All the Bowl Championship Series apologists will tell you that they got it right.
No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 Florida will clash for the national championship in Miami, Fla. on Jan. 8, but skeptics wonder if these are indeed the two best teams in all of college football.
The BCS may have felt somewhat vindicated when Oklahoma drubbed Missouri, 62-21, to capture the Big 12 Conference championship and earn a match against the Southeastern Conference champion Gators; pitting champions from arguably the two top conferences against each other.
But in a season where parity in college football has created a logjam atop the BCS standings, five one-loss teams and two unbeaten teams feel that they deserve a shot at the big prize also.
No. 3 Texas (11-1) probably has the biggest gripe of them all.
Despite beating Oklahoma, 45-35, on a neutral field in October, the Longhorns were left out of the Big 12 championship game because positioning in the BCS standings is used as a tie-breaker in the event of a three-way tie in the Big 12 standings.
As a result, the Sooners were given the spot in the conference title game, along with an extra game to boost its BCS resume. The Longhorns and No. 7 Texas Tech (11-1), because of their lower positioning in the BCS rankings, were given the shaft.
Is it fair for computers to determine that Oklahoma is the most deserving of these three teams, when each team’s one loss came against the other?
Texas has its win over the Sooners; Texas Tech has its 39-33 victory over the Longhorns, but then again, the Red Raiders were trounced, 65-21, in their showdown against Oklahoma. Each has a legitimate case for a national championship spot, but it appears we’ll never see that scenario played out on a football field.
No. 4 Alabama (12-1) had been the most consistent team throughout the regular season. The Crimson Tide were undefeated heading into the SEC championship game against Florida, until a 31-20 loss to the Gators derailed their national title hopes.
The BCS has ignored Alabama’s overall body of work. The Tide should be rewarded for running the gauntlet in the nation’s toughest conference, but the BCS has decided that one loss on the final game of the season is enough to knock them out of consideration.
How about No. 5 USC (11-1)? The Trojans’ 27-21 loss came on the road against Oregon State (8-4) and the team boasts a stingy defense allowing 7.8 points per game. No. 8 Penn State (11-1) lost, 24-23, at Iowa on a last-second field goal.
And finally, we have undefeated No. 6 Utah (12-0) and No. 9 Boise State (12-0). The elitist BCS argument claims that both play in inferior “mid-major” conferences, but the Utes and Broncos’ unbeaten runs make them deserving of a chance to prove themselves against the best.
With so many deserving teams being slighted, allowing only two teams access to the title game does not seem logical. As more teams continue to get screwed year after year, it’s only a matter of time until BCS-backers can no longer make excuses for their flawed system.