This Could Be The Year

In a week that provided little to no excitement and hardly any upset scares, there was the one big game on ABC Saturday night. 5 USC @ 10 Oregon. The USC Trojans came in favored to win by 3 points, according to Vegas lines, but were trounced by 27 points. This drubbing surely knocks USC out of national title contention (as they already had one loss) and if Oregon keeps winning, USC wont even win the Pac-10. The new BCS rankings have yet to be released, but we can expect Oregon to move up a few spots. Elsewhere 4th ranked Iowa faced Indiana this week and went into the halftime locker room trailing 21-7, but you would never know it as they left the stadium with a 42-24 win. If they had lost, that would have been the major story of the weekend, but would it really matter? The BCS really doesn't give them a chance to get one of the top two spots to play for the national championship!

That's the real problem with this BCS: Who is anyone to say that an Oregon team, who convincingly beat up on USC(its not like they won on a last second field goal, they dominated!) couldn't beat a Texas or a Florida? The problem is that these teams: Iowa, Oregon, Boise St, TCU, and Cincinnati wont be getting a chance to play for the title unless Texas, Alabama, or Florida lose. Oregon has absolutely no chance as they are already a 1 loss team. This, however, could be the perfect year to over throw the BCS... In past years we have had teams like Boise St. and Utah finish the season with no losses but they play in smaller conferences that don't generate a tough enough schedule. Last year Utah finished 12-0 (the country's only unbeaten team!) and were 5th in the rankings. They got demoted to the Sugar Bowl against #4 Alabama and Utah won the game 41-14. that's right, 41-14, they killed them!!! It was never close, Utah was clearly better, yet a team who had not lost never got a chance to prove that they were the best team!

But this year we have potential unbeatens from some of the big conferences Iowa 9-0(Big Ten), and Cincinnati 8-0 (Big East). Say those two go undefeated along with Texas. Alabama and Florida are in the same conference and play each other late this year. That will knock one of them out of contention with a loss. That would give us 4 unbeaten teams from mainstream conference plus the potential TCU (mountain west) and Boise St. (WAC). so we could have six unbeaten teams, but only the 4 really have a chance. The BCS machine would have to pick 2.(click to see exactly how the BCS machine does this. In my opinion its a little confusing.) However, we all know who it would take: Texas and Florida/Alabama.

Why? because of last year. These teams where near the top last year, thus placed at the top for the start of this year and all they had to do was win and they were in. Iowa and Cincinnati started the season unranked and have had to climb all the way up to their current place. This has them behind the top teams and they cant make up that ground. However, last year people where upset (very upset!) about Utah, and that team plays in a small conference out west with little competition. People were so mad, in fact, that the case to remove the BCS and have a playoff system was taken all the way to the Supreme Court. Obama himself was in favor of a change. Just imagine what could happen this year.