[NU Sports] BCS used to stand for ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

... Bowden Computer System after FSU made all those conspicuous title game
appearances despite other 1-loss teams (in some cases who had BEATEN FSU)
sitting out of the title game.

With "Saint" Bobby's demise into a league where he's forced to play more
than one competitive game per year, the BCS may now have to be renamed the
Big XII Computer System.

If OU comes back from 45-10, it'll be a heck of a game, but I'm tired and
gonna call it for the Trojans. So if that holds up, since OU won its title
over a disputed #2 FSU team in 2000 ...

* 2001: A Nebraska team that didn't even PLAY for its league title and gave
up 63 points in its final game, a loss, was somehow placed in the title
game against Miami over 1-loss Oregon ... and the Big XII team was soundly
beaten.

* 2003: An Oklahoma team that LOST its league title game (and not by a
small margin either) was somehow placed in the title game against LSU over
1-loss USC ... and the Big XII team was soundly beaten.

* 2004: An Oklahoma team that needed a couple fortunate breaks to escape
from Aggieland and Bedlam was somehow placed in the title game against USC
over an unbeaten Auburn team that had defeated three top-10 foes and ran
the table in the SEC ... and the Big XII team was soundly beaten.

There was no such luck in 2002 because OSU made it through unbeaten while
OU slipped up late in the year, but when the early BCS rankings came out,
the eventual champ Buckeyes were behind the Sooners and Hurricanes.

In the other three years, the computers were a big part in helping the Big
XII team (USC was #1 in the two human polls, OU #1 in the computers) ...
heck, you'd think Jeff Sagarin went to Kansas instead of Indiana the way
the Big XII seems to have half the teams in his top 10 every year.

I think it's time to look at the last four or five seasons and realize that
the Big XII has been seriously overrated as a conference. Texas had a nice
bowl win this year over Michigan in a game that could have gone either way,
and Tech blitzed an uninspired Cal, but Oklahoma, Okie State and A&M were
soundly defeated by Big Ten, Pac 10 and SEC foes in front of what were
pretty much home crowds for the Big XII schools. They rarely have big wins
outside of league play in September (though Texas will get a chance next
year in the Shoe) -- I'll go back to what I said in picking against OU last
eyar about how in 2003, Texas lost to Arkansas, OU barely scraped by Bama,
Nebraska squeaked past Penn State and KSU was beaten by Marshall.

No doubt there are some good teams and incredible talent in the Big XII ...
but it gets treated as this super conference when it hasn't really shown
that it deserves to be up with the SEC and Big Ten in overall quality and
depth yet.

It's too bad we didn't get to see Auburn and Southern Cal.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT


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