Utes deserve their shot at a championship
Barring upsets in the SEC and Big 12 championship games, we’ve again got a big mess when it comes to deciding who goes to the college championship game this season.
I won’t even insult the intelligence of the 99.9 percent of you who think the present system is the dumbest thing since screen doors on a submarine. Only money-grubbing university presidents who need money for their junkets to the Bahamas every year for their “retreats” and corporate bowl sponsors who want to turn football bowls into infomercials for their useless products support the present system.
What we have is a big-time standoff with at least three teams, probably four if you include Utah, who deserve to play for the championship. First, we have USC, who captured a worthless part of a “split” championship last year when they were left out of the BCS championship game which saw LSU beat Oklahoma. I use the word “split” loosely since it was decided beforehand that the winner of the BCS would be viewed as the real champion. Seeing those were the ground rules I see USC’s consolation title last year as a worthless symbol.
This year the world is in love again with the Trojans who’s only decent win this year was a nail biter over a mediocre California team, the one team that beat them last year by the way. Both these teams play in one of the weakest major conferences in the nation, taking care not to play anyone of any consequence outside their conference. They don’t even have a championship game out there.
Let me just say, if Notre Dame upset USC last night, I’d be very happy since I think it would expose USC and that entire soft west coast conference for the second rate teams they are when compared to the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and even the ACC. But, even with a USC loss, we still have controversy if you consider Utah, who, in my opinion, is just as good as any of the other top three teams.
They even scheduled tough out-of-conference games, beating a ranked Texas A&M team 41-21 and then killing the North Carolina Tar Heels 46-16. By the way, this was the same Tar Heels team that beat Miami this year. As for the rest of their Mountain West games, no one has even been close. Sure, their conference is even weaker than the PAC-10, but at least they win big instead of limping past mediocre teams like USC and Oklahoma have all year. Hey, my personal number one, Auburn Tigers, even needed luck to beat LSU in the opener this year.
Realistically, I know there’s no way Utah will ever get a crack at the championship game this year, even though I believe they and Auburn, provided the Tigers can beat the Vols in Atlanta, deserve to play for the championship. And, by the way, while Auburn dominated them earlier, we have to remember what a mediocre LSU team did to the Vols a couple of years ago, keeping the Big Orange out of the national championship game.
Given this problem with deciding who should play, some “experts” have suggested the 107 coaches vote for the two teams. This, in my opinion is unwise since there would be a ton of favoritism since conferences do get to share in the BCS spoils. Plus coaches know little or nothing of teams they don’t play during the season. And, just look at how out of whack the coaches poll sometimes turns out, seeing its the media, not the coaches, who seem to keep better track on the top teams. The media poll of top sports writers, whose job it is to follow all the teams, would do a better job. But, it boils down to trying to ride a dead horse since the whole system is broken and no matter what you do, the whole thing will remain a mess.