Another Take from the Mizzou Side of BCS Screw Job - Page 2

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.

**Bugeater** · 12-03-2007, 10:32 AM

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.

**Bugeater** · 12-03-2007, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vailpass

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

**petegz28** · 12-03-2007, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

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?

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

Eleazar · 12-03-2007, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vailpass

the Orange Bowl is the biggest crap hole of all the major bowls... decrepit cement bowl with the run-down parking lots in the middle of a nowhere neighborhood...

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

vailpass · 12-03-2007, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GRCOAT

I doubt many people on this board would go anyways. FWIW.

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.

cosmo20002 · 12-03-2007, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cochise

Your and idiot.

Good argument.

vailpass · 12-03-2007, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoBo

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

Yep, and it is a shit hole.

**Skip Towne** · 12-03-2007, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vailpass

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 Cotton Bowl opened in 1932.

cosmo20002 · 12-03-2007, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by |Zach|

Nobody is saying App. St is better than Michigan here.

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.

**Bugeater** · 12-03-2007, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vailpass

Yep, and it is a shit hole.

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

cosmo20002 · 12-03-2007, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steelyeyed57

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.

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?

Archie Bunker · 12-03-2007, 10:49 AM

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.

|Zach| · 12-03-2007, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

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.

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

**Dave Lane** · 12-03-2007, 10:54 AM

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

Garcia Bronco · 12-03-2007, 10:56 AM

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

12-03-2007, 09:51 AM
Frazod WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $2575085	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.
Posts: 119,583

12-03-2007, 10:32 AM	#16
Bugeater The Maintenance Guy Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Renovated Bugeater Estate Casino cash: $6232680	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.
Posts: 70,443

12-03-2007, 10:49 AM	#27
Archie Bunker The Wait Is Over Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Random Small Town Casino cash: $1578978	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.
Posts: 6,194

12-03-2007, 10:54 AM	#29
Dave Lane Space Cadet and Aczabel Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Kanab, UT, USA Casino cash: $9333275 VARSITY	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 __________________ Thanks, Trump for the civics lesson. We are learning so much about RICO, espionage, sedition, impeachment, the 25th Amendment, order of succession, nepotism, separation of powers, 1st Amendment, obstruction of justice, the emoluments clause, conflicts of interest, collusion, sanctions, oligarchs, money laundering and so much more.
Posts: 40,584

12-03-2007, 10:56 AM	#30
Garcia Bronco No Keys, No Problem Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Denver Casino cash: $4843136	Winning a BCS game can mean 11 million for your conference and school.
Posts: 30,998