As Sam Sees It

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) has crowned the Miami Hurricanes as the National Champion of college football following their convincing 37-14 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Rose Bowl on Thursday. No doubt, the writers will follow suit, as the Hurricanes are the only undefeated major college team in the nation.

However, the Rose Bowl was supposed to be a play-off between the top two teams in the country. Most humans did not think it was that before the game and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks so now. It was a contest between the number one and number four teams in the country at the time it was played. Nebraska will be lucky if it is ranked higher than sixth now. Both Tennessee and Florida will probably pass the Cornhuskers and would likely beat them on the field as well. A true National Championship Game would have matched the Oregon Ducks against Miami. The Ducks were the second ranked team in both human polls and proved their rightful place in the Championship Game with a vengeance in the only chance they had. Oregon ran roughshod over Colorado 38-16 in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day and proved that if they didn’t deserve a national championship, they at least deserved to play for it.

The BCS gurus had part of the equation right. They just stopped too soon. Number one Miami was paired with number four Nebraska while number three Colorado met number two Oregon. That much made sense. What didn’t was that the people and computers running the BCS zoo decided that the winner of the one vs. four game would be the National Champion. They should have had to play the winner of the two vs. three game and earn their title on the field.

This is not new with the BCS (the “C” really doesn’t belong, does it?) system. Last year, Miami was the victim. The Hurricanes had one loss and were denied the chance to play undefeated Oklahoma in the BCS Championship Game. Who had that privilege? Florida State, a team the Hurricanes defeated. Washington, which had defeated Miami, also had reason to feel slighted. Still, the human involved in the selection process did rank Florida State ahead of the other two one-loss teams.

The BCS adjusted their formula after last year’s game and had one in place this year that would have matched Miami against Oklahoma. That would, of course, not have solved the problem. Washington and now Florida State would have legitimate claims they were slighted.

Word is that the system will be changed again in a way that would have matched Colorado instead of Nebraska against the Hurricanes by giving more weight to a conference championship. That would have given us the third best team according to the polls prior to the game against number one and still left the second place Oregon Ducks out in the cold. Colorado will also likely drop below Tennessee and Florida after picking up their third loss against Oregon.

The last two years have cried out for at the very least a four-team play-off. Oregon deserved and still deserves a shot at Miami for the National Championship, just as Miami and Washington deserved to be in the equation last season.

The fact that their number one team won both last season and this year does not vindicate the BCS. They failed last year to match the best two teams and failed miserably to do so this season. In a way, Miami was cheated both years. The Hurricanes did not get to play for the title this year and did not win it against the best available opponent this year.

Chances are good that the Hurricanes could defeat the Ducks in a real National Championship Game matching what are unquestionably the best two college football teams in the nation. Wouldn’t it be great if the BCS would stop blocking the progress towards a play-off system and let it happen?

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