First and foremost, no one's going to watch this slate of bowls this year. They're all but unwatchable. There are two games that look palatable. But more importantly, the process is so rigged by coaches juicing the rankings and BCS bullying, there's little probability of fairness. The "system" is collapsing on itself.
There are some endemic problems with the BCS beginning with purpose. The BCS is an affiliation between super conferences to consolidate power. It wasn't formed to produce a true champion, it was formed to stave off a playoff. It's actually the third iteration of Bowl Alliances all formed with intention of saving the bowl system.
Right now the BCS super conferences control almost all of the power and most of the money. For the most part, it's been okay, but now two phenomenons are rigging the system: lack of accountability for scheduling and coach's favoritism.
Teams are scheduling their way into the BCS and there's no accountability for cream puff slates.
Ohio State should be banned for their non-conference fluff, not rewarded:09/01 YSU W 38-6
Does anyone truly think they'd have a one loss record with Florida's schedule?
09/08 Akron W 20-2
09/15 at Washington W 33-14
10/13 Kent St W 48-3
Don't even try with Kansas and Mangini, they're a joke this year. They played the 88th ranked schedule in the country and not one top team until they met Missouri and lost (who was beaten soundly by Oklahoma.)
The idea that Hawaii would be undefeated with Notre Dame's schedule is ludicrous as is the idea that being unbeaten makes you somehow more deserving -- it only works when there is relative parity in scheduling.
On to the coaches. It's quite clear that Illinois was voted up higher by Big Ten coaches, but that wasn't the only shenanigans going on.
ndmagi broke down the latest coach voting this way on Cartier Field:
Since this year presented as much jockeying in the last poll as there has ever been (because of the large number of one and two loss teams that were ranked in the top 5 at some point this year), I thought it could be interesting to see which coaches deviated the most from their peers. I used the method Wes Colley developed and applied it to compare each coach's ballot with the final tallied coach's poll.
http://www.colleyrankings.com/matrate.pdf (Section 8, "Performance")
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/graphics/coaches_fb_poll_2007/flash.htm
Below are the teams, ranked from "eyebrow raising" at the top to "conformist" on the bottom. The score indicates the percentage deviation between the tallied vote and ballot (a score of 1.1 can be interpreted that the ballot and tallied vote were within 10% of each other).
Interesting results: Of the two national championship teams, Miles (ranked #8 with a 1.29) was significantly more bold than Tressel (ranked #51 with a 1.11). Charlie Weis came in at #44 out of 60 with a 1.14. Bob Stoops and Bobby Bowden are the trendsetters of the major college football coaches with a 1.36 and 1.34, respectively, landing them at the #2 and #3 spots. But, they seem to disagree on something . . . the ranking of Oklahoma. Bowden rated Oklahoma the lowest of all college coaches (#10) while Stoops rated it the highest of all college coaches (#1).
Surprisingly, BigN buddies Bill Lynch (Indiana), Joe Tiller, Jim Tressel, and Ron Zook vote conservatively with 1.08, 1.11, 1.12, and 1.13. I wonder if their horse didn't need any help...
Rank Score Name, School
1 1.5187 Howard Schnellenberger, Florida Atlantic
2 1.36 Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
3 1.349 Bobby Bowden, Florida State
4 1.3475 Joe Glenn, Wyoming
5 1.3447 Mumme, New Mexico State
6 1.3286 Mario Cristobal, Florida International
7 1.3127 Pat Hill, Fresno State
8 1.2922 Les Miles, LSU
9 1.2892 Butch Davis, North Carolina
10 1.2835 Bill Doba, Washington State
11 1.2761 Bill Callahan, Nebraska
12 1.2756 Dan Hawkins, Colorado
13 1.269 Tyrone Willingham, Washington
14 1.2566 Art Briles, Houston
15 1.2522 Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
16 1.2446 Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
17 1.2441 Chris Petersen, Boise State
18 1.2432 Tommy Tuberville, Auburn
19 1.2423 Rocky Long, New Mexico
20 1.2323 Mike Leach, Texas Tech
Certainly helpful, but its the individual screw job stories that really stand out in here -- with coaches trying to influence the final BCS picks. TSN highlighted ten others.1. Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer voted his own team No. 2 and LSU No. 1. Now
that's a man with principles.
2. Talk about principles (or at least conference loyalty): Lloyd Carr voted for Ohio State to be No. 1.
3. Sooners coach Bob Stoops voted Oklahoma No. 1 (defensible) but voted LSU No. 6 (not so defensible).
4. Hawaii got a No. 1 vote (from Hal Mumme) and a No. 22 vote (from Dennis Franchione). Coach Fran, why so much doubt?
5. Ohio State's lowest vote (No. 6) came from Mario Cristobal of Florida
International. He picked LSU No. 1
6. Most coaches ranked Missouri above Kansas, but Howard Schnellenberger of Florida Atlantic voted Kansas No. 2 and Missouri No. 4. The man believes in Ws and Ls ... he ranked Ohio State No. 1 and Hawaii No. 3.
7. Virginia Tech's lowest ranking (No. 10) came from Fresno State's Pat Hill.
8. No. 25 South Florida's highest rank came from Florida State's Bobby Bowden.
9. Ohio State's Jim Tressel and Georgia's Mark Richt both pegged Illinois at No. 13.
10. Colorado State's Sonny Lubick and Eastern Michigan's Jeff Genyk got the farthest in matching the final poll ... each got the top six picks "right". But Oregon
State's Mike Riley seemed to come closest to matching the consensus, top to
bottom.
Note that Tyrone Willingham didn't even list Boston College. Snicker. Here's another look at the voting from the Courier Journal:Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops voted his team No. 1 -- and bumped Louisiana State
On top of these two factors, you then have the bowls which pick based on conference loyalty, draw and match up.
down to sixth, behind Virginia Tech, a team the Tigers beat by 41. Mike Bellotti of Oregon, who got into a major dustup with Oklahoma last season because of a controversial overtime game, negated Stoops' ballot by placing Ohio State first, LSU second and the Sooners eighth. Stoops and Bellotti should be sent to their rooms and have their ballots taken away for five years. Frank Beamer put LSU first, Virginia Tech second, Oklahoma third and Ohio State fourth. Stunning disclosure: Beamer coaches Virginia Tech.
When pundits talk about BCS fairness, you want to laugh, cry or punch a wall. There is no fairness or altruistic reasoning in this third incarnation of the bowl greed. It's about promoting yourself, protecting your own and making money.
What a wonderful lesson to teach the next leaders of the country. Or maybe that's exactly the lesson they need to learn.
This is the first year I may not watch a game on New Year's Day.
Monday, December 03, 2007
BCS Lessons in Greed
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11 comments:
This is what is beautiful about College football - it is much more like real life than the pro level.
life isn't fair. people get screwed. those who do the screwing are often those who least merit that responsibility.
Performance is rewarded to a certain extent, but more than that it is about reputation and alliances.
CFB is beautiful because it mirrors the crap that we all have to put up with every day.
life is not a meritocracy
Good points, this is how I viewed it:
This year we have a 3 loss No. 13 Illinois (9-3) from the powerhouse Big 10 (not a conference champion, not ranked in the Top 10, who lost to Missouri, Iowa and Michigan) playing a 2 loss No. 7 USC (10-2) who lost to frickin’ Stanford, even ND beat Stanford, PAC-10 Champ, in the BCS Rose Bowl.
No. 8 Kansas (11-1), (not a conference champion and did not even play in the conference championship game or win its division) (note KU racked up its impressive record playing a non-conference schedule of C. Mich, Toledo, S.E. Louisiana, Florida Int. and a conference schedule including Baylor, a down Neb and Tex A&M) is playing 2 loss No. 3 Virginia Tech (11-2), ACC Conference Champ, in the BCS Orange Bowl.
2 loss No. 9 W. Va (10-2), Big East Champ (and an embarrassed one at that losing to mighty Pitt to clinch the Big East) is playing 2 loss No. 4 Oklahoma (11-2), Big 12 Champ, in the BCS Fiesta Bowl.
Undefeated powerhouse No. 10 Hawaii (12-0), WAC Champ, is playing 2 loss, No. 5 Georgia (10-2), (not a conference Champ, did not win its division, and lost to an unranked non-bowl team), in the BCS Sugar Bowl.
Notice the whole 2 loss team theme going on with a 3 loss team thrown in for good measure. Oh, don’t forget the undefeated NON-BCS Conference team NOT PLAYING for the Championship again.
“The Championship Game,” featuring No. 1 Ohio State (11-1), Big 10 champ, because that conference is so strong this year (I will now note that tOSU played Kent State, Youngstown State, Wash. and Akron for its tough non-conference schedule, when they weren’t playing Northwestern, Iowa, Indiana and Minn., etc.) is matched up against No. 2 LSU (11-2), the SEC Champ.
How does the team that was ranked number 1 less then 3 days ago, which beat Kansas head to head, and is still ranked above Kansas at No. 6 get passed up in favor of Kansas?
How does Missouri get passed up by a Big 10 team that is not ranked in the top 10, not a conference champ and that it also beat head to head?
How does Missouri get passed up by, not one but TWO teams it beat, one in the first game of the year (Illinois) and the other 2 weeks ago (Kansas), one of whom is in its own conference, did not win the division like Missouri and did not even play for the conference championship?
How is Missouri passed by another team that is ranked higher solely because it did not play in its conference championship (See e.g. GA)?
How is Missouri passed by a team that is ranked below it and plays Div. IAA talent disguised as a conference in the Southwest?
MISSOURI GOT SCREWED. (and Oklahoma should be in the Championship game over Ohio State).
On a side note that is really not a side note: I think this wacky year has also just proven that ND is actually held to a higher standard than the holier than thou “BCS Conference” teams in order to get into a BCS game because it has to be ranked in the top 10, unlike Conference champs who get in even if not ranked in the Top 10 (see several ACC, Big East and Big 12 champs in the past 10 years) or apparently teams that were not even in conference championship games as is the case this year.
The BCS Bowls routinely screws a higher ranked team every year, so when it happens in the years that ND is lucky enough to put it all together and get in, it is just par for the course. Why? Because the BCS is set up to insure 1 plays 2, that ND has to earn its place at the table, and then to fill seats and sell sponsorships.
ND has to earn a BCS berth!!! Meanwhile, the Conferences rig the contest to insure their teams get multiple BCS berths, whether they deserve them or not!!!!!
(By the way, both Navy and Air Force are in Bowl Games and in light of this year, strength of schedule arguments for why a 10 win ND team should not go to a BCS bowl are no longer valid)
Good report, this is how I see it:
This year we have a 3 loss No. 13 Illinois (9-3) from the powerhouse Big 10 (not a conference champion, not ranked in the Top 10, who lost to Missouri, Iowa and Michigan) playing a 2 loss No. 7 USC (10-2) who lost to frickin’ Stanford, even ND beat Stanford, PAC-10 Champ, in the BCS Rose Bowl.
No. 8 Kansas (11-1), (not a conference champion and did not even play in the conference championship game or win its division) (note KU racked up its impressive record playing a non-conference schedule of C. Mich, Toledo, S.E. Louisiana, Florida Int. and a conference schedule including Baylor, a down Neb and Tex A&M) is playing 2 loss No. 3 Virginia Tech (11-2), ACC Conference Champ, in the BCS Orange Bowl.
2 loss No. 9 W. Va (10-2), Big East Champ (and an embarrassed one at that losing to mighty Pitt to clinch the Big East) is playing 2 loss No. 4 Oklahoma (11-2), Big 12 Champ, in the BCS Fiesta Bowl.
Undefeated powerhouse No. 10 Hawaii (12-0), WAC Champ, is playing 2 loss, No. 5 Georgia (10-2), (not a conference Champ, did not win its division, and lost to an unranked non-bowl team), in the BCS Sugar Bowl.
Notice the whole 2 loss team theme going on with a 3 loss team thrown in for good measure. Oh, don’t forget the undefeated NON-BCS Conference team NOT PLAYING for the Championship again.
“The Championship Game,” featuring No. 1 Ohio State (11-1), Big 10 champ, because that conference is so strong this year (I will now note that tOSU played Kent State, Youngstown State, Wash. and Akron for its tough non-conference schedule, when they weren’t playing Northwestern, Iowa, Indiana and Minn., etc.) is matched up against No. 2 LSU (11-2), the SEC Champ.
How does the team that was ranked number 1 less then 3 days ago, which beat Kansas head to head, and is still ranked above Kansas at No. 6 get passed up in favor of Kansas?
How does Missouri get passed up by a Big 10 team that is not ranked in the top 10, not a conference champ and that it also beat head to head?
How does Missouri get passed up by, not one but TWO teams it beat, one in the first game of the year (Illinois) and the other 2 weeks ago (Kansas), one of whom is in its own conference, did not win the division like Missouri and did not even play for the conference championship?
How is Missouri passed by another team that is ranked higher solely because it did not play in its conference championship (See e.g. GA)?
How is Missouri passed by a team that is ranked below it and plays Div. IAA talent disguised as a conference in the Southwest?
MISSOURI GOT SCREWED. (and Oklahoma should be in the Championship game over Ohio State).
On a side note that is really not a side note: I think this wacky year has also just proven that ND is actually held to a higher standard than the holier than thou “BCS Conference” teams in order to get into a BCS game because it has to be ranked in the top 10, unlike Conference champs who get in even if not ranked in the Top 10 (see several ACC, Big East and Big 12 champs in the past 10 years) or apparently teams that were not even in conference championship games as is the case this year.
The BCS Bowls routinely screws a higher ranked team every year, so when it happens in the years that ND is lucky enough to put it all together and get in, it is just par for the course. Why? Because the BCS is set up to insure 1 plays 2, that ND has to earn its place at the table, and then to fill seats and sell sponsorships.
ND has to earn a BCS berth!!! Meanwhile, the Conferences rig the contest to insure their teams get multiple BCS berths, whether they deserve them or not!!!!!
(By the way, both Navy and Air Force are in Bowl Games and in light of this year, strength of schedule arguments for why a 10 win ND team should not go to a BCS bowl are no longer valid)
While Rocks make some valid points about coach’s favoritism and to a lesser degree about parity of scheduling, his tone and attitude reeks of the type paternalism and pontification that provide the fuel for other college football fans to have ill will on the ND football program.
To downgrade the Hawaii program because of its obvious contrast of lesser competition dilutes the profound accomplishments of an undefeated season. To tip this comparison on its side, a cogent argument can be made that I am not quite sure ND would have had undefeated season if they played Hawaii’s schedule. No doubt, there was some cream puffs in their, but given the mediocrity of losses to the service academies, and not overly dominating wins against Duke and Stanford—fair minded men, could claim it as debatable. Consider this their total football budget is less than 3 million, ours close to 20 million or that they have a squad that is almost 70 percent composed of players from the smallest state in the nation. Not really equitable metrics, huh?
The bottom line is that an undefeated season in college football is a very rare feat, and should be given its due with all associated accruements. The fact that we have not won a bowl game, BCS or not, since 1993, and Hawaii has I think 17 more wins than us in the last 9 years, please lets give them their fair shake. Yes, we have a tremendously rough schedule year in, and year out. However, you always play the team before you, and as I think it is Herman Edwards who said, “you always play to win, that’s the goal.” The fact that we have consistently tougher opponents does not deserve merit unless we beat said teams, because at the end of the day you play to win, not just merely have a tough schedule.
I knew the schedule KU played was a farce, but I didn't realize it was this bad. I live in Wichita, KS, so we are "blessed" with front page headline news about the Jayhawks. Makes me want to barf.
I enjoyed the comment about KU's cream puff schedule. Maybe ND has more in common with Florida than we could ever have imagined. I hope VTech buries the Hawks just like I hope Hawaii is soundly beaten in their bowl game. Good teams with two and three losses were left out of the BCS.
Now the really tough part to write. If this is the way teams get to play for NC, what does it say about the schedule the Irish play? We take pride in playing a demanding schedule...though this year really stretched it even if we would have had a more experienced team.
until there is a playoff system, teams will continue to be screwed - but the bottom line is - there ain't no way I am not watching those bowl games - good or bad - because there ain't much else on until March madness after the football season's end......
Go Irish!
While no major university should play a Div.II school (Youngstown St.), don't be so hard on Ohio State. They did beat Michigan, Michigan St., Purdue, and Penn St. All of whom soundly defeated the Irish. Also, Duke, Stanford, and the Service Acedemies aren't top tier either.
Um.....
Isn't it kinda hypocritical to go off about BCS's greed and how it isn't fair when ND was the beneficiary of such a system the last two seasons? ND got in those BCS games cause ND would attract more viewers than other perhaps more worthy teams.
In fairness to OSU, their schedule isn't quite as egregious as it's made out to be, given that UW is historically a marquee or near-marquee team. I doubt they anticipated the depths to which the Huskies would sink when the game was scheduled originally. That doesn't excuse having three bodybag games, but they're really only one game short of a respectable schedule. Their problem is that both their big NC opponent (UW) AND their conference are down this year.
Also, it's particularly unfair to talk about Hawaii in the conversation of scheduling to get into the BCS. I doubt the BCS entered into their heads when they were putting their schedule together. I realize that the undefeated record doesn't mean nearly as much as the same record in a BCS conference, but they're not playing for the title game (nor are many people suggesting they should be doing so).
Rock. Great blog. I dont know where to begin. I live in Northeast Pa in Penn St country so I have to put up with a lot of Big 10 homers. I have been saying all year that Ohio St is overrated and has done nothing, and is being rewarded for that garbage schedule. The out of conference schedule is disgusting and the Sagarin ratings had the Big 10 6th out of 6 BCS conferences. Yeah lets back them into the championship game. They would have at least 3 if not 4 losses in the SEC, and I hope LSU does to them what Florida did last year. Illinois getting a BCS bid is also a joke. They have 3 losses including a loss to horrible Iowa, they were unranked, but because they beat overrated Ohio St lets put them in the top 15 and give then a BCS bid. I will enjoy watching USC destroy them. How does Kansas get a BCS bid over Missouri? Kansas schedule makes Ohio Sts look strong and Mizzou just beat Kansas last week. They also need to abolish the rule that you can only have 2 teams from a conference get BCS bowl bids. 3 loss Florida is better than most of the teams that got BCS bids.
A better question is who chooses the voters. Why would any "if you're the highest bidder, we'll come to your place and get blown-out" teams like Florida International and Florida Atlantic get a vote at all.
Or alternatively change it so all the Div 1-A coaches get votes.
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