Oklahoma coach admits only conference champs should play in BCS title game.

Associated Press ^ | AP

[SoCal Pubbie]

NORMAN, Okla. -- If his team wins the rest of its games, Bob Stoops will have No. 1 Oklahoma in the national championship game for the second time in three years. Defending national champion and second-ranked Miami could go undefeated and miss out on the Fiesta Bowl.

So it's not surprising that Stoops and Coker might have different opinions of the Bowl Championship Series system, which determines who plays for the national title. Stoops wouldn't mind seeing changes to the BCS, and Coker likes the system roughly the way it is.

Wait a minute.

The coach whose team has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the BCS wants a playoff? And the coach whose team is on course to be jilted by the system for the second time in three seasons approves of it?

Exactly.

"There needs to be some type of playoff system,'' Stoops said. "Some of it (the BCS) makes sense and is good. Other parts of it don't make sense, and it's bad. They need to eliminate the parts that don't make sense and get it to make sense more.''

Oklahoma (8-0) has a solid lead this week's BCS rankings, which take into account the Associated Press media poll, the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll and six computer rankings. If the Sooners win their final four regular-season games and the Big 12 championship game, they will play in the Fiesta Bowl for the national title.

STOOPS SAID THE TEAMS THAT PLAY FOR THE NATIONAL TITLE SHOULD AT LEAST HAVE WON A CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP. Nebraska made it to the national championship game after not even winning the North Division of the Big 12.

"What'll happen this year, I don't know,'' he said. "I don't even bother to speculate. I don't much care. All I care about is going to play Texas A&M this week. Hopefully, down the road they'll find a way to tweak it or incorporate some type of playoff, but usethe bowls to use it. I think it would be great.''

Stoops suggested possibly an eight-team playoff that would involve seven BCS bowl games, with the championship game being rotated among those bowls. Or perhaps just rotating it among four BCS bowls.

"They need a lot smarter people than me to figure it out,'' he said.

The Hurricanes (8-0) are third in the BCS rankings behind Oklahoma and Ohio State. Even if they win their remaining four games, there's a possibility they could stay there, which would open the system to even harsher criticism.

Still, Coker likes the bowl system. He spent four years as an assistant coach at Tulsa and seven seasons as an assistant at Oklahoma State, learning that bowl games are better for the majority of teams in the country.

"I don't really want to see a 16-team playoff,'' Coker said. "If you have 117 teams, you have 116 losers. When I was with Jimmy (Johnson) at Oklahoma State, we were a good football team. We weren't a great football team. We lost to Nebraska, we lost to Oklahoma and lost late to Missouri. We're going to be in no national championship playoff at all, but we got invited to the Bluebonnet Bowl. It's not even a bowl anymore.

"We go and there's 55,000 people, crowded, packed and we win the game. It's like we won a national championship. Our fans were elated, Jimmy's a great coach and now gets this opportunity at the University of Miami. Assistant coaches get rehired. But if you have one winner, then there are a lot of losers out there. From a coaching standpoint, I like to see a lot of coaches have an opportunity to win and their programs have an opportunity to win.''

Coker said he might favor a one-game playoff that would take two of the four winners of the BCS bowls and let them play for the title.

"But who would select those teams? Me? My wife? Maybe a committee of retired coaches,'' he said. ``There's always going to be those problems.''

Coker admitted he might change his tune if the BCS rankings stay unchanged.

"If we're third in the country (in the BCS) and two teams go and we don't, then oh yeah, we definitely need a playoff,'' he said.

[SoCal Pubbie]

After the Trojans BEAT the Crimson Tide AT Alabama!

[squidly]

Figured that was coming. You should go back and watch the tape of the Rose Bowl that year vs. Michigan, to see Charles White fumble before he crossed the goal line to score the winning "touchdown". That's a big part of why USC lost the AP vote. If it weren't for Purdue's coach voting Alabama #5, UA most likely would have won the coach's poll as well.

I could go on about how Alabama was robbed in '77 (when they beat USC at the Coliseum), but that's more of an Alabama vs. Notre Dame argument.

[DocJ69]

Hey do you all play in a real football conference? I'm a K-State fan, and we were lucky with the calls that turned the game. White wasn't himself. You guy are whinning like a bunch of Gore democrats. If you play real football you might get in the big game. Besides you're goning to get beat by Mich. Find a real football conference! You and the SEC would be real happy tofether they whine too.

[DocJ69]

Hey do you all play in a real football conference? I'm a K-State fan, and we were lucky with the calls that turned the game. White wasn't himself. You guys are whining like a bunch of Gore Democrats. If you play real football you might get in the big game. Besides you're going to get beat by Mich. Find a real football conference! You and the SEC would be real happy together they whine too.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

What is he going to do, refuse the bid, the school would have his hide.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Ouch, a little harsh. I agree, I am not impressed by the Pac-10 overall. The Big 10 and Big 12 are the two best conferences in football. The ACC will be interesting next year with Virginia Tech and Miami, but I think Big 10 and Big 12 football is the best.

[rogue yam]

This Wolverine isn't getting tired of the talk. On the contrary I'm loving it! Let the whole country keep right on yammering away about LSU, USC, and "the three top teams." Lloyd Carr and our team are getting down to business in Ann Arbor. It's all going to be decided on the field. Sure, if Michigan wins most people will say the Sugar Bowl winner is the "National Champion." So what? USC is (legitimately) ranked #1 in both polls. They are playing essentially at home in a classic Big 10 vs. Pac 10 New Year's Day matchup. If Michigan beats them convincingly, then to me we're as entitled as anyone to say we're the champs.

[raptor29]

Was Michigan 'impressed' with Oregon earlier this year? Was Iowa 'impressed' with USC last year in the Orange Bowl?

C'mon, the Pac-10 was slightly 'down' this year, but year after year, they put top-level teams out there. Very difficult league in which to go undefeated, because all the teams are generally balanced, can pass very well, and can put 35 points on you if they click.

[genew]

"Some of it (the BCS) makes sense and is good. Other parts of it don't make sense, and it's bad."

GIGO

[bourbon]

Seeing as USC is located in LA, I never did understand why the USC cheerleaders wore sweaters. But man, am I thankful that they do!!!
( They look hot as hell in them! )

BTW, that girl in the pic looks a lot like Rudi Bakhtiar (sp?) from CNN.
yummy.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Yes, Pac-10 teams have beaten Big 10 teams, no kidding. But as a whole, the Big 10 is a much better conference. The Big 10 defied all expectations last Bowl season and had the best Bowl Record of every major conference 5-2 I believe. This year, the Big 10 was a tight race, a number of very good teams. The Pac 10 tends to have one or two or three good teams, and the rest are miserable, The Pac 3 as someone refered to it as. I do think that comparison holds. Team for team, the Big 10 is the stronger conference, that isn't to say USC isn't good, they are very very very good, but that doesn't make up for a weak conference. USC and Washington St., that's it. Big 10 had Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan St. and Purdue all finish near the top, vying in the last four weeks, until Michigan pulled away. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa are also strong teams, albeit not at the same level as a Michigan, but certainly better than any of the middleweights are almost champs of the Pac 10. I'd say even the bad teams of the Big 10, Indiana, Penn State, Illinois and Northwestern are better than the Pac 10's Arizona, Arizona St. etc. Team for team the Big 10 and Big 12 are much better conferences.

[arkfreepdom]

I guess if not winning your conference rules out NC's, then we need to do away with the at large bids for the the BB championships. We lost one game to a good team on a neutral field. Why is everyone hammering us? We didn't write the rules.

[PRND21]

The Big 10 defied all expectations last Bowl season

Iowa, the Big Ten champ got smoked by USC. Try again.

[PRND21]

Make that 2nd place Iowa.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Let us see. Ohio State won the National Championship, no one gave OSU a chance in heck of winning that game. And you cannot argue with record. The Big 10 went 5-2, the Pac 10 was horrible, if I am not mistaken, USC was the only Pac 10 team to win a bowl game, now that was respectable ... not. The Big 10 was the best Bowl Conference last season. Seven Bowl Teams, five victories, no conference had a winning percentage like that (with more than two teams).

[PRND21]

You said,

The Big 10 defied all expectations last Bowl season

USC smoked Iowa and OSU managed to not lose in a bad game against overated Miami.

[Husker8877]

And I could go on about how the Huskers were the only team to beat Alabama that year (in Lincoln, 1977). We were very happy that Bama then went to the Coliseum the next week and beat USC handily.

But I guess that would be bragging about a game I proudly played in 25 million years ago, and I would sound like some glory-day ex-jock...

(One funny aside--after we beat the Bear, a frat guy I knew stole his hat right off his head! Right past the guards, grabbed it and ran! The hat is now proudly displayed in the foyer of that UNL frat, with a picture of a hatless Bear--mad that we not only beat him, we stole his hat!!!)

[yarddog]

You must need glasses.

She is a 7 at least, maybe even an eight but definitely not a one.

[GnL]

Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa are also strong teams, albeit not at the same level as a Michigan

Except that Iowa beat Michigan this year. Hmmm.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Wisconsin beat Ohio State, but I don't think Ohio State is a stronger team this year. Whoever USC lost to, I don't think is a better team than USC, just as I still don't think KSU is better than OU, KSU just really showed up to play and OU didn't. Simple as that. As someone said once I am sure, "That's why you play the game."