For those of you who think college football consists only of firing coaches, drawing crowds smaller than an intramural title game and a military academy coach fending off rumors, guess what? There’s a whole big-time college football world out there.
Yes, beyond the Front Range the college football season is on a collision course for a wild ending. Calm down. That’s not necessarily good. If you love chewing up the Bowl Championship Series, belly up to the table. Dig into more meat than you’ll ever see on Thanksgiving.
With three weeks left in the regular season, the BCS is in danger of having its top four teams unbeaten. In the past, I’ve panicked too early. I’ve seen a half-dozen unbeaten teams on Halloween scream that the sky is falling and then watch four or five get knocked off in what becomes a perfect storm for the BCS.
This time I see real hurricanes off the Pacific Northwest and the Gulf Coast with a tornado whipping around Dallas-Fort Worth.
The top of the BCS standings lists No. 1 Oregon (10-0), No. 2 Auburn (11-0), No. 3 Texas Christian (11-0) and No. 4 Boise State (9-0).
Some formidable opponents remain, but do you see more than one of those top four teams losing? I don’t. If they all run the table, we are stuck with another December in which we’ll be gnashing over a system that’s only in its 13th year but already archaic.
I want to live to see the day when a David vs. Goliath matchup means more than just a cool ring. I want to see a Boise State play an Oklahoma — or Auburn, in this case — with a national title on the line.
Unless Oregon or Auburn loses, we won’t get that. Instead, in January we’ll have Boise State and TCU, probably with 13-0 records, standing off to the sideline holding party favors and wondering what might have been.
I respect the strength of schedule argument, but I respect the eye test more. Slumping Utah is the only ranked team TCU has beaten, but watch the Horned Frogs play defense and tell me they can’t beat any team in the country.
Boise State has a quality win at Virginia Tech, now standing 16th in the BCS, and has the star quality, size and speed to beat anyone else.
As the voice of BCS gloom, I called BCS director Bill Hancock, one of the nicest guys in sports, way too nice to get saddled with explaining this moronic system.
“Any time there’s more than two undefeated teams, it’s awkward,” Hancock said. “No matter what the system, there would be awkwardness. Team No. 5, Team No. 9, Team No. 17 are all going to be very disappointed.”
A veteran of these queries, Hancock’s answer anticipated my next question. No, I wasn’t asking about a playoff. A 16-team playoff would turn the nonconference schedules into an exhibition season.
I like watching defending champ Alabama lose to South Carolina the second week in October and needing major help to get back into it. Every weekend is a playoff weekend.
So here I am once again, screaming into a hurricane, trumpeting the desperate need for a Plus-One. It could work two ways. Say these BCS standings stand pat at regular season’s end. Pit No. 4 Boise State against No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl and No. 3 TCU vs. No. 2 Auburn in the Sugar Bowl. The two winners meet, as scheduled, for the BCS title in Glendale, Ariz.
Or keep the current system, then after the bowl games have the BCS formula reshuffle the deck and pit the top two teams in the title game.
If you used The Associated Press rankings as a guide, you would’ve had Florida playing unbeaten Utah for the 2008 title, a rematch between Urban Meyer and his former Utes; in 2007 you’d have LSU vs. Georgia, an SEC war that wasn’t played during the regular season; in 2004, it would be USC vs. Auburn, an unbeaten that didn’t make the title game; and in 2003 it’s LSU vs. USC, which won the AP title that season but also didn’t make the title game.
Hancock says a Plus-One won’t work because “commissioners are convinced it would grow beyond four.” Then it’s up to the commissioners to apply the brakes. Until then, they’d better put up their storm windows.
Collision course
A look at the remaining schedules for the top four teams in the BCS standings:
No. 1 Oregon (10-0)
Nov. 26 No. 22 Arizona (7-3)
Dec. 4 at Oregon State (4-5)
No. 2 Auburn (11-0)
Nov. 26 at No. 11 Alabama (9-2)
Dec. 4 No. 17 S. Carolina (7-3)*
No. 3 Texas Christian (11-0)
Nov. 27 at New Mexico (1-9)
No. 4 Boise State (9-0)
Tonight Fresno State (6-3)
Nov. 26 at No. 18 Nevada (9-1)
Dec. 4 Utah State (4-6)
* SEC championship game in Atlanta
