Central Florida’s football team is getting a Bowl Championship Series berth. So is Clemson. But the University of South Carolina – which beat both of these top 20 programs in 2013 – is getting the shaft.
At No. 8 in the nation, South Carolina (10-2, 6-2 SEC) will be the highest-ranked team in America to get shut out of the BCS.
Is that fair?
Yes and no. We say “yes” because all head coach Steve Spurrier’s squad had to do to pick up its eleventh regular season win (and a trip to the SEC championship game in Atlanta) was to pick up a late fourth quarter first down against lowly Tennessee – something it failed to do.
Let’s face it: There’s a legitimate argument that if your team can’t do that – it doesn’t deserve a BCS bid.
On the flip side, there’s absolutely no way Central Florida or Clemson deserve the prestige (and money) that comes with playing in a BCS bowl just because they compete in crappy conferences. In fact the last time a ten-win Clemson team wound up in the BCS, the result was a record-breaking humiliation … at the hands of another team from a crappy conference.
Contrast that with the postseason dominance of the SEC – which has won the last seven national titles and thoroughly dominated its rivals in the process (here and here).
Oh … and HERE as it relates to the Carolina-Clemson argument.
This notion that conference equality should somehow factor into a team’s postseason placement (and payoff) is ludicruous. In fact it is worse than ludicrous – it is downright perverse. Its affirmative action for football, another example of this country putting the equality of outcomes (i.e. socialism) over the equality of opportunity (i.e. the free market).
Seriously … putting BCS stickers on the back of Clemson and Central Florida helmets (but not on the back of South Carolina helmets) this year is the same thing as artificially inflating Medicaid rolls – it is perpetuating the dependency economy that continues to drag this country down.
Anyway … we’d like to think the long-overdue demise of the BCS at the conclusion of this season (in favor of a four-team playoff system) will similarly end college football’s era of postseason welfare, but we doubt it.
For starters it would take at least an eight-team playoff – which this website has advocated for years – to incorporate all programs with a legitimate claim to the national title. Hell, the four-team playoff might even wind up being more controversial than the BCS.
What’s abundantly clear is this: As long as postseason decisions continue to be made on some imposed definition of equality – and not teams’ on-field performances – then we will continue to see deserving teams like South Carolina get shafted (and undeserving teams like Central Florida and Clemson elevated).
105 comments
“The BCS was created by formal agreement by those six conferences (the Atlantic Coast, Big East [now the American Athletic], Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10 [now Pacific-12], and Southeastern conferences) and the three FBS independent schools, and has evolved to allow other conferences to participate to a lesser degree.” If the SEC doesn’t like the arrangement, then it should have never agreed to it.
Where you been?!? Couldn’t find you after November 30… it’s become a regular disappearing act for you…
Apparently you are not a frequent reader of FitsNews or else you have a short memory. I have already responded to that question.
Aw, the little Coot fans can’t take the fact that the BCS wants Clemson over the Gamecocks. The SEC signed the contract just like the AAC and ACC. I can’t wait to see that nice 8 figure check get deposited into Clemson’s bank account and a check for less than a third of that amount go to USC. (Yes, I realize that Clemson won’t keep all the money but still, the check is going to be made out to Clemson)
hey dumbass. No one every said the BCS “wants” Clem5on over the Gamecocks as you claim. The BCS just cant take USC because of rules that were put in place a while back basically because the ACC and the other crap conferences said it had to be fair to them too. If the BCS could take the Gamecocks and especially Spurrier they would prefer them over the team that set the record for most points ever given up and your assclown of a coach.
That check is spread evenly amongst the rest of the ACC schools. Thats the whole reason why USC can’t go because too much money would go to the SEC, not necessarily to a specific team. Moral Victory University, i mean Clemson at its finest
Ahh, the schools don’t get all that money, it’s split between all teams in the conference.
The BCS doesn’t want Clemson over USC. The rules only allow two teams per conference in the BCS bowls. The first from the SEC is obviously Auburn, “chosen” automatically for being ranked #2. Only one more SEC team could be selected from those that could have arguably deserved a BCS berth: Alabama, Mizzou, South Carolina.
Clemson was not chosen over South Carolina. Alabama was. Even as a Gamecock fan, you’ll get no argument from me on that one.
Somebody call a whaaaaaambulance.
When I turn my ears to the north I hear strains of Rocky Top. To the south I think I hear Glory, Glory. Am I wrong?
Prolly a little I’ve Been Working on the Railroad wafting over the lake, too. Amirite?
That’s “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” I think you are referring to Georgia’s fight song. Never have understood why a (deep) southern school would choose a Federal Army marching song as a fight song. Sherman’s troops sang the song all the way across Georgia and SC as they burned Atl. and Cola. What a bunch of total idiots in Athens to cheer on their team to the sounds of that song. Should have left the stinking state as a penal colony as it was first envisioned.
Learn something every day.
TBG , for at least 30 years, thought it was “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Thought it had something to do with some RR tracks and a trestle near Sanford Stadium.
But at least we don’t have to listen to Tiger Rag.
“5 in a row”!!
That’s the song you’ll here until “6 in a row”!
spell check is not your friend.
Is she hoping for another inch?
+1. Love the handle.
Ha ha……. Hey “you little pussy, I mean Tiger”, your sorry ass chickens may have won the battle, but they lost the war! Fuck you!! LMAO!
What did they lose? Wow you get a bid to a bowl you don’t deserve and EVERYONE knows it! It will be mentioned over and over again by ESPN. So fuck you and your mother. You truly are a pussy hiding behind your computer big boy. just like all your tigers, you would get hurt
Boys, boys…it’s just a bunch of fucking kids playing ball.
Such a bad ass behind a keyboard.
We could meet in person and you could see find out you pussy
Could We? Are you going to bring your mother? I’ve missed her.
now who is acting all bad hiding. let me know and I’ll teach you a lesson little pussy. As far as mom’s I got to fuck yours in the ass by the way. that’s how you turned into such a shit.
Ha. Awesome. Shoot me your e-mail. Which you won’t do, because big tough guys like yourself never do. You troll sites acting all bad, when in reality your nothing. You’ve never been anything but the small minded individual that you are. You give our state a bad name, and do worse for that diploma factory you support, but never graduated from or even took a class at.
well since I use my email for work, and don’t want others writing span crap to me obviously I wont do that, but I will meet you at the WB at 7 if you want? My guess you wont come, and make up an excuse as to why you won’t. So either be there at 7 at the south entrance 9the one in front of the cockabooses or you proved you are a pussy. See you there cupcake
I use my email for work, and don’t want others writing span crap to me obviously…
You work in the bridge construction business?
FWIW, after TBG was fired from his job at the orange juice factory (boss said he couldn’t concentrate), he went into the beaver management field.
From then on, it’s been one dam thing after another…
Well, Since I’m in Charleston your going to have to maintain this level of bad-ass for a few days. But fear not, I’m in Columbia on Friday. Pack a lunch.
Easy boys… When I coached pee wee football.. the only really important thing was what was for snacks
This guy is coming at me like a spider monkey, do you read he wants to meet at “the WB”………..Whaaat? LOL
Yep, sure did. As a Tiger Fan myself, I’ll give the “Coots” their respect. They have won 5 in a row but we all know the best team does not always win. As far as ” meet me at the “Brice” well …. consider the source.
I’ll be At the BCS Orange Bowl January 3rd , as will thousands of other Tigers.
Stay cool and as many of my “Coot” friends said to me for years…
“Wait till Next Year”……
Clemson keeps sneaking in the back door!
What do you really think your team did? They are a bunch of players that are only in the orange bowl as a 4th option. 2 other teams should have been there but because or “rules” were not eligible. And then there was Oregon, that was 3256 miles away ,causing fear to the Orange bowl that the ducks wouldn’t “fly” so you became the 4th option not to mention a tie in to help the ACC try to be relevant in football. Damn that sucks when you put it into the truth doesn’t it? They couldn’t get the 3 first options so they took you. It’s kind of like being the fat ass bitch left at last call getting to go home with the drunk guy. The Orange bowl struck out so many times before that night and just had to get something, then the next day he just prayed no one saw the walk of shame the next morning. That’s what Clem5on is, the walk of shame representative. Damn again looking at it for the truth of what it is, it sucks for you. hahaha. Good job there!! You are nothing but the 250 pound fat chick still at the bar after last call. lmfao at the fact you think its something to be proud of.
I agree that the four team playoff system can work, but unfortunately its always gonna be good ol’ boy football. They’ll find a way to jack it up. XP
SIC we will send you a post card from the Orange Bowl.
and it will be as valuable as those West Virginia/clemson t-shirts from your last visit.
TBG’s dad’s joke:
How do you recognize the head cheerleader?
She’s the one with the dirty knees.
Is the SEC East not the worst division of any conf in America?
Yes terrible 2 top 10 BCS teams
SEC East – two teams bowl bound
SEC West – All but one team bowl bound
you really are a stupid tater aren’t you?
USC to the Capital One
Mizzou to the Cotton
UGA to the Gator
and Vandy to BBVA Compas (it sucks but its a bowl)
that would be 4 out of 6 in the East dumbass
excuse me 4 out of 7
Okay then, two to bowls that aren’t “everyone gets a trophy” bowls.
Maybe the Dirtpeckers should join a conference where they can win the championship.
Ease up Squishy, even blind dirtpeckers find a kernel on occasion; SoCo, 1933 and ACC, 1969.
Oops..they had one in 1965, too..but it got “removed” from them due to…violations.
like the ACC?
Good luck to your Clem5son Tigers. Enjoy the game…sure you will be there.
Why would I go to the Orange Bowl?
no need to go watch them get spanked by Ohio State then huh?
This is a BS article and alot of BS comments of ppl hiding and droping Fbombs cause 1 team got a BCS game and another didnt.
Whats so BS about this article? seriously. I know Tajh will be the better pro quarterback(no evidence to support this claim) and yall stopped our run game(even though we gained more yards than you did on the ground) and the Chad is a genius (avgs 15 points a game vs us). How many more moral victories can Clemson win in a year? Recruiting??
Wah… ACC Baby! Can’t spell citrus without UCS!
you cant spell period
And: FSU will likely beat the Dog-$#!* out of lucky Auburn. Everybody knows Bama is better than FLUKE Auburn…
If it was fair, and the BCS had B@!!$, they’d jump Bama over Auburn, and it would be worth watching the NC game….
As it is: FSU is LIAO…they got a cakewalk. And America gets cheated w/ a $#!ttY NC game, AGAIN…because the BCS are cowards…
So the beating Missouri took was just a fluke too?
Good one. High Five! Damn, squish, did you ever think Steve Spurrier would get into your head so much? Sleep well this winter and better luck next year. Go Clem5son!
Better luck against who? My team is done for the year.
That was a track meet, with Auburn getting a couple more breaksin the end than Mizzou…FSU, for a change, belongs. So does Bama…
But Auburn will be almost as bad as the ignorant match-up from last year. W/o a lot of luck for Auburn, FSU may as well be crowned Champ. Aubrun is a pretender…
Did they pretend to win the SEC Championship?
I thought you did us all a favor and suck started a shotgun.
I bet you’d love for no one to be around to slap the P!$$ out of your ignorant @$$…Dumb@$$#$ hate to have their lock-step stupidity challenged.
PS: Bama would beat the F#*k out of Auburn if they played again…instead we’ve got a fluke team, not deserving, playing a contender…and it equals a sorry NC game again, unless Auburn can pull it out their @$$ again…
Look at like the Obama D!*k you suck…ain’t nobody wantin’ none now, after they’ve figured out what a fraud and piece of $#!* he is…Only an idiot like you, still suckin’ that fable…
Man, you have some serious mental problems.
So don’t F@*k with me, you leftwing idiot…
PS: You F@*kin’ lockstep geniuses are always blabbering about thinking ‘outside the box’ and doing something new…but when the reality of doing something right, and not in keeping w/ the lame status quo…you F@*kin Dumb@$$#$ $#!* all over yourselves…
Ever wonder why screwed up systems never change??…go look in the mirror, you liberal imbeciles…
NOW this is another great op for GT to bring politics to a sports thread.
Don’t underestimate Auburn, dude. It’ll still be a good game.
Alabama had so many chances to score more points against Auburn and they couldn’t perform. I think they are in general the better team but they beat themselves.
*Furtively looks around*
Smirks, GrandTango,and TBG are ALL in AGREEMENT that despite their loss, Alabama is a better team than Auburn.
What just happened?
” What just happened”?….Auburn just proved that they’re the better team…..WAR EAGLE.
No one forced Carolina to join the SEC.
Must be hell to be in a conference with no, absolutely no way to win a championship!! Suck it dirt peckers!!
Weak trolling is weak. We all know Clemson fans don’t have access to the internet outside the local library.
It is obvious to the rest of the world that the Sun does not rise and set on Steve Suprrier and the Gamecocks.
don’t tease or feed the straight people
Congratulations to Clemson. The rules are the rules.
If you remember, I was worried, after the Tennessee loss, about this probability. But there is no cause for humiliation. We know what conference we play in. We do our part against Wisconsin – we can hold our head up. Should Clemson rule OSU, it will prove what we Gamecocks have known about the Buckeyes since 2001. Don’t know what it will prove if the reverse happens.
Remember, Gamecocks – the more Clemson wins, the better we look.
Fits, these schools and bowls negotiated everything in the free market, quit trying to impose your ideas on them because it didn’t work out for you this time, facist
That’s fucking funny, Willie bitching about “DAT DERE SOSHULIZM” in all of this. They can choose who to match up all they want, bro. It is “free market,” or at least as free markety as you can get with the number of public university football teams up for consideration for bowl games. The fact is, if they made shitty decisions and didn’t have a good matchup, don’t you think they miss out on money when no one watches because they chose shitty teams? In the end, they want to make sure they pit good teams against each other to get the viewership, and therefore, more money.
Hard to say as a Gamecocks fan, but no, we don’t deserve a BCS bowl. I’m stoked we got what we got, but damn dude, both teams lost two games, but Clemson at least lost to far better teams than we did. Neither team are as consistent as I’d like them to be on making great plays but it cost us wins against teams we really should have beaten. Congratulations to Clemson, good luck to them and good luck to us. No point in fighting, let’s just stomp some Yankee ass!
Wasn’t long ago we weren’t even making it to a bowl game at all. Be grateful man!
Crappy conference? An ACC team is ranked #1.
Which conference has the most schools in bowl games this year?
It’s a national championship conference…right dat boy?
Talk now…just like all season…then we’ll hunt you down after the games have been played.
Talk Talk Talk…. all you’ve learned from dat boy.
and which conference has the most teams in bowls? I missed your answer.
USC Lost to a lowly Georgia team that went 8-4 and lost to Clemson
and a terrible Tennessee team that went 5-7
Clemson lost to the likely National champion and a
USC team that never loses at home due to the SEC’s most
unfriendly and unsportsmanlike atmosphere.
GET OVER IT!!!
We use to spend our time blaming the terrible redneck clemson fans… but once you start winning, you don’t need to anymore.
ENJOY IT!! FIVE IN A ROW!!
The asterisk that goes with Taj Boyd’s record, never beat the Gamecocks in in four years, with a thumb prodding the replace Dabo movement is still delicious irony.
So, Ohio State by a TKO?
Clemson fans can go on all they want to about getting a BCS bid, but we all know what happened the last time they were in a BCS bowl AND this BCS bid may help some Clemson fans feel better about their team, but you still lost to Souh Carolina (again). Everyone just witnessed Duke play in the “mighty” ACC Championship game for crying out loud. Is there any other team in the ACC that the BCS could give the second spot to?
Let’s see if you can actually win something before you get all carried away with yourselves.
OK. Clemson beat UGA. How did USCe do against UGA?
How did Clemson do against USC?
If beating UGA is nothing, what is losing to UGA? Next we will discuss UT.
It’s pretty sad when Clemson fans have been reduced to victory by proxy.
“Hey, who cares what you did to Clemson, you lost to UT and UGA, yuk yuk yuk.”
Which UGA team was a proxy?
I agree with CNSYD if Clemson beat UGA, and USC lost to UGA – its pretty safe to assume that head to head USC would have lost to Clemson if they played each other this year. right?
How sad. Clemson fans are reduced to proxy wins by other teams.
“Clemson can’t beat USC, but UGA and UT did, yuk yuk yuk.”
Repeat yourself much? I am still waiting on which UGA team was a proxy. The one who Clemson beat or the one who beat USCe.
Hard to believe that you are trying this hard to rationalize a loss. After five straight beat downs, you would think that you have learned your place. But there you go, beating your chest about UGA and UT. If that’s what makes it a little warmer on those cold winter nights, enjoy those moral victories for the tigers. At least UGA did what Clemson couldn’t.
“Seriously … putting BCS stickers on the back of Clemson and Central Florida helmets (but not on the back of South Carolina helmets) this year is the same thing as artificially inflating Medicaid rolls – it is perpetuating the dependency economy that continues to drag this country down.”
Will has gone full BigT.
Pro Tip:
Never go full BigT.
tgb you made my evening!
I ain’t knoe ClemZen fan, but they are legit. We could have very easily lost to them. As far as the conference is concerned, Clemzen and FSU could easily be one of the SEC supremes. However, FSU appears to be on a level above anyone else in the Kuntry. We’ll see, but i believe Duke is a good fit for Texas A&M. The Vandys, Ole Miss, and Mississippi States are comparable to a Ga. Tech, UNC, and Pitt. One loss against a Georgia didn’t hurt us. It seems like every year we pull a gamecockening and lose to a mediocre Auburn or terrible Tennessee squad. Lets face it, we were just one win away from playing for a heavyweight title.
I thought it was the super rich playing fast and loose with bundles of sub-prime mortgage backed securities that ‘dr[u]g this country down” the last time?
This article is awful, and poorly written. Clemson and UCF are very deserving of the bowls that they’re in. Clemson has a great win over a full strength UGA team (something the Gamecocks couldn’t do). Also, they did lose to the team that will probably win the National Championship. Outside of that, all of Clemson’s wins are very convincing. They lost to a decent USC team on the road, but lets be honest. Clemson beat themselves. Also, everyone with a functional brain knows USC should have had more loses then they did. Including to UCF. It’s so obvious that there is an agenda in this article. The ACC is a bad conference? Well for south carolina, all they have is a 1969 ACC championship. And holding the 2011 orange bowl against clemson, is like holding the 2003 Clemson 63 USC 17 against South Carolina. Really stupid, because its totally different teams.
This is rich.
Clemson did not beat themselves. They lost to South Carolina. Check the score.
Let’s be honest. South Carolina beat a decent UCF team on the road. Check the score.
Your auguments are stupid. Remind us again who Clemson defeated this year.
I always love this psuedo logic a losing team uses to say “we only lost by 2 points blah, blah, blah…” always forgotten in the ridicilous self-fooling exercise is that the winning team did even better by not only losing by a small amount (which you define as “pretty much winning”) but actually won – even by a little.
Damn! SEC Snobby Egotistical Crybabies! Y’all just think you should all be in the BCS because your the SEC! Newsflash, quit riding the coattails of the teams that are at the top. South Carolina sux, Florida sux and so does every other team in the SEC outside of Alabama. As for the person that wrote this article, I agree on one thing you said. At least an eight team play-off is due. As for everything else you said, your an idiot, a bandwagonner and to opinionated to be writing articles. FSU beat a SEC team, Miami beat a SEC team and Clemson beat a SEC team. But as you say the ACC is a soft conf. Your an idiot in my opinion!
Lol. Georgia Southern beat that same SEC team you’re bragging that FSU and Miami beat, so I wouldn’t be crowing about that win too much.
Their so called mighty SEC. Bring on any team in the country because FSU will beat them! ACC has the top dog this year and you shall see come January. Also remember in a rivalry game, all rules are out the window when it comes to Florida teams playing each other
Dirt Peckers, Taters. We are no. 21. Where is the mighty uSC? Playing in the Sports is Everything Conference. A nice academic fit.