The BCS has been controversial since its inception in 1998, and every year people say that this year is the worst. This year, however, is by far the worst and the controversy doesn't really directly involve the BCS. The issue at hand is the handling of the Big 12 championship.
This season is the first in my limited years, that I have seen such an obviously deserving team left hanging. Oklahoma is a talented team, that cannot be argued but are they better than the team that beat them on a neutral field when they were the Number 1 team? Oklahoma's whooping of Texas Tech can't be overlooked, but is beating up on a perennially so-so team having an amazing year as impressive as beating your hated rival in the biggest game of both school's seasons? Texas' defeat of Oklahoma should have ended the discussion right then and there, because the winner of the Red River Shootout(Rivalry, sorry) is always the best team in the Big 12. The debate over which team is more deserving of the championship berth is basically pointless because the issue is not which team deserves the chance to beat Mizzou, rather it is about why the Big 12 has such a stupid tiebreaker policy.
I know that the point is that you don't have tiebreakers involving style points and running up the score, a la Steve Spurrier, but there should be a better way to decide than relying on the horribly flawed computer system. Every season there is at least one team - if not more - that feel they've been slighted by the computers. Usually it directly involves invites to the BCS games, but this year it indirectly does. The feeling around the college sports world, and I agree, is that either Texas or Oklahoma would play the winner of the SEC battle between Florida and Alabama for the National Championship. So with that in mind - even though many would argue USC as a viable candidate(even though they aren't) - the decision of who represents the South in the championship game takes on the utmost importance. Because now it looks that Sooners will play the Gators or Tide for the title, which still leaves the door open for Texas to most likely get an at-large bid to either a Fiesta or Sugar Bowl. Neither of those games are anything to take lightly - with payouts of $17 million dollars - but ask Mack Brown and Colt McCoy(my choice for the Heisman) and they will tell you they don't care about the payouts. McCoy is dying for his chance to eclipse his legendary predecessor and the Big-12's tiebreaker system has potentially robbed him of that.
Texas still has a shot at the title game if Mizzou can pull an upset and defeat the Sooners, Texas would have a legitimate case for the bid. While less likely, but possible, would be Penn State or USC sneaking in to play the SEC champ, but that seems least likely. The moral of the story is that 60+ college athletes should not have to pour their hearts into a season that can be taken away by a primarily useless computer system. The Big-12 commissioner and Board of Directors need to sit down and take a long look at the way they break down ties. A one-game playoff would be difficult in football, but there are other options. They could look at points allowed rather than points scored. People say points scored is unfair because coaches will run up the score on the cupcakes at the beginning of the season, and that is understood, but why can't they award excellence on defense? By using points against as a tiebreaker, it encourages defense - which always makes for entertaining football. They also could use strength of schedule as a deciding factor, but not the preseason strength of schedule. At the end of the season, in the event of a tie, they could simply look at the opponents each team played. Schools like Fresno State who go anywhere and play anyone should be rewarded while teams like USC who just play laughers week in and week out should not get an bonus points. The final thing they could look at if they don't want to use points against could be turnover differential. Takeaway/giveaway ratios are usually highest with the best team so that could be an accurate barometer of a team's talent.
I'm not bashing the Sooners and saying they are going somewhere they don't deserve to be, I'm saying that the Big-12 needs a less ambiguous tie-breaking procedure. The odds of another scenario like this are astronomically high, but they do need a better system in place. It isn't difficult to break down, if they wanted it to be. They could even use what they have now, and as soon as one team is eliminated, then look at the head-to-head. Things aren't boding well for bowl season if there's already a fiasco and the first bowl is still two and a half weeks away. I can't wait...
