in a national title game. For TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State, the math
doesn't quite add up but they still get a spot in a BCS bowl.
The quirky, imperfect method of
choosing a national champion succeeded Sunday in matching top-ranked
Alabama against No. 2 Texas in the BCS championship — a Jan. 7 game
between undefeated teams that will bring together Heisman Trophy
hopefuls Colt McCoy of the Longhorns and Mark Ingram of the Crimson
Tide.
And, of course, it also produced plenty for the little guys to get upset about.
No. 3 TCU, No. 4 Cincinnati and No. 6
Boise State also finished undefeated. All three were included in the
BCS, but none will play for the title — a predictable result that will
renew the annual debate about college football's way of determining the
best team in the land.
"It's a fair question," said BCS
executive director Bill Hancock. "The fact is that the charge of the
BCS is to match 1 and 2 in the bowl system. It's a limited charge. It's
what the BCS is designed to do. Based on the season's play, we're
confident we've matched 1 and 2."
Seeking its first national title
since 1992, Alabama opens as a 3-point favorite for the game at the
Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. That's the place where Vince Young almost
single-handedly led Texas to a victory over Southern California in 2006
to claim the national title.
The other BCS matchups: Oregon
against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl; Iowa against Georgia Tech in the
Orange; Florida against Cincinnati in the Sugar and TCU against Boise
State in the Fiesta.
The TCU-Boise State game also will
pit a pair of undefeateds against each other, two teams from small
conferences that don't always get automatic spots in the BCS. This is
the first time in BCS history that two of the small schools have been
selected. Both should be expected to use the title-game snub as
motivation.
"We're here to prove a point," TCU
coach Gary Patterson said. "I voted for us No. 2 in polls today when we
voted. We believe we have a great football team and we're out to show
we could be the No. 1 team in the nation."
The Longhorns (13-0) have been on both sides of the BCS debate in the past.
Just last year, their chances for a
national title were squashed when they lost a three-way tiebreaker for
the Big 12 South title.
This time around, Texas defeated
Nebraska 13-12 in the Big 12 title game Saturday to secure its spot in
the national championship, though the less-than-dominating performance
certainly left things open for debate.
Still, there was a big gap between
Texas and TCU in the BCS rankings, the coaches' poll and The Associated
Press poll, which is not included in the BCS formula. The AP awards its
own national championship.
"You can still win the AP, so that's what our whole goal is within the next month," Patterson said.
Behind 113 yards rushing and three
touchdowns from Ingram, Alabama (13-0) defeated Florida 32-13 in the
SEC championship game, an overwhelming victory over the defending
national champions that made the Tide an easy choice for No. 1.
But is anything really easy when it comes to the BCS?
TCU was ranked 17th in the preseason
polls and never really had a chance to rise above the bigger, more
traditional programs that were ahead of them.
Cincinnati made it through the Big
East, one of the six so-called power conferences, and needed a 21-point
comeback against Pittsburgh on Saturday to move to 12-0.
Boise State finished its fourth
undefeated regular season in the last six years, but still found itself
ranked behind No. 5 Florida, in large part because it plays in the
Western Athletic Conference.
A perfect scenario for an eight-team
playoff, perhaps, but that's years off. The current system is set for
the next four years. And to hear the BCS officials tell it, there's
nothing really wrong with their system, anyway.
"We do feel like it's working and
college football is thriving," Hancock said. "We recognize there are
elements in each constituency that don't like it, but the fact is, it
has a consensus. The critics, the playoff proponents, do not have a
consensus."
Certainly, he'll get no argument
from Texas or Alabama, who meet for the first time since the 1982
Cotton Bowl — a 14-12 Longhorns win over the Tide and Bear Bryant.
"The system put us in the game,"
Texas coach Mack Brown said. "We were told for the last three weeks if
we won, we'd be in the game. We did that."
Not by much, though.
It took a 46-yard field goal from
Hunter Lawrence with no time left to lift the Longhorns to the victory
over Nebraska. Now it's Brown, long known for not being able to parlay
all that Texas talent into a national title, who's a win away from
taking his second in five years.
Alabama, meanwhile, is in the midst
of a resurgence brought about by Nick Saban, who three years ago took
over a program in turmoil and now has the faithful believing again.
"There's so much tradition and so
much passion," Saban said. "There are great expectations for what
people like to accomplish around here, and it's a feeling of tremendous
self-gratification for everyone involved in the program."