The near rock bottom 14.0 rating that the BCS Championship Game drew Monday night actually wasn't the low point of the bowl season for the much ridiculed system that governs college football. We'll get to that point in just a minute but before we do I might also put out there that watching Nick Saban and his Alabama Crimson Tide squad hoist the Coaches' Trophy wasn't the high point for the BCS either. That's not to say that the system did everything wrong because that just isn't the case. However, if we truly wanted to evaluate the way things are done we have to compare what went right and wrong.
Right - The Rose Bowl: Sticking with a long standing tradition the Pac12 and Big 10 champions faced off against each other and slugged it out Robert Griffin style. They say that defense wins championships but offense sells tickets. People may have been tuning out of the championship game but they were definitely tuning into the Rose Bowl. With 83 points scored and a combined 1,129 yards of offense the only people who were disappointed at the end of this game were Wisconsin fans.
Wrong - The Sugar Bowl: The game actually ended the excitement of overtime and a shade of controversy over a questionable replay decision. However, at the end of the day we were watching the #17 team in the country play #13 while #7 played #11 in the Cotton Bowl.
Right - The Fiesta Bowl: It was the Rose Bowl remix and the best part is that it was all on the same night. Defenses were just cosmetic in this game and kickers were a commodity while the offenses were unstoppable. For a good office water cooler debate try to discuss which game was better, the Rose or the Fiesta?
Wrong - The Orange Bowl: Ten touchdowns! The West Virginia Mountaineers scored ten touchdowns on Clemson. For those of you keeping tabs at home, that's the Big East champion over the ACC champion. The Mountaineers were ranked #23 going into that game. With all apologies to Boise State, Southern Miss. and Houston we got to watch West Virginia score ten touchdowns against the ACC champs.
CONFERENCE BOWL RECORDS
- Atlantic Coast 2-6
- Big 12 6-2
- Big East 3-2
- Big Ten 4-6
- Conference USA 4-1
- Independents (FBS) 1-1
- Mid-American 4-1
- Mountain West 2-3
- Pac-12 2-5
- Southeastern 6-3
- Sun Belt 1-2
- Western Athletic 0-3
Wrong - The ACC: The ACC went 2-6 in bowl games this year. Clemson ended the season by losing two of their last three games. The one win was a 38-10 blowout win over Virginia Tech. Both of those teams made it to BCS bowl games and shockingly they both lost. Did you hear that West Virginia scored ten touchdowns on Clemson?
Right - The BCS Championship Game: As much as I hate to admit it, the system got it right. Alabama and LSU were the two best teams in college football this season. Yes, it was a rematch. Yes, it was boring. No, no one else was going to do any better against either of those defenses.
Wrong - The BCS Championship Game: I know, I know! Just hear me out here. Bama and LSU were legitimately the two best teams in the nation but just imagine what we could have had with the four-team plus one format that is currently being thrown around.
Game #1
#1 LSU vs. #4 Stanford
Game #2
#2 Alabama vs. #3 Oklahoma State
BCS Championship Game
Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner
Who wouldn't want to see that happen? Oregon fans need not reply to that question. I'm a firm believer that the end result would have been the same but getting there sure would have been a lot more fun.