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Why am I excited? Well two reasons, first and foremost, Texas deserves it, IMO they are the best team in the Big 12 as of right now. The second reason is, now A&M is probably going to the Cotton Bowl and that means I am going.
Sunday, December 5, 2004
Associated Press
Now Auburn knows what it's like to be the odd team out -- a feeling Southern California knew only to well last year.
This year, though, the Trojans have no complaints.
USC and Oklahoma finished atop the final Bowl Championship Series standings Sunday and will meet in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 4 in a le game that -- again -- might not end the argument over who is No. 1.
Auburn, 12-0 just like the top two teams, finished third in the BCS points system that relies on The Associated Press and coaches polls, plus computer ratings. So the Tigers will have to settle for a Sugar Bowl berth against Virginia Tech on Jan. 3.
"It's not a perfect system, and if it was we'd all be happy today," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said during ABC's broadcast of the BCS pairings.
At least Auburn gets to play in one of the glamour games. California was left out of the BCS altogether after Texas passed the Golden Bears and moved into fourth in the final standings. The Longhorns (10-1) will play Big Ten co-champion Michigan (9-2) in the Rose Bowl. The Bears (10-1) were relegated to the Holiday Bowl, certainly not the showcase they were hoping for as the fourth-ranked team in the country.
"As a program, we were set on the Rose Bowl," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "I felt like we did enough to earn that."
USC finished with .9770 in the standings, and Oklahoma had .9681. Auburn's grade was .9331. Oklahoma's strong computer rankings kept the Sooners ahead of the Tigers in the BCS standings, while USC held on to first place thanks to its strong showing in the polls.
Last season, USC was left out of the BCS le game, despite being No. 1 in both the AP and coaches polls at the end of the regular season. Instead, Oklahoma played LSU in the Sugar Bowl, even though the Sooners lost the Big 12 le game.
When all the bowls were finished, LSU won the BCS championship, and USC was No. 1 in the final AP poll.
"We certainly understand what it feels like when you wished you'd been in this game," said USC coach Pete Carroll, sympathizing with Auburn's plight. "Unfortunately, there were three undefeated teams and with this system one of them was going to be left out."
In an attempt to avoid a repeat of 2003's mess, the BCS scaled back its formula, making it far more reliant on the human polls. But another problem arose, of course: For the first time since the BCS was implemented in 1998, there were more than two unbeaten teams from major conferences.
"The bottom line is whatever formula we have is going to be the target of some significant criticism at the end of the day," BCS coordinator and Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said.
It worked great for Utah (11-0), which officially became the first team from a non-BCS conference to receive a bid to one of the four $14 million bowl games, earning a spot in the Fiesta Bowl against Big East representative Pittsburgh (8-3).
The Utes, from the Mountain West Conference, will play their last game under coach Urban Meyer on Jan. 1 in Tempe, Ariz. Meyer is headed to Florida.
The Trojans and Sooners went wire-to-wire as one and two, respectively, in both polls, and lined up the same way in the BCS standings for all but the first week, when Miami was No. 2 and Oklahoma third.
Auburn worked its way up both the polls and the BCS. The Tigers shared No. 2 with the Sooners in the AP Top 25 for one week but could never get past the Sooners.
So Sunday's Orange Bowl announcement was not surprising after Auburn, Oklahoma and USC all finished their regular seasons with wins Saturday.
Texas' move past Cal might have caught some people off guard, however.
It looked as if the Bears controlled their BCS destiny a few weeks ago and simply needed to win out to reach the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1959. But Texas began gaining ground in the polls, especially with the coaches, as Longhorns coach Mack Brown lobbied for votes.
Texas' first BCS bid also means the Rose Bowl won't have its traditional Big Ten vs. Pac-10 matchup.
As for the Orange Bowl, it's Oklahoma, the team that most people thought shouldn't have been in championship game last year, against USC, the team that most people thought should have been there instead.
"No question you have just a better feeling going into it," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "It sure is a lot easier. Those wins give you a lot of energy and a boost."
The Sooners and Trojans bring a total of 11 AP national les into the game.
Oklahoma's seventh and last national le came in 2000 and was wrapped up with an Orange Bowl victory over Florida State. The controversy heading into that game was whether the BCS had picked the best one-loss team to face the unbeaten Sooners. The Seminoles made it to the le game despite losing in the regular season to Miami. The Hurricanes won the Sugar Bowl and finished second in the final rankings to the Sooners.
The Sooners and Trojans also have four of the leading Heisman Trophy contenders -- two on each side.
Oklahoma quarterback Jason White is making a run at becoming just the second two-time Heisman winner, while tailback Adrian Peterson has a chance to become the first freshman to win the award.
USC quarterback Matt Leinart has put up numbers equal to White, and versatile scatback Reggie Bush might be the most exciting and dangerous player in the country.
"It's going to be a nightmare for the defensive coaches," Carroll said. "I think it's a perfect matchup."
Why am I excited? Well two reasons, first and foremost, Texas deserves it, IMO they are the best team in the Big 12 as of right now. The second reason is, now A&M is probably going to the Cotton Bowl and that means I am going.
I'm kinda torn on that one. On the one hand, it'll be a lot shorter drive.
On the other, we'll have to be up earlier (or maybe just party all night), and some friends and I already had planned out our San Antonio to San Diego roadie.
I'm happy!
AHF, some of us can not take the time off to drive to SD and it is impossible to fly there without changing planes 2 times, so I am haooy that they are in Dallas where they get more money anyway and play a better opponent.
The one thing that is great about SD is that you know that there isn't going to be snow or ice. The same can NOT be said of Dallas that time of year. Think of Leon Lett and the ice bowl, or Joe Montana almost getting pneumonia in the very same Cotton bowl. From a game/money/opponent standpoint, the Cotton is probably a better choice, but from an atmosphere/party perspective, it's SD, hands down.
But Texas began gaining ground in the polls, especially with the coaches, as Longhorns coach Mack Brown lobbied for votes.
ex, also the game starts at 10 am...which makes it even colder...but wtf cares...I am stoked. I have not been to Cotton Bowl since 1977 when my Terps played Houston, so it will be great to be there.
How sweet it is!!
Cal, us longhorn fans know exactly what you are going through!
Texas deserves a BCS sport, but not at the expense of Cal. Cal is a better team than Texas. They beat #1 ranked USC up and down the field before losing at the end. Texas got dominated by Oklahoma. After USC mops up Oklahoma it will be very difficult to understand why Cal was left out of the BCS.
this is why we need a playoff. settle it on the field.
Oklahoma dominated Texas??? = 12-0 ? Don't let your hatred for Texas blind you. Surely, you don't believe that statement. Oklahoma beat Texas....Yes! Oklahoma deserves to be there but lets not get carried away!
^^^agreed!!!
Texas is playing as well as anybody right now!!
some UT vs. Cal numbers....
combined record of opponents:
UT: 67-56 non conference 15-18
Cal: 60-61 16-17
Both teams played teams from the Sun Belt Conference which is ranked #15 as a conference...UT played teams from the SEC (5) and WAC (9). Cal played teams from the Mountain West (7) and Conference USA (10).
UT played four teams (A&M, OU, OSU and Tech) rated in the top 25 in the BCS, Cal played two (USC and Arizona St.)
UT played six teams (A&M, Colorado, OU, OSU, Tech and UNT) that are going to bowls, Cal played five (ASU, Ore. St, Southern Miss, UCLA and USC)
tlong....what he said^^^^^
Thanks Mikey, you show thoses Left coasters what's what.
are they going to be vbookie in bowl games?
Thanks Jimbo. Although I get why Cal is pissed, my answer to them is what my answer was to UT last year and would have been this year....do it on the field. UT almost beat OU and Cal almost beat SC...tough , almost doesn't count. Win the damn game. I feel for Auburn though...they got screwed.
Well, still, the Texas/Cal debate has to center on the one loss for each team, since the poll voters apparently didn't see fit to accord Cal any respect for not artificially inflating its score against Southern Miss -- as it could have.
I see it this way:
Cal was much closer to beating #1 on the road than UT was to beating #2 on a neutral site.
Cal also had a larger margin of victory and its most significant struggle in winning this year was on the road at a bowl-bound Southern Miss. Texas struggled mightily on the road against a home for the holidays Kansas, and some would argue, won that game only by virtue of a curious p.i. call late in the game.
And even if you could argue that Cal's opponents were somehow inferior, Cal did also roll its opponents by a 24 ppg average margin.
Based on those criteria, I can't see that there's any clear cut reason to believe that UT is better than Cal -- if anything, those facts suggest just the opposite.
Frankly, I think Tedford got hosed for playing in a sportsman-like fashion on Saturday, while Mack Brown got rewarded for whining publicly. Somehow, that just doesn't add up.
Good point. Conversely, when based on the criteria I posted, Texas is the better team. I think that is the crux of the problem. For every reason that can be given for Cal to be there...one can be given for Texas to be there. They both should be there, especially over an 8-3 Pittsburgh team that plays in a conference that is not as good as a whole as the Big 12 South Division is by itself!
I don't know that I agree that Cal could have run up the score against Southern Miss... the score was 17-16 with less than 6 minutes left in the game. I'm sure the voters would have seen this as a "close game" regardless of whether or not Cal scored another touchdown in the last few minutes after icing the game with their last one.
I think they could have and it looked like Tedford decided not to. Props to him on that. I also though Mack Brown was whining which was not needed. Besides of the voters that changed their votes from the week before and put UT above Cal, only two were from a Big 12 city (Austin and OKC) and only one other was in Texas. (Dallas)
The Pitt thing is a red herring, though.
I think if you look at the situation objectively, you can only say one thing happened this weekend: a few voters penalized Cal for a narrow victory at Southern Miss (a game in which a late touchdown was taken away on a questionable call) and moved Texas up in their rankings. So, even if you take the loss to USC vs. the loss to Oklahoma thing out of the mix, you're left with comparing bad wins. I don't really see how you can argue that Cal's narrow win over S.Miss was somehow worse than UT's narrow win over Kansas. Particularly since Southern Miss and Kansas have a common opponent in Nebraska -- a team that Southern Miss beat in Lincoln, while Kansas lost in Lincoln.
I do not feel sorry for Auburn at all. They were so far down in the polls at the start of the season and they moved up each week...1 and 2 never lost, so they do not deserve to supplant them...nuff said.
Next year, they will start the season high in polls, so it might be anothet team that takes their place next year and so on and so forth....if they go undefeated next year as USC did last year and this year, they will get their shot, just as USC did this year when last year they were out in the cold.
It is payback for last year when UT was left out...they paid their dues, now Cal has to pay theirs. Just at USC did last year when they were left out of le game, now they get their shot.
But this isn't about who was better last year, or who's paid their dues -- if that's the way the system works, then its the clearest indictment of its failure. It's about who was better this year, and until Saturday, the voters understandably believed that California was the better football team.
It's shameful that Cal's decision to sit on the ball cost them the Rose Bowl and it's shameful that supposedly-unbiased voters could be swayed, as much as anything else, by the sniveling whining of a coach who's never managed to accomplish anything significant on his own.
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