But I have to admit, I like this article
Life of Reilly
Oklahoma and Florida can battle for the BCS. But we've already crowned the true national champ.
by Rick Reilly
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
The Utes trampled Alabama to complete a perfect season. How are they not national champions?
Some gifts people give are pointless: Styling mousse to Dick Vitale. An all-you-can-eat card to Kate Moss. The BCS Championship given to Oklahoma or Florida.
It means nothing because the BCS has no credibility. Florida? Oklahoma? Who cares? Utah is the national champion.
The End. Roll credits.
Argue with this, please. I beg you. Find me anybody else that went undefeated. Thirteen-and-zero. Beat four ranked teams. Went to the Deep South and seal-clubbed Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The same Alabama that was ranked No. 1 for five weeks. The same Alabama that went undefeated in the regular season. The same Alabama that Florida beat in order to get INTO the BCS Championship game in the first place.
FIND ME ANYBODY ELSE THAT WENT UNDEFEATED. THIRTEEN-AND-ZERO. BEAT FOUR RANKED TEAMS. WENT TO THE DEEP SOUTH AND SEAL-CLUBBED ALABAMA IN THE SUGAR BOWL.
Yeah, that's how it is now in the shameful, money-grubbing world of college football. If you're Florida and you beat Alabama, you get a seat in the title game. If you're Utah, you get a seat on your sofa.
Hey, remind me: What do they give out for one of those BCS things anyway? It's been so long since I cared. Something from Sears? This is the sixth year in the past 10 that the title has been in dispute under this cash-grab, fan-dis, monopoly that the BCS has created. Which is why the title game just doesn't matter anymore. It's like being named Miss Ogallala. Or Best Amish Electrician.
Just take a look at the teams that think they're worthy of being called national champs:
USC? Great year. Wonderful. Let's all go to SkyBar and celebrate. But it lost to Oregon State, a team Utah beat.
Texas? You think beating Ohio State by a nubby three points gets you the title? The Big Ten was 1-6 in bowl games! That's like pinning David Spade!
Florida and Oklahoma? They lost. Utah never did.
So that's it. Utah is the national champion. The Utes should probably have two now, actually. They went undefeated in 2004, too, and their coach still thinks they were the best team in the land. Smart fella named Urban Meyer. Coaches Florida now.
By the way, we're calling our title the "national" championship because it actually includes the whole nation*—all 119 Division I schools—unlike the BCS, which includes 66. Yeah, the BCS somehow eliminated the middleman—the NCAA. The conferences these schools play in take their dump trucks full of cash straight from the TV networks and fairness can go suck a lemon.
Nettie Tien
The Utes won't get the trophy they really deserve, so we gave them one of our own design.
Do me a favor. Call Ohio State president Gordon Gee and ask him why he won't support a playoff. He's one of the most powerful presidents in the NCAA. He could get it done. If he says anything other than, "We don't want to share the loot" then you know he's lying his bow tie off.
"This is not how we normally do things in America," says Utah president Michael Young. "In America, quality usually wins, not conspiracy. And there's a reason people usually enter into a conspiracy. It's money. You make money doing it. And those that are in on the conspiracy want to stay in and keep everybody else out."
Sure, BCS blowhards will hand you schlock about how the college football season is like a playoff, how it's an elimination tournament every week. Really? Well, how come Florida and Oklahoma weren't eliminated with their losses? Utah ran the table, beat everybody set in front of them, including Ala-damn-bama in no less than the Sugar Bowl, and gets the bagel.
Oh, by the way? It was Utah's eighth straight bowl win, the nation's longest streak. Among the losers during that run? Let's see USC, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, and now the legendary Houndstooth Hats.
"What else do we have to prove?" asks Utah's magical quarterback, Brian Johnson. Good question. He and the Utes essentially whipped Alabama at home. Handed Nick Saban a garlic necklace to wear the entire off-season. Stepped on his team's neck 21-0 in the first three possessions and never looked back. Let's see. Who was it that was losing to Alabama until nearly six minutes into the fourth quarter? Oh, yeah. Florida.
What, you want the Utes to win a spelling bee? Make a prize-winning souffle? Knock up Angelina Jolie? What?
It just slays me. It really does.
Call Myles Brand, president of the asleep-at-the-wheel NCAA, and ask him if he and his greedy presidents are going to stand in defiance of president-elect Barack Obama, who wants a playoff and wants it yesterday.
Ask Brand what he's going to do if Obama starts asking the Justice Department to look into anti-trust hearings against the BCS. The Utah Attorney General has already launched an investigation into that very thing. Or ask him what he'll do if Obama asks the Department of Education to consider withholding federal funds from these schools that have entered into this secret club called the BCS. You don't think playing in the title game means millions in general-fund donations for a school? That's as unfair as anything Title IX fought against.
Until all these people do the right thing, I'll be celebrating with the true national champions—the undefeated, untied Utah Utes. (Our new slogan: Utahk about a team!)
Lemonades for everybody!
Concur on both counts.
Haven't had much use for Rick Reilly since he decided to "turn in his CU ring" and bash the program every way possible while making Katie Hnida look like an abused child.
Still, the Utes deserve better than the #2 ranking they will have on the 9th. Just another example of how the "plus one" system would work - USC and Texas would complain, but it would be the Utes who would deserve the shot at the OU/Florida winner.
Some day ..... nah.
That is an awesome article. Agree with all. The Utes are the National Champs and should wear T-shirts saying so, and we need a ****in playoff.
Oh, BTW, Rick Reily ist ein arschloch.
i'm not convinced by you guys who are all Utah, all the time.
if this was Ball State with wins over equal non-cons, undefeated, and beat's an Alabama team in the Sugar Bowl.
i think most of you (admit it or not) would be defending the big guy conferences....and if CU was 11-1 and playing tomorrow night....there's no doubt Utah "didn't play anyone".
let's be real about it.
I still have to admit that I don't think Utah deserves the title. Getting through the MWC undefeated is far easier than any of the big conferences. Just like Boise and the WAC. You have a couple hard games and can coast for the rest. You can get by most teams in the conference on talent alone and even when you have a bad game (Like Utah had with AFA and New Mexico), you still are likely to get by with a win. You have a bad week in a major conference and you usually lose. That's the difference, IMO.
Texas can eat a taint-flavored lollipop.
I hate Reilly, and I disagree with him.
As much as Utah makes a good case, and had a nice win over Alabama, they simply don't have the resume that Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, or USC does.
Oklahoma and Florida are playing for the MNC because they both had brutal schedules and pretty much mauled everyone (their lone losses aside). Utah had a moderately difficult schedule, and they squeaked by several times. Until Conference Championship games are done away with, or a playoff is created, a team like Utah can't win the MNC when there are so many (4) other major teams with great resumes. Utah would not have gone undefeated in the Big 12 or SEC, period. Oklahoma and Florida got through their conferences with only one loss, which, when you add in that they each have to win an extra postseason game to be MNC eligible, and take into account how impressive each team was in doing so, makes them as good as an undefeated team from any other conference.
I think one solution for these non-BCS conferences with a gripe would be to have a Playoff Game on the same weekend that the conference championship games are played, and pit together the best non-BCS teams in this one game (this year it would have been Utah vs. Boise St.). Also, increase the difficulty of your non-conference scheduling. Granted, Utah did travel to Michigan this year, and hosted Oregon State, but Utah State and (a close game with) Weber State hurt them. In other words, try and schedule games against as many BCS teams as possible - everyone respects a hard schedule.
PS - My rationale was mostly born out of 1990 - CU had the brutal schedule out of a tough conference with more impressive wins, but the worse record; Georgia Tech had the better record, but far easier schedule. Verdict: CU National Champions.
Last edited by BuffNut99; 01-07-2009 at 06:57 PM.
on a related note.....i think penn state should have at least split the title in 94
I think his reasoning is suspect. Utah may very well be the best team in the country, but being 13-0 has nothing to do with it. Sould we have had Utah and Ball State playing for the championship? They both had two of the best records in CF. On a side note I watched the God awful football movie he wrote last night. If he didnt already surrender his class ring I was going to go over to his house and cut it off of his finger with my rusty pocket knife.
If every team in college football played an identical schedule - the fact that only one team went undefeated would actually mean something.
Then why are they even allowed in the BCS games? If there is no shot of them winning the BCS, they should be excluded from the BCS games just as Div II teams are (or whatever they are called).Originally Posted by Buffarino
Sounds great. Now tell me how it gets done.
Where is this Ball State talk coming from? They didn't even win their conference. Also the MWC points are lame--the Big East isn't the SEC or BIG XII but no one would complain if WV ran the table. The point is that College Football is cyclical like everyting else--power shifts between conferences year to year and no one is ever on an equal playing field and never will be--but Utah runs the table given the fact that they've had a damn good schedule for a MWC school, then they should at least have a shot. BTW, the best line in Reilly's article is the argument against the notion that the regular season is a playoff, it isn't and at least someone gets it.
It doesn't get done when there are 120 NCAA football team.
Which is why comparing 13-0 Utah to 12-1 Oklahoma based purely on their records is ridiculous at the very outset.
Money.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; we can have a playoff but it will be up to us fans to get it done.
All we need to do is write a ballot initiative that states the following;
- State school can not be a member of, or contribute money to or accept money from, a conference where other member teams accept post season bowl bids that do not include a playoff.
- Schools and conferences in violation my not pay dues to the NCAA until such playoffs are sanctioned by the organization.
- May only accept post season bids to an NCAA sanctioned and managed 8 to 16 team playoff to determine National Champion.
- May only accept a post season bowl bid if they are not selected to the NCAA playoffs.
- NCAA May choose to include current bowls for playoff sites.
- Penalties include a really large fine and loss of state funding for non compliance including jail team for the athletic directors in question.
- If initiative passes it will take effect at the end of the current BCS contract or 2012 whichever comes first.
One you lawyers could write this. We could circulate this on the internet and get this on the ballot for a fall election in Cali, Florida, Mich/Ohio, Texas/Georgia and that should do it. Once schools in those big states start thinking about dropping out of the conference and the NCAA the powers that be will see the light.
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