The Final Regular Season AP Poll, Thankfully
Posted by BMT on December 6th, 2009
This has been a season marked by the AP voters’ collective attempt to justify their preseason predictions. Of course, that distinguishes this year from years past in no way whatsoever. Fortunately, the AP voters don’t have any say in the BCS standings, which themselves are overdetermined by their programming in order to favor the teams from the “top” 6 conferences.
There really isn’t too much to complain about in this final regular season poll other than the fact that Florida, after being handily beaten by Alabama, is ranked ahead of Boise State. The undefeated Broncos have shown that for yet another season, despite the fact they’ve won all their games (as they did last year), there’s a real chance they won’t appear in a BCS game (as they did not last year, either). Boise State has lost 3 regular season games in the past 4 seasons. And for that they’ve been rewarded 1 BCS appearance (where they beat Oklahoma in one of the more thrilling Fiesta Bowls we’ve seen). The BCS selection show is tonight and we’ll soon find out if they get hosed again.
One other quick beef: there’s talk that Iowa will get bumped from an Orange Bowl appearance in favor of Penn State, a team that has no argument whatsoever to jump Iowa. If the Orange Bowl people take the Lions over the Hawkeyes, it will show yet again the fact that millions of loyal fans patronize a sport that is controlled solely by perceived financial interest and one that has absolutely no interest in competitive fairness. I really hope this doesn’t happen.
UPDATE: The BCS has announced its matchups and here’s how they look:
BCS Championship Game: Texas vs. Alabama.
Rose Bowl: Oregon vs. Ohio State
Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Iowa
Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. Cincinnati
Fiesta Bowl: Boise State vs. TCU.
The only complaint I have here is that the BCS didn’t want to see Boise State or TCU knock off another “top 6″ conference team so they pitted these two against each other. And Texas looks like the weakest #2 to get itself into a Championship game after their gift win against Nebraska. But who can argue with the wisdom of the BCS? It would be like telling Cornelius Vanderbilt that his business practices weren’t fair.
December 7th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Actually there is plenty to complain about, and mostly on behalf of Cincy. How can anyone say, based on their respective schedules and their performance in their respective championship games (Cincy’s being de facto) that Texas is a better team. Cincy played a far tougher out of conference schedule and the Big 12 was relatively weak this year. Texas played one tough game—Oklahoma and they got them at home, getting a close victory. Their offense stinks and they can get beaten in the air. Alabama will kill them.
But, as you said, it falls on deaf ears to complain to the monopolist that his monopolistic practices hurt teams outside the core of the conspiracy. The BCS preserves 80% (or more) of the revenue to 20% (or less) of the schools. The NCAA has done a far better job of maximizing revenue in basketball with its tournament, but splits the money among the schools, not the conferences. So the SEC and Big 12 (primarily) have hooked up with the bowls to monopolize college football. Someone ought to take them on, but too many are getting enough of a handout (Big East, ACC) that they won’t challenge it—leaving the WACs, Conference USA and MAC’s of the world on the outside. Crappy system.