Colt McCoy Steers An Undeserving Texas To BCS Title Game

Very few college football fans will disagree that Texas University is questionable at best of deserving the opportunity to play in the BCS National Championship title game.  Talk with a handful of people, you’ll hear backing for TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State consistently in the conversation.  With 3 other undefeated teams on the outside looking in, the calls for a playoff system are sure to blow up at the end of this college football season.

But is the BCS system really to blame?

In actuality, the BCS system is just a mathematical model…nothing more.  It combines data inputs from various polls, both human and computer, to give weight to multiple voices in the debate.  Its democracy in action.  The only drawback is the included conferences / at-large bid issues that determine who plays, which doesn’t impact the final two choices at all.

People are up in arms once again that perhaps the wrong teams are playing in the final game.  The BCS is not to blame, it is the people casting votes in the polls and the inappropriate weight being applied to certain conferences.  The story behind Texas getting into this title game details the problem.

Texas began the season rated #2 in both the coaches poll and AP poll.  Alabama leapfrogged Texas in the AP poll during week 6 after a dominating victory over Ole Miss, but it maintained the #3 spot until the final poll.   Those voting in these polls maintained a standard that you don’t drop until you are beaten, regardless of schedule or opponent.  And this rang extremely true for Texas.

The first signs of trouble in Austin showed up in Game 3, when Texas got outplayed on the field but took the victory on the scoreboard against Texas Tech.  Next up was the pathetic showing against an Oklahoma squad which lost its Heisman Trophy winning quarterback early in the first quarter.  Then came the Thanksgiving Night embarrassment against Texas A&M where the #3 defense in NCAA football was lit up for 532 yards.  Finally, they win a nail-biter against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship game while displaying embarrassing clock management on the game-winning drive.

Despite the evident lackluster results on the field, none of the voters deemed it necessary to drop Texas a peg when teams like TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State racked up impressive performances one after another.  In fact, two AP voters and four Coaches poll voters still believe Texas is the best team in the country.   These voters disregarded what was seen on the field and cast their vote based solely on the fact Texas escaped with a victory.   Due to this short-sightedness, we are robbed of seeing a more fitting national championship game.

More concerning is that Texas got a pass on a weak schedule.  Loading its schedule with patsies like Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming and UTEP, all of which failed to post winning records in second-tier conferences.  Its toughest non-conference foe was UCF, which is not saying much.  As for the Big 12 conference this year, calling it a down year is being nice.

On the other hand, TCU posted impressive victories over BYU and Utah, Boise State scored a big victory over Oregon and Cincinnati has shown mettle all year long with tremendous 4th quarter performances.

So in the end, it is not the BCS that is to blame, it is the people filling out the polls.  The BCS just computes what the voters submit.  And we can blame the six people that voted Texas #1 in the two human polls from robbing TCU, Cincinnati, and Boise State, whom on their merits earned the right to play in the big game much more than Texas with their performance on the field.

They just didn’t get the proper recognition in the preseason polls as Texas did and are now being punished for it.