Another Take from the Mizzou Side of BCS Screw Job - Page 8

Frazod · 12-03-2007, 09:51 AM

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.

KCinNY · 12-03-2007, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lzen

Wow, a MU fan with some sense. Rather than bash KU, be mad at the Orange. I agree, the Orange screwed your team. I would have been fine with KU going to something like the Cotton. Before this season, I never would have in a million years expected KU to do this well.
I hope MU does well in their bowl game, too. Although I will admit that these KU bashers almost make me want to root for Arkansas. Naw, I really shouldn't care about that. I just hope KU does well.

It's easy to be rational with KU fans when you have scoreboard.

veist · 12-03-2007, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCinNY

IMO, we Mizzou fans shouldn't be mad at KU at all. The criminally flawed BCS system screwed Mizzou. Kansas had nothing to do with it.

Hell, I hope KU wins the Orange Bowl. It would be good for the Big 12.

THIS.

The selection process being a popularity contest with a wink and nudge back scratching of the BCS conferences is what locked them out of a BCS bowl. Also have to look at the bright side both schools benefit from it as the same amount of money is going to the conference. Plus Mizzou is probably getting more national attention from this than they'd get from playing in the "Didn't Want to Pick Hawaii Bowl".

Braincase · 12-03-2007, 06:05 PM

Is it fair to say that in the battle of the AD's, Perkins outhustled Alden to secure the bid for KU? I think Lew prmised the sun, the moon and the stars to get the Orange Bowl.

KChiefs1 · 12-03-2007, 06:33 PM

Pat Forde
ESPN.com

The day before the 2007 college football season started, I wrote a story about the two most underachieving programs in America:

Missouri and Illinois.

That pretty well set the tone for the least predictable autumn in the history of the sport. Today, the historically inept Tigers and Illini are a combined 20-5. On the first day of December, Missouri was ranked No. 1. On the second day of December, Illinois accepted a bid to the Rose Bowl.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame crawled into the offseason at 3-9.

See that coming? Neither did we.

It has been that kind of year. And it's fitting that it will end in New Orleans, which might be the nation's capital of weird.
This was a regular season that began with Mountaineer ecstasy (Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32) and ended with Mountaineer agony (Pittsburgh 13, West Virginia 9). It began with USC a landslide No. 1 and ended with the top ranking changing hands four times in the last five weeks -- and USC wasn't part of the rotation. It began with Kansas receiving zero votes in the AP preseason poll and ended with the Jayhawks earning an Orange Bowl bid.

We are on pace for more points to be scored and more yardage to be compiled than any season in the game's history. Yet the BCS championship game will pit the nation's No. 3 total defense (LSU) against the nation's No. 1 total defense (Ohio State).

We have begged someone -- anyone -- to accept the No. 2 ranking. Eight teams tried it on for size and didn't keep it long. Six of them lost to unranked teams (13 top-five teams have lost to unranked opponents, eight of them doing so at home).
If you don't believe there's some voodoo at No. 2, consider this: Since Oct. 7, when California climbed to that spot, second-ranked teams in the AP poll have gone a grisly 10-18. The last three AP No. 2s -- Oregon, Kansas and West Virginia -- have gone 0-5 since.

It's been coast-to-coast chaos.

Ohio State lost eight NFL draft picks, including the Heisman Trophy winner, and finds itself right back where it was at this time last year: No. 1 and playing for the title.
A bum knee (Dennis Dixon's) and a backup QB (Stanford's Tavita Pritchard) changed the course of the championship chase in the Pacific-10.

In the Big 12, Mike Gundy lost his mind and Dennis Franchione and Bill Callahan lost their jobs.

The programs formerly known as Miami and Florida State continued to drag down the ACC.

UConn used fair-catch subterfuge to nearly win the Big East -- until it gave up 66 points in the de facto title game.

If eternally futile Vanderbilt could finish a game, Georgia likely would be out of the BCS and Tennessee never would have played in the SEC title game.

In other news, Trinity University won a game with a 15-lateral play that took 1 minute and 2 seconds to complete. But if any school symbolizes the sublime silliness of 2007, it is LSU. I cannot remember anyone having a more melodramatic season.

There were two triple-overtime losses. There were witheringly tense victories over Florida, Auburn and Alabama. There were injuries and screwball coaching strategy and rigorous competition to overcome. There were multiple moments of euphoria counterbalanced by multiple moments of dread.

By Thursday night, the Tigers feared that both their title shot and their coach were gone. Stunningly, they have retained both.

Michigan had permission to speak to Les Miles, whose affection for his alma mater reputedly was such that you'd think he hums "Hail to the Victors" in the shower every morning. At that point, odds that Miles soon would be wearing a maize-and-blue tie behind a lectern in Ann Arbor were 1-10.

Then there were the on-field issues. LSU entered December under the impression that it had drop-kicked its BCS championship hopes by giving up 50 points to Arkansas at home. After that, the Tigers were seventh in the BCS standings.

Today, after a Beamon
esque leap to No. 2, LSU could become the first two-loss team to win a national title since Minnesota in 1960. And it gets a virtual home game to try to pull it off. With Miles on the sideline, for this month and the foreseeable future.

The fact that Les Miles would turn down Michigan just might be the biggest shocker of all in the Year of the Upset. It's certainly in the top five, alongside App State over Michigan, Stanford over USC, Syracuse over Louisville and Pitt over West Virginia.
Turns out the coach is more of a money man than a Michigan Man. And LSU has a lot of jack to throw around when it comes to football, having short-circuited Miles' talks with the Wolverines by offering him a king's ransom to stay put.

It also turns out that the last plot twist of the regular season is a return to normalcy.

At various points during the year, we were left to speculate on what it would be like to have interlopers such as Cal, South Florida, Boston College, Oregon, Kansas and Missouri playing in the BCS title game. Yet in the end, we get blue bloods LSU and Ohio State -- the Tigers appearing in their second championship game since the BCS set up shop in 1998, the Buckeyes in their third.

That hardly means the BCS got it right, however. The system remains an insult to the sport, and to fans who are smart enough to know they're being sold swampland disguised as beachfront property.

Hawaii began the year ranked 23rd in the AP poll and never could get higher than 10th. In a year when a two-loss team will play for the title, the nation's only unbeaten never could get serious consideration for the national title game.

Why? The schedule. Didn't play anybody.

Yet Kansas began the year unranked and rose all the way to No. 2 in the BCS without having played anyone. By Sagarin rating, KU's best win was over No. 38 Texas A&M.

The difference between Hawaii and Kansas?

Conference affiliation.

How would you like to be Missouri today? You beat Illinois on a neutral field. You beat Kansas in front of a 60-40 Jayhawks crowd in Kansas City. You're ranked sixth in the final BCS standings, while Kansas is eighth and Illinois is 13th.

Yet Missouri is playing in the Cotton Bowl and the teams it beat are eating peeled grapes in chaise lounges in BCS Land. Nice system.

The fact that the Rose Bowl took the Illini -- a three-loss team from a lousy Big Ten -- is an indictment of a hidebound bowl that's part of a hidebound system. The Rose Bowl's myopic, weepy Big Ten vs. Pac-10 nostalgia is out of step with the times.

Did it ruin the Rose Bowl to have Texas play USC in one of the best games anyone has ever seen? Was it terrible the year before, when the Longhorns beat Michigan 38-37 on a last-play field goal? Did the world stop spinning when all those Oklahoma fans descended on Pasadena for the 2003 game?

College football fans would be far better served by a USC-Georgia Rose Bowl than by slavish adherence to cloying tradition. But the BCS doesn't exist to serve college football fans. It serves to protect the rich and help them get richer.

Thankfully, the sport with the worst postseason of all is counterbalanced by having the best regular season.

And there has never been a regular season like this one.

**KcMizzou** · 12-03-2007, 06:41 PM

The 10 teams that made BCS bowls have a combined 2 wins over other BCS teams.

Mizzou's left out... and has 2 wins against BCS teams.

Whatever, I guess.

I was proud to hear that Mizzou sold out it's allotment of Cotton Bowl tickets so quickly.

KChiefs1 · 12-03-2007, 06:46 PM

The Cotton Bowl is going to love having Mizzou.

I also think there is going to be some recruiting advantage by having the Tigers in the Dallas/Ft Worth area for a week with news coverage.

Bump · 12-03-2007, 06:46 PM

I've been thinking about this a lot today and as much as I HATE Mizzou, I realize that they deserve a BCS bowl more than we do. But at the same time, I am happy we lucked out on getting this bowl game. God I wish there was a 12 team playoff or something so we all could have a fair chance at the championship, we had our chance, MU had their's, OSU had theirs but they lost and same with LSU. It's soooo stupid!! If you are good enough to be in the top 12 you are good enough to compete for the championship game.

Frazod · 12-03-2007, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Yet Kansas began the year unranked and rose all the way to No. 2 in the BCS without having played anyone. By Sagarin rating, KU's best win was over No. 38 Texas A&M.

The difference between Hawaii and Kansas?

Conference affiliation.

How would you like to be Missouri today? You beat Illinois on a neutral field. You beat Kansas in front of a 60-40 Jayhawks crowd in Kansas City. You're ranked sixth in the final BCS standings, while Kansas is eighth and Illinois is 13th.

Yet Missouri is playing in the Cotton Bowl and the teams it beat are eating peeled grapes in chaise lounges in BCS Land. Nice system.

The fact that the Rose Bowl took the Illini -- a three-loss team from a lousy Big Ten -- is an indictment of a hidebound bowl that's part of a hidebound system. The Rose Bowl's myopic, weepy Big Ten vs. Pac-10 nostalgia is out of step with the times.

I may have to put that in my signature.

Although he's wrong about the crowd - it was no better than 50/50, and in fact, there may have been a bit more Missouri fans there.

There certainly were Missouri fans there when it ended.

KChiefs1 · 12-03-2007, 06:55 PM

DALLAS, TX
Less than 24 hours after issuing an invitation to Missouri and Arkansas for the 72nd
AT&T Cotton Bowl, the New Year’s Day Classic is officially sold out in record time.

Both the Tiger and Razorback ticket offices announced today that their allotment has been sold in less than two hours.

The AT&T Cotton Bowl declared that general tickets sold through the Classic’s ticket office were
sold out immediately following yesterday’s team announcement.

“We had no idea how popular this matchup would be, we feel this year’s AT&T Cotton Bowl provides one of the most compelling matchups of the
bowl season, and based on how uniquely fast this game sold out, I think the fans are getting a sense that
this will be a special game between two outstanding teams,” Cotton Bowl Athletic Association
Chairman Bruce Gadd said.

Much of the excitement surrounding the upcoming AT&T Cotton Bowl can be attributed to the
matchup of Heisman candidates. Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel leads the No. 6-ranked
Tigers against Arkansas, led by last year’s Heisman runner up and Doak Walker Award winner,
running back Darren McFadden.

The Tigers (11-2, 7-1), the Big 12 North Division Champions, are making their first trip to the
AT&T Cotton Bowl since 1946 (Texas 40, Missouri 27).

Arkansas (8-4, 4-4) is making its 11th
appearance in the Classic and its first since 2002 when the Hogs fell to the Oklahoma Sooners, 10-3.

The
Tigers and Razorbacks last met in the 2003 Independence Bowl, with Arkansas winning 27-14.

The 2008 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic will be nationally televised on FOX, and kickoff is set for
10:45 a.m. on January 1st.

For more information, please visit www.attcottonbowl.com.

**Bearcat** · 12-03-2007, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

The 10 teams that made BCS bowls have a combined 2 wins over other BCS teams.

Mizzou's left out... and has 2 wins against BCS teams.

Okay, that's one of those "Holy crap! ....wait a minute" sort of stats. There are 7 conferences represented in the BCS, and only Illinois and Ohio State played each other in conference. The other one was VTech and LSU.

Mizzou's point is made without the stat... they beat two teams that made it in. But, of course BCS teams don't have wins against each other... they aren't going to schedule each other out of conference. There's hardly any non-traditional games between big-time opponents.

After all, you don't need them to make it to the BCS, remember?

**KcMizzou** · 12-03-2007, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCinNY

IMO, we Mizzou fans shouldn't be mad at KU at all. The criminally flawed BCS system screwed Mizzou. Kansas had nothing to do with it.

Hell, I hope KU wins the Orange Bowl. It would be good for the Big 12.

True enough. What's KU supposed to do, turn it down?

Bump · 12-03-2007, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

True enough. What's KU supposed to do, turn it down?

ya, it's kind of a bittersweet moment for us. We should know MU deserves it over us, but KU generally HATES MU so we kind of like seeing them get screwed over, but we know it shouldn't be like this. But we have to be happy about it at the same time. If that makes any sense at all, lol.

**Bearcat** · 12-03-2007, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frazod

I may have to put that in my signature.

Although he's wrong about the crowd - it was no better than 50/50, and in fact, there may have been a bit more Missouri fans there.

There certainly were Missouri fans there when it ended.

I agree with all of it, except conference affiliation isn't all of it. The same ESPN guy has been yelling "how about Hawaii?" for weeks, but doesn't seem to mention that the BCS takes into account the SoS of your opponent's opponents. It's basically how the computer determines if one 6-6 team is better than another 6-6 team. Basically, 'our chumps are better than your chumps'.

As far as the human polls... I'm sure a big part is conference affiliation, even though the humans know the same thing the computers know.

I guess that's not really the point of your post, but it was easier to quote you

**Bearcat** · 12-03-2007, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

True enough. What's KU supposed to do, turn it down?

From what I hear, there's no use showing up anyway.

KChiefs1 · 12-03-2007, 07:13 PM

Rather than mope, Tigers must play no-respect angle to the hilt
By Jeff Gordon
STLTODAY.COM SPORTS COLUMNIST
Monday, Dec. 03 2007

Look at the bright side, Missouri fans. Your football team now has a rallying
cry for the Cotton Bowl, for its offseason workouts, for spring football, for
summer camp, for the 2008 season and beyond.

The national pollsters regard the Tigers lightly. So do the knuckleheads at the
Orange Bowl, who jilted them after their loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12
Championship Game.

“With the result of that game, you have a two-loss team compared to a one-loss
team,” Orange Bowl chief executive Eric Poms said. “That was probably our most
pressing thing to look at.”

Never mind that Missouri beat Kansas earlier this season on a neutral field.

Never mind that Missouri played a tougher schedule, beating bowl-bound
Illinois, Texas Tech, Colorado, Kansas and Texas A&M.

Never mind that Missouri (naturally) finished ahead of KU in the BCS standings.

Never mind that Missouri has an impressive collection of skilled players namely one Jeremy Maclin,
making it one of the most entertaining teams to watch.

Nope, the Orange Bowl wanted nothing to do with Mizzou. So the Tigers will
prepare to play Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl instead.

Rather than mope about this rejection -– which everybody in the business saw
coming, by the way -– the Tigers must turn it into the ultimate motivational
point.

Beating Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl would allow the Tigers to finish 12-2. It
would be a fitting exit for all the seniors who helped lead this program to the
Next Level.

Yes, it is irksome that the Cotton Bowl isn’t a BCS-level game. Yes, it is
ludicrous that teams Missouri beat are in BCS games instead.

But this is more than a consolation game for a program still establishing its
legitimacy. This is an opportunity to advance the program for years to come.

Missouri got on the big stage against KU and played a terrific game on national
TV. That got them to No. 1 in the rankings. That earned them a week of national
media love.

On the even bigger stage of the Big 12 Championship Game, the Sooners creamed
them. Every Missouri fan I talked to after that game – in cabs, shuttle buses,
airports, airplanes – accepted that Oklahoma is just a better football team.

That lopsided loss refueled the national skepticism about the Tigers. That
reaffirmed the notion that Mizzou was just a one-season wonder.

I don’t believe that is the case, looking at the players returning for 2008 and
the recruits lining up to play for the Tigers. But Missouri has to prove it
will have staying power – and the Cotton Bowl affords that opportunity.

This game will draw ratings, with high-profile stars Chase Daniel and Darren
McFadden playing. Arkansas hails from the SEC, the World’s Greatest Football
Conference in the eyes of the national media. Arkansas earlier upset LSU, which
lobbied its way into the BCS title game.

The Tigers should play the no-respect angle to the hilt and make the most of
EVERY SINGLE SNAP before these seniors get out the door.

The Tigers should fly into this game and never slow down, ever. By drubbing
Arkansas -– the only acceptable outcome of this game -– Missouri could finish
the season with a high national ranking.

That would allow them to open the 2008 season with a lofty ranking, which is
half the battle in this BCS “system.” Reputation accounts for one-half of the
BCS equation and loss total -– regardless of schedule strength -– is the other
half.

I don’t recommend the soft schedule approach. That is the Kansas State way,
adopted nicely by KU this season. I’d rather see Missouri play Illinois in a
marquee game pitting two Top Ten teams.

Playing those sorts of games allows a program to strengthen its reputation.
Showcase games put a program on national television, energize its booster base
and attract top recruits.

Missouri came a long way this year. It played a number of high-profile games.
The Tigers got lots of TV time and Daniel became a cover boy.

Getting stiffed by the BCS system was a setback, but the Tigers can plow
through it by dominating the Cotton Bowl and getting ahead start on their ’08
quest for respect.

12-03-2007, 09:51 AM
Frazod Did you hear what I said? Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $-576615	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.
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12-03-2007, 06:05 PM	#108
Braincase Banned Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Pond> Me <Barn Casino cash: $11298284	Is it fair to say that in the battle of the AD's, Perkins outhustled Alden to secure the bid for KU? I think Lew prmised the sun, the moon and the stars to get the Orange Bowl. __________________ BrainCase
Posts: 15,429

12-03-2007, 06:33 PM	#109
KChiefs1 I’m a Mahomo! Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Mid-Missouri Casino cash: $6771021	Pat Forde ESPN.com The day before the 2007 college football season started, I wrote a story about the two most underachieving programs in America: Missouri and Illinois. That pretty well set the tone for the least predictable autumn in the history of the sport. Today, the historically inept Tigers and Illini are a combined 20-5. On the first day of December, Missouri was ranked No. 1. On the second day of December, Illinois accepted a bid to the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, Notre Dame crawled into the offseason at 3-9. See that coming? Neither did we. It has been that kind of year. And it's fitting that it will end in New Orleans, which might be the nation's capital of weird. This was a regular season that began with Mountaineer ecstasy (Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32) and ended with Mountaineer agony (Pittsburgh 13, West Virginia 9). It began with USC a landslide No. 1 and ended with the top ranking changing hands four times in the last five weeks -- and USC wasn't part of the rotation. It began with Kansas receiving zero votes in the AP preseason poll and ended with the Jayhawks earning an Orange Bowl bid. We are on pace for more points to be scored and more yardage to be compiled than any season in the game's history. Yet the BCS championship game will pit the nation's No. 3 total defense (LSU) against the nation's No. 1 total defense (Ohio State). We have begged someone -- anyone -- to accept the No. 2 ranking. Eight teams tried it on for size and didn't keep it long. Six of them lost to unranked teams (13 top-five teams have lost to unranked opponents, eight of them doing so at home). If you don't believe there's some voodoo at No. 2, consider this: Since Oct. 7, when California climbed to that spot, second-ranked teams in the AP poll have gone a grisly 10-18. The last three AP No. 2s -- Oregon, Kansas and West Virginia -- have gone 0-5 since. It's been coast-to-coast chaos. Ohio State lost eight NFL draft picks, including the Heisman Trophy winner, and finds itself right back where it was at this time last year: No. 1 and playing for the title. A bum knee (Dennis Dixon's) and a backup QB (Stanford's Tavita Pritchard) changed the course of the championship chase in the Pacific-10. In the Big 12, Mike Gundy lost his mind and Dennis Franchione and Bill Callahan lost their jobs. The programs formerly known as Miami and Florida State continued to drag down the ACC. UConn used fair-catch subterfuge to nearly win the Big East -- until it gave up 66 points in the de facto title game. If eternally futile Vanderbilt could finish a game, Georgia likely would be out of the BCS and Tennessee never would have played in the SEC title game. In other news, Trinity University won a game with a 15-lateral play that took 1 minute and 2 seconds to complete. But if any school symbolizes the sublime silliness of 2007, it is LSU. I cannot remember anyone having a more melodramatic season. There were two triple-overtime losses. There were witheringly tense victories over Florida, Auburn and Alabama. There were injuries and screwball coaching strategy and rigorous competition to overcome. There were multiple moments of euphoria counterbalanced by multiple moments of dread. By Thursday night, the Tigers feared that both their title shot and their coach were gone. Stunningly, they have retained both. Michigan had permission to speak to Les Miles, whose affection for his alma mater reputedly was such that you'd think he hums "Hail to the Victors" in the shower every morning. At that point, odds that Miles soon would be wearing a maize-and-blue tie behind a lectern in Ann Arbor were 1-10. Then there were the on-field issues. LSU entered December under the impression that it had drop-kicked its BCS championship hopes by giving up 50 points to Arkansas at home. After that, the Tigers were seventh in the BCS standings. Today, after a Beamon esque leap to No. 2, LSU could become the first two-loss team to win a national title since Minnesota in 1960. And it gets a virtual home game to try to pull it off. With Miles on the sideline, for this month and the foreseeable future. The fact that Les Miles would turn down Michigan just might be the biggest shocker of all in the Year of the Upset. It's certainly in the top five, alongside App State over Michigan, Stanford over USC, Syracuse over Louisville and Pitt over West Virginia. Turns out the coach is more of a money man than a Michigan Man. And LSU has a lot of jack to throw around when it comes to football, having short-circuited Miles' talks with the Wolverines by offering him a king's ransom to stay put. It also turns out that the last plot twist of the regular season is a return to normalcy. At various points during the year, we were left to speculate on what it would be like to have interlopers such as Cal, South Florida, Boston College, Oregon, Kansas and Missouri playing in the BCS title game. Yet in the end, we get blue bloods LSU and Ohio State -- the Tigers appearing in their second championship game since the BCS set up shop in 1998, the Buckeyes in their third. That hardly means the BCS got it right, however. The system remains an insult to the sport, and to fans who are smart enough to know they're being sold swampland disguised as beachfront property. Hawaii began the year ranked 23rd in the AP poll and never could get higher than 10th. In a year when a two-loss team will play for the title, the nation's only unbeaten never could get serious consideration for the national title game. Why? The schedule. Didn't play anybody. Yet Kansas began the year unranked and rose all the way to No. 2 in the BCS without having played anyone. By Sagarin rating, KU's best win was over No. 38 Texas A&M. The difference between Hawaii and Kansas? Conference affiliation. How would you like to be Missouri today? You beat Illinois on a neutral field. You beat Kansas in front of a 60-40 Jayhawks crowd in Kansas City. You're ranked sixth in the final BCS standings, while Kansas is eighth and Illinois is 13th. Yet Missouri is playing in the Cotton Bowl and the teams it beat are eating peeled grapes in chaise lounges in BCS Land. Nice system. The fact that the Rose Bowl took the Illini -- a three-loss team from a lousy Big Ten -- is an indictment of a hidebound bowl that's part of a hidebound system. The Rose Bowl's myopic, weepy Big Ten vs. Pac-10 nostalgia is out of step with the times. Did it ruin the Rose Bowl to have Texas play USC in one of the best games anyone has ever seen? Was it terrible the year before, when the Longhorns beat Michigan 38-37 on a last-play field goal? Did the world stop spinning when all those Oklahoma fans descended on Pasadena for the 2003 game? College football fans would be far better served by a USC-Georgia Rose Bowl than by slavish adherence to cloying tradition. But the BCS doesn't exist to serve college football fans. It serves to protect the rich and help them get richer. Thankfully, the sport with the worst postseason of all is counterbalanced by having the best regular season. And there has never been a regular season like this one. __________________
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12-03-2007, 06:41 PM	#110
KcMizzou Supporter Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Parkville MO Casino cash: $10005170	The 10 teams that made BCS bowls have a combined 2 wins over other BCS teams. Mizzou's left out... and has 2 wins against BCS teams. Whatever, I guess. I was proud to hear that Mizzou sold out it's allotment of Cotton Bowl tickets so quickly.
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12-03-2007, 06:46 PM	#111
KChiefs1 I’m a Mahomo! Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Mid-Missouri Casino cash: $6771021	The Cotton Bowl is going to love having Mizzou. I also think there is going to be some recruiting advantage by having the Tigers in the Dallas/Ft Worth area for a week with news coverage. __________________
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12-03-2007, 06:46 PM	#112
Bump YOU take YOUR seat Join Date: Nov 2007 Casino cash: $-1454895	I've been thinking about this a lot today and as much as I HATE Mizzou, I realize that they deserve a BCS bowl more than we do. But at the same time, I am happy we lucked out on getting this bowl game. God I wish there was a 12 team playoff or something so we all could have a fair chance at the championship, we had our chance, MU had their's, OSU had theirs but they lost and same with LSU. It's soooo stupid!! If you are good enough to be in the top 12 you are good enough to compete for the championship game.
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12-03-2007, 06:55 PM	#114
KChiefs1 I’m a Mahomo! Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Mid-Missouri Casino cash: $6771021	DALLAS, TX Less than 24 hours after issuing an invitation to Missouri and Arkansas for the 72nd AT&T Cotton Bowl, the New Year’s Day Classic is officially sold out in record time. Both the Tiger and Razorback ticket offices announced today that their allotment has been sold in less than two hours. The AT&T Cotton Bowl declared that general tickets sold through the Classic’s ticket office were sold out immediately following yesterday’s team announcement. “We had no idea how popular this matchup would be, we feel this year’s AT&T Cotton Bowl provides one of the most compelling matchups of the bowl season, and based on how uniquely fast this game sold out, I think the fans are getting a sense that this will be a special game between two outstanding teams,” Cotton Bowl Athletic Association Chairman Bruce Gadd said. Much of the excitement surrounding the upcoming AT&T Cotton Bowl can be attributed to the matchup of Heisman candidates. Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel leads the No. 6-ranked Tigers against Arkansas, led by last year’s Heisman runner up and Doak Walker Award winner, running back Darren McFadden. The Tigers (11-2, 7-1), the Big 12 North Division Champions, are making their first trip to the AT&T Cotton Bowl since 1946 (Texas 40, Missouri 27). Arkansas (8-4, 4-4) is making its 11th appearance in the Classic and its first since 2002 when the Hogs fell to the Oklahoma Sooners, 10-3. The Tigers and Razorbacks last met in the 2003 Independence Bowl, with Arkansas winning 27-14. The 2008 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic will be nationally televised on FOX, and kickoff is set for 10:45 a.m. on January 1st. For more information, please visit www.attcottonbowl.com. __________________
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12-03-2007, 07:13 PM	#120
KChiefs1 I’m a Mahomo! Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Mid-Missouri Casino cash: $6771021	Rather than mope, Tigers must play no-respect angle to the hilt By Jeff Gordon STLTODAY.COM SPORTS COLUMNIST Monday, Dec. 03 2007 Look at the bright side, Missouri fans. Your football team now has a rallying cry for the Cotton Bowl, for its offseason workouts, for spring football, for summer camp, for the 2008 season and beyond. The national pollsters regard the Tigers lightly. So do the knuckleheads at the Orange Bowl, who jilted them after their loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game. “With the result of that game, you have a two-loss team compared to a one-loss team,” Orange Bowl chief executive Eric Poms said. “That was probably our most pressing thing to look at.” Never mind that Missouri beat Kansas earlier this season on a neutral field. Never mind that Missouri played a tougher schedule, beating bowl-bound Illinois, Texas Tech, Colorado, Kansas and Texas A&M. Never mind that Missouri (naturally) finished ahead of KU in the BCS standings. Never mind that Missouri has an impressive collection of skilled players namely one Jeremy Maclin, making it one of the most entertaining teams to watch. Nope, the Orange Bowl wanted nothing to do with Mizzou. So the Tigers will prepare to play Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl instead. Rather than mope about this rejection -– which everybody in the business saw coming, by the way -– the Tigers must turn it into the ultimate motivational point. Beating Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl would allow the Tigers to finish 12-2. It would be a fitting exit for all the seniors who helped lead this program to the Next Level. Yes, it is irksome that the Cotton Bowl isn’t a BCS-level game. Yes, it is ludicrous that teams Missouri beat are in BCS games instead. But this is more than a consolation game for a program still establishing its legitimacy. This is an opportunity to advance the program for years to come. Missouri got on the big stage against KU and played a terrific game on national TV. That got them to No. 1 in the rankings. That earned them a week of national media love. On the even bigger stage of the Big 12 Championship Game, the Sooners creamed them. Every Missouri fan I talked to after that game – in cabs, shuttle buses, airports, airplanes – accepted that Oklahoma is just a better football team. That lopsided loss refueled the national skepticism about the Tigers. That reaffirmed the notion that Mizzou was just a one-season wonder. I don’t believe that is the case, looking at the players returning for 2008 and the recruits lining up to play for the Tigers. But Missouri has to prove it will have staying power – and the Cotton Bowl affords that opportunity. This game will draw ratings, with high-profile stars Chase Daniel and Darren McFadden playing. Arkansas hails from the SEC, the World’s Greatest Football Conference in the eyes of the national media. Arkansas earlier upset LSU, which lobbied its way into the BCS title game. The Tigers should play the no-respect angle to the hilt and make the most of EVERY SINGLE SNAP before these seniors get out the door. The Tigers should fly into this game and never slow down, ever. By drubbing Arkansas -– the only acceptable outcome of this game -– Missouri could finish the season with a high national ranking. That would allow them to open the 2008 season with a lofty ranking, which is half the battle in this BCS “system.” Reputation accounts for one-half of the BCS equation and loss total -– regardless of schedule strength -– is the other half. I don’t recommend the soft schedule approach. That is the Kansas State way, adopted nicely by KU this season. I’d rather see Missouri play Illinois in a marquee game pitting two Top Ten teams. Playing those sorts of games allows a program to strengthen its reputation. Showcase games put a program on national television, energize its booster base and attract top recruits. Missouri came a long way this year. It played a number of high-profile games. The Tigers got lots of TV time and Daniel became a cover boy. Getting stiffed by the BCS system was a setback, but the Tigers can plow through it by dominating the Cotton Bowl and getting ahead start on their ’08 quest for respect. __________________
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