Bama V. Texas … When Right Is Wrong

Although Texas Christian, Cincinnati and Boise State all have legitimate gripes, the hated Bowl Championship Series got it right this year … which, when you think about it, is precisely the problem.

By successfully matching up the No. 1 and No. 2 football programs in the nation, the computer algorithm actually worked (for a change) – and the corporate-sponsored contraption that annually deprives us of a college playoff system spit out a match-up that few will find fault with.

Even cynics like us.

No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas, both undefeated, will meet in Pasadena, California on January 7, 2010 in the national championship game, which is sponsored by some bailout bank whose name we’re not going to mention – particularly not at Christmas time.

Anyway, the winner of this scientifically derived match-up will receive at least a share of the 2009 national title, as well as big crystal egg.

All is as it should be … or so it seems.

“The fact is that the charge of the BCS is to match 1 and 2 in the bowl system,” said BCS executive director Bill Hancock. “It’s a limited charge. It’s what the BCS is designed to do. Based on the season’s play, we’re confident we’ve matched 1 and 2.”

Hancock is right … but again, that’s the problem.

Alabama and Texas, albeit deserving of their selections, are not the only undefeated teams in America.  The aforementioned Texas Christian Horned Frogs, Cincinnati Bearcats and Boise State Broncos all concluded their 2009 seasons without tasting defeat, and denying any of these schools their rightful opportunity to play for a title ignores not only the basic tenets of fairness, but several recent bowl results.

For example, would a computer model have predicted Utah rolling over Alabama in last year’s Sugar Bowl?  Or Boise State edging Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl?

Of course not  … which is precisely why the BCS will never get it right, even when it technically gets it right.

Also, what would have happened had Nebraska defeated Texas in the Big XII championship game?  Of the three remaining undefeated teams, which one of them would have gotten the call to play against Alabama?

Or would we have seen a rematch of the SEC championship game?

Look, there will always be controversy in any playoff system.  Heck, the NCAA selects 65 teams for its men’s basketball tournament each March, and there is always controversy with respect to which “bubble” teams make the field (and which don’t).

But it’s hard to argue that picking the top eight teams in the nation and “playing ‘em off” on the gridiron wouldn’t result in a true national champion – something for which fans across the country have been yearning for decades.

Frankly, we’ve never understood why the BCS didn’t figure out how to work an eight-team playoff into the existing bowl structure.  Honestly, how hard could it be?

Here’s how those match-ups would look this year, by the way …

#1 Alabama v. #8 Ohio State

#4 Texas Christian v. #5 Florida

#3 Cincinnati v. #6 Boise State

#2 Texas v. #7 Oregon

The Bowl Championship Series (which we’re stuck with for at least the next four years) purports to settle things on the field … but it will never truly do that so long as its title game participants are chose by a calculator, not on-field competition.