course, are still very much alive for a BCS bowl bid,
possibly the Fiesta, but they won't win the Pac-10 this year.
The shame is that while Oregon will go on and claim the Rose Bowl
bid, it almost certainly has no chance of claiming a spot in the BCS
title game, despite playing better than anyone in the country at the
moment. The Ducks, after a difficult season-opening loss at Boise
State, have ruled the Pac-10 the way USC used to, outscoring their
five conference foes by a score of 208-58.
Meanwhile, Iowa's BCS title hopes are alive and well
despite yet another shaky performance. Some voters, however, are
bound to elevate the Hawkeyes on their ballots based on that
deceiving 42-24 final score over Indiana.
But ask yourself this: Is there any doubt which team is better, has
played better, and has played better competition? If Iowa were to
meet Oregon on a neutral field next week, who would be a
double-digit favorite?
It's not Iowa. And the BCS is most definitely not heaven.
After the 2001 season, the BCS forced the
computers remaining in the BCS formula to remove margin of victory (MOV)
as an element in their respective algorithms. The reason,
ostensibly, is that it discourages teams from running up the score
since they wouldn't benefit from it.
Well, they should've asked all the pollsters to remove their
eyeballs so they can only check the scores in Braille.
We're more than halfway done in the 2009 season, and
the BCS Standings provides a
clear picture: Style points matter. Why else would Iowa be ranked
fourth despite being the near-unanimous choice as the top team by
the computers?
The Hawkeyes may be 8-0, but they got to 8-0 in the ugliest fashion
imaginable. They had to block two field goals against I-AA Northern
Iowa (5-3, ranked 14th in the I-AA poll). They looked listless
against Arkansas State (2-4, sixth in the Sun Belt). They escaped
against Michigan, thanks to five Wolverines turnovers, including a
game-killing interception in the final minute. And they needed the
very last second to beat Michigan State last week.
Lane Kiffin came close. He was accused of not trying
to win against Florida, but no such allegation may be lodged against
him and his Tennessee Volunteers this week. Had Daniel Lincoln put a
little more arc on his field goal attempts, we would be here discussing how the
next BCS Standings would be completely shaken up.
Instead, it's a weekend of what it might have been.
Throw in another Sparty, No! moment, what we are
left with is simply status quo at the top of the BCS Standings.
Or is it?
Florida, Alabama and Texas will remain in the top
three spots - in that order - in Sunday's BCS Standings. However,
some shuffling will be in order for the next five slots.
(Brad Edwards, ESPN's alleged "BCS Expert" had this
to say ... now, I may not be 100 percent accurate
all the time, but what the hell kind of "expert" offers up this
sort of insightful analysis? My four-year-old, armed with an abacus,
can make this call. Lame.)
The 4-8 spots will be close, and how the order
plays out will depend largely on the voters of the two polls. Will
they consider TCU now good enough to be in the top 5, or will they
continue to let the Horned Frogs languish in the 7-8 spots? Will
they punish Iowa for needing the very last second to escape Michigan
State? Will USC be hurt by its yet another closer-than-expected
victory?
With Boise State safely ahead, 34-0, at the
half in paradise (and the Guru's sometime offseason home), there is
enough data to run the projections. It'll be close, but unlike some
people, I won't chicken out.
Of
the six computer ratings in the BCS formula, the
Billingsley Report is
unquestionably the most controversial. And of the seven programmers
(Anderson & Hester count as two), Richard Billingsley is undoubtedly
the most opinionated and colorful. The Billingsley Report has been
part of the BCS since its second season, 1999, but the data goes all
the way back to 1869, to Princeton vs. Rutgers, the first college
football game ever played.
With the 2009 BCS Standings set to debut on Sunday, the Guru decided
to have a chat with Mr. Billingsley this week in a no-holds-barred,
hour-long phone interview. This is what he had to say:
BCS had its
dream season in 2005. Too bad it had to wake up for 2006.
Throughout most of the year, it looked as if the BCS would have its
first intra-conference rematch, pitting Ohio State against Michigan.
The Big Ten's bitter rivals matched each other game-for-game on a
collision course of unbeatens while other contenders fell away.
Then on the eve of the 1-vs.-2 showdown at the Horseshoe, Bo
Schembechler, Michigan's legendary coach (and former Ohio State
assistant), passed away.
The two teams joined battle with raw emotions, if very little
defense. The surprisingly high-scoring game was more or less decided
by Michigan linebacker Shawn Crable's late hit on Ohio State QB Troy
Smith late in the game. The Buckeyes won, 42-39.
But Michigan stayed at No. 2 in the BCS standings even after the
game, making a rematch in Arizona a real possibility. Then the
Wolverines began to fall, week after week, without playing a single
down.
SEC IS SO TOUGH ... LIKE A DUCK
- Most
certainly, I'm not the only one who suspected that Ole Miss was a
fraud. Yeah, the Rebels did beat Florida and finished with a
six-game win streak last year, but what have they done in 2009 to
warrant the lofty ranking of No. 4 in the AP Poll and No. 5 in the
Coaches Poll?
Well, nothing, really. (CONTINUED)
POOFFFFFF ... GOES THE MOUNTAIN WEST
- Well, so much
for all that talk about the Mountain West getting an automatic bid
to the BCS.
One weekend of upsets restored order somewhat in the BCS universe. The only BCS buster left standing, for now, is
Boise State, who now firmly controls its own destiny for a second
BCS bowl berth in three years. ... (CONTINUED)
WHY THE AP
POLL STILL MATTERS - The
Associated Press top 25 was released over the weekend. And it didn't
make much of a splash aside from that Florida got an unprecedented
58 of 60 first-place votes.
But don't be fooled. Even in the BCS Era, the AP Poll still matters.
A lot. ... (CONTINUED)
CONGRESS
CAN'T 'FIX' THE BCS - Sen. Orrin Hatch made a lot of noise
earlier this year about reforming the BCS. ... Rep. Joe Barton went
as far as introducing a bill to ban the use of "national
championship" by the BCS. Even President Obama has promised (or
threatened) to "throw his weight around a little bit." But don't
hold your breath. The BCS isn't going anywhere and it's not going to
change much. ... (CONTINUED)
WHAT THE COACHES POLL WROUGHT
- It's the
first preseason poll of significance, and it's the first element of
the 2009 BCS standings to be revealed. So when the USA Today Coaches
Poll was released last Friday, it was immediately taken apart and
analyzed.
Yeah, it may be a preseason poll, but don't think for a moment that
it means little. ... (CONTINUED)
LATEST BCS NEWS
BOISE CAN SOLIDIFY MOUNTAIN WEST'S CASE (Bleacher Report) -
After two years of a four-year evaluation period, the Mountain West
is playing well enough to earn an automatic bid to BCS bowl games in
two of the three evaluated categories. They are razor-close to
passing the third hurdle on their own, but with the addition of
Boise State to their conference starting in 2011, they have the
numbers to even answer that challenge.
WHY CONGRESS SHOULD FIX BCS (JohnZigler.com) - The BCS
conundrum is one of the most frustrating issues because the solution
is so incredibly obvious and yet, no matter how close the powers
that be get to accidentally finding it, they somehow still manage to
only make things worse. So if the Congress can make my life a little
more enjoyable by fixing one of the dumbest dilemmas in all of
sports, I am more than willing to listen.
BCS AGAIN PROVES ITS WORTHLESSNESS (Washington Post) - So
the BCS came up with the best solution it could think of under these
difficult circumstances: have TCU and Boise State play each other.
If you have to invite unwanted guests to dinner, make them eat in
the kitchen.
TALKING AQ EVALUATION WITH BILL HANCOCK (Mountain West
Connection) - Everyone knows that the Mountain West is looking to
become a BCS conference. The only way that they can guarantee
automatic qualification BCS status would be to gain it through the "BCS
Evaluation Period." BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock was kind
enough to answer a few of questions regarding the process of
determining automatic qualifier status.
THE GURU'S VAULT
THE ONLY 'PLAYOFF' THAT WORKS
- The BCS annual
meeting is set to take place next Monday in Pasadena, where the
commissioners are expected to hobnob and mostly wring their hands
before declaring the BCS a "success."
TEN YEARS OF BCS
- In this series, The Guru examines the results from the first 10
seasons since the inception of the BCS in 1998 and analyzes who got
lucky and who got robbed, what could've been, what should've been
and other controversies of the day.
BCS FAIRNESS DOCTRINE
- Is the BCS unfair to the non-BCS conferences? Ben Prather, our
friend at Fanblogs.com, breaks down the performances by team and by
conference over each of the past four seasons. And here are his
findings.
REMAKING THE BCS FORMULA
- After another season of high-wire acts, the temptation of course
is to blow the BCS to smithereens and start over. But that's neither
practicable nor desirable. Here's the first thing that may be fixed
quickly: The formula.
ONE-ON-ONE WITH BILL HANCOCK
- Who's Bill Hancock? You ask. He's the one and
ONLY employee of the Bowl Championship Series. Mr. Hancock is the
BCS Administrator, essentially, the spokesman and the face of the
BCS. His conversation with The Guru.
BCS ERA TOP 10
- The Guru reviews and examines the top programs during the BCS Era
(1998-2007) and ranks them from Nos. 1-10. With records, ranking and
video highlights.
BCS GURU® 
1
3
I'm
not a Heisman voter and have no intention to ever become one. For
what it's worth, I think it is possibly the most overrated trophy in
all of sports.
Of
the six computer ratings in the BCS formula, the
