It’s an awful feeling being cheated.
We are a society that applauds success and impassioned performances. So, how does this season, which has arguably been the most awe-inspiring season of college football, come down to one decision?
The Bowl Championship Series has committed yet another cardinal sin.
Yeah, yeah, we get it.
The BCS is a pile of steaming s*** on the front porch of college football. Even more so than college
football in particular, the BCS seems to have coordinated its fecal matter barrage against the likes of Texas head coach Mack Brown and goldilocks quarterback Colt McCoy.
Yes, we understand. Life is not fair. It rarely is.
It’s no secret Texas has been slighted by the pollsters and the computers. Oklahoma made an obviously shady jump over the Longhorns after the Sooners had their fourth straight 60-point game over rival Oklahoma State, 61-41. So this late in the season, Bob Stoops and Co. have leapfrogged a team that they lost to on a neutral site earlier in the season?
You bet they did.
As aforementioned, being swindled stings.
Just ask the vox populi of comic book fans that painfully saw their childhood fantasies ruined on the big screen. Has anyone tried enduring the “Spider-Man” trilogy without wanting to escape victorious with the flaming-red scalp of Kirsten Dunst? Step away from the comic book genre and look at George Lucas’ “Star Wars” epic. After stomaching Mark Hamill’s portrayal of Luke Skywalker for 16 grueling years, fans had to unwrap that ghastly gift all over again with Hayden Christensen’s criminal performance of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader.
The world is no perfect place.
With Oklahoma at No. 2 in the BCS standings, they get a free pass to the Big 12 Championship game, a game that will feature a 9-3 Missouri Tigers team that is coming off a loss to rival Kansas. Unfortunately for the burnt orange contingency of Texas, a pending titanic performance by Chase Daniel is all that can keep the dream
alive of the Longhorns slipping their way through the mess of the BCS and into the national title game six weeks from now.
Perhaps it should be the Big 12 who should shoulder the blame for the excessive hoopla. It was Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech that made the whole situation unbearable as each team emerged with one loss in the three-team gauntlet.
Aside from the broken record that continues to shriek controversy, this season the BCS is unsuccessfully successful. With the greed of wishful hopes of obtaining a national championship invitation notwithstanding, the five BCS bowls will be a treat for a nation starving for the magic and allure that Boise State brought to the table two years ago.
It’s a win-win situation for college football, with the exception of the Orange Bowl8212;no offense to Cincinnati, Boston College or Virginia Tech, but these three teams have as much business in the BCS as Stephon Marbury does on the New York Knicks bench.
Whether it be No. 1 Alabama or No. 2 Florida that emerges from the Southeastern Conference or Oklahoma or Texas from the Big 12, it’s the national title that we, as a nation, have been waiting for after the last three years have been as big a letdown as last year’s finale of “The Hills.”
The beauty of it all is Utah will be waiting happily with open arms for any of these four teams to fall into the seat next to it. Who doesn’t want to see Utah’s speed and versatility against the terrorizing defense of the Crimson Tide? One could even hallucinate on some sort of narcotic in hopes of the outside shot of Whittingham vs. Meyer.
Any way you dissect this confounding puzzle, some team is going to get screwed, unfortunately.
Yes, the BCS is exceedingly flawed.
Yes, the college football faithful holds extreme malice toward the system.
Yes, even President-elect Barack Obama said the BCS needs be abolished for a playoff format.
Yes, life is rarely fair, but at least we’ll have some potentially intoxicating matchups.
Chris Kamrani