BCS Remains Broken with Three Unbeatens Left

By David Mayo | The Grand Rapids Press

December 07, 2009, 8:00AM

 
AP PhotoHunter Lawrence hit the game-winning field goal to send Texas into the BCS national championship game.

On the occasion of another system-induced quandary, we address three topics on college football's front burner -- the Bowl Championship Series results, Michigan State's bowl berth, and the Heisman Trophy:

The last-second field goal that sent Texas to the national championship game against Alabama sent conspiracy theorists to work, too, not all of them from outside the system.

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini went ballistic after his defense's courageous work was unraveled by the kick that made Texas a 13-12 winner in the Big 12 championship Saturday night, and which Pelini insisted should not have happened.

Pelini went into a tirade immediately after the result became final, motioning angrily at reporters and saying the reason the Longhorns got their last-ditch opportunity at victory was "the BCS -- the (bleep) BCS."

As you probably know, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy languidly threw an incomplete pass out of bounds -- with a timeout still at the Longhorns' disposal -- on the play before the field goal.

The clock hit :00.

It was clear, both during the live play and upon review, that the timekeeper had a ponderous finger and at least one second should have been preserved.

That's exactly what officials ruled, waving jubilant Nebraska players back to the sideline and allowing Hunter Lawrence to kick a 46-yard field goal and put the Longhorns in the Jan. 7 championship game.

However, Pelini's point is well-taken, regardless whether the clock ruling was accurate or not.


The BCS remains a caste system, as evidenced by the two historic monoliths being selected for the championship game over three other unbeatens -- Cincinnati, Texas Christian and Boise State.

Now, for the first time, an on-the-field ruling has created at least some suspicion that unseen powers could bear responsibility for gerrymandering results for maximum visibility.

If Lawrence had missed that field goal -- or not been allowed to attempt it -- Cincinnati would have played Alabama for the national championship.

Pelini's unspoken suggestion was that college football's Big Brother wanted nothing to do with that, so in a circumstance under which the game could have been declared over, his team lost a conference championship in favor of a more desirable national championship pairing.

The BCS is the most broken, sadistic, insulting championship system in major American sports.

Never was that clearer than now.

And never were the negative ramifications of the faulty system clearer than in Pelini's unspoken suggestion of unfairness -- and the wincing thought that he might be on to something.

So Texas plays for the national title, with its own state title undecided. TCU is awfully good, after all.

2006 Rose Bowl Victory Texas Longhorns over the USC Trojans 41-38

http://www.mlive.com/sports/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/12/bcs_remains_broken_with_three.html