Spring Break
The BCS stands for Badly Composed Standings
Mike Mauro
Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Sports
You beat a conference rival 41-10 with your backup quarterback to remain an undefeated 7-0 and you fall from No. 5 to No. 8 in the BCS Standings? Well, that's the amazingly true and ridiculous story of the Cincinnati Bearcats, who beat Louisville last weekend to stay perfect on the year.
With Heisman candidate quarterback Tony Pike out with an injury, Zach Collaros threw more touchdowns (three) than incompletions (two) to seemingly prove that the Bearcats are the best team in the Big East and have the depth and talent to be national championship contenders.
Somehow, the Badly Composed Standings managed to drop Cincinnati three spots following a 31-point win. How a team ranked No. 6 and 7 in the human rankings and No. 6 in the computers could be ranked No. 8 in the BCS is beyond me. Obviously, it has to do with averaging the three point totals together, but it just doesn't seem to make any intuitive sense.
Cincinnati has a potent offense with future NFL early-round draft picks Pike and wide receiver Mardy Gilyard, so they have that "wow" factor on offense that makes their games fun to watch. They don't play slugfests or squeak out late wins like No. 4 Iowa who needed two blocked field goals in the final seconds to get past Northern Iowa. No, Cincinnati hasn't even had a true scare yet with its smallest margin of victory being eight points to Fresno State, a game where the Bearcats controlled the action.
Yet Iowa is loved by the computers, No. 1 by their standards, even though half of their eight wins have come by three points or less and the pollsters have them ranked No. 8 in both the Coaches' and Harris Poll.
Another joke in the rankings is USC's No. 5 ranking, with one loss to a mediocre (at best) Washington team. The humans are to blame for this. Both have them inexplicably ranked No. 4, ahead of undefeated Iowa, TCU, Boise St. and Cincinnati. Everyone knows USC is loaded with talent, but their lofty ranking is based on their past, not the present. High-ranking teams should beat the teams they should be able to beat in their conference. USC can't seem to get that done once a year and should be penalized for it.
With Heisman candidate quarterback Tony Pike out with an injury, Zach Collaros threw more touchdowns (three) than incompletions (two) to seemingly prove that the Bearcats are the best team in the Big East and have the depth and talent to be national championship contenders.
Somehow, the Badly Composed Standings managed to drop Cincinnati three spots following a 31-point win. How a team ranked No. 6 and 7 in the human rankings and No. 6 in the computers could be ranked No. 8 in the BCS is beyond me. Obviously, it has to do with averaging the three point totals together, but it just doesn't seem to make any intuitive sense.
Cincinnati has a potent offense with future NFL early-round draft picks Pike and wide receiver Mardy Gilyard, so they have that "wow" factor on offense that makes their games fun to watch. They don't play slugfests or squeak out late wins like No. 4 Iowa who needed two blocked field goals in the final seconds to get past Northern Iowa. No, Cincinnati hasn't even had a true scare yet with its smallest margin of victory being eight points to Fresno State, a game where the Bearcats controlled the action.
Yet Iowa is loved by the computers, No. 1 by their standards, even though half of their eight wins have come by three points or less and the pollsters have them ranked No. 8 in both the Coaches' and Harris Poll.
Another joke in the rankings is USC's No. 5 ranking, with one loss to a mediocre (at best) Washington team. The humans are to blame for this. Both have them inexplicably ranked No. 4, ahead of undefeated Iowa, TCU, Boise St. and Cincinnati. Everyone knows USC is loaded with talent, but their lofty ranking is based on their past, not the present. High-ranking teams should beat the teams they should be able to beat in their conference. USC can't seem to get that done once a year and should be penalized for it.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
JoeMatt
posted 10/29/09 @ 9:53 AM EST
Good thoughts, Mike.
I'm and avid LSU fan. Season tickets, the rest. So naturally, my view of the BCS would be expected to be different than yours. (Continued…)
kristin
posted 11/01/09 @ 2:03 PM EST
Iowa has never been given enough credit by the human polls. A win is a win. If they win by 1 point with only a few seconds left in the game is still a W. (Continued…)
Post a Comment