The BCS National Championship for college football went to Florida (13-1), as did the AP sports writers poll.‚ However, the true national champion for college football this year is Utah (13-0).
Utah went undefeated, winning 13 straight games.‚ Utah beat 4 ranked teams.‚ Utah beat Michigan in the Big House.‚ Utah beat #12 TCU.‚ Utah beat #14 BYU.‚ Utah crushed Alabama (who was ranked #1 in the nation for five straight games).‚ Florida went to the national championship game by virtue of beating Alabama… after trailing ‘bama six minutes into the 4th quarter.‚ Utah put up 21 points on Alabama in the first quarter. Utah is the only undefeated team this year and deserves the title of “National Champions”.
Why did Utah not play in the national championship game?‚ Because there is no playoff system in college football.‚ Instead a computer formula using esoteric math to rank the top teams and assign them their final standings.‚ For a sport who’s motto is “Settle it on the gridiron”, this is a travesty.
Why are we stuck with the BCS system instead of a playoff?‚ Greedy big-college athletic directors and the people who run the bowl games have an anti-competitive MONOPOLY.‚ They make billions of dollars while paying their workers/athletes nothing.‚ College football is supposed to be ameteur but it is anything but: most games are televised and receive tens of billions of dollars in TV contracts.‚ Major college football teams regularly sell out their stadiums for every game, bringing billions more dollars in revenue.‚ For “student-athletes”, football is not a game, it’s a full time job.‚ No player is compensated for his time, injuries or effort.
President-Elect Barack Obama has said that he wants to change the college football BCS system.‚ I suggest that he starts by having the Justice Department investigate the NCAA and the BCS for anti-trust violations, as well as violations of labor laws.
As a football fan, I am rapidly losing my interest in college football because it is not interesting anymore to have a big debate each year over which team belongs in the BCS and because the greed of big colleges and abuse of student-athletes does not sit right with my conscience.
I have never been a big believer in the BCS until I watched the championship game last night. Utah may have played 4 ranked games, but the schedules of Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas Tech, and Florida were all tougher. Utah was able to keep its team relatively healthy and rested- giving them a good opportunity to play up against better teams.
Last night, a resurgent Florida team, led by a former Heisman winner and this year’s runner up, managed to crush Oklahoma. Crush you might ask? Didn’t they win only by ten points? It qualifies as a crushing victory because Oklahoma set numerous scoring records this year. Statistically speaking, their offenses was one of the best ever. Florida’s defense played amazingly well against the fast paced attack of Bradford and the Boomer Sooners.
Utah was a joke who managed to take on a comparatively weak schedule and play up. Keep in mind BYU almost lost to the UW. A joke of a penalty call on QB Jake Locker knocked their extra point kick out of a standard college range and gave BYU the win. Don’t quote the Utes victory over BYU as any sort of accomplishment. BYU also couldn’t win its bowl game against unranked Arizona. Add to that, Michigan finishing second to last in the Big 10, you can’t make an argument for the Utes.
Good team, yes. No 1? Not even close. Top 10 might be (MIGHT BE) justified.
The only team that had a legitimate complaint about standings was probably USC. AS the last ranking showed, they probably would have been better in the national championship.
Jordan,
You have forgotten Alabama. Alabama was ranked #1 in the nation all through the end of the regular season. Alabam was 12-0 and being heralded as a throwback team to the legendary days of Coach Bear Bryant. Their offensive line was supposed to be the best in the country. The only reason Florida made it to the national championship game was by beating Alabama. The victory was very close, with Alabama leading Florida all game till late in the 4th quarter.
Utah smashed Alabama. Utah scored 21 points in the first quarter and gave up 0. Utah dominated Alabama through the entire game and showed why they went undefeated.
I love Tim Tebow (possibly one of my favorite players) and Florida is a team full of studs, but they LOST A GAME. Utah was undefeated against FOUR top 25 teams, as well as other major teams (Michigan, etc). Florida barely beat Alabama, while Utah crushed Bama.
Oklahoma was a joke- it played against Big 12 defenses that were far worse than any in the country… including MAC, MWC and the other smaller ones. Texas barely topped an extremely weak Ohio State team. Texas Tech got owned by the #25 team Mississippi. Sam Bradford and Oklahoma’s numbers were a joke.
Utah should be the AP National Champion and my bet is if there was a nationwide playoff system, Utah would have held its own against Florida.
Alabama missed 3 field goals I believe.Florida beat Bama 31-20.Utah beat Bama 31-17.It is a very close margin.If bama made those field goals(due to bad kicker it would of been 31-26 or 31-23.Bama also missed Andre Smith and another offensive line starter.I believe if bama could of have them they could of one due to better pass protection and being able to start their run game like against Florida.I give Utah credit for killing the bama defense(passing not running).