Chaos Rankings

Monday, November 21, 2011

Worst Case Scenario

Let's say LSU beats Arkansas this weekend and Alabama beats Auburn. Personally, I think either game could go either way, but for the sake of argument, let's just assume the higher ranked teams win. Barring a 500-3 Sooner-crushing win by Oklahoma State to vault them over Alabama (OSU is already #2 in most computers, so it wouldn't take much), the stage would be set for another LSU/Alabama game, this time, for all the marbles.
But wait, there's still that pesky little SEC Championship game! If Alabama remains #2 after playing Auburn, there's not reason to think they aren't a lock for the BCS title game. Most experts are now predicting that even if #1 LSU loses to U(sic)GA in the SEC championship, they would remain ranked high enough to still be #2. Let's get this straight, we could potentially have 2 teams who didn't win their conferences playing for a national title? Or can we? Since the Dawgs would be guaranteed a spot as SEC champs, does that eliminate the #2 team since according to BCS rules, you can't have 3 teams from any conference. And let's not forget that Arkansas will probably still be a top 10 team after an LSU loss, but would be inelligble for at-large selection no matter what happens (again, the 3 team rule). Potentially, we could end the regular season with 4 SEC teams in the BCS top 10, only two of which are allowed into the various BCS games.
So perhaps we could see Alabama (didn't win their conference, OR even their division) playing not #2, but #3 (VT? OSU? Stanford? Boise? Houston?). Oh that's right, I forgot, despite likely finishing as a top 10 team, Boise's not eligible for automatic inclusion because they didn't win their conference (still eligible for an at-large pick however). But it's okay to have two teams who also (in my scenario) didn't win their conference play for a national title? Yeah, that makes sense. Meanwhile, the Big East is still guaranteed an auto-bid despite the UConn disaster last year, and that this year the Big East has zero teams currently ranked in the top 25 and will be lucky to finish with their champion in the top 20. Yeah, that makes sense too. Sorry Arkansas, sorry Boise, sorry LSU, no invitations for you, we have to make room for [insert Big East champ here] (pick one: WVU, Rutgers, Cincy, Louisville, Pitt, UConn). Yeah.
There's been some talk recently of reformatting the BCS. All kinds of crazy ideas being thrown out on the table, though most of them will never receive much traction. If this scenario plays out, might it finally be the impetus to scrap the whole thing and go to a true playoff?

1 Comments:

  • Brad Edwards confirmed on Mike&Mike this morning that BCS#1, BCS#2 and AQ-Conf Champs all get auto-bids, even if that means three teams from one conference. I think the real nightmare scenerio is LSU close loss to Ark, Alabama beats Auburn, Oklahoma beats OSU, then U(sic)GA over Ark for SEC title. Then it would at least be possible for Alabama/LSU title game when neither team even won their DIVISION. And we don't have a playoff, um, why again? At this point we might as well let the preseason 1 & 2 play for the title and be done with it since playing these pesky games just gets in the way.

    By Blogger gtwreck18, at 11/21/2011 4:53 PM  

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