On bad calls and BCS rankings

You know, I'd be very interested to see somebody do an analysis of how much the unbelievably bad Big Ten officiating in the Oklahoma/Oregon game has hurt Texas's title chances -- since the bogus Oklahoma loss decreases UT's computerized strength of standing and hence its BCS ranking. You figure an 8-1 OU would have to be ranked ahead of all the two-loss teams (i.e., no lower than #12) and probably above West Virginia and Arkansas. Furthermore, Oklahoma will probably win out even without Peterson and hence would represent even more of a quality win when the computers were churning out the only ranking that matters, i.e., the last one.

It will be particularly annoying if we see an Ohio State / Michigan rematch for the national championship, and the analysis shows that a victory over a one-loss #7 Oklahoma instead of a two-loss #15 Oklahoma would have been the difference. Not that I think that's probable, but the point is that in the BCS era you have to question the whole idea of officials from a "neutral" conference -- millions are at stake, and a Big Ten with two title contenders would certainly rather see an Oklahoma go down rather than an Oregon, since Oklahoma is a more realistic competitor for one of those two big-money spots. Oregon's victory over Oklahoma -- a victory made possible only by one of the all-time unspeakably incompetent officiating crews, which happens to have come from the Big Ten -- could wind up redirecting literally millions of dollars away from Big XII coffers and into Big Ten pockets.

Not that I'm saying the Big Ten officials cheated -- I really don't at all think they did; I think they were just unbelievably incompetent and unprofessional. But it's yet another reason the BCS sucks compared to a true playoff.

My own solution for a playoff/bowl game/BCS combination, devised several years ago, is the following:

The BCS teams are chosen the way they have been to date, more or less -- that selection process doesn't matter much to me; and the top four are in the playoffs. If you can't get into the top four by just about any remotely decent formula, then you can't complain that you're being shafted out of a deserved shot at the national championship. Every team that can legitimately claim to be the best team in the country, controls its own destiny at least to that level.

The three BCS bowls that did not get the be the national championship in the previous year, are the playoff bowls this year; and the top four BCS-ranked teams go to those bowls. Again, get into the top four or else don't whine about how you're really the best team.

The BCS game that gets to be the national championship in any given year, gets pushed back two weeks and matches up the winner of the two BCS playoff bowls. It also gets the bogus fifth BCS game if you're going to insist on having one.

The BCS game that is due to be next year's national championship, gets #1 against #4 on New Year's Day. The other playoff BCS game gets #2 against #3.

The BCS game that got last year's national championship, gets to invite anybody who isn't in the top 4.

Resulting playoff games, since 2000:
1999: Florida St. vs. Alabama, Va. Tech vs. Nebraska.
2000: Oklahoma vs. Washington, Florida St. vs. Miami (Fla.). (Miami was furious that Florida St. was given the shot at Oklahoma even though Miami had beaten Florida State that October on "Wide Right III.")
2001: Miami (Fla.) vs. Oregon, Nebraska vs. Colorado. (This was the year Nebraska went to the BCS title game without winning its own conference, and after losing its last regular season game to Colorado 62-36. 62!!!!!! The #3-ranked BCS team, whom Nebraska beat out by 0.05 points? The very Colorado team that had just gotten through dropping 62 points of whoop-ass on them, and had followed that up by winning the Big XII conference championship.)
2002: Miami (Fla.) vs. USC, Ohio State vs. Georgia.
2003: Oklahoma vs. Michigan, LSU vs. USC. (The year the BCS couldn't even deliver a unified national championship -- and, for the second time in three years, a Big XII team that couldn't win its own conference championship went to the big game anyway, where it proceeded to lose.)
2004: USC vs. Texas, Oklahoma vs. Auburn. (The year Auburn went undefeated in the SEC and got locked out of the title game, and thus got to sit home and watch Oklahoma completely disgrace itself.)
2005: USC vs. Ohio State, Texas vs. Penn State.

Meanwhile, consider this: if Oklahoma doesn't get absolutely cheated out of their win at Oregon (though they had every opportunity to take care of business and win it a second time and have only themselves to blame for failing to do so), then both they and Texas are once again right there in the mix of one-loss teams vying for a shot at the title game. This even with the loss of both their blue-chip QB (to stupidity/cupidity) and their Heisman-candidate freak-of-nature running back (to freakish injury), and playing fewer seniors than any other big-time program in football. The Horns haven't lost to any team not ranked #1 in a very long time, and even that loss came with a freshman quarterback starting his second game; Ohio State probably would prefer not to have to face the quarterback McCoy will be by the time the New Year rolls around -- and he's going to be around (barring injury) for a while yet. All in all, the quality of the Big XII drops off pretty dramatically after those two, but I think at this point you can pencil in the Red River Shootout and the Ohio State / Michigan game as the two games that you will pretty much be able to count on every year as having national championship implications. (Think of the sad and pitiful farce that Florida State / Miami has come to be, for example.)