Posted on 12/02/2013 8:34:12 AM PST by xzins
With one week to go before the BCS rankings leave us forever, an undefeated Big Ten power missing out on the national championship is somehow an actual worry. Meanwhile, Florida State's sitting pretty. Full standings below.
It doesn't matter that Ohio State went 12-0 last year. It doesn't matter that an unbeaten Auburn was shut out of the BCS National Championship in 2004. It doesn't matter that Ohio State has lost two national title games against SEC teams in recent years. It doesn't matter that the SEC has won seven straight championships.
Or at least it shouldn't.
What will matter, however, is whether the BCS polls and computers rank Ohio State or Auburn No. 2 next week, assuming the Buckeyes and (burnt orange and navy blue) Tigers win their respective conferences. We'd thought we were just about done with the season's series of debates over which team should rank No. 2 and which should rank No. 3, but we've only just now arrived at the biggest one yet.
For now, the updated BCS standings after Week 14's wild weekend:
A win by either the Spartans or the other Tigers would render all this moot (except for Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs suddenly becoming a huge Mizzou* fan, we trust).
* Though Missouri would have a better case for No. 2 than Auburn would, if you ask me, since the (black and gold) Tigers have spent most of the year smashing fools by exorbitant margins. But nobody's asking me. Mizzou's probably too far back to jump that far, barring insanity.
If our new Nos. 2 and 3 win their conferences, the polls would be where Florida State finds its Pasadena opponent. While many voters would fall back on the SEC's presumed strength of schedule and difficulty (and most strength of schedule numbers do rate Auburn's as tougher so far), others would sympathize with a 13-0 BCS conference champion that was ineligible last year. At the moment, the Buckeyes hold that advantage, and would any voters who were unconvinced by an Auburn win over Alabama really be swayed by one over Missouri?
The difference could be Urban Meyer, who's successfully stumped his team into a BCS National Championship before -- and that was an SEC team at the expense of a Big Ten team. But do voters still think of Meyer as they did then? Whether Meyer's national profile has changed since '06 due to various controversies would actually matter. Like, actually help determine the season's champion. That's insane and ridiculous, but it's the system.
We don't know whether Auburn or Ohio State would win the right to go play FSU if the two played on a neutral field. We don't have a playoff yet, not for 12 more months. We do know the Buckeyes have won all but two of their games by multiple scores, while Auburn's won by a single score six times (including the two luckiest, most improbable winning plays of the year). Auburn's also lost a game by 14 points. Gus Malzahn and Nick Marshall have led an immaculate rebuild, but let's not let that loss be a footnote.
So it begins. One more week. The only vital contributions to the debate going forward will be those made by the players on the field in the Big Ten and SEC championship games.
I agree. It’s sad the SEC fans just can’t handle the fact that the SEC isn’t the powerful division is once was. Now losing to another SEC team really isn’t a good excuse.
I really noticed this year they were way over-hyped. But the Big 10 use to be that way and it took a while for perception to change. Now SEC is the way over-hyped conference. This year the Big 10 is better than they are given credit for but among all the conferences there is only a couple very strong teams but even the strong teams have weaknesses.
OSU & Alabama have suspect defenses. Michigan State has a good chance of winning this weekend...I think they are way underrated and may surprise everyone.
As an old phart myself, I have to ask why they have a 73 yr old guy announcing the big game?
Would you clarify this jibberish? You may have a point in there, but the way you wrote it, you conflated teams and conferences and ended up making a bass ackward point………how does a conference go undefeated two years in a row? OR, how does Ohio State going undefeated two years in a row prove the SEC is over rated or that the Big Ten is great??????? You make no sense here…..so try again….
"...if GOD be for us, who can be against us?..." :-)
I thought teams played in the title game not a conference. If OSU or FSU has to play the entire SEC then something isn’t fair about that. But then that’s how the SEC hype works.
Putting myself in the CBS exec suite for a second……they probably think has a nice voice, easy to listen to in a living room….and he knows when to shut up and let the game do the talking itself.
Who has Auburn and Missouri lost to?
Who has Ohio State lost to in the past two years?
BTW, The NCAA for basketball uses SOS for tourney placement. The weekly rankings also consider SOS.
Hard for the Media to rank fairly with so much money invested in the BSC elite...
And the SEC hurts itself in some ways….to wit….SC is far better than Clemson is, again this year….and yet, Clemson will likely go to a BCS bowl game and SC will not.
And FTR, you heard it here first: Mizzou to romp Auburn in SEC title game. Mizzou is hot and Auburn has cashed in ten years worth of chips the last couple weeks…...
The SEC has won the BCS Championship 7 years in a row. Until some other conference can demonstrate some parity with the SEC, which none has recently, the SEC should have the right to defend its supremacy with a one-loss team. Oregon and Notre Dame talked some hype, but they melted when they came out to play the big boys. I give FL State some respect, but not Ohio State as long as they hide behind their schedule in a 2nd class conference, undefeated or not. The Big 10 needs to prove they are worthy again. They used to be, but they haven’t been in quite a while. I look forward to the day the Big 10 can redeem themselves. It is much more fun to “hate” (in a competitive sense) them that way . . . :)
That’s another incomplete, nonsensical and straw argument?
Nice to see my Hawkeyes crack the top 25, finally.
I was writing that for SEC fanboys to understand. They always talk about their best team as being the whole conference.
So OSU has to be better than an entire conference...split it up how ever you like.
>> Baylor should be ranked higher.
Why? So they’ll have further to fall when my Longhorns destroy them next weekend?
(I’ll give you a couple minutes to stop laughing and compose your witty retort. :-) )
Well SOS doesn’t work if it uses the media rankings in their calculations.
ESPN started hating on the Big10 when the Big10 got it’s own network. Now that the SEC has one starting next year I bet ESPN starts to back another conference.
Well SEC fanboys can get irritating, but they do have a point. 7 straight BCS titles is no fluke. And they have demonstrated far superior speed in almost every single Big Ten SEC match up in the past 7 years as well…..in almost any bowl game at any level…..be it for the national title or a pair of 6-6 or 7-5 type teams.
Three out of the top 5 teams in the country are from the SEC. There are 7 SEC teams ranked in the top 25 compared to two for the Big Ten.
the SEC doesn’t play in the game a team does. By that argument last years winner should always get to play in the title game.
That is just stupid.
That’s paranoid…..the Big Ten network thing……and the Big Ten has a good many fans on the ESPN staff…...
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