Headlines: BCS Snoozer

The Bowl Championship Series kicked off yesterday with two absolute snoozers. USC throttled Illinois in the Rose Bowl and Georgia absolutely crushed Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl night cap. If I wasn't aware which month it was, I could have mistaken this year's Sugar Bowl for the Bulldogs season opener against a Sun Belt Conference opponent. With 2 BCS games down and 3 to go, the 2007 BCS might soon be renamed the Blowout Championship Series. And that seems to be precisely the way the BCS powers that be wanted it.

Pairing two teams with a legitimate National title shot against lower BCS ranked opponents leaves little doubt with fans and the media that the BCS elevated the right teams to #1 and #2. Now there is no chance of that four letter word "split National championship" since #7 USC and #5 UGA beat down on lowly BCS opponents and didn't face each other.

The Illini pick for the Rose Bowl just goes to show how screwed up this college football postseason truly is. I cringed every time I watched the ESPN/ABC commercials plugging this year's Rose Bowl - "Big 10. Pac 10. The way it was meant to be." Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the "way it was meant to be" the Big 10 conference champion versus the Pac 10 conference champion? Was it so bad, Rose Bowl Committee, when Texas won back to back Rose Bowls only two years ago? Wasn't the 2006 game between Texas and USC the most watched college football game since the 1987 Fiesta Bowl? And arguably the best championship game in sports history? Yet we feel obligated to honor some stuffy East-West tradition and place 9-3 Illinois in a BCS game over other deserving teams simply because they play in the Big 10 conference.

Meanwhile, yesterday in Dallas, BCS snubee Missouri routed the Razorbacks in the Cotton Bowl. I'll bet it was sweet for the Mizzou Tigers to see the Illini unravel in Pasadena, and I'm sure there are more than a few Tiger fans that are rooting for Virginia Tech to beat Kansas big in the Orange Bowl.


But what does it all mean for the Boston College Eagles? Simply this. That year in, year out, the only goal BC should have is winning the ACC championship. Nothing else matters. Until college football championships are won on the field of play in some sort of football playoff (see: every other division of college football), it will never be an even playing field for schools like BC. So, Eagles fans, don't concern yourselves with top 10 finishes, hacks like Jux Berg, BCS at-larges, and the convoluted formulas that comprise the current FBS BCS system. They don't matter. Even if you finish in the top 14 of the BCS standings, you probably aren't getting a BCS at-large bid unless you:

A) travel well
B) don't lose the ACC / SEC / Big 12 conference championship game
C) are a large state school with a storied football history, or
D) are a member of the Big 10 (thank you, Tournament of Roses Association).

And until there is a playoff, all Eagles should strive for is to pelt oranges at each other in a wacky post-game locker room celebration in Tampa on December 6, 2008.