Beauteous. The BCS's shortcomings are highlighted this year in a spectacular fashion. The BCS dances and says "How Wonderful Our System" on Sunday night, when announcing matchups. What more could anyone want from a single football Saturday?
Cincinnati pulling out a last minute win 45-44 in a game featuring practically no defense over a good 14th ranked Pitt on a long bomb to remain undefeated. They beat a then 21st ranked, now unranked South Florida earlier in the season. Close games no stranger to this team, with a 2 point win over mighty Connecticut and a 3 point win over West Virginia to add to their 1 point squeaker. Still, they WON, brotha!
Boise State whooping up on the 1357th ranked team to land undefeated. Of course they did beat a then 16th ranked Oregon (now 6th ranked) in the first game of the season. Their closest spread? 7 points against Tulsa. Tough, tough team in a weak conference. No one, in this BCS-driven world will be dumb enough to schedule them again in a non-conference game the way Oregon did. Get to the back of the bus, Potato Heads.
TCU, watching from the sidelines today, hoping for Longhorn misfortune, saw their national championship hopes dim and have a new hate posterboy... Texas kicker Hunter Lawrence. TCU had two close games this season against unranked teams, a 3 point squeaker against Air Force and a 4 point win over Clemson. They also beat a then-ranked 16 (now 14th) Brigham Young and then ranked 16 (now 25th) Utah like a drum.
Texas, in a game that was a complete inverse of Cincinnati-Pitt matchup, combined the best defensive match up of the year. Number 22, and streaking, with 5 straight wins under its belt, Nebraska showed the world what a Defensive Tackle looks like on Mars. Ndumakong Suh is the best defensive lineman I have ever seen, making UT's vaunted offensive line look like Pop Warner wannabes. I can't even imagine what level of hell it would be to be a normally talented division 1 left tackle to stopping this freak of nature. Imagine Lawrence Taylor's meaner, bigger brother. The Horns, whose only other close game this season was a 3 point win over the 2oth ranked (now unranked) Oklahoma in a game that saw the Sooners lose Sam Bradford, and with him, 2009 season hopes, squeaked out with a 1 point last second heart stopper when the stars aligned, the officials cooperated, and kicker Hunter Lawrence kicked a perfect 46 yarder to seal a perfect regular season run. UT easily handled then ranked number 13 (now unranked) Oklahoma State in mid-season.
Alabama and Florida. SEC behemoths. Alabama handled then 7th ranked (now 12th) Virginia Tech, then 20th (now unranked) Ole Miss, then 22nd (now unranked South Carolina), and then 9th, now 13th LSU on the way to this game, with a 5 point squeaker to unranked rival Auburn and a 2 point win over unranked Tennessee. Florida beat then 4th (now 13th) LSU in its only win this season against ranked opponents coming into Saturday and were scared mid-season with a last minute 3 point win over unranked Arkansas. Then came the SEC Championship game this last Saturday. Alabama confirmed for most of us that they were the real deal. Not invincible, maybe, but a head above Florida and worthy of the Rose Bowl berth that can give them the chance at National Championship.
Clearly, Texas, TCU, Boise State, and Cincinnati are worthy opponents to the Tide. We are ensured, with the announced Bowl pairings of Cincinnati/Florida, TCU/Boise State, and Texas/Alabama that the end of the year will end up AGAIN with an asterisk, the nominal National Champion being unbeaten with as many as two other teams joining them undefeated.
What could be more appropriate to this situation than a combination of Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban Pure Dee DFW Moxie? Here is my suggestion to these brash billionaires. I would do it myself if I had their scratch, and will write a check to participate if they do this. To quote their fellow diminutive Dallas dynast Ross Perot, "Here's the Deal"...
I think Cuban and Jones should conspire to destroy the BCS, and perhaps the NCAA, once and for all by doing the following... once the Bowl Games are played, with either a Texas or Alabama asterisk National Champ, and some mix of TCU, Boise State, and/or Cincinnati still remaining, they should offer the best of these teams, the team that beat the crap out of their opponent the the most convincingly in their respective bowl, $25 million to play Alabama/Texas and pay Alabama/Texas $50 million to play the challenger in Cowboy Stadium on TV the Saturday before the Super Bowl in an Exhibition Game. Announce it BEFORE the bowls are played so that everyone is playing to WIN. If the BCS threatens a particular conference, have these guys tell the conferences they will pay them off to get rid of the BCS, maybe the NCAA once and for all. Tear it down and start from scratch with a system that reflects the real world we live in. Or not. Just play the friggin' game. It will be the biggest football game in history, bar none. It will make up every bit of money you invest and make you a real return. Best of all? You will be even more famous... as the guys who brought what we ALL want to the fans.
Alabama/Texas players won't want to play? Wanna bet? The chance to be the asterisked National Champion in a controversial and miserable season, or the indisputed National Champion in the most historical and important college football game ever played? Only cowards would shirk that deal, and the Tide sure isn't scared. Texas? Maybe they would.
It's just an idea. But it is a great one. If anyone knows Cuban or Jones (I tried to sell Jones a prospect once, but only met with his partner Mike McCoy, who wisely turned it down), tell them about this idea!
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