Poor Oregon and the Impending BCS Blast

By Hugo Guzman  |   Monday, November 14, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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The BCS Selection Show is coming closer and closer every day and that bad taste in the mouths of Pac-10 lovers seems poised to return. Why, you ask? After last year where Texas Longhorn's head coach Mack Brown did everything, but get down on his knees and beg (although perhaps he did that as well) to get the Longhorns the at-large to battle Big Ten champ Michigan in the 2004 Rose Bowl. Then Cal quarterback, now Green Bay Packers back-up Aaron Rodgers was quoted saying, "I thought it was a little classless how Coach Brown was begging for votes," continuing to say, “I think a team's record and the way you play should speak for itself".

You see, the reason Aaron Rodgers was so upset was because a resurgent Cal Golden Bears team went through the 2004 season with only one loss: a brutal game with defending champs USC in which the Golden Bears held statistical advantages in all categories, but lost when they could not convert a 1st and goal series late in the 4th quarter. It seemed like simple math. Cal had lost by very little, in a sharp performance to the top team in the country; Texas had lost in a sloppy game to the second ranked team in the country (Oklahoma in the annual Red Rive Shootout). Also, picking Cal would preserve the tradition of a Pac-10 versus Big Ten match up in the Rose Bowl. The Bears had been in the cellar just two years earlier posting only one win. Surely this was the feel good story of the season; surely the Bears would get the nod and bring roses to Pasadena. Right? Wrong. More wrong than those who thought the earth was flat or that leeches could be used to cure disease. Cal got worked over. As ESPN host and sports shock jockey Jim Rome said of the situation, “Cal goes on the road and beats Southern Miss by double digits, while Texas sits at home, watches the game on TV [Texas had a bye] and jumps right over the bears and into the Rose Bowl. That is garbage." Garbage that is being pulled out of the landfill and returned to the green college town we call Eugene, Oregon.

Now, I am just speculating, but let me be the first to say there is no way the Oregon Ducks are getting an at-large bid to this year's Fiesta Bowl in Arizona. Sure, if they win Saturday their only loss would be to USC, now two-time defending champs. Sure, they outplayed the Trojans in the first half. Sure they showed toughness and beat a Cal team averaging 36 points a game (at that point) in overtime using both their 2nd and 3rd string quarterbacks because starter Kellen Clemens is out for the season. They have done nothing but show heart underneath their hyper-neon-yellow jerseys, but their reward will be the Holiday Bowl. There are several reasons for this…

For one, the BCS has six of it's eight slots locked up to conference champs of the Pac-10, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC, and Big East (don't ask me why on that last one, my high school team is currently ranked seventh behind the anemic Cincinnati Bearcats). That leaves two at-large bids which are not usually about merit, but about reasonable merit with ridiculously lucrative TV ratings and how well a team travels. With Notre Dame BCS eligible, it is a lock that if they win out (which they will) that they will receive one of the at-large bids. They travel brilliantly, they have a former NFL coach in Charlie Weis that garners big time media attention, and they have a Heisman candidate quarterback in Brady Quinn. I mean, heck, they even have a network contract with NBC to broadcast their games nationally (even when they are mediocre). That leaves one slot left and one big dilemma.

The Oregon Ducks will be considered here for all the reasons mentioned above, but I have my money on the ticket to Tempe going elsewhere. First, if Ohio State finishes what they started, they would be a very attractive team to face Notre Dame. Lots of stories and memories surround Ohio State and the bowl that Tostitos built. We all remember it was the site of their unlikely national title won over the Dorsey and McGahee Miami team in 2002. Ohio State has a brutal defense that helped them compete with Texas early in the year and has a future NFL linebacker in A.J. Hawk. If Ohio State gets no love (just like Oregon won't), look to the selection committee to take Virginia Tech. Come on, right? Beamer ball and Marcus Vick in the spotlight sure beats Bellotti and um, who do they have at quarterback? Oh yeah, a skinny kid named Dixon and Ryan Leaf's younger brother. I'm not saying it's fair but if you were a BCS big wig who knew nothing about football but what a casual fan does, wouldn't you take Mike Vick's little bro over Ryan Leaf's?

I'm just having a little fun, but in all seriousness, it will be two years in a row the Pac-10 gets told they are no better than a mid-major by the BCS powers that be. If USC is truly the champion they are, a loss to them should count as an attractive loss in the committee's minds. Sure, Cal went on to lose in the Holiday Bowl after getting snubbed by the Rose, but these are unpaid college kids. Don't think heartbreak didn't apply. I'm not sure Texas would have won if they had been snubbed either, especially they way Mack Brown whined to anyone who could stomach listening. There is no good reason (emphasis on good) why Oregon shouldn't get a shot at Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. Unfortunately for a very good Pac-10 this year, Oregon's plane tickets are headed to San Diego to play Colorado, most likely. For the record, it will be the second time in five years the Ducks get stuck played the Buffaloes when they deserved better. The same BCS powers that be allowed a clearly inferior Nebraska team into the 2001 Rose Bowl to get smashed by Miami, condemning Joey Harrington's Ducks to wallop Colorado elsewhere. I was at that Rose Bowl in the Miami section listening to the chant “we want Oregon!" It wasn't confusing to me when the standing was over three-fifths Husker Nation.

We should know better. This is a business. Make money, and if you can, do what's right, as long as you make money. Did I mention we need to make money? It's not to say Ohio State and Virginia Tech wouldn't be worthy of the Fiesta Bowl bid, but don't you think fairness would dictate that when one team loses to the number one team (Oregon), another to the number two team (Ohio State) and the other to the number three team (Virginia Tech), you take the team that lost to the best? I guess in a truly fair world Oregon would take on Ohio State, and Notre Dame would be left without a chair when the music stops, but even I can't ignore the dollars and sense.

There's one slot available and this writer thinks it belongs to Bellotti's neon-robed Oregon Ducks up north in Eugene, birthplace of Nike and home of the latest BCS victims.
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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