It seems like everyone loves to blame the BCS for all of college football's woes. It's the fault of the BCS that this year's regular season ended with five unbeaten teams? In my recent article Alabama-Texas a 1964 Redux, I explained how that bowl season unfolded. What I failed to mention was that there was no public outcry. However, as recently as 2004, when USC, Oklahoma and Auburn all made it through their respective regular season schedules unbeaten (not to mention Utah in the MWC!), it was the fault of the BCS.
I guess it's easy to hate a monolith? Kind of like "HAL", the computer-gone-mad in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, paraphrasing Marc Anthony (not the one married to J-Lo), "I've come to praise the BCS, not bury it." In truth, I'm not actually ready to praise the BCS but I am willing to give it a back-handed compliment. The BCS is no worse than anything that's preceded it. While many today are highly critical of the BCS, it doesn't take too much research before realizing that many of college football's former national champions have been flawed.
Since its inception, college football has always relied on opinion rather than performance, when choosing its national champion. I won't even discuss the years prior to 1936. I'll start in that season because it was the year in which the AP first began its weekly poll, eventually declaring a national champion at season's end (well almost)! While the NCAA was smart enough to establish a national playoff system to determine its basketball champion as early as 1939 (you may have heard of the NCAA Tournament, better known now as "March Madness"), it has never been able to bring itself to develop a workable playoff system in football. The reasons are many, most of which are better described as excuses rather than reasons.
The AP was alone in choosing a national champion until the United Press joined the fray in 1950. Interestingly, the AP chose to hold its final poll prior to the bowl games for decades, thereby rendering bowl results irrelevant in determining the national champion (a brilliant decision!). Here's just a few snafus from the 1940s.
Ever heard of a RB duo called Mr Inside and Mr Outside? Well in 1944 and 1945, Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis led Army to consecutive national championships, going 9-0 both years. In 1946, No. 1 Army continued its winning streak until settling for that famous 0-0 tie against No. 2 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium on November 9. When Army (a four-TD favorite) 'only' beat Navy 21-18 later that month, the AP crowned 8-0-1 Notre Dame its national champion, depriving the 9-0-1 Cadets, a third straight title. Fair? I don't know but the BCS isn't starting to look all that bad, is it?
Things really got strange in 1947. That year, Notre Dame won its second straight national title, finishing 9-0. Michigan also finished 9-0 that year, to finish No. 2. However, while Notre Dame had a ban on bowl games at that time, Michigan went to the Rose Bowl and beat No. 8 USC, 49-0. This is where it gets really good! An unprecedented "Who's No. 1?" poll was conducted by the AP after the Rose Bowl game, pitting Notre Dame against Michigan. The Wolverines won the vote, 226-119, but the AP ruled that the Irish would be the No. 1 team of record!
I repeat. The AP called for the post-bowl game poll, the Wolverines won that the poll, yet the AP stuck with its original choice! I guess using that kind of logic, if Notre Dame had won the post-bowl poll, the AP would have reversed its decision and declared Michigan No. 1. How's the BCS looking now?
In 1966, the year of the Notre Dame-Michigan State 10-10 tie (The Game of the Century), Alabama felt robbed, when 9-0-1 Notre Dame was voted No. 1 ahead of the Tide, who finished at 11-0-0 and had won national titles in both 1964 and 1965. Actually, Alabama finished No. 3 that year, as Michigan State, also 9-0-1 that season, finished No. 2. Was Alabama really robbed? That year's Crimson Tide not only finished 11-0 after beating Nebraska 34-7 in the Sugar Bowl but during the regular season, Alabama shut out six opponents (including FOUR straight) and outscored its opponents over an 11-game schedule, 304-44!
At first blush one could feel sorry for Alabama but just take a quick look at the Tide's 1964 and 1965 title teams and you may not feel too bad. In 1964, the AP took its final poll prior to the bowl games and a 10-0-0 Alabama team won the national title over a 10-0-0 Arkansas team. However, while Alabama lost 21-17 to No. 5 Texas in that's year's Orange Bowl, Arkansas completed an 11-0-0 season by beating No. 6 Nebraska 10-7 in the Cotton Bowl. Bad break for Arkansas, good break for 'Bama!
In 1965, the AP decided to wait until after the bowl games before deciding its national champion (the poll would revert to its earlier practice in 1966 and 1967, before going back to after the bowls for good, in 1968). Once again, the Crimson Tide 'played lucky.' Alabama finished the 1965 regular season 8-1-1 and ranked No. 3 behind No. 1 Michigan State (10-0-0) and No. 2 Arkansas (10-0-0). However, with the AP waiting until after the bowl games for its final poll, when Michigan State lost to UCLA 14-12 in the Rose Bowl and Arkansas lost 14-7 to LSU in the Sugar, Alabama, a 39-28 winner over Nebraska in the Orange, claimed the AP's first-ever post-bowl national title.
How's that for good fortune? If Alabama's 1966 team did get robbed, it was only karma catching up to them from the 1964 and 1965 teams.
Texas was 11-0 and a solid No. 1 after the 1977 regular season, the year Earl Campbell won the Heisman Trophy. As champs of the SWC, Texas was the host team for the Cotton Bowl. Now here's the rub. Oklahoma was No. 2 but as winners of the Big 8, was headed to Miami to host the Orange Bowl. Alabama was No. 3 and as SEC champs, headed for the Sugar Bowl. Michigan, ranked 4th, was off to Pasadena to take on Warren Moon's Washington Huskies.
That left Texas' best opponent as No. 5 Notre Dame. Can anybody seriously criticize the current BCS as "ruining CFB" after realizing how screwed up things used to be? Notre Dame went on to crush Texas that year 38-10. No. 2 Oklahoma lost 31-6 to Arkansas in the Orange Bowl and Michigan was upset in the Rose Bowl by the Huskies. No. 3 Alabama did beat Ohio State 35-6 in the Sugar Bowl but both the AP and coaches' polls voted Notre Dame No. 1 with Alabama finishing second.
I could go on and on with more examples but I'm assuming you get the point. I didn't even touch on the many seasons of co-champions, when the two competing human polls each had a different winner. The first of 10 seasons that produced co-champions came in 1954 (Ohio St won the AP / UCLA the UP) and the last of which came in 1997 (Michigan won the AP / Nebraska the ESPN-USA Today).
That 1997 season spawned the birth of the BCS. The BCS had hoped to pit a clear No. 1 versus a clear No. 2 but it is not always an easy thing to do. When USC, No.1 in both human polls, was left out of the BCS title game in 2003, the "you know what" hit the fan! That caused AP lawyers to issue a cease-and-desist letter to the BCS which included the charge that the BCS' use of the poll was "unlawful." The AP continues to conduct a weekly poll and crown a national champion (after the bowls), but it is no longer included as a component of the BCS standings.
The Coaches Poll came under intense pressure to publish each vote but the coaches voted to only reveal their final poll. That decision caused ESPN to drop its association with the poll a few years back. That's actually pretty funny, as ESPN's college football crew throws more 'softballs' than Larry King, when it comes to the network's coverage of the sport!
The Harris Interactive Poll has replaced the AP component in the BCS formula. It is made up of former coaches, players, members of the media and I believe, a number of school janitors. I find the whole process somewhat amusing, as any system short of a playoff, has inherent flaws. However, I just don't see how, with CFB's checkered past, there is so much complaining about the BCS.
National titles should never be won on the basis of opinion. They should be won on the playing field. That's the beauty of competition. The best team doesn't always win at the end of a playoff season (in any sport) but the champion always comes out on top.
Saturday morning, I'll offer a brief preview of the six pre-Christmas bowl games.
Good luck, Larry