The BCS without the BS

[SWC75]

What if the “Bowl Championship Series” had been series of bowls leading to a championship game? Suppose we used the most popular plan in the “2..4..6..8” thread previous posted: an 8 team tournament with automatic bids to the power conferences and the BCS standings used to choose enough “at large” teams to fill out the field and then to seed the teams. I’ll define the “power conferences as the Big East until this year, the ACC, the SEC, The Big 10, The Big 12 and the Pac 12. So there will be two at large teams until this year when there is 3. Ties in the standings for conferences that don’t have title games will be determined by head to thread play and if the teams didn’t play each other or if there are more than two teams there is a tie for best head to head record, the BCS standings will be used to break the tie. The first round will be represented here with the #1-4 seeds in the left column and the #5-8 seeds, (in reverse order) on the right side. (You’ll love that first game!) “Left Behind” are those teams that made the final BCS standing and won either all their games or all their games but one as 84 of the 88 past national champions have done, (see my original post).

1998
Tennessee (12-0) vs. Syracuse (8-3)
Florida State (11-1) vs. Arizona (11-1)
Kansas State (11-1) vs. Texas A&M (11-2)
Ohio State (10-1) vs. UCLA (10-1)
Left Behind: Wisconsin (11-1), Tulane (11-0)

1999
Florida State (11-0) vs. Stanford (8-3)
Virginia Tech (11-0) vs. Wisconsin (9-2)
Nebraska (11-1) vs. Kansas State (10-1)
Alabama (10-2) vs. Tennessee (9-2)
Left Behind: Marshall (12-0)

2000
Oklahoma (12-0) vs. Purdue (8-3)
Florida State (11-1) vs. Florida (10-2)
Miami-Florida (10-1) vs. Oregon State (11-1)
Washington (10-1) vs. Virginia Tech (10-1)
Left Behind: Texas Christian (10-1)

2001
Miami-Florida (11-0) vs. Louisiana State (9-3)
Nebraska (11-1) vs. Maryland (10-1)
Colorado (10-2) vs. Illinois (10-1)
Oregon (10-1) vs. Florida (10-2)
Left Behind: no one

2002
Miami-Florida (12-0) vs. Florida State (9-4)
Ohio State (13-0) vs. Oklahoma (11-2)
Georgia (12-1) vs. Washington State (10-2)
Southern California (10-2) vs. Iowa (11-1)
Left behind: no one

2003
Oklahoma (12-1) vs. Kansas State (11-3)
Louisiana State (12-1) vs. Miami-Florida (9-2)
Southern California (11-1) vs. Florida State (10-2)
Michigan (10-2) vs. Ohio State (10-2)
Left Behind: Miami-Ohio (12-1), Boise State (12-1), Texas Christian (11-1)

2004
Southern California (12-0) vs. Pittsburgh (8-3)
Oklahoma (12-0) vs. Michigan (9-2)
Auburn (12-0) vs. Virginia Tech (10-2)
Texas (10-1) vs. California (10-1)
Left Behind: Utah (11-0), Boise State (11-0), Louisville (10-1)

2005
Southern California (12-0) vs. Florida State (8-4)
Texas (12-0) vs. West Virginia (10-1)
Penn State (10-1) vs. Georgia (10-2)
Ohio State (9-2) vs. Oregon (10-1)
Left Behind: Texas Christian (10-1)

2006
Ohio State (12-0) vs. Wake Forest (11-2)
Florida (12-1) vs. Oklahoma (11-2)
Michigan (11-1) vs. Louisville (11-1)
Louisiana State (10-2) vs. Southern California (10-2)
Left Behind: Wisconsin (11-1), Boise State (12-0)

2007
Ohio State (11-1) vs. West Virginia (10-2)
Louisiana State (11-2) vs. Southern California (10-2)
Virginia Tech 11-2 vs. Missouri (11-2)
Oklahoma (11-2) vs. Georgia (10-2)
Left Behind: Kansas (11-1), Hawaii (12-0)

2008
Oklahoma (12-1) vs. Virginia Tech (8-4)
Florida (12-1) vs. Cincinnati (11-2)
Texas (11-1) vs. Penn State (11-1)
Alabama (12-1) vs. Southern California (11-1)
Left Behind: Utah (12-0), Texas Tech (11-1)

2009
Alabama (13-0) vs. Georgia Tech (11-2)
Texas (13-0) vs. Ohio State (10-2)
Cincinnati (12-0) vs. Oregon (10-2)
Texas Christian (12-0) vs. Florida (12-1)
Left Behind: Boise State (13-0)

2010
Auburn (13-0) vs. Connecticut (8-4)
Oregon (12-0) vs. Virginia Tech (11-2)
Texas Christian (12-0) vs. Oklahoma (11-2)
Stanford (11-1) vs. Wisconsin (11-1)
Left Behind: Ohio State (11-1), Michigan State (11-1), Boise State (11-1), Nevada (12-1)

2011
Louisiana State (13-0) vs. West Virginia (9-3)
Alabama (11-1) vs. Clemson (10-3)
Oklahoma State (11-1) vs. Wisconsin (11-2)
Stanford (11-1) vs. Oregon (11-2)
Left Behind: Boise State (11-1), Houston (12-1)

2012
Notre Dame (12-0) vs. Wisconsin (8-4)
Alabama (12-1) vs. Louisville (10-2)
Florida (11-1) vs. Florida State (11-2)
Kansas State (11-1) vs. Stanford (11-2)
Left Behind: Oregon (11-1)

2013
Florida State (13-0) vs. Missouri (11-2)
Auburn (12-1) vs. Ohio State (12-1)
Alabama (11-1) vs. Baylor (11-1)
Michigan State (12-1) vs. Stanford (11-2)
Left Behind: Central Florida (11-1), Louisville (11-1), Fresno State 11-1, Northern Illinois 12-1


Comment: Some great games here, (and in the subsequent rounds). There be far less controversy about the national championship. But there are a few too many “left behind” teams that I would have liked to see in there. But if you push it to 16, there will be more teams that really don’t belong there.