It looks like Miami is going to be left out of this year’s National Championship game following Oklahoma’s 27-24 win over Kansas State in the Big XII Championship game. This is all thanks to the Bowl Championship Series Poll or, more appropriately, the BS poll, which uses some cryptic computer formula to determine which two teams play for the national title. This year, the B(C)S poll matches up Oklahoma, a worthy pick considering the fact that they went undefeated and won the Big XII Championship, against Florida State, a not so worthy pick.
FSU, Miami and Washington each have one loss this season. Washington beat Miami in their regular season meeting, and Miami beat Florida State. But the BCS doesn’t take into account head-to-head games, and ranks FSU second, Miami third and Washington fourth. Miami played three teams that finished in the top 10 in the BCS poll and went 2-1, beating FSU when the Seminoles were ranked number one and beating Virginia Tech when the Hokies were ranked number two. FSU played one team that finished in the top 10 in the BCS poll and went 0-1, losing to Miami.
There is no debating whether or not Oklahoma deserves a spot in the Orange Bowl, the sight of this year’s National Championship game. The Sooners went undefeated and beat Nebraska when they were number one and beat Kansas State twice. Had they lost Saturday in the Big XII championship game, FSU and Miami would have likely ended up playing a rematch for the national title. But that didn’t happen, so Oklahoma will play FSU in the Orange Bowl while Miami has to settle for playing Florida in the Sugar Bowl.
The BCS rankings worked fine during their first two years of existence, benefiting from the fact that in each of the past two years, exactly two teams have finished undefeated, making them the obvious choices for playing in the national title game. The 1999 National Championship game saw Tennessee beat FSU, and in 2000 FSU got their revenge when they beat Virginia Tech. But this year it’s hard to make a solid case for who should really be number two. There are five teams in the top 10 with only one loss, and each team can make their own case as to why they should be playing Oklahoma in the Championship game. But the BCS has spoken and somehow it’s chosen Florida State.
For those of you who have no idea what goes into the BCS rankings, here’s the breakdown. There are four major components to the rankings. The first is the average ranking of each team in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll and the Associated Press poll. The second component is comprised of the following eight computer rankings: New York Times, Jeff Sagarin’s USA TODAY, The Anderson-Hester/Seattle Times, Richard Billingsley, Dunkel Index, Kenneth Massey, David Rothman, and the Matthews/Scripps- Howard rankings. The top seven rankings are averaged for the computer component. Strength of schedule is the third component. This part is calculated by compiling the cumulative won/loss records of the team’s opponents and the cumulative won/loss records of the teams’ opponents’ opponents. Two-thirds of this component is based on the opponent’s record and one-third is based on the opponents’ opponents record. The fourth component is based on the team’s won/loss record. Teams receive one point for each loss. All the points are added together and the team with the lowest point total at the end wins.
In this case it’s Oklahoma and Florida State in the Orange Bowl, playing for the National Championship. Miami still does have a chance at sharing the title, however. If Florida State beats Oklahoma and Miami beats Florida in the Sugar Bowl, Miami will share the National Championship with Florida State. If that were to happen it should make for an interesting FSU-Miami game next year.
As for the BCS ranking system, it’s far too complex, and obviously has its flaws. The only fair way to determine a National Champion is through some kind of playoff series, but for now college football fans are stuck with the BS system, err, the BCS system. Eventually the football gods will come to their senses and come up with a more appropriate and fair way to determine who reigns supreme in college football, but until then, it looks like FSU will get the benefit of the doubt.
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