As the National Championship came to a close, it seemed the world of college football would go back into peaceful slumber and all of the insanity that occurred during the bowl season appeared to be behind us all.  However, just as I was ready to turn my full focus to the NFL, contemplating the start of the Brian Kelly era, and beginning to wish baseball season was about to start, everyone associated with Southern Cal Athletics apparently decided it was their turn to take hold of the  “Lose Your Damn Mind” wheel.

With the NCAA looming large over the Trojans thanks to several different violations, most notably the scandals of Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo, USC figured they would sacrifice their basketball program in hopes to please the NCAA from taking further action.  Then, seemingly out of nowhere, rumors started popping up that Pete Carroll was the top target for the Seattle Seahawks, and some sources even went as far as saying it was basically a done deal.  Just a couple of days later, the deal was done, and Carroll swiped a life boat of the Titanic before the NCAA delivered their final blow to USC.

Of course, though, looming sanctions had no effect on Carroll’s decision:

Talking with the Los Angeles Times, Carroll said his pending move wasn’t in reaction to possible sanctions the Trojans’ program faces as a result of an ongoing investigation over whether players may have received improper benefits.

“Not in any way,” Carroll told the newspaper. “Because I know where we stand. It’s just a process we have to go through. We know we’ve fought hard to do right.”

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight…

However, the fun (and laughter as USC’s expense) was only beginning.  Those Trojan fans that had previously laughed at Notre Dame’s coaching searches, seeing coach after coach deny rumors and interest of a home under the Dome, were severed one of the largest slices of humble pie in recent memory.  No one wanted to touch the USC job with a 10-foot pole with the NCAA ready to cripple their coaching era immediately.  Top candidate Jack Del Rio quickly became USC’s version of a Bob Stoops rumor as he denied any job offer was made.  Washington coach, Steve Sarkisian, had to deny similar rumors as well.  With seemingly no clear cut candidate on the market, and with recruits wavering after Carroll’s departure, the Fall of Troy was looking all but certain.  In fact, many a Notre Dame fan began to hope for what could have been the most humorous hire of all time:

Don't lie, this would've been amazing.

However, it seemed we were all not thinking outside of the box.  The evil geniuses at Southern Cal had something else up their sleeve.  They knew exactly the kind of person that would be more than happy to take on a program riddled with NCAA violations, has no shame, and has absolutely zero issues leaving a job after just 14 months:

KIFFYKINS!!!

I thought this was all just another awful (yet humorous) internet rumor, but no, Lane Kiffin actually did prove he is one of the worst human beings on the planet and left Tennessee for Southern Cal.  I’m pretty sure this reaction says it all:

This must've done wonders for Meyer's health.

The hits just kept on coming that night, as Kiffin had a press conference to bid farewell to Tennessee in what might just be one of the worst pressers ever:

Yes, you heard right, he definitely said he gave his all for 14 months and also called USC by the name they detest, Southern Cal.  Simply amazing.

How you can even remotely justify hiring a coach that in just a single season, committed multiple secondary NCAA violations, and also had some of his players arrested for armed robbery?  Then of course you have some other humorous incidents that have come to light, mainly that Kiffin neglected to obtain a Tennessee driver’s license and also wrecked a Lexus that was loaned to him.  This is the guy you want while the NCAA already has the magnifying glass on you?  Really?!

It isn’t even as if a change in location would change anything; in fact, one of Kiffin’s assistants, Ed Orgeron, attempted to poach Tennessee recruits and get them to flip to USC during Kiffin’s “farewell” presser.  While Orgeron’s actions weren’t technically against any NCAA rules, it certainly is beyond an unethical move of the highest level.  Just think about it: he was recruiting for USC, while still in Tennessee facilities.

Have no fear though, it took Kiffikins just 10 days to obtain his first secondary violation as head coach of USC by picking up a recruit in a limo.  So much for keeping his nose clean (also that might be a record for violation speed, I’m impressed).  At it seems that Lane’s crazy ways has rubbed off on dear old dad, as a high school athletic director had this to say about the Trojans new recruiting habits:

[Nickell Robey is] planning to visit Southern Cal next week. Monte Kiffin has been very persistent. He’s probably been in here more than is legal. Of course they don’t pay attention to the rules.

It is almost as if Kiffin and company are trying to create their own version of “The U”.  Simply replace over the top attitude and celebration dances with secondary recruiting violations and that’s pretty much what you have.  Kiffin is either overconfident in believing the NCAA won’t do anything to him or he is just that stupid.  Personally, I’m thinking it is the former as the NCAA hasn’t really done anything more to Kiffin than a couple slaps on the wrist; however, with USC already in hot water all of this could come back to bite him squarely in the ass.

Either way, Southern Cal has given me just yet another reason to hate them.  Kiffin makes an even better villain than Carroll did.  Kiffykins has the same arrogance and douchebaggery that made me loathe Carroll, but then you get to add his love of committing constant violations and screwing over Tennessee on top of it all.

I would like to personally thank Southern Cal for this hire because you have now given me a constant stream of ammo to fire at your instituation.

Bravo!

When we look back on this college football season, I think the above is the best way to describe it.  Had Hollywood submitted a script containing events that have transpired in the past couple of months, no one would’ve bought it as even the grandest of fictions.  Well, that is also assuming someone could have sat down and actually predict any of this.

As we entered the bowl season, the biggest story was about Notre Dame firing Weis and hunting down a head coach.  Remember when we all thought that was crazy?  I mean there was all kinds of “turmoil” around (the Internet) regarding rumors that Stoops would be our next head coach.  Of course he continually denied said rumors, and somehow, many a Notre Dame was shocked and a small section downright appalled that Notre Dame could no longer land a “big name” coach and we had to “settle” for Brian Kelly.

All that “drama” became child’s play as college football (and blog writers) were soon given a Christmas keep that has kept on giving: everyone went batshit crazy.  It was one of those things in which you remember exactly where you were and how you first heard the news that everything you once thought was stable in college football would be turned upside down for no reason.

Personally, I was out with my family about an hour outside of Auburn, awaiting a tour of some Christmas lights that my sister had known about.  While we were waiting, I decided on a whim to check Twitter to see if anything was going on.  And then I saw a tweet I was sure was a joke: Urban Meyer is resigning for health reasons.  Yeah, sure…no wait…everyone on ESPN and SI is tweeting this…now there’s an official statement…

And then I started to burst out laughing uncontrollably and then my sister followed when I relayed the news.

But oh no, let’s not stop there.  The Gators had a “spirited” practice and Urban Meyer had a change of heart and wanted an indefinite leave of absence.  Oh, and Mr. I’m-doing-this-for-my-family, made sure that they were the last to know; in fact, his wife went on record to say there was no way her dear husband would change his mind.  Then a few hours later she’s sitting in a presser hearing her husband change his mind yet again, saying he expects to coach next fall.

As if that whole situation wasn’t crazy enough, that same week, the Pirate Captain of Lubbock decided to lock a concussed Adam James in an equipment shed (or “garage” — semantics) during a practice.  To make sure Leach got his point across to James, he then locked him in the visitor’s media room.

And how did this come to light?  Well, it seems ESPN analyst Craig James wasn’t able to sleep at night knowing that he has only aided in destroying one school’s football program so he went for another one and when public.  So armed with his kid’s story and some apparent video proof from his son, a shot was fired directly into the hull of Leach’s happy little pirate ship, starting shit-slinging the likes of which I can’t remember ever seeing.

Texas Tech then went to immediately investigate the issue and suspended Leach indefinitely.  Leach, who is also a lawyer as well as a pirate, sued Tech’s ass and sought for the courts, yes the courts, to allow him to coach in the Alamo Bowl.  As the two sides met for their court date, Tech found a loophole to Leach’s loophole and fired him “with cause”.

The dust storms of Lubbock quickly turned into a shit storm of epic proportions.  Leach went on ESPN and scorched the earth saying Tech lied and even stated the training staff and doctors said he did no harm, a flood of emails came in supporting Leach, and news came out that questioned Adam’s attitude as well as his father’s motivations.  But oh no, it doesn’t stop there, soon a handful of players went on the record saying they were glad the pirate walked the plank and the training staff and doctors that Leach said supported him signed affidavits saying Leach went off the deep end and used language that would’ve made Charlie Weis blush.

Somehow in the midst of all of this Tech won the Alamo Bowl with interim coach Ruffin McNeill putting on one hell of a Leach impersonation, making it seem as if both quarterbacks and head coaches can be inserted into the Leach system at will.  However, Ruffin must have done too good of a job reminding the Tech administration of Leach because they decided to hire the offensive genius of….Tommy Tuberville?  However, Tommy tried to put Red Raider nation at ease though, saying he could retain the “Air Raid” offense.  To prove this, he fired six assistant coaches, including the offensive coordinator, and then hired another one from Troy.  I seem to remember what happened the last time Tubs tried this…he had to fire him after just seven games.

And to think, just one year ago, Texas Tech was in national title talks and on the verge of a BCS birth.

Of course, there was football still to be played and that had it’s own humor to it.  I’ve already made my thoughts on this season’s bowl offerings known, but the national title game had it’s own special brand of failure.

You see the BCS runs on one thing, and that one thing has continued to keep it alive: hype.  That’s why you have the “every week is playoff” line being tossed out constantly, it hypes every single game to ridiculous proportions.  Of course, a championship of a system completely built on hype equates to a game that has been over-analyzed and over-hyped every which way for well over a month (because crowning a champion after both teams haven’t played a down in over a month makes so much sense).

Of course none of that hype or analysis ever once considered a game in which Colt McCoy gets a pinched nerve in his throwing arm and knocks him out of the game (on one of the weakest hits ever).  So in comes a true freshmen getting his first real snaps on the biggest stage possible.  Predictably, he is a deer in the headlights and despite Alabama’s best initial efforts to hand Texas early points, the Texas offense was only able to amass 6 and the Alabama started actually playing a bit, as well as benefiting from a pick-six off a shovel pass to go into halftime with a 24-6 lead.  Saban then went ultra-conservative in the second half and the Tide did a whole lot of nothing (including seeing Heisman winner Ingram get sidelined with an injury for a bit).

All of this resulted in nearly three full quarters of the most unwatchable football that I’ve ever seen.  Yes, the biggest game of the year became a running punchline for most of the night.  The BCS fat cats were saved in the end though, as Texas was actually able to pull off a comeback thanks to Saban completely hitting the brakes for who knows what reason.  However, they will still not escape the fact that their most competitive and compelling BCS game featured two non-BCS schools.

As as the final whistle blew, we all thought it was time to kick back, relax and bid farewell to one crazy season.  However, it seems a handful of people around Southern Cal decided to shake things up just a bit and make everything that happened during the bowl season look like child’s play.

That story however will take a whole other blog post to cover.  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment which will include NCAA violations, crappy NFL teams, near riots, idiotic ADs, the worst press conference of all time, and of course:

I’m not sure what it is about this bowl season, but for one reason or another, I have simply finally had it with the current way that college football is being run.  I’m not even talking about the need for a playoff system (which make no mistake, I’m for), but even as things stand now, the bowl system is becoming a joke and a shell of itself.

I’ve always been at least moderately interested in the bowl season, and especially the BCS.  Let’s be honest here, if you give me good football on the field, I will tune in and be happy.  Sure, I’ll complain about the lack of a clear champion and playoff system, but I will at least be moderately satisfied even if I don’t have a dog in the fight.

This year however, I haven’t really been entertained in the least save for a handful of games.  On top of that, I haven’t exactly been to thrilled with the prospect of many of the matchups I have to choose from.  By doing a quick analysis, it isn’t hard to see why this year’s bowl season has fallen completely flat, and many of the bowls struggled to sell tickets.

Only nine of the thirty-three bowl games have featured matchups that pit two top-25 teams against each other.  Of course, five of these games are BCS bowls, meaning only four other bowl games got what would be a high-profile game.

But of course, rankings only mean so much, competitive football can still be compelling as we all know.  However, even putting that litmus test on this year’s bowl offerings still doesn’t help the bowl system’s cause.  Only 13 of the 33 games played thus far have been decided by a difference of a single possession (8 points or less).  That means only 39.3% of the games have even been what could be considered compelling football that goes down to the wire.  Even worse, what should be considered high-profile matchups have fallen flat on their faces too.  Of the 8 bowl games played so far that pitted two top-25 teams against each other, only 3 of those games have been decided by a difference of a single possession.  That would be a grand total of only 37.5% of those “big-time” bowl games being competitive.

Well what of our marque bowl games of the BCS?  Well, the only game decided by a single possession was the Fiesta Bowl.  That’s right, thus far the only game that has given us a game down to the wire came courtesy of two non-BCS teams.

And our title game? Very few people are even giving Texas a chance to hold a candle to Alabama (even though the line on the game is sitting at 4.5 in favor of the Tide).  Even if this game stays competitive though, that is only 2 of 5 (40%) of BCS games that would be considered highly competitive.

All of these percentages would be awesome for batting averages; however, when you are trying to put together a compelling postseason, as well as try to claim it is more compelling than a playoff, it is simply awful.

So why is this happening?  Simple, this style of postseason is easy to take advantage of and damn near anyone can get in.  The BCS loves to say playoffs are awful because of what they call “bracket creep”.  Basically, “bracket creep” is the theory that once you start making playoffs, you allow more teams to creep into the bracket.  Their favorite scapegoat is the NCAA Basketball tourney that features 65 teams.  They very rightly show how the tourney started much smaller and then grew to what it is now, and further point out that there are some that would like to see it grow further.

However, this slippery-slope theory is highly misguided.  There are 347 Division I Basketball teams that have a shot to make the tournament.  Only 65 of those teams will make the Big Dance, equating to only 18.7% of the teams making it.  The cream of the crop is definitely the only ones able to make postseason play.  However, Division I Basketball does have their own “lesser bowl” in the NIT tournament, which invites 32 teams annually.  So that combines for a total of 97 teams making it to some form of postseason play, equating to just under 28% of all Division I Basketball.  Even with the extra tourney involved, you are still getting the even less than the upper third of all teams involved.

But what of football?  Well, if you consider the BCS the cream-of-the-crop “Big Dance” type system, only 10 teams make that.  Considering there are 120 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, that means 8.3% of all FBS teams make the big time.  Pretty elite there.  However, what happens when we throw the other bowl games into the picture?  This year, 34 bowl games will be played, meaning we had 68 teams involved in postseason play.  That means 56.7% of all FBS teams made postseason play. Yes, over half of all FBS teams were able to take part in the “prestige and tradition” that is the bowl season.

While the BCS talking heads love to talk of “bracket creep”, we have quickly been slammed with “bowl creep”.  If NCAA hoops were to take this approach to their postseason play, both the Big Dance and NIT would need to combine to allow 172 teams into their postseason, equating to a first round of around 86 games. That would mean the NCAA postseason would easily eclipse 100 games…in just two rounds of play… Oh, and doing that would put in just under half off all Division I teams, football would still have more teams in postseason play percentage-wise.

Not only that, two more bowl games have been announced for college football in 2010.  That means 36 games will be played and 72 teams will play, meaning, in 2010, 60% of all FBS teams will be involved in postseason play.

Simply put, the bowl system has completely over-saturated college football’s postseason.  While the BCS is creating competition for the upper 10% of college football, beyond that everyone else is just looking to become bowl eligible.  The regular season then becomes a race to six wins for anyone not in the BCS or title picture, and one of those wins can be against a FCS (formerly Division I-AA) school.  All this does is lead to cupcake non-conference schedules in the regular season that “should be like a playoff” according to anyone in support of the bowl system.

When teams like Wyoming can make a bowl (and win…where did that come from?) and Notre Dame can even have the option to decline after going 6-6, something is very, very wrong.

These bowls used to mean something.  January 1st was college football day.  If you played in a New Year’s Day bowl, you have arrived.  With more bowl games, we were still fine, New Year’s Day was still special, and even served as a cutoff date between the crappy bowl games and the awesome ones.

Now the GMAC Bowl is played a day before the BCS Championship.  Someone restrain my excitement.

If college football is going to be so stubborn as to refuse to have a playoff, can we at least have a bowl postseason that’s worth a damn?  I don’t want to shift through games that involve teams that are .500 or barely over it.  Conference pissing matches don’t entertain me either.  Congrats, your conference won a couple more crappy bowl games than another conference, it doesn’t mean squat.

I don’t want to hear another BCS/Bowl System talking head talk about the “history and prestige” of this system when the majority of these bowls are rather recent developments.  You want to sell me on history and prestige, let’s make these suckers mean something to get into again.  I want to see no more than the upper third of FBS teams duking it out.  That would be 40 teams, and 20 bowl games.  To be honest that would still likely be too many; however, it would cut the majority of the suck out of the bowl season.  By cutting down the number of teams you take it, you will likely not be able to have a magic number of wins as a cutoff.

And that changes everything.

Getting 6, 7 and likely even 8 wins means nothing.  There will be far more than 40 teams around the 7 or 8 win mark.  Then bowl games have to look at the better teams to pick, and how do you do that? Strength of schedule.  Now playing those cupcake teams starts to really sting when even 8 wins fails to secure a bowl bid, forcing teams to schedule tougher opponents and avoiding the dodging of teams like TCU and Boise State.  This would make the regular season even more intriguing and create several more solid non-conference games than we have seen in a long time.

However, as it stands now, expect to see much of the same: top tier teams that see no reason to schedule tough non-conference opponents and lesser tier teams doing whatever they can to schedule their way into becoming bowl eligible.

Thank God we aren’t bothering with an awful playoff system, this is much better…

As Notre Dame is appears to be nearing the end of their search for a new head coach, it is time to take a look back on the Weis era.  While it is quite easy to point out the multitude of faults that Weis’ tenure was plagued with, it would be a complete disservice to the man to not point out what he has done for Notre Dame’s football program.  Make no mistake about it, without Weis, the football program could very well be where Kurt Herbstreit is convinced it already is: irrelevant.

Rewind back to 2004.  Ty has just been fired, Meyer snubbed Notre Dame for the Florida job, day by day it seemed another coach told us “thanks, but no thanks”, and ESPN, as well as other national talking heads, were attempting to nail Notre Dame to a cross, calling our firing of Ty unjust and borderline racist.  To say things looked bleak would be a gross understatement.

For me personally, this period of time was my first real chance at working football practices as a manager.  Up to this point, I had only worked one practice (under Ty), and only one football game (vs Pitt).  After Ty’s departure, working bowl practices was not too high on anyone’s list.  Finals were just around the corner, some students decided the manager program wasn’t for them and quit, and some folks in general were just apathetic about working a practice in general.

What I saw in those practices shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone.  The team was completely apathetic in general.  Practices were sloppy, players were undisciplined, and interim coach Kent Baer wasn’t exactly Mr. Intensity.

In midst of this darkness, Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis, former Notre Dame alum and offensive coordinator for the Patriots.  Weis took the podium, and, full of bravado, said the words all Notre Dame fans wanted to hear: the now infamous “6-5 is not good enough” speech.  It was a shot of life into a program that seemed to be hanging by a thread.

After a disappointing showing at the Insight Bowl, people were still wondering if Weis would be able to resurrect this program; however, Weis still managed to create a buzz around campus.

He did all of the right things before a single practice ever started.  He visited several dorms to have a personal Q&A session with the students.  He spoke to Notre Dame fans at a women’s basketball game, and soon after spoke directly to the student section at a men’s basketball game.  This was a refreshing change from Ty, whom we would only hear speak at pep rallies.  Weis “got it”.  He was one of us, part of the ND family, and he was determined to let us know things would be different this time around.

Spring practices really weren’t all too intense much to my surprise; however, in hindsight it makes more sense.  Weis was still trying to get to know the team, figure out what he had, and then figure out where to go in the 2005 season.  Still knowing though that he needed to continue to get the fan base excited for next season, Weis decided to bring in a cavalcade of Irish football legends to the Blue/Gold game.  Tim Brown, Joe Montana, and Joe Theismann were just a few of those big names.

Despite some of the worst weather I’ve ever seen for a spring exhibition, I was taken aback by just how many people were in Notre Dame Stadium.  At best, I had only seen a little left than half the lower bowl of the stadium full.  This time around, the lower bowl was packed, and there was a decent showing in the second tier as well.  The buzz had definitely taken hold.

Once Fall Camp came for the team, the tone completely changed.  The intensity shot through the roof.  The mentality of the team completely changed from a team that didn’t care to a team ready to start kicking ass and taking names.

Then the 2005 season started.  ND destroyed Pitt in their opener, upset Michigan at the Big House, were a Bush Push away from beating USC, and landed a Fiesta Bowl bid.  While the BCS game against Ohio State resulted in a loss, it was hard to be disappointed with this turnaround.  We went from near obscurity, to preseason top 5 media darlings in no time flat.

Weis continued his drive for more, placing a sign of “9-3 is not good enough” on the locker room at the Gug.  Fans, as well as the media, were not counting out the chance that ND could very well play for the National Title.  While title dreams were quickly crushed after a Michigan loss at home, the Irish still managed to finish the season 10-3 with a Sugar Bowl loss.  Again, despite the BCS bowl loss, hopes were still high for the team, and recruiting was picking up in supreme fashion as we claimed the prize of the top QB recruit in all the nation away from USC: Jimmy Clausen.

We were back–or so we thought…2007 happened.

3-9 was a shock to the system that no one, not even the biggest ND pessimist, would’ve ever expected.  Knowledgeable fans knew that this would likely be a down year thanks to recruiting holes left by Ty, but the end result of the season was simply sickening.  Despite the God-awful season though, Weis was still able to bring in top recruits once again, most notably Michael Floyd.

2008 didn’t exactly give us anything to write home about either.  6-6, plus some embarrassing losses to the likes of Syracuse put Weis on the hot seat.  However, yet another top recruiting class, that included yanking away Hawaiian stud Mantei Te’o away from USC, and ending ND’s bowl losing streak (in blowout fashion no less), still gave Irish fans some hope.

2009, however, ended all of that.

After a fantastic start, the Irish feel to Navy for the second time in the Weis era and started a free fall that gave us our second straight 6-6 season.  After the Pitt game, everyone, including the players knew Weis’ fate was likely sealed.

The UCONN game started Weis’ funeral procession–literally.  With tears on his face, and walking out arm in arm with the seniors, it was clear Weis knew this was it for him.  As the game progressed, there was no more talk of “can Weis save his job”, but rather “who’s going to replace him?”

As if our season, and now a lame duck coach, wasn’t enough to depress ND fans, all hell broke loose.  Jimmy was punched in the face outside of C.J.’s Pub.  Weis cut off all media access to the team.  Jimmy was dubbed “Darth Vader” in practice as he donned the same dark tinted visors Weis called “too Hollywood” for ND.  And oh yeah, there was a game to prepare for against Stanford.  However, the Stanford game ended in what was a perfect picture of the entire season: powerful offense, coupled with a piss-poor defensive effort.

The Weis era then ended in the exact opposite fashion as it started.  Weis’ initial bravado was replaced by radio silence as he declined to meet with the media.  Nothing more was heard from Weis still, even after Jack Swarbrick officially announced his firing the following Monday.

Weis finally broke his silence this past Saturday in a small sit down interview with five members of the media.  I highly suggest you read the entire thing as it does show that Weis is now, and forever will be a Notre Dame man.

You can say whatever you want to about Weis and his shortcomings on Saturdays, but there is no doubt that he has handled the whole situation with class and did the best he could to try to minimize the circus atmosphere that erupted around the team.  He could’ve easily run off and burn every last bridge connecting himself to ND, but he didn’t.  Instead, Weis spoke to the team at the football banquet, contacted recruits and encouraged them to stay committed to ND, and even sat in support for Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate as they announced their departure to the NFL.

While his win-loss recorded lacked something to be desired, Weis left the program in better shape than he found it.  He destroyed the notion that Notre Dame simply couldn’t recruit with the big boys in college football anymore with several top-flight recruiting classes.  He proved that Notre Dame could indeed stay competitive in the BCS picture.  He ignited a fire and buzz into Notre Dame Nation that had been sorely missing.  And, most importantly, he was able to do all of this while not compromising the academic and moral integrity of the University.

The keys to success are in the ignition and now Notre Dame just needs to find the proper driver.

Coach Weis, I want to personally thank you for all of your hard work.  You gave me not only amazing memories and stories from the 2005 in which I was able to work for you and the team, but you’ve also restored my faith that this program can succeed and will do so once again.  Thanks for adding legendary stories like “Pass Right” that will forever stay in ND lore.  Thank you for laying down the foundation and framework that, without a doubt in my mind, saved our football program.

I think Tostitos needs to step down from their sponsorship of the Fiesta Bowl this season as it clearly doesn’t reflect the atmosphere of this year’s selection.  The Chik-fil-a Chickenshit Bowl (or Pilgrim’s Pride can step in, since Chik-fil-a has the Peach Bowl), U.S.D.A. Bullshit Bowl, or a dual sponsorship Tropicana/Absolut Screw Job Bowl would be far more appropriate.

Once again, the BCS never ceases to amaze to just how low they will sink to protect their horrendous system from the obvious elephant-in-the-room controversy that pops up year after year.  Let’s be frank here, the BCS is in no danger of leaving any time soon thanks to money tied up in contracts, conferences, and university presidents.  However, there is no doubt the BCS is a self-serving entity and the less negative press they get, the better the chances are for a longer contract.

This year though, all hell nearly broke loose.  Texas barely escaped an monumental upset at the hands of Nebraska, Cincinnati had a massive comeback against Pitt, and Alabama just a week prior barely escaped an Iron Bowl upset themselves.  Think about that for just a little while.  We could quite easily be in a situation in which Alabama, Florida, Texas and Cincinnati would all have a loss–leaving only TCU and Boise State as the only undefeated teams in college football.  Even if just the Nebraska upset had worked out, the BCS still would’ve had a nightmare (ratings-wise) had Texas been the only upset to go through as that would give us an Alabama/Cincinnati title game.

However, as even their propaganda spewing Twitter account will tell you, the BCS is only worried about matching #1 and #2 together for the title game.  They are the white knight bringing order to a once chaotic landscape of an antiquated system of bowl tie-ins and media votes they say.  Without them, how else could we crown a definitive champion?!  If we went into a playoff system, the #4 team in the country could win the title and then we could have bracket creep and have #12 eventually win!

Well…so they say.

This season definitely proves where their “we always are able to put #1 v #2 together” breaks down.  Unless Texas is able to put one hell of a game plan together, their Big XII Title “performance” points to an absolute curb-stomping by the Tide.  And with three other undefeated teams left in the mix (two of which aren’t in non-BCS conferences), it begs the question, “who is really #2?”

So if you are the BCS, what do you do in this situation to stack the deck back into your favor?  If TCU, Boise, and Cincinnati all win their BCS games, remain undefeated and Texas gets killed, that is obviously the worse case scenario and is unacceptable.

However, you are the BCS and you are able to use your own system in your favor.

Just a refresher of these rules:

BCS Championship: #1 BCS vs. #2 BCS
Rose Bowl: Big Ten Champ vs. Pac 10 Champ
Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 Champ vs. At-large
Orange Bowl: ACC Champ vs. At-large
Sugar Bowl: SEC Champ vs. At-large

Rules for At-large: Big East champ, must be taken in one of the at-large spots.  Also, if a non-BCS conference team is ranked #12 or higher in the BCS, they also gain one of the at-large bids — only one team may receive such an automatic bid.

The only other rules to keep in mind is that if a bowl loses their conference tie in to the BCS title game, they will have the first pick at a replacement team — trying to stay to tradition they will try to stay in the same conference, but if they can’t, they will pick an at-large team.  Furthermore, only two teams max from the same conference can be selected to the BCS (there are exceptions, but they won’t happen this season).  Finally there is a set selection order to fill in the remaining at large bids.  This year it will be in the order of: Orange, Fiesta, and then Sugar.

So you have your BCS title game set automatically, as well as the Rose Bowl.  Now you have the following at-large order for picks: Sugar (they lose #1 Alabama to title), Fiesta (they lose #2 Texas to title), then Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar to end.

Now granted, what follows is guess work as the Bowls don’t reveal their selections pick by pick, just the end results.  However, the reasoning I will give does make sense considering the way things played out.

Bowls always do their best to keep their conference tie-ins.  So with the first pick, the Sugar immediately looks to the SEC and to no shock, selects Florida.  The Fiesta Bowl then looks to the Big XII, and finds there are no suitable candidates for the game.  Now they know a non-BCS team must be taken, and TCU makes sense as a regional pick, so they take them being the higher of the two non-BCS teams.

Now things really get interesting/funny/simply awful.

The Orange Bowl is next.  They have their ACC champ, Georgia Tech, already in place.  Left to pick are Big East Champs, undefeated, and #3 BCS ranked Cincinnati, undefeated and #6 BCS ranked Boise and at-large, two-loss, and #10 BCS ranked Iowa.  So of course, the clear, logical choice to pick here is…Iowa.  Yes, the same Iowa that during their undefeated streak continued to squeak out wins and were exposed by their two losses, one of which was Northwestern.

What’s the reason for this pick? You’ll hear from Orange Bowl reps that Iowa will travel better out of the remaining schools.  Although, it seems to make more sense to me that you would take the Big East Champ for the East-coast bowl game, especially since they won a BCS conference without losing a single game, but that just must be me and my silly logic!

So now with the Orange Bowl making the laughable pick, the Fiesta Bowl is next.  Left to them again are the Big East Champs and the second BCS buster.  Again, the clear choice is made…Boise State.  Why? I’m sure the Fiesta Bowl reps will say it makes more regional sense for Boise to be in the Fiesta Bowl rather than East-coast Cincinnati.  However, this still only seems to offend my crazy logic.

Finally, the Sugar Bowl is then required to pick up the “scraps” on the table as the Big East Champ is still without a BCS game and takes Cincinnati to finalize the selection process.  Keep in mind this is the same Cincinnati team that would be playing in the title game if Texas had lost; however, somehow they are magically the final team to be selected in the entire process.

Of course, I am sure a BCS rep would come in and tell me that; in fact, the Sugar Bowl took the Big East Champs as their first pick.  That argument makes no sense though.  Are you seriously going to sell me that the Orange Bowl was so high on Iowa that they would forgo a pick of in-state Florida?  I don’t think so.

The intent by the BCS couldn’t be more clear.  Place Cincinnati in easily the hardest of of all possible games, and have the two non-BCS schools sit at the kid’s table and play amongst themselves.  The worst case result here would be that Cincinnati beats Florida–it doesn’t matter what happens in the Fiesta Bowl, it is just two non-BCS schools fighting it out amongst themselves and the BCS knows no one in the media will legitimately make a case for either TCU or Boise as a #2 school with that win as the retort will be “well, who did those two schools actually beat?”  Even with a Cincinnati win, you have the argument that Florida was exposed in the SEC Championship game and clearly wasn’t as good as we thought they were–I mean, Cincinnati is ranked above them in the BCS standings!

Of course though, you have the best case scenario: no one cares about the Fiesta Bowl result, and Cincinnati loses to Florida.  The arguments of course are even easier for this case.

Either way, the BCS “gets it right” and college football and its fans get screwed.

TCU and Boise will probably be a great game, but having the two play themselves play each other is a slap in the face to both schools.  Non-BCS schools don’t fight just to get in a BCS Bowl, they fight to make a splash against a “big name” team.  They won’t get that chance at all.  It’s a joke and a sham.

Here is how the selection should have gone:

Sugar: Florida (BCS replacement) vs. Boise State (final at-large pick)
Fiesta: TCU (BCS replacement) vs. Iowa (2nd at-large pick)
Orange: Georgia Tech (ACC Champ) vs. Cincinnati (1st at-large pick)

I dare you to tell me that isn’t a damn good slate of games or makes “regional” sense for traveling.  Cincinnati gets the BCS Bowl closest to them, Fiesta gets Iowa, whom “travels better” than Boise, and the Sugar gets the remaining scraps because they pick last–though luck.

But no, as much as the BCS claims that their system clearly selects #1 v #2, that every week of the season matters, and that the most skilled teams will reap the greatest rewards, we have a situation more analogous to when “J”, played by Will Smith, joins the Men in Black:

J: All right, I’m in. ‘Cause there’s some next level shit going on and I’m OK with that. But before y’all go beaming me up there’s one thing you gotta remember: You chose me… so you recognized the skills, so I don’t want nobody calling me son or kid or sport or nothing like that, cool?

K: Cool, whatever you say, slick, but I need to tell you something about all your skills. As of right now, they mean precisely… dick.

Of course, it is easy for me to poke holes in the current system.  Do I have a better solution? You bet I do, I came up with it last year and it makes just as much sense then as it does now.

Instead, I’m left with an Orange Bowl that couldn’t be more unappealing, Rose Bowl game that will likely be a blow out, a Fiesta Bowl that means nothing, a Sugar Bowl that will barely mean much more, and a BCS Title game that will likely be another blow out.

FANTASTIC SYSTEM!

It’s funny how quickly things can change.

Yesterday, I compiled a few days worth of investigation into the Stoops rumor, and I finally took the plunge myself personally and thought it was only a matter of time that Big Game Bob would be Irish.

About an hour later, Stoops took my “smoking gun” and turned it on me.  Stoops’ proclamation, however, didn’t stop the Irish faithful from hanging on the audio of his interview and making us think we still had a chance to land Stoops.  Even ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that his sources confirmed Stoops would be Irish within the week.