The Bowl Championship Series works!!

Utah in 2005. Boise State in 2007. Utah again in 2009.

The only non-BCS-conference school to qualify for a BCS bowl and then lose was Hawaii in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. That makes 3-1. I used to be an advocate for a playoff system in FBS/I-A of college football. But what settled the issue for me was the pounding that Utah gave Alabama in the Sugar Bowl this year. True enough, they did not hang 50 points on the Crimson Tide, and they probably will not have a legitimate shot at splitting the national title, but they will certainly get some votes, just because they are the only undefeated team. Now, Boise State was the only undefeated team after the 2007 bowls (if memory serves), but even though I have been a Broncos fan my entire football life I understood that Boise State did not deserve to share the title with Florida that year, particularly after the latter had made such a definitive statement in the BCS title game against Ohio State.

But let me return to 3-1. Let us analyze these games. Last year, Georgia housed Hawaii. Blah, blah, blah. Yawn. Wake me up when it gets interesting. This is not surprising; in fact this is what is supposed to happen, if the arrogant folks in the major conferences (and, by the way, the majority of their rabid, generally unthinking, fans) are right in what they say, that the major conference teams are simply better than the others. This is why a team like Boise State this year, which went 12-0, did not get into the BCS again, with that slot instead going to Utah. This turns out to have been the correct decision, with Boise State losing the Flower Pot Bowl and Utah thumping Alabama by two touchdowns. Alabama! By two touchdowns! Boise State had its third undefeated regular season in the past five years, but they got shut out, correctly, because the competition they face does not merit them getting a bite of the pie. At least not this year. But, in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Utah destroyed Pittsburgh, though admittedly a weaker team, thus setting the stage for non-BCS conference teams to continue to have success against the big kids. True enough, Boise State did not put a hurting on Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl the way Utah did against Pittsburgh and later against Alabama. But still Boise State-Oklahoma will, has to, go down as one of the greatest games in the history of college football.

What does all this mean?

The non-BCS-conference teams are 3-1 in BCS games. And, lest we forget, Utah didn't play the Air Force Academy in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl or the 2007 Sugar Bowl. They played Pittsburgh from the Big East and Alabama from the SEC. Boise State didn't play Texas-El Paso in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. (Nothing against the Air Force Academy or Texas-El Paso; understand the point!) They played Oklahoma from the Big Twelve.

Still think a non-BCS-conference team will never get a shot at the national title game? Don't hold your breath. A .750 winning percentage means that these "lesser" teams are improving.

And that means that the BCS has done exactly what it was intended to do. You can argue until you're blue in the face about how this or that team should have been selected over that or this team in such-and-such title game. Blah, blah, blah. Yawn. Wake me up when it gets interesting. But the far more important point in the entire discussion about the BCS is 3-1. The non-BCS-conference teams have a winning record in BCS games against the BCS-conference teams.

The Bowl Championship Series works.