With Obama's Blessing, the BCS is Going Away

Reading the Break

President-elect Barack Obama has a plate waiting on him that's so overwhelming, a Thanksgiving platter looks like a snack in comparison. The mortgage crisis, domestic energy concerns, financial bailouts, the auto industry begging for a handout while chartering private jets, wars and rumors of wars; the list is exhaustive. Then he adds to it all by pronouncing the BCS unfit - like that issue belongs among his concerns.

Well, he can cross that last one off. The BCS just imploded.

In a twist of reasoning that defies reason, the computers comprising one-third of the decision-making process that defines the BCS jumped Oklahoma ahead of Texas into the coveted, all-important No. 2 spot, behind Alabama. In so doing, the Sooners were thereby promoted into the Big 12 championship game, because that's the result of the applicable Big 12 tie-breaker in this very unique case. As a result, all OU has to do now to earn (be given) a spot in the national title game is beat crippled Missouri. The other team in the national championship game will come from the winner of the SEC title affair between 'Bama and Florida.

So what's the big deal? Texas 45, Oklahoma 35 is the big deal.

Despite the consensus of the human element (which makes up two-thirds of the BCS) seeing the foolishness of ranking one team ahead of the other while that one team was authoritatively beaten by the other, the human-programmed computer churned around all its components and spit out the "C" in BCS and gave us just what was left. Bullspit.

How did that happen? Good question. Texas beat OU, as noted, but Texas lost at Texas Tech (which means on Tech's home field) while Tech turned around and got flogged at OU. The result was each team lost the one game, but to no one else, so they all tied at 11-1 for the season, 7-1 in conference play. That introduced the Big 12 tie-breaking system, heretofore never needed for such a scenario because it had never happened, and that highlighted a huge flaw never before realized. The flaw is thus: The computer chose its whirrs over head-to-head results in its decision making, and logic was washed. Away.