There’s been a lot of talk this week about how Auburn and
Cal were spurned by the BCS.
But no one got shafted as much as UCLA.
Sure, Auburn went undefeated and got left out of the
championship game.
Sure Cal’s final ranking dropped the final week of the
season despite winning on the road, while Texas did not play.
At least Auburn and Cal don’t have to play the mighty
football powerhouse that is Wyoming.
But because of the BCS leaving Cal out of the Rose Bowl, all of
the other non-USC Pac-10 teams were moved down a bowl game.
And instead of a high-profile match-up against Notre Dame, UCLA
was left a date with Wyoming in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Even though Notre Dame is having a down year, playing against
them would have done wonders in terms of national exposure for
UCLA. When Notre Dame plays any game, ratings go up, and more
people around the country would have learned more about the
Bruins.
But not many people will watch the UCLA-Wyoming Las Vegas
Bowl.
There’s a reason why Wyoming is the state with the lowest
population, even lower than Alaska.
It’s Wyoming.
The only thing the state of Wyoming has going for it is a couple
of nice national parks. After that, well, they have … this is
hard … well, a lot of open space. And you never have to worry
about looking foolish in public because there is no public.
And because of the brilliant system that is the BCS, UCLA was
robbed of getting the chance to play Notre Dame and will instead
have to face a team from a state that just moved into the 20th
century ““ barely. (Yes, I’m now aware I can never go
back to Wyoming. How will I ever live?)
There was one glaring thing wrong with the BCS this year, a
problem that has been there for years but not heavily scrutinized
until now.
The coaches poll needs massive reform, or it shouldn’t
exist at all.
Currently, the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll accounts for
one-third of the BCS formula. The Associated Press Poll and several
computer rankings make up the other two-thirds.
But unlike the other two components of the BCS, there is
absolutely no accountability in the coaches poll. The coaches voted
a couple of months ago not to make their final ballots public.
Because of this secret ballot system, coaches can vote for
whomever they want at whatever ranking they want without being
questioned.
One coach voted Texas second ““ which means this coach
inexplicably put the Longhorns above two undefeated teams.
Another coach put Cal eighth ““ eighth? How do you put Cal,
whose only loss was to No. 1 USC, and in that game Cal outplayed
USC, at eighth?
But we will never know who these coaches were.
In the coaches poll, there is a huge conflict of interest. For
the Big 12 coaches voting in the poll, it would help their schools
out if Texas went up to No. 4 and moved ahead of Cal. With a BCS
bid comes a lot of money ““ $14 million ““ and a big
chunk of that is shared between the rest of the teams in the
conference. This argument also applies to the Pac-10 coaches voting
in the poll. But there are more Big 12 coaches voting than Pac-10
coaches, so this probably gave Texas an advantage over Cal.
Cal coach Jeff Tedford, a voter in the coaches poll, released
his final ballot. He had Cal fourth and Texas fifth, like many
voters did. But if Tedford wanted to help his team as much as
possible, it would’ve been smart for him to leave Texas off
of his ballot and rank Cal first (or second, so it wouldn’t
be too obvious).
Sure, it’s unethical to do that. But it’s a secret
ballot, so no one would have ever caught him.
If Tedford had done this, Cal would have barely eked out fourth
place overall in the BCS standings, and would be in the Rose Bowl
instead of Texas.
But Tedford, being classy, prevented his own team from going to
the Rose Bowl. He didn’t resort to begging and pleading for
votes like Texas coach Mack Brown (which may have helped him).
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the BCS will exist
for a long time, as it has a contract that runs through 2014. Every
sane college football fan would much rather see a playoff system
than the convoluted BCS system.
But at least the system that will exist for another painful 10
years can reform itself correctly. The BCS commissioners should
take a stand and make the coaches release their final ballots.
That way, UCLA wouldn’t have to play a team from a state
that has to mean “the middle of nowhere” in some
language.
Those of you in the “cities” of Cheyenne, Cody,
Casper or Laramie can e-mail Quinonez at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu,
if you know how to use that thing called a computer.