BCS Madness???

Given how my UCLA Bruins bumbled and stumbled to a 6-6 record this year behind now former coach Karl Dorrell, I didn't follow college football nearly as closely I might otherwise have. College basketball season couldn't come soon enough for me!

That said, I've still paid some attention to this crazy college football season where the top ranked teams lost much more often than usual. Only Hawaii (who played a very weak schedule) managed to go undefeated through the regular season. Ohio St. and Kansas both lost once. Everyone else lost at least twice this year.

This takes me to the BCS rankings. The top 10 stood like this as of last weekend:

1. Missouri
2. West Virginia
3. Ohio State
4. Georgia
5. Kansas
6. Virginia Tech
7. LSU
8. USC
9. Oklahoma
10. Florida

True to 2007 season form, the top two teams lost this past Saturday. #1 Missouri fell to #9 Oklahoma 38-17, and #2 West Virginia was stunned 13-9 by unranked Pittsburgh. #3 Ohio State, #4 Georgia, #5 Kansas and #10 Florida were all idle this past weekend. #6 Virginia Tech beat #12 ranked Boston College 30-16. #7 LSU got by #14 Tennessee 21-14. And #8 USC beat my unranked Bruins 24-7.

Other than Oklahoma's stunning upset of Missouri, where they completely took over the game in the second half, none of the other ranked team's victories was all that impressive. Virginia Tech was tied with Boston College with only 7 1/2 minutes to play in that one. LSU was tied with Tennessee with less than two minutes to play. In other words, both of these were close games which could have gone either way. USC didn't look all that great against UCLA - my Bruins just did not seem to be in that game at all from the opening kickoff.

With that said, you would logically figure that Ohio State would move up to #1 in the rankings and Georgia to #2 and be playing for the BCS Championship... but NOOOOO... Here's what we got with yesterday's BCS rankings:

1. Ohio State
2. LSU
3. Virginia Tech
4. Oklahoma
5. Georgia
6. Missouri
7. USC
8. Kansas
9. West Virginia
10. Hawaii

All I can say is how? Ohio State should be #1. I have no problem with that at all. But LSU going 7 to 2 after a VERY unimpressive win? Virginia Tech going 6 to 3 after an almost equally unimpressive win? And why do we move Oklahoma up 9 to 4 after beating the previous #1 ranked team??? This is the same Oklahoma team that lost to unranked Texas Tech two weekends earlier and who had only beaten two ranked teams the entire season! In the meantime, Georgia sat idle and fell a spot. Why??? Arguably, the Bulldogs are playing the best football in the country at the moment, winning six straight games - three of which came against ranked opponents!!! Kansas sat idle too, and fell from 5 to 8... then again, they hardly played a good team all year save for now #6 ranked Missouri who beat them 36-28 the previous Saturday.

#1 vs #2? We didn't get it this year, and that's a shame! The only solace that those of us who think Georgia should be in the championship game is that they get a shot at putting a blemish on #10 Hawaii's undefeated season in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day.

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