Hat tops sweater vest ... what an ugly combo.

2007 was no 2005.

This bizarre year started with Appalachian State and Stanford. It ended with a sophomore Heisman Trophy winner and a two-loss BCS champion.

As far as match-making goes, this season's BCS bowl pairings were all about lowered expectations.

• Expectation: Crown an undisputed national champion by pitting the nation's #1 and #2 teams against each other.
• Status: Failure.
• Reason: USC and Georgia. It's nothing new: Washington and Miami in 2000. Oregon in 2001. USC in 2004. Auburn in 2005.

• Expectation: Competitive bowl games.
• Status: Whoops.
• Reason: LSU 38, OSU 24 was about as close as it got. West Virginia 48, Oklahoma 28. Georgia 41, Hawaii 10. USC 49, Illinois 17.

• Expectation: Guarantee top conferences a representative in the top bowls.
• Status: Trick question.
• Reason: Yes, the BCS accomplished the objective on face value ... but they overreached. The Big 10 didn't look like a top conference and barely deserved one spot in this year's BCS party, much less two. OSU is 0-9 all time vs. SEC teams in bowl games and were outclassed again today by LSU. Illinois? Well, um, didja' hear Juice Williams is a mobile quarterback? (P.S.: Perennial power Michigan is 2-5 in their past seven bowls and 8-12 all time in the Rose Bowl.) 

• Expectation: Protect tradition of classic bowl match-ups.
• Status: Questionable.
• Reason: The Pac-10 #1 vs. Big-10 #2 in the Rose Bowl satisfied about one in three people who responded to a poll on this site. That's not as twisted as the 2003 Orange Bowl between USC and Iowa, but at least that one promised to be a real contest.

• Expectation: Generate healthy debate and interest in the sport.
• Status: Misguided.
• Reason: The projections and predictions are supposed to happen before the games, but now we're left with too many "what ifs." We're also wasting a lot of breath discussing the system (playoff, +1, etc.).

About all the BCS gave us this year was something for The Hat to hang on.

There doesn't seem to be an obvious solution, but it's clear what the competitors want.

Comments

[Bobak]

Let's start a chant:

We're #2! (or 3) We're #2! (or 3) We're #2! (or 3)

So we ended the season not all that far from where we started.

[Gerrrg]

With #3 and #4 going down badly, you couldn't make an argument that a 4-team playoff would have worked this year....you'd still leave out USC and Georgia. It would take an 8-team playoff - 4 BCS games (Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose) plus 3 more games / 2 more weeks after that. Or you'd have to trash the entire bowl system.

[pk-in-the-mesa]

WE ARE THE ONE