BCS: Bowl Championship Series Set

By Rhonda Reigstad

It was Selection Sunday for college football. While all the schools eligible were seated around their televisions and stadiums in the style of the Big Dance in March, many were left wondering how it was some teams got in and others didn't make it.

Ohio State University was a lock to make it to the Bowl Championship game in Glendale , Arizona on January 8, 2007. Who they were going to face was another story.

The University of Michigan played Ohio State in the last game of the season in the Big Ten. Ohio State was ranked number one and Michigan was number two going into the game. Ohio State defeated Michigan and a lot around the sports world felt that this would be the matchup on January 8. Not so.

The University of Florida stated their case all along and it was an even matchup until Sunday. Both were equal in the BCS rankings but what catapulted Florida was the difference in the Harris Poll and the Associated Press (AP) poll. Michigan coach Lloyd Carr accused Florida coach Urban Meyer of playing the deck of cards in his favor to make sure Florida was the one to face Ohio State .

There are theories that the BCS didn't want to see two Big Ten teams in the championship game and give Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany a big head watching his teams. Also, how was it the University of Wisconsin, who were ranked number seven in the AP and Auburn University, ranked number nine, didn't make the BCS but Notre Dame, ranked number 11 and Wake Forest, ranked number 14, did?

Notre Dame lost two games all season and the one that stuck out the most was their horrid loss to USC in California when they lost, 44-24. Yet the poll voters have Notre Dame so etched in their minds that anything less than being in the series would have meant failure for coach Charlie Weis in his short tenure as head coach.

While Michigan and USC aren't going to the final game, don't count this matchup out in the Rose Bowl. The "Granddaddy of them all" is going to be a granddaddy after all. Both of these teams have something to prove and will have a chip on their shoulders. Both teams were good enough to be in the finale and USC has to make up for their most embarrassing loss of the year against UCLA when they lost, 13-9, and fell to number five in the AP poll.

Boise State University has had one of the best turnarounds in college football the last few years. They are going to meet Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on January 1. Boise State and Oklahoma have had the best winning percentage in Division 1-A since 1999.

The Sugar Bowl pits number four Louisiana State University and number 11 Notre Dame. LSU won the national title game in 2003 and Notre Dame is 0-2 in their quest for the championship, both at the Fiesta Bowl.

The Orange Bowl will prove to be a good game as number 14 Wake Forest faces number six Louisville . Louisville has been strong all year long and Wake Forest came on strong at the end of the season.

Is there a better way to determine the national champion? Should they have a playoff system or depend on the computers and voters to rank the teams?

Having a playoff system would help defer a lot of the controversy of the polls and computer strength of schedule rankings. Not all sports writers have the same views of the teams who are playing and will tend to lean towards the teams in the areas they write in. Take the top 10 teams at the end of the year and have a system like the NFL where there's a wild card game, playoff games and have it lead to the Bowl Championship game.

 

My picks for the five major bowl games are: (Winners in bold)

Sugar Bowl LSU vs Notre Dame

Orange Bowl Wake Forest vs Louisville

Fiesta Bowl Boise State vs Oklahoma

Rose Bowl Southern California vs Michigan

BCS Championship Ohio State vs Florida

It's certain to be a great end to the college season with plenty of surprises abound. We all know there are plenty of cynics out there who think this whole BCS thing is well, you know...(wink, wink)

 

 

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