National Champs - The Utah Utes!

[Russianwolf]

well, I was pulling for and expecting Alabama to win this game easily, but the Utes wanted it more.

With that being said, I don't see how anyone can say that the Utes are not the National Champs at 13-0.

You can go through all the "well, this team would have beat them" that you want, but when the day is done, those other teams have at least one loss on their record and the Utes have none.

Until we have a playoff (like every other of college football has already) we can't crown a true champ.

 

[Woodlvr]

Thank You Mike. :') (Like I had anything to so with it). They did have an awesome year didn't they. It is nice when one of home state colleges does well. I thought that BYU was going to be the big one this year but I think that all of the publicity lead to their downfall.

 

[mrcook4570]

Under the current system, it is IMPOSSIBLE for any school in a non-BCS conference to win the national championship. What a shame that is. And Texas is snubbed in favor of Oklahoma. USC falls to the east coast bias. Not only this year, but virtually every year there is considerable debate as to who is the champ and who never even got a chance to play. College football draws the largest audience and generates the most revenue, but it will never witness the raw emotion of a Jim Valvano, or the excitement of a grossly outmatched Princeton giving Georgetown all it could possibly handle, or the marksman-like precision of a Stephen Curry because the NCAA will not let the little guy step on the big boy field. What a shame.

 

[tbroye]

Uatah should be playing on the 8Th. The BCS is a stacked deck, It is all about TV ratings and money not the competition. Just like a few years ago when Boise was undefeated and got left out. The only out west team that ever has a chance is USC Trojans (Better known as the University of Spoiled Childern, condoms.by UC Berkley fans).

 

[Russianwolf]

Under the current system, it is IMPOSSIBLE for any school in a non-BCS conference to win the national championship. What a shame that is. And Texas is snubbed in favor of Oklahoma. USC falls to the east coast bias.

Not only this but the BS surrounding the 1 loss early in the season is better than a loss at the end of the season. Loss one at the beginning and you can get the ranking back, loss it at the end and you're done for. I had to laugh at Alabama being pushed out of things by the loss to Florida in the SEC championship game, when Florida's loss is twice as bad coming from Southern Miss if I recall. No way Florida should be playing in the "big game". Texas Tech and Texas both have "better" losses

 

[les-smith]

I like the way things have turned out, so far.

 

[jkeithrussell]

Well, you have to look at strength of schedule in college football. The Utes are undefeated, and that's great, but you have to compare who they played to earn that record versus who teams from the BCS conferences played. They simply are not national champions. Good team? Yes. As good as Florida or Oklahoma? No.

 

[coach]

The true champ will never be known without a playoff! What about the upset and the Cinderella stories. Not in Div I-A football. Heck we made it to the State Quarter Finals this year (elite 8) in Texas. The team we beat to get to our final game had no business losing to us. The press would have voted for them all the way. They had it all on paper. We beat them by 2 touchdowns on sheer heart! How amazing would a playoff have been this year? Some amazing teams! I say lets see who the best is like men. Strap up your helmets and get it on!!!!

 

[mrcook4570]

As good as Florida or Oklahoma? No.

We'll never know, will we?

Strength of schedule, you've got to be kidding. It's all a bunch of biased judgments. USC didn't get a shot at the national title because all the pollsters thought the PAC-10 was down this year and therefore their schedule was 'weak'. Hmm, let's see, what is the PAC-10 record in the bowl games??? Utah will never get a shot because their schedule is 'weak'.

How's this for weak - Utah whips Alabama who beat Ole Miss. Ole Miss beat Florida (which, oh by the way, was in The Swamp) and lit up Texas Tech. And, oh yeah, TT beat Texas, who in turn beat Oklahoma. Case closed - Utah wins :biggrin:

The BCS eliminates about half of all the schools in the system from having any shot at the national title. At least under the old system the schools from the MWC, WAC, MAC, CUSA, etc, had a chance (BYU was once the national champ). Now all of these schools are second class citizens.

There's only one way to know who the champ is - settle it ON the field and not in some fantasy scenario devised by a bunch of biased voters and computer programs. PLAYOFF PLAYOFF PLAYOFF!

 

[rherrell]

Uatah should be playing on the 8Th. The BCS is a stacked deck, It is all about TV ratings and money not the competition. Just like a few years ago when Boise was undefeated and got left out. The only out west team that ever has a chance is USC Trojans (Better known as the University of Spoiled Childern, condoms.by UC Berkley fans).

Let's see, #1 defense in the country
7 straight conference championships
7 straight BCS bowl games (won 6)
7 straight 11 win seasons
Pretty damn good for a bunch of "Spoiled Children"
USC would be favored by 30 points against Utah.:biggrin:
FIGHT ON USC!

 

[Mikey]

Pretty easy to win a pile of games when you play most in a home stadium just a few miles from campus.

Utah deserved to be higher than they were. However, I don't think they could beat OK or FLa, so they can end at #3. Life wasn't fair before the BCS and it isn't fair now. In all honestly, who cares, they still got their millions for getting into the BCS game.

The bowl games mostly suck anyway because of the time that elapses between the last football game and the bowl game. It's almost like having another season opener, only this is for all the marbles. It's nice for people who were hurt, and for travel plans to be made, but it's bad IMHO for the game. I'm not in favor of a playoff for division 1, but at least it would allow weekly play to keep the rhythm.

 

[Randy_]

I'm not convinced that Utah is the best team in the country..........but I'm also not sure that they aren't. I do think their performance may cause some people to rethink their position on a playoff system and that is probably not a bad thing.

Personally, I wish they would go back to the old system.....no BCS, just the polls.....so there would always be something to discuss or complain about. With a playoff system, there will no longer any reasons to bitch about who the champ really should be and everyone will be deprived of the fun debating the issue.

Be careful what you wish for!!:wink:

 

[jkeithrussell]

I'm sorry, but Utah's schedule was vastly easier than Florida's, Oklahoma's, Texas', Alabama's, etc. That's not subjective -- just go to ESPN and look at the respective schedules. The top teams coming out of the Big 12, for example, each played a minimum of 3 top-ranked teams -- Texas played 4.

I don't necessarily support the BCS system, but I don't see how you can make any sort of argument that Utah is the best team in the nation.

I don't know why the idea of a playoff system is so fiercely resisted in college football.

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

I'm sorry, but Utah's schedule was vastly easier than Florida's, Oklahoma's, Texas', Alabama's, etc. That's not subjective -- just go to ESPN and look at the respective schedules. The top teams coming out of the Big 12, for example, each played a minimum of 3 top-ranked teams -- Texas played 4.

I don't necessarily support the BCS system, but I don't see how you can make any sort of argument that Utah is the best team in the nation.

I don't know why the idea of a playoff system is so fiercely resisted in college football.[/quote]
Its called MONEY, in order to have a play off system you would have to play less regular season games in order to keep the excisting bowls as locations for the play offs and giving up just one home game to any of the current BCS schools means 5-7 million dollars.

 

[Russianwolf]

I'm sorry, but Utah's schedule was vastly easier than Florida's, Oklahoma's, Texas', Alabama's, etc. That's not subjective -- just go to ESPN and look at the respective schedules. The top teams coming out of the Big 12, for example, each played a minimum of 3 top-ranked teams -- Texas played 4.

I don't necessarily support the BCS system, but I don't see how you can make any sort of argument that Utah is the best team in the nation.

I don't know why the idea of a playoff system is so fiercely resisted in college football.

Let's see. They beat Alabama rather convincingly. Florida lost to Mississippi, who shall we say isn't exactly top tier. Texas Tech just lost to Mississippi too. Texas lost to Texas Tech and Oklahoma lost to Texas. and USC lost to Oregon St.

They beat 3 top 20 teams during this and beat two of them rather badly to boot. another thing is who want to play these teams? Who is willing to put a Utah on their schedule when they can play a Notre Dame and get more props for a win, or heckled less for the loss. And when you put someone on the schedule, it's still 3 years before the game is actually played usually, so you can book 4 top ranked OOC's now, and when game time comes maybe they all self destructed alla Michigan.

We definitely need a playoff, but we also need to get rid of these "super conferences" with 12 teams. All conferences should be 8 teams, that's 7 conference games each year, and 4 or 5 OOC. No conference championship games. Then the play-offs start based on the top teams, fewest losses is number 1, and so on down the line. and head to head wins for the tie-breakers, or some other justified method. No polls, just sweat and blood on the field.

 

[mrcook4570]

No polls, just sweat and blood on the field.

AMEN!

 

[jkeithrussell]

Its called MONEY, in order to have a play off system you would have to play less regular season games in order to keep the excisting bowls as locations for the play offs and giving up just one home game to any of the current BCS schools means 5-7 million dollars.

I don't see how that could be true. For most of the bowl-eligible teams, there are 4 or 5 weeks between the last regular season game and the bowl game. A 3-round playoff tournament could be done in December without imposing on any team's regular season schedule. The team I watch most closely (Texas) hasn't played since Thanksgiving Day.

As for the money, the teams would make more money with a playoff system, not less. Ad revenue and ticket sales are where most of the money comes from. More games = more tickets and ads. I would think that the schools would want to play more games.

 

[DCBluesman]

I have to chuckle at this every year. Does it really matter which team is "declared" the champion? Does it really impact anyone's lives other than the participants? Why not simply focus on the daily competition in the sports arena and let life sort out the winners and losers? The students, and these are students, do not need another month or two of distraction from their studies such that those of us who are over the hill have some inexpensive entertainment.

 

[mikegibs]

Speaking as a supporter for the "pre-season" number 1 that didn't... I really enjoyed getting to see teams (and games) that I don't get to during the season. The bowls do allow for more schools to receive some national notariety. I remember in 1980 with Georgia won their National Championship because they were the only undefeated team, there were questions about the strength of their schedule... I guess a play off system would resolve that question. One idea I heard this year being bounced around was Bowls plus one. Have the 2 highest ranked teams at the end of the bowls play one more game the week following.

Just a thought,
Mike G.

 

[DocStram]

I have to chuckle at this every year. Does it really matter which team is "declared" the champion? Does it really impact anyone's lives other than the participants? Why not simply focus on the daily competition in the sports arena and let life sort out the winners and losers? The students, and these are students, do not need another month or two of distraction from their studies such that those of us who are over the hill have some inexpensive entertainment.

I'm with my pal Lou on this one. After having taught at an SEC school (Auburn) I pretty much became disenchanted with big time college football. What was the cause of my disenchantment? At their Winter board meeting the trustees helped balance the budget by deciding to cut 1,000 periodicals from the university library. (Note to Cav: "periodicals" means journals and magazines). At their Spring board meeting the trustees voted unanimously to add on an upper deck of 16,000 seats onto Shug Jordan Stadium. That was my last year at Auburn.

I'm at a university now that doesn't have football. One of the biggest programs at Mercer is the intramural sports. Just about everybody plays and the students have a ton of fun.

 

[Randy_]

I'm sorry, but Utah's schedule was vastly easier than Florida's, Oklahoma's, Texas', Alabama's, etc. That's not subjective -- just go to ESPN and look at the respective schedules. The top teams coming out of the Big 12, for example, each played a minimum of 3 top-ranked teams -- Texas played 4.....

I don't think many folks will dispute your point; but that begs the issue of whether Utah is the best team. Alabama is one of the big dogs and very few people thought they would loose; but they did!!! So much for the strength of schedule theory.

.....I don't know why the idea of a playoff system is so fiercely resisted in college football.

It would be a direct refutation of the myth perpetuated by many in academia that most football players are student-athletes. Fact is that most college football players are just unpaid (underpaid) employees of their universities and the student part of the equation is a minor afterthought.

 

[Randy_]

I have to chuckle at this every year. Does it really matter which team is "declared" the champion? .....

Of course it does!! There are tens of millions of dollars involved here and the money that goes to the winners...and even the losers...impacts the lives thousands of folks who are tanfential the the actual activity.

.....The students, and these are students.....

I've got some swamp land iI would like to sell you. You have to be kidding!! I lived in a dorm on the floor where most of the football team members lived that were not in the jock frats. In fact, my roommate was the starting guard. He was a smart guy.....honor roll most semesters which was better than what I did; but most of those guys couldn't spell their own names!! And their majors.........?? Let's just say there were very few majoring in rigorus courses of study.

.....The students.....do not need another month or two of distraction from their studies

Hard to understand that line of reasoning when the lower division schools all have playoff systems that seem to work OK??

Don't really mean to sound so negative as I would love to go back to the old days...whenever they were...when the "students" played a little football on Saturday afternoons and maybe practiced for an hour two once or twice a week; but, sadly, thosem days are long gone and we will never see them again. The real world is cutthroat competition and humongus dollar payoffs so a playoff system will happen sooner or later regardless of what the idealists amongst us would prefer.:frown:

 

[Randy_]

.....No polls, just sweat and blood on the field.

How many times have we seen a clearly inferior teem win a game because they had a great day and the other team was off.....or a bad bounce of the ball or a bad call by a ref or a lucky play?? Even with a playoff system, there is no guarantee that the best team will be crowned champ. I certainly recognize it doesn't happen often, but it does happen......last years Superbowl as an example.

 

[coach]

I have professionally been on both ends of this. The reason you play the games!

How many times have we seen a clearly inferior teem win a game because they had a great day and the other team was off.....or a bad bounce of the ball or a bad call by a ref or a lucky play?? Even with a playoff system, there is no guarantee that the best team will be crowned champ. I certainly recognize it doesn't happen often, but it does happen......last years Superbowl as an example.