NEW ORLEANS — It was a bad night for Ohio State and a worse night for plus-one.
No. 2 Louisiana State’s 38-24 victory over top-ranked Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series title game Monday at the Superdome did nothing to convince skeptical conference commissioners and university presidents that a plus-one format is needed. Turns out the current system, in which the top two teams in the final BCS standings meet for the national title, worked out just fine.
LSU (12-2), despite being the first two-loss team to win the BCS national title, received 60 of the 65 first-place votes in the final Associated Press poll of the season.
So much for a split national crown. So much for any plus-one momentum going into a year in which conference commissioners and school presidents are expected to seriously discuss a change in format.
The plus-one idea, in which one more bowl would be played after the major bowls, received sporadic yet intense attention in recent years, particularly in seasons in which controversy clouded the national champion. This wasn’t one of those seasons. Under a plus-one format proposal that new BCS coordinator John Swofford said would be considered, the top four teams in the final BCS standings would be seeded.
If that occurred this season, No. 1 Ohio State would have played No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 2 LSU would have played No. 3 Virginia Tech, with the winners meeting later in the title game. Well, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma proved their worth by losing to No. 8 Kansas and No. 9 West Virginia, respectively. The two other most impressive teams this BCS bowl season, No. 5 Georgia and No. 7 Southern California, would not have even qualified in a plus-one system.
LSU’s win Monday, rather than helping a plus-one discussion, spurred others to a different extreme. In a move that reeked of grandstanding, University of Georgia president Michael Adams followed LSU’s win by proposing an eight-team, three-tier playoff. According to a letter Adams sent NCAA president Myles Brand, the current 12-game regular season would return to 11 games. A selection committee would seed the top eight teams with the four first-round games played in the current BCS bowls. The playoff would continue for two more Saturdays.
“This year’s experience with the BCS forces me to the conclusion that the current system has lost public confidence and simply does not work,” Adams said in a news release. “It is undercutting the sportsmanship and integrity of the game.”
Adams, also chairman of the NCAA executive committee, went on to call the BCS bowl system a “beauty contest largely stage-managed by the (TV) networks.” Many felt Georgia (11-2) was playing some of the best football in the country by winning six straight games. But the Bulldogs wound up in the Sugar Bowl, where they whipped Hawaii 41-10.
However, Georgia didn’t even win its division in the Southeastern Conference. Adams’ announcement didn’t go over well with SEC commissioner Mike Slive, the BCS coordinator for the 2007 season.
“I’m disappointed the story came out (Tuesday),” Slive said. “This is LSU’s day, and this is the Southeastern Conference’s day.”
LSU coach Les Miles was too giddy Tuesday to get angry.
“A year ago, an eight-team playoff, we would have fared pretty well,” he said. “It might have been our second trophy. So I look forward to whatever setup there is.”
Adams’ plan has virtually no chance of survival. Presidents and commissioners long have opposed a multitier playoff on the grounds of logistical problems, academic issues and preservation of the regular season’s importance. Also, the Big Ten and Pac-10 oppose a plus-one format, let alone a playoff.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
