Generic BCS Rant
by Ryan

As we all know, every year around mid-October, the nation gathers together to curse the defective system known as the Bowl Championship Series… at least most of the nation. I don’t think that anyone from the likes of Miami, Tennessee, Oklahoma or USC have the right to complain, because the BCS has been holding them by the hand since October 18. If you have not noticed, these teams will always receive the benefit of the doubt from the ‘computers’ as well as the biased human polls.

First of all, Tennessee is a decent team, but still easily overrated. Tennessee should not have beaten Florida, whom was a much better team at the beginning of the season; much like LSU was (random case-for-Auburn-remark). We all know about the controversial call by the referee, who is obviously a Vol’s fan, putting Tennessee in field goal range, thus handing them the game. There was plenty of hype going into the Auburn/Tennessee game IN Knoxville, but who other than the great eye of truth that is Auburn to reveal the true form of Tennessee in their 34-10 thrashing.

Now the good thing about beating an overrated team is that it makes us (Auburn, War Eagle!) look better. We can now say “Hey, we annihilated a top ten team.” But the bad thing about beating an overrated team is that overrated teams eventually wither and die out. I was hoping that Tennessee would win out, thus winning the SEC West. Under those circumstances, the polls would surely rank Tennessee in the top 8, considering how much the pollsters love Tennessee, followed shortly by another sound beating for the Volunteers by the Tigers, making us look great again. But alas, that was too much to ask of Tennessee. Tennessee goes down against Notre Dame and now both of their starting QBs are injured. Now Auburn will gain nothing by beating them in the SEC Championship, because now everyone KNOWS that they suck. It was much more beneficial to Auburn when it was still a secret.

Second of all, the fact that Miami was ever ranked ahead of Auburn is a slap to my face. It is also a slap to the face of Oklahoma who was initially behind Miami in the BCS. How blind can the BCS be? All the signs were there! Having trouble with Louisville (who is still a very good team, but not great) and N.C. State (whom is having a terrible season) is not worthy of being ranked in the top 5, much less the top 2. I figured that Miami would have all their unrealistic dreams shattered by Virginia this Saturday, rather than TWO WEEKS AGO AGAINST UNC, AND AGAIN LAST WEEK BY CLEMSON! The sad thing is that if Miami pulls an upset against Virginia this weekend, they’ll be right back in the top 12.
Hold on, I’m not done yet.

Now we go on to the big issue, the top three. I personally like Oklahoma over USC, mostly because they play tougher teams and more often. USC was able to defeat Virginia Tech, Arizona State, and California, kudos to them for that. But they also pulled some fancy second-half black magic to defeat a couple of pigskin powerhouses such as Stanford and Oregon State, give me back two of my kudos. Oklahoma is a bit better, with not a single dominating win over Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. I’ll give Oklahoma two kudos for wins over Texas and Oklahoma State, but no kudos rewarded for unconvincing wins over Tech and A&M. If you are the #2 team in the Nation, you better convincingly defeat anyone greater than #20. So there you have it, two kudos to one kudo for Oklahoma and USC respectively.

But wait, what’s this? A third contender? You bet your unconvinced posterior there is! Auburn receives kudos for wins over LSU (when they were good), Tennessee and Arkansas. I will reward no kudos for the win over Ole Miss, despite winning by three touchdowns, was still an satisfying victory. So Auburn takes the lead with three kudos in my slightly biased ranking system. But wait, Auburn is capable of gaining three more kudos before playing in the Orange Bowl (of which they will play in, if my counting of kudos is correct). Wins against Georgia, Alabama and most likely Tennessee will all bring in a kudo each. When Auburn wins out, and the BCS is checking their pants to see if they have the necessary appendages in stock to do the college football world justice and drop their precious Oklahoma (or even USC), the Auburn Tigers will find a well-earned top two spot.

WAR EAGLE!

Ryan can be contacted at ryan@theauburner.com