WORST ENDING IS ALSO THE PERFECT ONE.Byline: STEVE DILBECK It's outrageous. An injustice. An absolute mockery. Also, just perfect. It's indefensible. Completely ludicrous. Somebody's nightmare. And set up for an ideal ending. Yes, USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. has been royally jobbed. The Bowl Championship Series has made itself a laughingstock laugh·ing·stock n. An object of jokes or ridicule; a butt. Noun 1. laughingstock - a victim of ridicule or pranks goat, stooge, butt April fool - the butt of a prank played on April 1st , turning its supposed championship game into the battle for No. 2. The Trojans, now No. 1 in both human polls, have every right to be indignant about being tabbed No. 3 by the BCS' Machiavellian system of widgets and abacuses. That leaves Louisiana State and Oklahoma, second and third respectively in the human polls, in the Sugar Bowl, trying to convince someone it is for the national championship. And the Trojans are heading to Pasadena to meet No. 4 Michigan. Isn't this glorious? USC gets to play in the Rose Bowl, in the traditional matchup of Pacific-10 and Big Ten champions. Against an excellent Michigan team. If it wins, USC will be named national champion by the Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. . And then becomes the fountainhead foun·tain·head n. 1. A spring that is the source or head of a stream. 2. A chief and copious source; an originator: "the intellectual fountainhead of the black conservatives" to the death of the BCS (1) (The British Computer Society, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, www.bcs.org) The chartered body for information technology professionals in the U.K., founded in 1957. as we know it. This is some package. ``Isn't it great?,'' USC athletic director Athletic director (commonly, "athletics director") is a position at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, which oversees the work of the coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic Mike Garrett Michael Lockett Garrett (born April 12, 1944 in Los Angeles, California) is a former American football player who won the 1965 Heisman Trophy as a tailback for the University of Southern California Trojans. said. ``I just love it.'' If the Trojans win, they win all around. Not that there won't be plenty of losers. Technically, finishing with a victory over Michigan will leave the Trojans as co-champions, but that's just contractual happenstance hap·pen·stance n. A chance circumstance: "Marriage loomed only as an outgrowth of happenstance; you met a person" Bruce Weber. . The writers in the AP poll can vote for anyone it wants to win the national title, while voters in the coaches' poll are obligated ob·li·gate tr.v. ob·li·gat·ed, ob·li·gat·ing, ob·li·gates 1. To bind, compel, or constrain by a social, legal, or moral tie. See Synonyms at force. 2. To cause to be grateful or indebted; oblige. to name the winner of the BCS game its national champion. That would be the same coaches who currently rank USC No. 1. There could be a wild scenario in which the coaches still vote USC No. 1, but their title goes to the Sugar Bowl winner. That sounds ridiculous, but no less than what happened with the BCS, a six-year disaster now perilously close to the cliff. The BCS formula is so inane that the two teams selected to battle for the national-championship came down to a final regular-season game between ... Boise State and Hawaii? ``It seemed really absurd,'' USC coach Pete Carroll Peter C. Carroll (born September 15, 1951, in San Francisco, California) is the current head coach of the University of Southern California Trojans football team, having held that position since 2001. said. ``And the Notre Dame-Syracuse game. It just didn't seem right. Two 5-6 teams battling for somebody else's future for the national championship?'' The BCS has been walking a fine line since its inception, but never before has its championship game been without the No. 1 team in the nation. BCS coordinator Mike Tranghese admitted the formula will need to be tweaked after this. It's been tweaked before. What it needs now is a good flush. ``It's real obvious what happened,'' Carroll said. ``The No. 1 team is not playing in the game they're building as the championship game. Something didn't come out right. ``If this blows up the system, good. ... Something will be adjusted and hopefully we've contributed to that. I like that we've been part of that.'' It's a win all around. The big loser is the Sugar Bowl, and Oklahoma and LSU LSU Louisiana State University LSU Large Subunit LSU La Salle University (Philadelphia, PA) LSU La Sierra University LSU Link State Update (OSPF) LSU Learning Support Unit . It was obvious to nearly everyone after Saturday's games that USC and LSU were the top teams in the country, and that they should be playing in the Sugar Bowl. All three teams have one loss, but USC fell in triple overtime on the road. LSU lost at home. Oklahoma did not just lose to Kansas State on Saturday with everything on the line, it was knocked around like an overmatched Pop Warner Pop Warner refers to
TV will be telling the world for the next month that the LSU-Oklahoma game is for the national title, but the Trojans must ignore it and focus on a talented Michigan team. ``The Rose Bowl is the national-championship game,'' Carroll said. ``There's no question about it in our minds. It's not going to be talked about on TV by the other bowl game that way. That's the marketing aspect of it. ``Logic tells you we're the No. 1 team in the country, and if we play a great game and win, we're going to take a trophy home with us.'' If USC had not stumbled at Berkeley, none of this would be an issue. But the other two teams stumbled. Now decimal points and the redundant strength-of-schedule component and computers that don't divulge programming have decided the No. 1 team in the nation cannot play in the championship game. Turns out it's a great thing. USC in the Rose Bowl, fighting to win a national title. ``It's how I dreamed it to be,'' Carroll said. ``That we would be able to play in the Rose Bowl and play for the national championship. And in three years time, here we are. It's an incredible opportunity for us.'' So outrageous, it's perfect. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion