For the fourth week out of the past five, the #2 ranked team in the AP poll has lost. USC, Cal, South Florida, and BC all gave in to the pressure. This continuation of the topsy turvy college football season (App. St. over Michigan?) leads me to think that maybe all those so called experts aren’t really that. They’re no more experts than my mother and she picks based on which mascot is the cuter, furrier one. Did any of these experts see Stanford beating USC? How about Kansas being 8-0? UConn leading the Big East? Maybe if they’re college basketball experts. Week in, week out we hear the constant debate between this team or that team. “Well team A beat team C and team B beat team D by a smaller margin and team C beat team D so I think team A is better than team B.” Or let me put in better terms for you. UCLA beat Stanford 45-17 and Oregon beat USC 24-17. Stanford beat USC 24-23. Since UCLA’s margin of victory over Stanford was higher than Oregon’s margin of victory over USC, UCLA must be the better team, right? It’s this kind of thinking that leads to a college football season that everyone considers wacky.
The main problem is the current ranking system we have today. I’m not the first person to gripe about it and I sure as hell won’t be the last. First of all we have multiple polling systems. AP, ESPN/USA Today, Harris, BCS. There’s just too damn many to keep track of. The next problem is who’s is more valid? Do the press know more about football than coaches? No. So toss the AP. I’ll take the USA Today coaches poll. Wait. How objective is that poll? Try not at all. Steve Spurrier has voted Duke #25 in the coaches poll ever since he left to coach Florida. In the past 3 seasons they are a combined 2-30. Guess we can toss out the validity of that poll. What about the BCS though? They combine all the polls along with a computer system that is supposed to be unbiased. How about 2004 when there were 4 undefeated teams going in to the final bowl week? How does one decide which 2 undefeated teams get to play against each other for the title? 2 teams are ultimately shafted.
The college football system puts too much emphasis on being perfect and not enough emphasis on getting it right. Because #2 BC lost this weekend they are pretty much out of it national championship wise. One loss means they’re done. Why? Because they play in the ACC. Teams are punished for the conference they play in. I hope that before I die, the NCAA can see past the money and actually crown a true college football champion. Until then I’ll just keep perusing the BS, I mean BCS, standings.
Josh
