BCS, Herbstreit Bitch-Slapped During A Memorable Weekend

Whew. I'm glad everything was tied up so neatly and tidily in college football this year, without any controversy whatsoever.

There are people more plugged in than me that I’ll let handle the relative cases each of the BCS-worthy teams can put forth, whether you’re Georgia, USC, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech or whoever. But here’s a quick recap of the voting that took place that resulted in LSU and Ohio State being selected to play for a national title that will be even more mythical than usual this year …

LSU
Two hours before the SEC title game and Les Miles has to hold a press conference to tell people that he’s the coach of the Tigers. Big 10 pimp and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit decides it’s a good idea to go on the air with a false report about Miles taking the Michigan job and hiring Jon Tenuta as defensive coordinator. Not being a journalist or having any background involving journalistic integrity, Herbstreit doesn’t realize that you shouldn’t run with rumors involving a coach hours before his team is playing for a conference championship. Not only does Herbstreit go on with a vague sense of authority, but he basically accused Miles of turning his back on his team, taking a new job and already making staff hires in his new capacity. So Miles calls an impromptu press conference two hours before his game, forcefully and adamantly denies the false report, announces he’s staying at LSU, takes a few shots at ESPN and walks off the stage.



ESPN is ESPN, so they’ll always have the last word (which includes editing out any reference of ESPN in some of the clips of the conference). It’s a fight Miles can’t win, but good on him. ESPN has decided to take the approach that they want to create the news now rather than report it, and they got called on the carpet. Predictably, ESPN tried to spin the press conference into Miles ducking responsibility, but Miles did exactly what we ask our coaches to do: he refused to be pushed around by the media, he acted quickly, he spoke firmly in his own voice. In other words, he was the anti-Nick Satan. And he gets dumped on for that? Yeah, that makes sense. By the way, when he walked off the stage after pointing and saying, “Have a great day,” I nearly peed my pants.

Ohio State
As Mike Golic noted on “Mike & Mike in the Morning,” Ohio State is in simply because they worked the system best. Schedule three crap out-of-conference games. Go without an impressive victory in a weak league. Resist a conference title game. Make sure you have byes the last coupla weeks of the season. Sit back and hope the right teams lose. Celebrate like you did something. Then wonder why everyone hates you and doesn’t give you respect. Respect is earned on the football field, not in the easy chair as you root for better teams to lose to each other.

Georgia
Unfortunately, Kentucky couldn’t make that one key play in the four-overtime loss to Tennessee that the Dawgs needed to get into the SEC title game. You didn’t win your division, much less your conference. Great season and you were playing as well as anyone down the stretch, but the way the system is set up, you don’t have much of an argument.

Oklahoma
You’re a damn good team who had some key injuries at inopportune moments. I’d like to see you in the championship game especially because you’re back at full speed now. Two losses by a combined 10 points on the road aren’t too damning, but you can’t fall to Colorado; you just can’t. You’re more deserving than Ohio State, but you can’t measure up to the Big 10 hype machine.

USC
You had two months to try to overcome a home loss to Stanford and you nearly pulled it off. A seven-point loss at a Dennis Dixon-led Oregon is respectable, but you needed Cal to have a better year and you needed someone more impactful than Arizona State and UCLA on your slate late. Playing on the West Coast meant not enough of us got a chance to see you play and all we remembered you for was losing to a tree.

Virginia Tech
The ACC was down all year (again) and you got bitched by 41 points by LSU. Be happy you’re in a BCS game and enjoy it.

Hawai’i
I’m sorry. You got screwed probably worse than anyone this year. You’re in a catch-22 because you’re good enough that no one meaningful outside your conference wants to play you, but not good enough to get the votes needed to get all the way to the top. The system fails you because you have no way of getting the vote-changing games you need to be a bigger factor.

Missouri
You should have gone for it on fourth-and-goal from the 1 against Oklahoma instead of kicking a field goal to make it 7-6. You’re a Cinderella story and an underdog as the #1 team in the nation … you should know that field goals can’t be kicked with glass slippers. Go for it. Show the Sooners that you’re here to win, not to stay in the game. To make matters worse, you got f’ed out of the BCS mix.

Kansas
With a Dom Deluise doppelganger as your head coach, it’s hard to use the word “tiptoe” when I talk about you, but somehow you managed to tiptoe into the BCS while no one was looking. The fact that your football team scores more points than your basketball team doesn’t hurt, but it’s a joke that you got past Missouri. I guess Mangino is laughing all the way to the … butcher.

West Virginia
If you’re Rich Rodriguez, you had to wake up Sunday morning, look yourself in the mirror, and admit that you were outcoached by Dave “The ‘Stache” Wannstedt. At home. With a national title shot on the line. As a four-touchdown favorite. How do you bounce back from that?


So What The Hell Is Going To Happen?

I don’t tend to quote Shakespeare too much, but Buckeye Nation doth protest too much. They are spending most of the time trying to justify their backing into the title game, and yet, they seem to be the ones most bitching about LSU getting in as well. Why? Because they don’t want to get hammered in the national spotlight yet again by a faster, more talented SEC team, like last year.

Ohio State would seemingly be fine with backing all the way into a national championship game against a team like Missouri, and be thrilled with the idea they didn’t face anyone all season long on the way to a ring.

Here’s why they have every right to be nervous: They’re playing LSU in New Orleans. The flip side of not playing and hoping everyone else loses is that you are dormant for a long time. LSU has plenty of time to get Glenn Dorsey, Matt Flynn, et al, healthy. The Tigers players won’t take too kindly to a team representing the conference that tried to steal their coach in the midst of a national championship run. The LSU coach is a “Michigan Man” playing against the hated Buckeyes. Said coach believes Ohio State may have been behind the effort to undermine LSU’s preparations and stick it to Michigan with the false rumor by one of their alums.

The Tigers got a second life, whether they deserved it or not; such teams usually don’t take second opportunities lightly. So be careful what you wish for, Buckeyes … you just might get it.