BCS Review Series: 2009, Separate and Decidedly Unequal

Part 12 of a series: Over the next few weeks, I will be reviewing each of the 16 seasons since the Bowl Championship Series came into existence in 1998. Here is a look back at who got lucky, who got robbed, what could've been, what should've been and other controversies of the day. The series will appear throughout December and January.

Part 1: 1998, A New Beginning for College Football

Part 2: 1999, FSU Ends Michael Vick's Quest for Perfection

Part 3: 2000, FSU-Miami Sows Seeds of Controversy

Part 4: 2001, Nebraska Fiasco Rocks College Football

Part 5: 2002, Controversy On-Field Mars Perfect Ending

Part 6: 2003, Nightmare of Split National Championship

Part 7: 2004, Unbeaten Auburn Left Out in the Cold

Part 8: 2005, Perfect Season Ends With Epic at Rose Bowl

Part 9: 2006, Dawn of SEC's Reign in College Football

Part 10: 2007, LSU Goes "Undefeated in Regulation"

Part 11: 2008, SEC Wins in Polls, Then on the Field

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Every second counted in the 2009 season, especially for Texas.

While Colt McCoy vainly ran around as the clock ticked down in the Big 12 championship game, it looked as if the Longhorns were about to throw away their shot at a second BCS title. McCoy did finally throw the ball away, but not before the Cowboys Stadium scoreboard timer read 0:00.

Or did it?

Instead of running off the field, the officiating crew immediately conferred and decided to put one second back on the clock. That was just enough time for Texas' Hunter Lawrence to kick a 46-yard field goal on the game's final play, much to the relief of the Big 12 and BCS brass. Now they could have the dream matchup of unbeaten Alabama and Texas playing for the title at the Rose Bowl.



Among those crying foul weren't just the Cornhuskers, whose defense, led by the indomitable Ndumakong Suh, sacked McCoy nine times and intercepted him three times. Cincinnati, TCU and Boise State were all also undefeated, but none of them would get a chance to play for the national championship. The Broncos, in fact, were staring at the prospect of going undefeated for a second consecutive regular season and still missing out on a BCS bowl berth.

Fearful of a public outcry and renewed interest by the Justice Department to investigate its setup, the BCS swallowed hard and decided to take both TCU and Boise State—and this was tremendously helped by the fact that, outside of the Big Ten and SEC, none of the major conferences had an at-large candidate with fewer than three losses. (For the first time since 1983, every conference produced an outright champion.)

The 2009 season marked the end of one dynasty and the beginning of another. After going to a record seven straight BCS bowl games, including consecutive title games in 2004-05, USC slumped to 9-4 and failed to win the Pac-10 for the first time since 2001. The Trojans held off Boston College in the Emerald Bowl, which, as it turned out, was the final game for coach Pete Carroll, who returned to the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks two weeks later.

Alabama, now in its third season under Nick Saban, first avenged its SEC title game loss by walloping Florida in a rematch, denying Tim Tebow and his team's quest to win back-to-back BCS championships. The Tide went on to claim the first of three BCS titles in four years, knocking out McCoy early in the game and then forcing a pair of turnovers late after Texas had closed to within three to seal the victory.

Final BCS Standings: 1. Alabama, 2. Texas, 3. Cincinnati, 4. TCU, 5. Florida, 6. Boise State.

Likely four-team playoff: Alabama vs. TCU; Texas vs. Cincinnati.
Unfortunately, Boise State would've been left out in a four-team scenario, even though the Broncos defeated the Horned Frogs in the Fiesta Bowl post hoc. TCU had a slightly better resume during the season.

Controversies

Who's the real No. 2?: Texas' one-second reprieve cost Cincinnati a chance for its first shot at a national championship. The Bearcats actually had better computer rankings and had beaten three ranked teams (to Texas' two) during the season.

But because Texas was ranked no worse than third all season in the polls, Cincinnati was never able to close the gap in the component that made up two-thirds of the BCS standings. Even TCU might've had a case, having beaten a pair of teams in the top 16 with the country's top-ranked defense and fourth-ranked offense.

Separate-But-Equal Bowl: Instead of allowing Boise State and TCU to each face off against major conference champions, it was decided that the Fiesta Bowl would "take one for the team" and match up those two upstarts—or so the allegation went, though it was denied by then-Fiesta Bowl boss John Junker as "a load of crap."

The game was a rematch of the previous season's Poinsettia Bowl in which TCU won 17-16. This time, Boise State prevailed, 17-10, in a hard-hitting contest between two bona fide quality teams. Denying these teams a chance to face a BCS conference team was widely viewed as a conspiracy and brought anew calls to alter BCS's arrangement of granting automatic berths to underperforming major conferences, or at the very least, review the automatic qualifying protocol.

2009 BCS Bowl Matchups

Bowl	Score	Attendance	TV Rating
BCS Champ*	#1 Alabama 37, #2 Texas 21	94,906	17.2
Rose Bowl	#8 Ohio St. 26, #7 Oregon 17	93,963	13.2
Sugar Bowl	#5 Florida 51, #3 Cincinnati 24	65,207	8.5
Fiesta Bowl	#6 Boise St. 17, #4 TCU 10	73,227	8.2
Orange Bowl	#10 Iowa 24, #9 Ga. Tech 14	66,131	6.8

Final analysis: The Fiesta Bowl, also derisively called the "Quarantine Bowl", the "Fiasco Bowl" and the "BCS Kids' Table," was a real PR disaster for the BCS. It was the first time two undefeated teams faced off in a non-championship game in the BCS era, yet neither team had any chance of winning the title.

Beyond that, the gulf in payouts between major conferences and the so-called non-AQ conference remained enormous. Even by placing teams in BCS bowls, the Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference combined to earn less than any of the "Big Six" conferences banked. Both of the competitive and monetary inequities would remain unaddressed, and the criticism reached a crescendo with the publication of the bestseller "Death to the BCS" a few months later.

BCS Review Series: 2008, SEC Claims High Ground in Narrative

Part 11 of a series: Over the next few weeks, I will be reviewing each of the 16 seasons since the Bowl Championship Series came into existence in 1998. Here is a look back at who got lucky, who got robbed, what could've been, what should've been and other controversies of the day. The series will appear throughout December and January.

Part 1: 1998, A New Beginning for College Football

Part 2: 1999, FSU Ends Michael Vick's Quest for Perfection

Part 3: 2000, FSU-Miami Sows Seeds of Controversy

Part 4: 2001, Nebraska Fiasco Rocks College Football

Part 5: 2002, Controversy On-Field Mars Perfect Ending

Part 6: 2003, Nightmare of Split National Championship

Part 7: 2004, Unbeaten Auburn Left Out in the Cold

Part 8: 2005, Perfect Season Ends With Epic at Rose Bowl

Part 9: 2006, Dawn of SEC's Reign in College Football

Part 10: 2007, LSU Goes "Undefeated in Regulation"

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Two consecutive blowout victories in the BCS championship game (both over Ohio State) helped to jump-start the narrative of SEC supremacy. Now self-branded as "the toughest conference in college football," the SEC's dominance in perception became that much more evident.

At the end of the regular season, seven BCS conference teams finished with one loss each, and two others—Utah and Boise State—went undefeated. But just as it was in 2007, when five major conference champions vied for one BCS title game slot, in 2008 the SEC came out on top yet again.

For the second time in three years, Florida made it to the BCS title game, this time despite a loss at home to Ole Miss. The Gators sunk to No. 15 in the BCS standings, all but seemingly out of it, after the late-September loss to the Rebels. Yet after defeating previously-unbeaten Alabama in the SEC title game, Florida had a date in Miami with Oklahoma in the BCS title game.

USC wasn't so lucky after also an early-September loss at Oregon State. The Trojans had opened the season with a resounding 35-3 pounding of No. 3 Ohio State at the Coliseum. But despite running the table the rest of the way—including three shutouts and five other games where they gave up just one score—that lone loss to the Beavers proved fatal to their title aspirations.

The same was the case for Penn State, which suffered its lone loss on a last-second field at Iowa in early November. It was the second time in four years that Joe Paterno's team was one play away from a perfect regular season. And just like in 2005, the Nittany Lions never got a whiff of the BCS title game.

Then there was the trio of Big 12 teams that managed to deal each other a single loss in a Reservoir Dogs-style Mexican standoff. Texas defeated Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout. Texas Tech shot down the Longhorns on a last-second TD catch by Michael Crabtree. Then Oklahoma slaughtered the Red Raiders to complete the three-way tie for first place in the Big 12 South.


The Sooners edged Texas (and Texas Tech) in the penultimate BCS standings, thanks entirely to superior computer rankings, earning a trip to the Big 12 title game, where they routed Missouri to earn a spot in the BCS title game. Longhorns coach Mack Brown, who had swiped a Rose Bowl berth in 2004 when the BCS standings worked in his favor, now had his comeuppance.

At the end, the team that had the most amount of legitimate grievance might've been Utah, which finished the season as the lone undefeated team. The Utes dominated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, beating the Tide (31-17) worse than Florida did in the SEC title game (31-20). In the final AP poll, 16 of the 65 voters cast their ballots with Utah No. 1, but that wasn't enough to earn a split championship after Tim Tebow and Co. held off the turnover-prone Sooners in the BCS title game.

Final BCS Standings: 1. Oklahoma, 2. Florida, 3. Texas, 4. Alabama, 5. USC, 6. Utah, 7. Texas Tech.

Likely four-team playoff: Oklahoma vs. Utah; Florida vs. USC.
With preference for conference champions and that Utah had a better resume than fellow unbeaten Boise State, these four teams would've been the most solid picks, even without the benefit of hindsight.

Controversies

BCS standings as a tiebreaker: The BCS standings were created for the sole purpose of matching up the top two-ranked teams to play for the BCS title. Yet, by the mid-2000s, conferences began using the standings to break ties either for the conference title or within divisions. This misapplication had its worst consequences in 2008, when OU just nudged Texas—a team it had lost to—for a spot in the Big 12 title game and, ultimately, a spot in the BCS title game.

This misuse would continue, without being discouraged by the BCS brass, until the end of the BCS era. In fact, even conferences that had no part in the BCS tried to use it to break ties, leading to the comical Conference USA debacle in 2013.

Boise State snub: For the second time in the BCS era, Boise State went undefeated and was denied a BCS bowl berth, also the sixth time it finished with either zero or one loss and had to settle for a minor bowl.

The Broncos were ranked No. 9 in the final BCS standings, yet they weren't guaranteed a berth because another non-AQ champion, Utah, was ahead at No. 6. The Fiesta Bowl then bypassed Boise to take No. 10 Ohio State as an at-large, while both No. 12 Cincinnati (Big East) and No. 19 Virginia Tech (ACC) had automatic berths.

But this Boise State snub generated enough public outrage that, when the very scenario occurred again the next year, the Broncos were given their just due.

2008 BCS Bowl Matchups

Bowl	Score	Attendance	TV Rating
BCS Champ*	#2 Florida 24, #1 Oklahoma 14	78,468	15.8
Rose Bowl	#3 USC 38, #8 Penn State 24	93,293	11.7
Fiesta Bowl	#3 Texas 24, #10 Ohio State 21	72,047	10.4
Sugar Bowl	#6 Utah 31, #4 Alabama 17	71,872	7.8
Orange Bowl	#19 Va. Tech 20, #12 Cincinnati 7	73,602	5.4

Final analysis: With Florida's win over Oklahoma in the BCS title game, the "SEC-as-top-dog" perception reached new heights as the conference has now won three straight BCS championships. The on-field success helped to fuel the off-field brand building process that permanently granted the SEC a first-among-equals status for the remainder of the BCS era.

The SEC champion reached the BCS title game in each of the eight years between 2006-2013. And in seven of those eight seasons, an SEC team beat out another major conference champion that had the same number of losses for a spot in the championship game—including in 2011, when Alabama advanced to the all-SEC title matchup in spite of not winning its division.

The Tide lost back-to-back games to Florida and Utah to finish the 2008 season, but their dynasty was just on the verge of being unleashed.

BCS Review Series: 2005, Perfect Season Ends at the Rose Bowl

Part 8 of a series: Over the next few weeks, I will be reviewing each of the 16 seasons since the Bowl Championship Series came into existence in 1998. Here is a look back at who got lucky, who got robbed, what could've been, what should've been and other controversies of the day. The series will appear throughout December and January.

Part 1: 1998, A New Beginning for College Football

Part 2: 1999, FSU Ends Michael Vick's Quest for Perfection

Part 3: 2000, FSU-Miami Sows Seeds of Controversy

Part 4: 2001, Nebraska Fiasco Rocks College Football

Part 5: 2002, Controversy On-Field Mars Perfect Ending

Part 6: 2003, Nightmare of Split National Championship

Part 7: 2004, Unbeaten Auburn Left Out in the Cold

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Without a doubt, 2005 was BCS nirvana.

It was the best season in BCS's 16-year existence. It was its most controversy-free season. And it ended with its best championship game, in the best setting possible for college football—the Rose Bowl.

USC, after winning back-to-back AP national titles, was back for an unprecedented three-peat. It had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who surprised everyone by returning for his senior season. It had a soon-to-be Heisman-winning running back. It had NFL first-round picks up the ying-yang on offense. But its defense was somewhat suspect.

No matter, the Trojans blew through the schedule by lighting up the scoreboard. They won a thriller in South Bend when their Heisman combo Matt Leinart-Reggie Bush orchestrated a final second touchdown to beat Notre Dame. They escaped Fresno State when Bush produce a career worth of highlights in a single game, piling up 513 total yards. USC rolled into the Rose Bowl for the national championship with a 34-game winning streak after destroying UCLA, 66-19.

Keeping on the Trojans' heels was No. 2 Texas, led by junior quarterback Vince Young, a Heisman hopeful himself. The Longhorns were ranked right behind USC the entire season, and were a juggernaut in their own right. After getting by Ohio State in Columbus in the second game of the season, Texas scored at least 40 points and won by double-digits every game. The Longhorns claimed their date with USC by nuking Colorado in the Big 12 title game, 70-3.

In this BCS perfect season, everything fell into place. Penn State, the only other team that might otherwise had a claim on the title game, was done in by Michigan's Mario Manningham, who caught a TD pass on the game's final play to thwart perfection for the Lions. Alabama, the last unbeaten team besides USC and Texas, bowed out of the race on Nov. 12 after a loss to LSU.

The national championship game was a classic. The Trojans jumped ahead. The Longhorns took the lead by halftime. USC regained control in the second half and was one play away from finishing off its three-peat. On fourth-and-2 at the Texas 45, with 2:13 remaining and Texas out of timeouts, the Trojans elected to go for a first down instead of punting to protect a 38-33 lead.

Bush, the Heisman winning back, was on the sideline. The Trojans loaded up the left side of the line and ran Lendale White off tackle. It was a play full of machismo (called by then-offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin). USC had run this play three times in crucial situations in this game and prevailed each time. It dared Texas to stop it.

The Longhorns did. White was stuffed a yard short and Young got the ball back. He methodically drove Texas downfield, scoring the game-winner on fourth-and-5 with 19 seconds left. Texas ended the Trojans' reign and won its first national title since 1970.

Final BCS Standings: 1. USC, 2. Texas, 3. Penn State, 4. Ohio State, 5. Oregon, 6. Notre Dame.


Alternative Methods

Using 1998-2003 (BCS I) Formula: 1. USC, 2. Texas, 3. Penn State, 4. Ohio State.

Likely four-team playoff: USC vs. Ohio State; Texas vs. Penn State.

The last spot would be up for grabs between two-loss Ohio State and Notre Dame. The Buckeyes' losses were to Penn State and Texas and shared the Big Ten title with Penn State whereas the Irish lost to USC and 5-6 Michigan State. OSU also had much better computer rankings than ND (4th vs. 10th). And in reality, these teams did meet in the Fiesta Bowl, with OSU winning 34-20.


Controversies

There was little regarding the BCS. The title game was only slightly marred by instant replay malfunction, which allowed a disputed Texas touchdown to stand in the second quarter. Young's knee was down on the play before he lateraled the ball to Selvin Young, who ran 12 yards for the score to put Texas ahead, 9-7. The play was not reviewed because the equipment wasn't working.

2005 BCS Bowl Matchups

Bowl	Score	Attendance	TV Rating
Rose Bowl*	#2 Texas 41, #1 USC 38	93,986	21.7
Fiesta Bowl	#4 Ohio St. 34, #6 Notre Dame 20	76,196	12.9
Orange Bowl	#3 Penn St. 26, #22 Florida St. 23 (3 OT)	77,912	12.2
Sugar Bowl	#11 West Virginia 38, #7 Georgia 35	74,458	9.0

BCS Formula Review: After the controversy of the previous year when Texas leapfrogged California for a Rose Bowl berth, the BCS made another tweak with the formula, out of necessity. A number of AP voters were besieged by angry fans who found fault with their ballots. As a result, the AP sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the AP poll be removed from the BCS formula.

The BCS hastily contracted Harris Interactive to furnish a replacement poll, which debuted in 2005. The poll featured over 100 voters who were former athletic directors, coaches and players, as well as members of the media. Unlike the AP poll or the coaches poll, the Harris Poll did not have a preseason poll, wasn't released until mid-season, and didn't have an end-of-season final poll.

With the installment of the Harris Interactive Poll as part of the standings, the BCS formula would remain unchanged until the very end. The final nine seasons of BCS's existence had the exact same formula, after undergoing six changes in its first seven seasons.


Final analysis: The USC-Texas game was easily the most thrilling, not to mention the most-watched BCS championship game (and college football game, of all time, with a record TV rating of 21.7), thanks to the star power of both teams.

The BCS deserved credit for making it happen. Under the previous bowl regime, USC would've played (and most likely, beaten) Penn State in the Rose Bowl whereas Texas would've faced (and also beaten) either one-loss Oregon or two-loss Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. Because of their status as the two-time defending champion and had been top-ranked all season, the Trojans most likely would've been voted No. 1 in both polls while the Longhorns would've been relegated to No. 2.

The 2006 Rose Bowl also marked the end of the Phase I of the BCS bowl rotation. After two consecutive cycles of playing four BCS bowls with eight berths, the BCS, partly under pressure, would expand to a "double-host" setup following the 2005 season. An extra game would be added to allow more access for non-BCS teams and a championship game was added, to be played about a week after the traditional New Year's Day bowl games.

BCS Review Series: 2004, Unbeaten Auburn Left in the Cold

Part 7 of a series: Over the next few weeks, I will be reviewing each of the 16 seasons since the Bowl Championship Series came into existence in 1998. Here is a look back at who got lucky, who got robbed, what could've been, what should've been and other controversies of the day. The series will appear throughout December and January.

Part 1: 1998, A New Beginning for College Football

Part 2: 1999, FSU Ends Michael Vick's Quest for Perfection

Part 3: 2000, FSU-Miami Sows Seeds of Controversy

Part 4: 2001, Nebraska Fiasco Rocks College Football

Part 5: 2002, Controversy On-Field Mars Perfect Ending

Part 6: 2003, Nightmare of Split National Championship

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If 2003 was a wakeup call for the BCS, then 2004 represented a broken snooze button.

The alarm just kept blaring.

Five teams went undefeated in the regular season, but in the end, USC and Oklahoma faced off for the BCS title while SEC champion Auburn was left with a consolation prize of appearing in the Sugar Bowl. Mountain West champion Utah did get a BCS berth, but its opponent—Pittsburgh—was so overmatched in the Fiesta Bowl that the Utes didn't get to prove their mettle either. WAC champion Boise State was left out of the BCS picture altogether.

There was no split championship in 2004, as there had been in 2003, mostly because the Trojans mauled the Sooners, 55-19. Even Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who was on hand to troll for AP votes, conceded during ABC's halftime show that USC would be difficult to beat "when you give (offensive coordinator) Norm Chow a month to get ready for somebody."

But that was hardly a happy ending for the BCS, which had completely overhauled its formula from the previous season.

In fact, the BCS formula, in retrospect, may be viewed in two phases.

BCS I ran from its inception in 1998 through the disastrous 2003 season that ended with a split national championship. While there had been alterations, they were mostly minor. BCS II emerged in the 2004 season, with human polls taking over the preponderance of the equation.

Ironically, BCS I and BCS II both would've yielded the same USC-Oklahoma result in 2004, leaving Auburn and Utah out of the title game. It's fairly easy to explain why both Utah and Boise State were left out. The non-BCS conferences are not respected by the voters, even if the computers treat them more fairly. The Mountain West in 2004 also was not a particularly solid conference, with only three teams finishing with winning records, as both New Mexico and Wyoming went 7-5.

The last non-BCS school to win a national championship was Brigham Young in 1984, and it likely will remain the last well after this country elects a woman president, and possibly into eternity.
As for Auburn, two factors proved fatal to its BCS title prospects.

First, the Tigers were lightly regarded before the season started, checking in at No. 17 in the preseason AP poll. Auburn eventually worked its way up to No. 3, but could never crack the stranglehold that USC and Oklahoma held on Nos. 1 and 2—going wire-to-wire atop the AP poll.

The second factor was that the Tigers played an extremely non-competitive non-conference schedule, just as LSU did in 2003, along with most of the other SEC teams.

Of Auburn's 11 regular-season games in 2004, seven were at home. The Tigers' three non-conference games were against Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech and I-AA Citadel—all at home. Compare that with USC (at Virginia Tech and BYU, home to Colorado State and Notre Dame) and Oklahoma (home against Bowling Green, Houston and Oregon), it's easy to see that both the voters and computers punished Auburn for its soft schedule.

The Tigers eked out a 16-13 win over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl to finish second in the final AP and coaches polls. But that didn't stop Tuberville and Auburn from declaring themselves champions. The Tigers made themselves big diamond rings to commemorate their "championship" season, and those rings became available on eBay.

Final BCS Standings: 1. USC, 2. Oklahoma, 3. Auburn, 4. Texas, 5. California, 6. Utah.


Alternative Methods

Using 1998-2003 (BCS I) formula: 1. USC, 2. Oklahoma, 3. Auburn, 4. Texas.

Likely four-team playoff: USC vs. Utah; Oklahoma vs. Auburn.

Since neither California nor Texas won its respective conference, Urban Meyer's undefeated Utes would have completed the field composed entirely of teams without a loss—the only time that could've happened in the BCS era.


Controversies

The Mack Brown Campaign: In 2003, Texas finished No. 5 in the BCS standings, but was relegated to the Holiday Bowl. The Longhorns seemed to be headed to San Diego again in 2004 before coach Mack Brown did something about that.

With undefeated Utah poised to become the first BCS buster, there was only one BCS bowl slot available to a non-conference champion. Since the No. 4 team was guaranteed an at-large spot, the race was on between Texas and California.

The Golden Bears had a tenuous hold on the fourth spot beginning in October, with their only loss all season coming in a 23-17 heartbreaker to USC at the L.A. Coliseum when Aaron Rodgers couldn't get the ball into the end zone from the 9-yard line in the game's waning moments. Texas's only loss was a 12-0 defeat at the Cotton Bowl against the Sooners.

After Cal routed archrival Stanford in the Big Game, its season should've been over, but once again, a hurricane proved to be a Pac-10 team's undoing, as it had in 1998. The Bears' Sept. 23 game at Southern Mississippi was postponed because of Hurricane Ivan, and was rescheduled for Dec. 4.

Texas finished its schedule on Nov. 26 after beating rival Texas A&M. Brown immediately started an endless media campaign on behalf of his No. 5-ranked Longhorns. His tactics also made the Cal-Southern Miss matchup something of a referendum on the Bears, whose game was nationally televised on ESPN.

Perhaps affected by the pressure and expectations, the Bears did not play an impressive game, but still won, 26-16. While Cal coach Jeff Tedford thought his team had done what it needed to secure the program's first Rose Bowl berth since 1959, others weren't so sure.

The Bears' worst fears were realized when they fell from No. 4 to No. 5 in the final BCS standings, as Texas snatched the coveted Rose Bowl berth. Voter defection carried the day. In the AP poll, Cal's advantage over Texas shrank from 85 points to 62.

The real story, however, was the coaches poll. In the penultimate standings, Cal held a 48-point lead over Texas. In the one that counted, it finished ahead by a mere five points. In other words, no fewer than 20 coaches switched their placements of Texas and Cal. Even more telling was that four coaches voted Cal No. 7 and two voted them No. 8—after a Bears victory, and behind a Georgia team with two losses.

Predictably, the Pac-10 was furious and demanded that the coaches disclose their final ballots. The AFCA refused, however, and disputed suggestions that impropriety had taken place behind a cloak of secrecy. The Longhorns went on to win the Rose Bowl behind the electrifying performance of sophomore quarterback Vince Young while the dispirited Bears were routed by Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl.

The Texas-California controversy had a long-lasting effect on the BCS standings. First, the AP poll refused to be included in the BCS standings after the 2004 season. Because all AP poll balloting is available to the public, some AP voters were harassed and threatened by fans who were unhappy with their decisions. The BCS had to scramble and invent the "Harris Interactive Poll" to replace the venerable and prestigious AP poll in the standings.

Second, to promote more transparency, the coaches reluctantly agreed to reveal their final regular-season balloting, beginning in 2005.

Through it all, Tedford took the high road. He didn't try to score an extra touchdown against Southern Miss in the game's final minutes to curry favor with the voters and never indulged in a war of words with Brown or anyone else. The final irony was that the AP poll's flip-flops alone would've put Texas ahead of Cal in the final standings, but the coaches ended up catching most of the heat because of their shenanigans.

2004 BCS Bowl Matchups

Bowl	Score	Attendance	TV Rating
Orange Bowl*	#1 USC 55, #2 Oklahoma 19	77,912	13.7
Rose Bowl	#4 Texas 38, #13 Michigan 37	93,468	12.4
Sugar Bowl	#3 Auburn 16, #8 Virginia Tech 13	77,349	9.5
Fiesta Bowl	#6 Utah 35, #21 Pittsburgh 7	73,519	7.4

BCS formula review: The BCS blew up its previous formula (BCS I) and started from scratch.

The BCS blew up its previous formula (BCS I) and started from scratch. The new formula (BCS II) comprised of only two parts—the human polls and computers. Strength of Schedule and Quality Win components were purged.

The human polls now accounted for two-thirds of the formula, with the AP poll (and later, Harris poll) and coaches polls each weighing one-third. Instead of using a team's actual ranking, the formula now called for the percentage of total votes received. This alteration actually created the deciding difference in the Texas-Cal controversy, as the old formula would've disregarded the vote-margin difference.

The computer ratings shrank further from seven to six as the New York Times bowed out. The new formula required strength of schedule to be part of each computer's calculations. The computer average counts for one-third of the formula, with the highest and lowest rating for each team discarded.

After replacing the AP with the Harris poll following the 2004 season, this formula has stayed intact through the end of BCS's existence.

Final analysis: The twin controversies engulfed the 2004 season, mitigated only somewhat by USC's impressive Orange Bowl win and "repeat" championship. But unlike the previous season, the BCS did not blow up the system and start from scratch again.

The nonchalant, near-shrug of a reaction actually, in the long term, saved the BCS. It's as if the BCS simply stated: "We're here to stay so deal with it."

It may have been because the BCS couldn't risk undergoing another wholesale change without completely destroying its already-tattered credibility, or it may have been because there just wasn't anything else to do short of going to a playoff system.

Either way, this steadfastness served the BCS well—for better or for worse. Despite some outcry in subsequent seasons, the public and media began to grudgingly accept the BCS for what it was and understand both its strengths and limitations.

The Lazarus-Like Resurrection of Big 12

About two years ago, the Big 12 was on its death bed.

The conference was on the operating table, waiting for a priest to read its last rites and a coroner to dissect its cause of death. Gored by a a Longhorn, maybe. Excessive bleeding of (Big) Red blood cells, another possibility.

But look at the Big 12 now. It's not only alive and well, it's the "it" conference, the talk of the college football world. More than half of its teams (six) are ranked in the top 20 of the latest simulated BCS standings. Its two new acquisitions are a combined 8-0 and one of them boasts the undisputed frontrunner for this year's Heisman Trophy.

If it weren't for an inexplicably late collapse by Oklahoma State, the Big 12 would've had a representative in last year's BCS title game. This year, five teams are currently unbeaten as the conference season gets under way to decide who'll be left standing and possibly finally sending someone to challenge Alabama.

To be sure, it will be a daunting task for whomever emerges as the Big 12 champion. For one, the Big 12 is now the only AQ conference to play a true round-robin schedule with nine conference games. There will be at most one undefeated team but more likely, none. And for another, because the misnomered Big 12 has only 10 teams and no conference championship game, a one-loss conference champion is unlikely to get a reprieve, as it was shown last year with the Cowboys.

Of the five unbeaten Big 12 teams - plus Oklahoma, which already lost to Kansas State - the team with the best potential to get to the national championship game is West Virginia, with Heisman favorite Geno Smith having just completed an otherworldly performance.

(FULL ARTICLE @ SB NATION)

All Eyes Are Upon Texas

The Big 12 Conference at the moment shares much resemblance with the Holy Roman Empire in its dying days. It's neither Big, nor 12, and pretty soon, it might not be a conference anymore.

Blame that on the Longhorn Network.

The University of Texas' fledgling television network is reason No. 1 for all the current upheaval in college football. As a result, the expansions by the Big Ten and Pac-12 last year are merely a prelude to a much bigger revolution to come.

Chafing at the founding of the Longhorn Network and the preferential treatment Texas would be getting in the new, weakened Big 12, Texas A&M finally had had enough and decided to leave the conference, at any cost. Oklahoma, equally not amused, will soon make its westward haul and land in the Pac-12 (14?), taking Oklahoma State with it.

With Pitt and Syracuse officially moving to the ACC, Texas' only other safety chute has been effectively closed. Now the Longhorns are faced with two choices, and what they decide to do will finally complete the realignment frenzy, perhaps for the foreseeable future.

Texas' contract with ESPN stipulates that the Longhorn Network may only be disbanded if Texas leaves the Big 12, meaning that Texas cannot "save" the Big 12 in its current state. UT and OU can still save their rivalry - but only as fellow members of the Pac-16, with the Longhorn Network aborted in its infancy.

So the fork in the road is at hand for Texas. What it decides will bring down the rest of the dominoes.

If it chooses to go Route 1, keeping the Longhorn Network in a reconstituted Big 12, this is how the new conferences most likely would shape up:

• Big 12 - Bring the old Southwest Conference band back together, replacing A&M, OU and OSU with TCU, SMU and BYU, and possibly adding Houston and Tulsa to round it back up to 12
• Pac-14 - Add OU and OSU
• Big Ten - Do nothing
• SEC - Add West Virginia and Texas A&M
• ACC - Add Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Rutgers and UConn to become the only 16-team conference
• Big East - Add Central Florida, Memphis, East Carolina, Temple and have Villanova move up to D-IA to form a eight-team conference

In this scenario, the Big 12 may barely have enough juice to preserve its automatic bid in the BCS. The Big East likely would lose its, leaving just five auto-bid conferences.

Or, Texas may decide to junk the Longhorn Network and cut its losses, joining OU and OSU a year after Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott made his ambitious powerplay:

• Big 12 - Effectively disintegrates, with each member fleeing to a new conference
• Pac-16 - Take OU, OSU, Texas and Texas Tech
• Big Ten - Add Notre Dame and Kansas
• SEC - Take Missouri and Florida State, in addition to Texas A&M and West Virginia
• ACC - Add Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Rutgers, UConn and South Florida to form a 16-team conference
• Big East - Add Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State and keep TCU, plus Central Florida and Villanova to have eight teams, though now much more oriented toward the Midwest than the East

In this scenario, there will be also just five BCS conferences: three with 16 members (Pac-16, SEC and ACC) and one with 14 members (Big Ten). If this should occur, we might be done with realignment for quite awhile.

(And this is making your head spin, check out our helpful Conference Affiliation spreadsheet)

So it's all up to Texas and what will it do? The guess here is that the Longhorns will abandon their eponymous network to accept a membership in the Pac-16. The TV venture so far has been a disaster, with prep games barred from being shown on it and few cable/satellite operators willing to take it on. When DirecTV openly questioned whether two UT football games constitutes "a network," the message seemed to be loud and clear.

Maybe they can show "A Bridge Too Far" on the night the Longhorn Network bids its farewell.

The Guru's BlogPoll Ballot (Week 5)

The Guru's BlogPoll ballot this week, with a number of changes from last week, particularly Texas being dropped out of the poll altogether. Find the nuggets below:

BCS Guru Ballot - Week 5

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	1
2	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-1
3	Boise St. Broncos	--
4	TCU Horned Frogs	1
5	Oregon Ducks	2
6	Utah Utes	4
7	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-1
8	Stanford Cardinal	7
9	Florida Gators	-1
10	Oklahoma Sooners	-1
11	Nevada Wolf Pack	10
12	Arizona Wildcats	7
13	Wisconsin Badgers	-2
14	USC Trojans	-2
15	N.C. State Wolfpack	--
16	Missouri Tigers	2
17	LSU Tigers	3
18	Iowa Hawkeyes	4
19	Michigan Wolverines	4
20	Auburn Tigers	4
21	Arkansas Razorbacks	-7
22	West Virginia Mountaineers	3
23	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-10
24	Air Force Falcons	--
25	Miami Hurricanes	--
Dropouts: Texas Longhorns, Fresno St. Bulldogs, Pittsburgh Panthers

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

* Why is Texas dropping from No. 4 to all the way out of the ballot? Simple. The way the Longhorns played this season, especially after getting pistol-whipped by UCLA on Saturday, does not warrant their being included on the ballot. Texas had trouble beating two god-awful teams (Rice and Wyoming), one middling (Texas Tech) and lost to one that couldn't handle Kansas State and was annihilated by Stanford. That's not the resume of a top 25 team and the future isn't all that bright for this ordinary squad, either.

* Alabama and Ohio State flip-flopped for the top two spots. The Tide's stirring comeback over Arkansas, on the road, is a better victory than Ohio State's signature win, a home victory over Miami. 'Bama has beaten two ranked teams (also a rout of Penn State) whereas the Buckeyes mostly toured the MAC.

* Penn State plummets by 10 spots despite a narrow win over Temple. It's not so much that the Owls are awful (they're actually not), but with a few one-loss teams emerging on the ballot, Penn State's place needed to be adjusted. Frankly, the Lions don't deserve to be ranked ahead of Arkansas, who nearly beat Alabama (even though it's at home).

* Other teams considered for this week: Texas, South Carolina, Houston, Florida State, Clemson, Kansas State and Michigan State.