You can call this sour grapes all you want.
But, no matter whether No. 12 Oklahoma was deserving, the fact some team called Northern Illinois got into a BCS bowl and managed to knock the Sooners from the Sugar Bowl is proof how the Bowl Championship Series is a ridiculous failure.
Northern Illinois played no ranked opponents all year and was not ranked in the BCS top 25 until last week. They lost to Iowa by one point. They defeated the worst of the Big 12, Kansas, by seven. (But, hey, they hammered 11-loss Massachusetts 63-0.)
With Northern Illinois, Louisville and Wisconsin all earning BCS bowls, it marks the first time in the BCS era (since 1999) that three teams ranked lower than No. 15 earned a BCS bowl berth.
I know the anti-playoff crowd said a future playoff system would threaten the bowls.
Folks, this BCS system threatens to render the bowls into triviality now.
Understand, there are only eight BCS slots other than the two in the championship game.
But that doesn’t mean the top 10 teams get into the top five games. With artificial rules, such as allowing a mid-major team to swipe one of the BCS slots if it is ranked in the top 16 and ahead of one automatic qualifier, or a limit on how many BCS teams can come from one conference(even with our 10 and 12-game “mega” conferences), you are going to have these ho-hum match ups that no one will want to attend or watch.
Remember OU vs. Connecticut in the Fiesta Bowl in 2011?
It doesn’t stop there. Wisconsin, which has lost five games this season is going to the BCS Rose Bowl. But Georgia, which finished 11-2 and was seconds from upsetting the national champion finalist Alabama in the SEC championship game, will not play in a BCS bowl game.
Louisville, which is 52nd in the Sagarin ratings, will play Florida in the Sugar Bowl.
In 2012, the Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 9 teams did not make a BCS bowl games. No. 23 West Virginia did, as did No. 15 Clemson and No. 13 Michigan.
In 2011, the Nos. 3 and 9 did not go to a BCS bowl. But No. 13 Virginia Tech did, as well as unranked Connecticut.
The result? Death to the bowls. Death by anemia. Sure, Oklahoma got screwed by this system. But, also, the problem with this system is it creates too many games we don’t want to see. That is not good for college football.
Meanwhile, Northern Illinois will go to Miami to lounge in the tropical air of South Beach and play Florida State. Bless their hearts, I’m sure they worked hard this year.
But, this does not make sense. Beating mighty Tennessee-Martin or Ball State should never be the litmus test for what used to be the best of the college football post-season, the Orange Bowl. The game where Nebraska used to play Miami for national championships? Where Oklahoma won its last NC?
Fortunately, the BCS championship does have the two best teams in college football playing each other — Notre Dame and Alabama.
And Oklahoma will play a marque game against Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.
Still, a playoff system cannot get here fast enough.
Follow