Another Take from the Mizzou Side of BCS Screw Job
 

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...5?OpenDocument

Mizzou left out of BCS? It's nonsense
BY BRYAN BURWELL
POST-DISPATCH SPORTS COLUMNIST
Sunday, Dec. 02 2007

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Of course it doesn’t make sense. You know it, I know it, even
the doofuses who continue to perpetrate this idiotic Bowl Championship Series
system have to know just how fatally flawed and hopelessly messed up their
multi-million dollar scam is.

So Sunday night was just one more bit of annoying confirmation of how defective
the BCS is.

From the broad national perspective, to the narrower parochial one, I truly
hate it with all my heart. But since sports is very much like politics --
everything is local -- let’s deal with how Mizzou got robbed Sunday night by
the BCS and its convoluted computers.

Missouri finished its finest season in the history of the program with an 11-2
record, won the Big 12 North, knocked off both arch rivals in Kansas and
Illinois, and the Tigers finished with a No. 6 ranking in the final BCS
standings.

Logic says the Tigers had to get a BCS bowl bid, right?

So why are they sitting on the outside of the BCS with an invitation to the
still prestigious (but non BCS) Cotton Bowl, while five other schools that
ranked lower in the BCS standings -- including the 8th-ranked Jayhawks and
13th-ranked Illini -- received bids to the more preferred BCS bowls?

Seventh-ranked Southern California and Illinois are in the Rose Bowl. Kansas is
in the Orange Bowl, ninth-ranked West Virginia is in the Fiesta Bowl and
10th-ranked Hawaii is in the Sugar Bowl.


So how does any of this make sense? As the news began to filter through the
second floor hallways at the Reynolds Alumni Center on Sunday night, the grim
faces of many Mizzou athletes told the story of the night.

“It’s just a shame we got locked out,” said All-America tight end Martin
Rucker. “How does that happen? Mathematically, logically, it just doesn’t make
sense.”

By the time the Fox network BCS bowl selection show began at 7 p.m., Rucker and
his teammates had already left the building. They couldn’t bear to watch it.
They had been instructed to take the high road and go with the company line
that they’re “excited” to be Cotton Bowl bound.

But Rucker, the senior who has seen Missouri football grow from inconsequential
to important, couldn’t play the game. In the course of 48 turbulent hours, he’d
watched his team go from No. 1 in the country with a legitimate shot at a
national championship bid, to disappointed and disgusted outsiders with their
noses pressed to the glass watching the BCS dance cards being handed out.

Someone asked if this obvious slight was further proof of how badly college
football’s top division needs a playoff system to decide its national champions
and perhaps prevent a situation like this where Mizzou was unjustly left on the
outside looking in.

“I don’t know if you need a playoff system to see that it doesn’t make sense
that one team (Illinois) lost three games and lost to you, and you only lost
two games, and they’re going to a BCS game and you’re not,” said Rucker with a
resigned shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t think we need a playoff system to
understand that, do we?”

You could see the disappointment in their faces as the players got the
official word and most of them quietly left the alumni center without saying a
word. “I have a bunch of players who have a bunch of frowns,” said Pinkel.


But those frowning faces told another story of the night, as well. Is there any
surer sign that Pinkel’s emerging program is heading in the right direction
than the fact that Mizzou football is no longer satisfied with a Cotton Bowl
bid?

Three years ago -- heck, last year -- Missouri loyalists and Tiger players and
coaches would have done somersaults down Broadway if you told them that the
2007 season would conclude with an 11-2 regular season record, a Big 12 North
title, a week on top of the national polls, a legitimate Heisman Trophy
candidate, and a Cotton Bowl bid.

After six years of lesser bowls and underachieving seasons, a trip to a
traditional and prestigious Jan. 1 bowl game, with or without the additional
status of a BCS affiliation, would have been considered a watershed mark for
Pinkel and the Tigers.

So even in the aftermath of the crushing defeat to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title
game, even with the obvious insult by the BCS system, even as some folks will
spend a lot of energy and a ton of venom overanalyzing how the biggest game in
MU football history ended up with a less-than-storybook ending, let’s not lose
sight of the essential ongoing story line.

What happened over the weekend wasn’t the sad end of the story.

The rebirth of Mizzou football is a story that’s just beginning.

Hopefully this coming year they will use this as a chip on their shoulders and kick some ass. I can't see this as anything but positive for MU, even though i really wanted a BCS bowl. Bring on the Mcfaddens.

Better hope that MU doesn't play like they're disappointed to be in the Cotton.

Also, there is one other aspect that I was just thinking about. If, as others have pointed out, that the Orange had the first pick of the remaining "at-large" teams, then they should be blamed. Perhaps the Rose or Sugar would have chosen MU. But if the Orange was the first pick and they picked KU, then the other bowls could not pick MU due to the max 2 teams per conference rule (which is a stupid rule, IMO).

Totally agree and I've said as much several times.

I have some friends who are big Sooner fans and they are pretty pissed too. Something to do with being #3 in all the polls but #4 in the BCS and having to play West Virginia (ranked #9) in their bowl game basically shutting them out of any possible consideration for the championship.

It's not a stupid rule whne you consider the conference money involved.

Tell them they should e thankful they get to play in a BCS game at all because they suck and are overrated.

There's nothing wrong with it, really.

There's no argument that can be made that Kansas deserved the Orange Bowl more than Missouri. You'd get laughed off any newspaper page or TV program if you said that. It sounds to me the more I read like Perkins was after them from the start and sold them on it, and Alden didn't.

It's ok, really. Missouri is better than Kansas, and I think we'd have probably gotten hammered against a top 5 opponent like we were going to see. I think we're truly a 7-8-9 team and KU is 10-11-12 or so. We'll see I guess.

Being in the Cotton Bowl lets us play a team we match up better with better, one that's geographically close, a place where we can probably bring more fan support, etc. Players should be motivated by getting the snub like Auburn did before, in 04 or whenever.

It's cool, really. The Orange Bowl can have them. If they go down there and get embarrassed then that will say more than we can ever say about it.

OU might beat all of the other teams in the BCS. They have a legitimate gripe in that respect, but still only themselves to blame.

OU has no argument. They lost to CU and Texas Tech, both unranked teams. If OU was really a championship caliber team, they would play more consistently. With the kind of talent that OU teams has, there is no excuse for losing both those games.
People dog on KU for their schedule, but they can say one thing that a lot of other top teams cannot. They took care of business against lesser opponents.

Sure there is--KU lost 1 game, MU lost 2.

What, because MU beat KU, MU 'deserves' to go? By that logic, Kentucky 'deserves' to be in the national title game because they beat LSU. Or Colorado 'deserves' a BCS bowl because they beat Oklahoma.

The system is f'd up--always has been. But outside of the title game, no one is entitled to anything. The BCS isn't set up so that the top 10 teams get the bowl slots. After the top 2, its just a draft of the eligible teams.

Frankly, I don't see what the big deal is. KU and MU are both going to the same place--the 'Not the National Title Game Bowl.' If you're not playing for the title, who cares?

Your and idiot.

There is a reason nobody is making those points...

They are straw men.

Nobody is saying App. St is better than Michigan here. This isn't a 4 win team saying they are better than KU because MU beat them.

The win difference is 1. MU has a big north title...is ahead of KU in the BCS, coaches, and AP polls.

Did I mention KU hasn't beaten a top 40 team?

Not that I have ever cared, but what difference does a "BCS" bowl and a non-BCS bowl make if neither of them are for the national championship. I have not cared and I continue to not care about this porous marketing scam to make teams feel like they accomplished something even though they are playing for the same thing that Central Michigan and Rutgers are... nothing.

Take consolation in this MU fan: the Orange Bowl is the biggest crap hole of all the major bowls. I went a few years ago to see my Hawkeyes get pounded by USC and couldn't believe the decrepit cement bowl with the run-down parking lots in the middle of a nowhere neighborhood was the fabled Orange Bowl.
Aren't they tearing that thing down soon?

Raymond James stadium/Outback Bowl kills the Orange for an all around good time. Tampa rocks and the stadium is awesome.

The BCS is well known for their screw jobs, I can't say this surprises me all that much. You can bitch until you're blue in the face and it won't change a thing.

The Orange Bowl has been played in the Dolphin's Stadium (whatever it's named now) for almost a decade.

No cause KU wasn't good enough to play 13 games.

That just sounds like Miami ;)

Whoever said it was like a third world country was right. The beach, the tourist areas they keep nice, but the rest of it is garbage

Talk on the local radio here in Phoenix was that the Fiesta would have preferred Kansas over MU as Kansas and K-State are known to travel much better than MU thus the visitor revenue stream is a lot higher.

That isn't my opinion but that ov several local radio guys.

Good argument.

Yep, and it is a shit hole.

The Cotton Bowl opened in 1932.

Well, why not? If MU is better than KU, and therefore more 'deserving' of the Orange, why isn't App. St. better than Michigan by virtue of beating them? If winning head-to-head doesn't matter, then KU has an even better argument for 'deserving' the Orange.

Oh, what you described sounded like the original Orange Bowl. That's the one that's getting torn down.

MU fans would sleep better if they realized this. Everything that is not the Title Game is a consolation game. If you're not in the Title Game, does it really matter if you're the in 5th-best bowl game or the 8th-best or whatever. Who cares?

Now that my bitterness has subsided I'm just happy MU was in a positition to get screwed by the BCS. MU had one hell of a season and gave me one of my greatest experiences as a sports fan. I'm not going to let the BSC ruin it for me.

With all the returning players and very nice recruiting class coming in the future looks bright. Personally I can't wait to see this team playing with a chip on its shoulder in 08.

I wouldn't have quoted the rest of my post either. With it, my argument makes sense.

Any bowl except the National Championship is a nothing anyway. That being said quit whining and win a game if you want to be recognized. KU going to the Orange Bowl is as useless as the Cotton Bowl. Who cares?

Dave

Winning a BCS game can mean 11 million for your conference and school.

You do realize that the only team MU lost to, KU didn't play and that the only reason MU has 1 more loss then KU is because KU didn't win its division. Doesn't sound to me like KU is the better team and more deserving of a BCS bowl just because they didn't get to go lose to OU in the Big XII champ.

Sorry, I now see that is exactly what it seemed I was saying.
I haven't been since 2003 but the year we went to the Orange Bowl the stadium it was played in was a crap hole.

I think winning a bowl game means something. Especially in ncaa 2007 i still can't win the alamo bowl!

Mizzou fans should be overjoyed that they have the chance to spend $90 for a spot on the "renovated" Cotton Bowl aluminum bench seating!

dumb. dumb. dumb. dumb. dumb.

Lovely. Sounds like Lambeau, minus the frozen tundra.

BCS Bowls seem to show it's a popularity contest.

Why would that be? Seriously, what does Kansas have to offer? Bigger audience? Nope. Missouri's population is more than double that of Kansas. Bigger tradition? Again, no. Kansas has no tradition in football to speak of. More success? NO. We won head-to-head at a neutral field, effectively negating the one-loss season.

I don't know what happened, but I don't buy the official line for a second. I think this boils down to the right palms getting greased and the right asses getting kissed. The 2007 Jayhoax are basically the 1997 Broncos - the lesser team that goes farther by nefarious means.

There's word that Perkins guaranteed X-number of tickets sold (supposedly Louisville did the same thing last year) and that Alden wouldn't commit to the same figure. Tiger fans think Perkins overpromised and they'll have to give away tix. Who knows.

BTW, it appears that all the MU Cotton Bowl tix sold out very quickly this morning.

Let's illustrate this graphically

BCS Bowl -$$$$$$$$$$$

Non-BCS Bowl - $$

Get It?

And don't forget the recruiting angle. That's how you get those out of state guys that would otherwise go to other powerhouse programs.

DT

Well, when VT kicks the shit out of them, and the next day all the talkingheads are wondering aloud how such a weak team ever got to the Orange Bowl in the first place, perhaps the wastlelands of Kansas won't be so attractive to new recruits after all.

I don't know why you guys didn't realize that the Cotton Bowl has usually taken the loser of the Big 12 championship game.
And lets not forget that Bowls usually take teams that bring legions of fans. I'm not privy to that information but perhaps Missouri doesn't fare well in that area. Just saying. :shrug:

Well..we know for sure they won't be talking about Mizzou and the Cotton Bowl at all.

Publicity is publicity..good, bad, or ugly. Get your name out. That's more than Mizzou will be doing with their bowl game.

It was pretty fucking cold last year. About 30 degrees with a 25 mph wind. It was sunny, but cold and windy. :(

KS gets trashed by vt that won't do them any favors. I like Mizzou's chances at making another top 10 run next year, kansas, well goodluck, and mizzou's incoming class is pretty solid and only will get better.

The OB is already getting pretty good attention. Fron of the NCAA FB page on ESPN. The video has all kinds of good info.

"You might as well take the Orange Bowl with Kansas and put it on Comedy Central cause it is a joke."


ROFL

You do realize that all bowl money is split evenly between teams in the conference, right?

Kansas and OU do not generate any extra revenue from their BCS bowl appearances than any other team in the Big 12.

What if KU somehow beats VT? Then maybe they aren't so fraudulent after all...

The tough part about the MU game is that it is on New Years morning. Talk about a bad hangover for a lot of the country...

LOL, getting embarrassed on national television for the 2nd straight game is not good publicity for a football program.

So, you don't think getting embarrassed in a marquee game for the second straight time by OU was in any way, shape or form good for the Tigers in terms of publicity?

ROFL but but but they earned it!

the BCS hates mizzou as much as the rest of us ...... what other "take" is there?

What's the pitch line for the Cotton Bowl?

"Be sure to get up early on New Years Day after you've consumed gratuitous amounts of alcohol, and watch the former no. 1 team play the Heisman trophy winner ?"

As if you didn't care enough about bowl games that weren't the NC, here's the Cotton Bowl!

Woo-hoo..it's the best of the Non-BCS bowls.

That's seemingly all there is to it.

KU rules, MU drools.

:LOL:

Missouri is just not really an attractive football program, and neither is KU. Both schools are not known for football, and recruits outside of the Midwest aren't too interested in going to Columbia, Mo. or Lawrence, Ks.

Apparently, KU was the more attractive team to the Orange Bowl selection committee. Probably has a lot to do with Lew Perkins selling his team hard.

Missouri is just generally thought of as inferior to Kansas in general in althetics (probably due to KU's superior basketball program) and as a state (probably due to Missouri's abundance of meth labs and hillbillies).

Bottom line--you lose 2 games, you lose the right to whine about what bowl you get. So you're going to the 8th-best bowl instead of the 5th-best. So what? LSU has two losses--maybe you should whine about not going to the title game.

Really?

Last I checked Mizzou was #6 and KU #8, I'm no mathematician but seems like Missouri is ranked higher and just the dumb shits at the Orange wanted to suck you off.

Oh and deny it all you want but by the looks of all the radio and tv shows talking about this they tend to agree also

Doesn't matter if we earned it or not. We're there.

Maybe Mizzou should have beat OU one time. Not twice..just one time, and they'd be playing in the NC game.

Mizzou fans call bawl their little eyes out.."it's not fair..the BCS hates Mizzou"..but the simple fact is that nobody cares about MU or KU on a national level right now. They cared about each program for about 2 weeks, and now it's back to the way it was before.

You think anyone on the East Coast is going...man I sure did enjoy watching MU get pounded by OU, I should probably check out the Cotton Bowl on New Years Day. Or the West Coast for that matter?

People will watch the Orange Bowl..if for no other reason that it's a marquee bowl game, and it will be force-fed down their throats.

It's funny how confident you Mizzou fans are that KU will get smashed by VT. Almost as confident as you were that there was no way OU could beat you again. You beat yourselves the first time, and a neutral site was all you needed to prove you were the best.

Did anybody even watch the BC/VT game? Because I did, and I'm about as impressed by the ACC Champs as I am by Hawaii.

It really has nothing to do with how attractive a team is. What really matters to Bowl officials is how much of a following a team has that's coming with them. $$$ matters to to the hosts and how much money they can rake in from the fans supporting said teams in that bowl.

It's too bad that MU had to play one extra game. It is what it is.

MU has everything to be proud about this year, but they had to have beat OU. They had 2 chances and they didn't do it. They controlled their destiny and they lost. No. 1 teams win.

They have no one to blame but themselves. In the end they better go out next year and kick OU's ass once and for all. That's where all that anger should go!!

The ACC conference hasn't impressed me all season.

Jesus ****ing Christ, you haven't won shit since 1988 and you act like you win a championship every year, your as bad as Raider fans.

homo .... with all your homo talk

I am confident KU will lose to VT, Reesing will get "nervous" like the mu vs ku game. No one will be talking about KU next year anyway, MU will be back in top 15 contention and making a run again with the incoming recruits.

But of the four programs that MU and KU put out there each year on the football and basketball side of things, who can you also count on being good?

That's part of the reason Kentucky got so much love for their football program this year..they weren't that great, but they have always been a NC Contender on the basketball side of things.

If Duke fielded a good football team next year, and went 10-2 or 11-1, they'd be media darlings. The nation loves seeing powerhouse schools..and Mizzou has been far from a powerhouse in anything, ever.

They better find a defense.

Wow, sucks to know you got proven wrong.

Next time make sure to bring true stats to the table when trying to debate.

and the BCS and orange bowl STILL won't want you

But it's likely that the more attractive a team is, the more money they might bring in due to casual fan interest, etc.

It does not matter. KU and MU will both get national attention. The seasons both teams have had will help with recruiting in the future.

I do believe there have been more than a few conference titles since then. And how many Final Fours? MU would kill for a Final 4. How about even making the Tourney once in a while?

Anyway, this was about getting 'screwed' out of a non-title game by being invited to a non-title game. What was the problem again?

I heard the bowl officials said they knew Kansas would bring a much higher class of people. :p

That's fine. You shouldn't be too surprised if your defense crumbles in the second half again. They have a tendency to do that lately. If Patrick ran all over your defense, I can't wait to see what McFadden and Hillus are gonna do.

KU will probably be relatively the same team they were this year, next year. Maybe a couple more losses because they'll play a harder schedule, but even if Mizzou does make some great march towards the Big 12 Title again, OU is gonna be waiting on you. With the same roster, the same coaching staff, and the same result.

But your the great and powerful KU, anything short of NC's aren't exceptable

amirite?

You tell us. As a Mizzou fan you should now be the interim expert on coming up short of a NC.

;)

You know those people who wave back and forth with their hands over their head when they get excited??

We call them reeruns, you call them your fan base.

7 - 7 win teams. That's pretty good.

Just pray you can win the North before Iowas St. does.

But that probably won't happen

Make no mistake about it. Bowls always invite the teams who bring legions of fans WHERE EVER they go. If a team can't sell out their bowl allotment on a consistent basis that sticks with a team for years.