Does it count as theft if you're stealing from your own blog? I'm not sure, but considering James is the resident expert on all things BCS, I feel like I should be asking the whatever from high atop the thing for permission to ...well, make fun of ESPN. Maybe I should ask these guys instead.
It's not that I have a problem with the ESPN college football crew writing a ton about the BCS, or attempting to rank the BCS champions, or find the most dignified coaches of the BCS, or rehash the BCS v. playoff debate; if they want to do all of that, we can do that too - and we don't have word count limits. And it's not even us vs. them; that's not even anything I care about or want to care about. I find their stuff entertaining mostly, informative some of the time, and insightful rarely. I don't think there's anything wrong with that viewpoint.
- Honestly, it blows my mind that James can write 15,000 words on the BCS. Really, it does. It's not just you guys, we don't get it either. I'm not even sure he does.
However, I really have issue with their examples. Pat Forde's right; trusting the BCS bowls to select the most deserving team is a fool's proposition... but 2007 Kansas? Really? That's the bad selection you want to hang your hat on - the team that beat Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl? That only works if you write the article in December 2007, back when we all thought that selection was ridiculous.
If you're going to go with a terrible selection, what about that 2006 Notre Dame team that got completely demolished by a better, faster LSU team? Or the 2000 (?) Notre Dame team that got into the BCS due specifically to the Notre Dame rule only to get completely wrecked by Oregon f-ing State? Or, if you don't want to risk the wrath of Beano Cook (hint: you can probably run away from him, I don't think the guy can move that fast now; the same goes for Lou Holtz), 2007 Illinois was a pretty crappy selection. Bonus points: people still remember that selection.
- I really don't get why the ACC doesn't take more crap for fielding some bad football teams. I could go into a ton of detail over this (really, it's probably a separate post), but I'll keep it short: due to where I live, I get the Raycom Game of the Week - you could also call it the 4th-Tier ACC Game Taking Place at Noon on Saturday. Since I'm sure everyone else would immediately change the channel as soon as they realized they were going to be subjected to 3.5 hours of NC State playing Wake Forest, I'll describe what everyone missed: torture. I think the 1970's-era Big Ten migrated to Tobacco Road. My theory for now is everyone's still assuming Florida State and Miami are good.
- God bless Jefferson Pilot turned Raycom Sports. I don't even know how or why these guys put football and basketball games on, but if you get a chance to watch a broadcast, it's worth it. I'd describe it as "public access meets Fox Sports", but it's way more interesting than that. I grew up watching Jefferson Pilot Sports (I've been subjected to enough Vanderbilt football to kill most mortals), so I can't speak too much ill of it, but the broadcast quality is terrible. At least they're earnest.
Also, I don't really get why ESPN felt a need to not only do Top 10 BCS champions, but Top 10 BCS coaches. I guess it's a slow day? Either way, while I'm on the coaches, I don't get putting Bobby Bowden (responsible for the abomination known as the 2001 Orange Bowl) in over, say, Les Miles (who's won a title and wrecked Notre Dame, which has to count for something). If you want to leave Bowden in, fine; what about Mark Richt? Surely he's not *that* well-acclaimed for wrecking Hawai(')i and being partially responsible for the 2001 Orange Bowl, is he? I don't know.
I don't have that much issue with how they ranked the championship teams, although I'm a little surprised they didn't put the '02 Hurricanes, the '06 Buckeyes, and the '05 Trojans in there as well. Actually, that'd be a fun article - the Top 10 BCS Champions As Polled The Day Before The Game.
