More Silliness

This time from the Orange County Register's Mark Whicker.

"It's Still the Earlier You Lose, the Better"

On Nov.18 the Wolverines awakened as the second- ranked team in the BCS standings. They also awakened in Columbus and had to play top-ranked Ohio State. And they did.

No one had scored 17 points on the Buckeyes, but Michigan scored 39. No one had gained more than 350 yards on the Buckeyes, but Michigan gained 397. No one had beaten Ohio State and no one has yet, because Michigan fell short, 42-39.

Still, the Wolverines had an onside kick at the end, for a chance to win, and went home hopeful they'd get a rematch Jan.8 for the BCS title.

Maybe it's because the Big Ten outside of Wisconsin doesn't have a single team capable of beating Michigan or Ohio State, so they've cruised through their seasons with superb defensive numbers?  And when these two teams met both were caught a little off guard about the others' offensive capabilities?

That game was not as close as Whicker portrays it.  Ohio State went up fairly big, coughed the ball up a few times late and held on after playing prevent to ice the clock on that game.  Where's the intellectual honesty?

USC beat Cal and Notre Dame and slipped past Michigan for the No.2 spot, and Saturday the Trojans can earn the title game by beating UCLA.

This means the new system is basically the old system. It's not who you lose to. It's when you lose, the earlier the better.

If you live in a bubble, maybe, that's how you could interpret it.  Michigan is no longer the clear-cut No. 2 team because since USC lost to Oregon State, they vastly improved by taking down Oregon, California and Notre Dame with decisive margins.

Their surge has been about who they beat, not when they lost.  And they've also moved up in the rankings as other teams lost---blame Rutgers, Louisville, West Virginia, Notre Dame, California and several others for losing and helping USC arrive to where it is, not the system.

I have many troubles with the polls, but I don't take the voters for imbeciles.  They have a task, and a limited amount of time to do it, and do the best they can.  It is up to the organizers of the various polls to help the voters make better decisions.  Criticize the specifics of how we're doing this, not the generic 'system'.  College football isn't as Orwellian as we think, but the many critics out there can do a much better job of critique than what's been put forth as of this time.

USC's victims had 65 victories over Division 1-A teams. If USC wins Saturday, that number grows to 71. Michigan's number is 62. But it isn't Michigan's fault that most of the Big Ten reeks.

Correct, it isn't their fault.  But the Big Ten's fluffy softness is also why their defense looked so damn good before heading into the Ohio State game.  Why bring up their pre-Ohio State stats and then undermine them a few paragraphs later?  That was a silly argument to begin with.

Many voters continue to put Michigan No. 2 in their polls.  There's a real dilemma out there and it's forcing the voters to do some evaluation of Michigan, USC and Florida instead of simply holding firm with last week's totals.  How is this not a good thing?

Perhaps they'll go with a Michigan/Ohio State rematch after this weekend, perhaps they won't.  But if they were so helpless and the system so flawed, the rematch would already be a guarantee.  I can't stress enough we have to let the season play out before freaking out about things.  Perhaps USC loses and makes this all moot.  We don't know yet.  Perhaps Florida posts a 62-0 shutout of Arkansas.  We simply don't know yet, so hold the fire.

In the end the 'system' is a series of choices.   It's freedom and independent thought at work, however flawed its outcomes may be.  I'd rather have the old way, but the current way is much better than the playoff many of us desire.

But this BCS situation is so horribly contradictory that ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit actually makes sense when he says that Michigan is the second-best team in the nation but USC deserves to play Ohio State.

The reason is the rematch scenario doesn't work. It's sort of like the invasion of Iraq. Once it happens, then what do you do?

So let me get this straight... if the system's so bad and the voters responsible for its outcomes so inept, how is it that they're already beginning to self-correct and place USC ahead of Michigan, thus avoiding a possible rematch?

If Ohio State were to beat Michigan again, enraged Trojans fans would be torching their own Lexi.

Yeah, not so much.  I think those five consecutive Pac-10 titles, two national titles and nearly a third last year have them pretty fat and happy.  It's the same reason Texas fans have taken this season in stride.  They got their ring, they're good for another 35 years.  USC fans didn't torch their Lexi in 2003, either.  Oh, to have a short memory...

Carroll also has the right handle on the BCS. Since it's a counterfeit system that in most years proves nothing, why even pay attention? Just get on the plane, get off when it lands and play football. This time USC's goal is to make everyone forget Michigan should have been there.

And as I've argued on here before, any other system is just as counterfeit.  Learn to think, people.

If the BCS 'proves nothing', it at least gives us a reasonable opportunity to match the nation's top two teams in one final game.  He's right about one thing, however, in that we continue to have this great game where teams can simply get off that plane and play some football.  That's what it's about, not the titles.  The season is the reason, the game the name.

I have Michigan No. 2 right now, but not by much.  All three schools, Michigan, USC and Florida can all make compelling cases to be in the BCS championship game.  We should be arguing that, not this unserious hyperventilation without contemplation.  I have mixed feelings about a rematch, so I don't want my writing here to suggest I'm leaning one way or the other.  But I leave it as a possibility, as Michigan's proven to be a top rate team this year and I don't want to simply disregard them over USC or Florida.