A typical response from another UC Bears fan. Coochee, cochee , cooo. HOOK'EM HORNS!!!
Posted on 12/05/2004 7:59:17 PM PST by pete anderson
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- California refused to run up the score or beg for poll votes.
Maybe the Bears should have.
Cal (10-1) was left out of the Bowl Championship Series, denied one of the eight spots in college football's big-money games despite a season of statistical superlatives and dominating victories.
The fourth-ranked Golden Bears will be stuck at the Holiday Bowl while Texas plays in the Rose Bowl.
Cal's Rose Bowl drought reached 46 years despite one of the best regular seasons in school history.
The Bears felt beaten as they left their team meeting. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers saw confusion and disappointment in his teammates when they found out their Rose Bowl dreams were replaced with a trip to San Diego to face Texas Tech.
``It just shows it's a faulty system, and we've got to do something to change it up,'' Rodgers said. ``I bet Auburn is pretty ticked, too. ... Nobody cares about West Coast football, I don't think. I just hope Southern Cal represents us well.''
Texas (10-1) surged past the Bears in the final BCS standings despite Cal's 26-16 road victory over Southern Mississippi on Saturday night. The Longhorns gained points in both polls, and the computer rankings kept Texas well in front of Cal. The Longhorns will face Michigan (9-2) on Jan. 1.
There were dozens of factors in the decision, but the Bears felt they were superior in almost every venue -- except the political arena. Rodgers figured Texas coach Mack Brown's pleading for poll support made a difference, and he was glad Cal coach Jeff Tedford never did likewise.
``I thought it was a little classless how Coach Brown was begging for votes after the (Texas A&M) game,'' Rodgers said. ``I think a team's record and the way you play should speak for itself, and you shouldn't have to complain about the BCS system. Coach Tedford isn't going to, although he's frustrated just like we are. I think we're a bigger team, classier than that.''
Tedford was less emotional than Rodgers, but no less disappointed as he evaluated the Bears' long list of accomplishments.
The only blemish on their record was a six-point loss at top-ranked USC. They beat 10 teams by an average of 23.9 points per game. They were the only school in the nation's top six both in scoring offense and scoring defense.
The Rose Bowl has matched a Big 10 team against a Pac-10 school for decades, and with the Pac-10 champion Trojans headed to the Orange Bowl, Cal hoped to end the conference's longest Rose Bowl drought. Instead, there will be burnt orange in the Pasadena stands.
``I just feel terrible for the alumni and the fans who have waited so long for this,'' Tedford said. ``As a program, we were set on the Rose Bowl. I felt like we did enough to earn that.''
Most of the Bears still were jet-lagged and exhausted after grinding out a victory in Hattiesburg just 18 hours earlier in a game postponed from Sept. 16 by Hurricane Ivan. The late-season road trip provided a national television audience -- but when the Golden Eagles were difficult to put away, it might have swayed some voters away.
And that was baffling to Tedford, who refused to try to score one last touchdown in the waning seconds to pad the score. The Bears also were hurt by a questionable clipping call in the closing minutes, which negated a touchdown run by J.J. Arrington.
Normally, Tedford wouldn't spare a second's thought on such issues -- but in the BCS world, it might have made a difference.
``If yesterday's game was the game that turned anybody's head, then that's sad, because it's about a season,'' Tedford said. ``We're going to keep our same philosophy. It's hard enough just to win games.''
Sorry, vetvetdoug, your memory fails you. Tennessee has never won the Rose Bowl, but they did LOSE it twice. The Big 10/PAC 10 agreement ran from 1947 until the BCS screwed it up, along with other traditional bowl pairings. The BCS has not improved upon the old method of using one or two polls to determine Nat'l Champs. If it did, we would not be hearing arguments every year about some school getting shafted.
A typical response from another UC Bears fan. Coochee, cochee , cooo. HOOK'EM HORNS!!!
Yes, that's right. Thanks for the memory.
My fiance and I were planning to get married at Christmas and attend the Rose bowl on our honeymoon in 1958-9 because my school (Cal) was going to play his school(Northwestern). At the last minute Northwestern lost its chance for a berth at the Rose Bowl and Michigan played instead. We postponed our wedding until the end of my semester (January 30) as a result and honeymooned in Wisconsin.
We're still married and will celebrate our 46th anniversary February 7 (and, by coincidence, now we live in Wisconsin).
Get out of town - $$ talk and WI, OSU, LSU, MI, IA, TN, Auburn, VA Tech would all be favored over Texas AM, Tech Tech and Oklahoma State in Vegas - And that is the bottom-line...(they are most certainly over-ranked) - You don't follow lines in Vegas at all to even suggest otherwise - You'd be giving 6 to 10 pts ...period.
Finally, someone mentions the team that really got screwed, except for their at least being in the BCS bowl system, instead of outside looking in. It took 11 wins and an unbeaten season to do it. Now we can hope the Utes don't choke on pitt, and remain unbeaten while the rest of the unbeaten are beaten. Not sure if any unbeaten are playing unbeaten in bowl games.
Quite a few conservatives came out of my class at Michigan.
Here is the basic problem with the BCS. There are 4 or maybe 5 historically important bowl games: Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Rose, and in recent years Fiesta. So, one might think that the 8-10 slots in these games would be filled by the 8-10 top BCS teams. However, if you are a West Coast team this will never happen. Your only chance is the Rose Bowl, or whichever bowl hosts the 1-2 teams if you are #1 or #2. Why? Follow the money trail. The bowl committees know that they will sell more tickets if the schools involved are fairly close to the site of the game. It is 1500-3000 miles for West Coast fans to all of the top games other than the Rose Bowl and the Fiesta bowl. Hence, you will not see a good West coast team invited to the Orange, Sugar, or Cotton bowls, unless under the circumstances described above.
I think Cal got screwed, and I'm a Stanford alum.
In addition to that, consider the teams in the conference -- including Georgia and LSU (both 9-2), Florida (7-4) and even Alabama (6-5) who finished the season with all of their losses to other teams in the conference.
That's what makes the SEC such a tough conference. All the good teams seem to beat each other every year, and the top-ranked team in the conference usually finishes the season with one loss.
Really, there is only one solution to the BCS mess. Let ME pick the bowl matchups.
Like I said before, they decide champions in Division I-A the same way they decide who wins in Figure Skating. Might as well have the judges after every game hold up cards with the number of "style points." I would have given USC a "4.5" for their win over UCLA.
Not a chance. VT is #9. And I don't think Auburn will thrash the Hokies. Too much defense.
I disagree. The conf champs gives teams that play tough schedules. That's why I think Auburn should be in the big game. If you are undefeated in the SEC, you should play for the big game.
Texas will bring more eyeballs to the TV screen than Cal, so the result was perhaps predictable. Got to keep those advertisers happy. ;)
I also detest Michigan, but I'll be rooting for them this year after what the BCS did to Cal. I hope the PAC-10 does pull out of the BCS.
One of the reasons I like I-AA football better than the Big Guys.
They have a playoff system. How novel!!
IMO, I-A football will continue to be a laughing stock as long as a computer decides who's the champion. Sorry to break it to all you college football fans, but the titles are meaningless. Thanks to the BCS, we'll never know who is really #1.
Don't knock Michigan too much. Michigan has won more games than any other team in the history of football and also has the highest winning percentage.
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