The leaders at Ohio State, Boise State and TCU exchanged strong words about the fitness of some teams to play in the national title game.
View full sizeBoise State's Jerrell Gavins takes down Fresno State Bulldogs wide receiver A.J. Johnson (82) after a completion during first half action in an NCAA college football at Bronco Stadium Friday Nov. 19, 2010 in Boise, Idaho. COLUMBUS -- In the middle of Michigan week, Ohio State president Gordon Gee may have inadvertently created some new rivals for the Buckeyes.
A longtime proponent of the bowl system who has never liked the idea of a playoff, Gee added a twist to his take by saying Wednesday that undefeated TCU and Boise State, currently ranked No. 3 and 4 in the BCS standings, don’t deserve to play for the national title.
“Well, I don’t know enough about the Xs and Os of college football. I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it’s like murderer’s row every week for these schools,“ Gee said. “And so we do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day. So I think until a university runs through that gauntlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to represent their universities in the big ballgame.“
Those words swept across the college football landscape and brought return fire from both the Broncos and the Horned Frogs. Boise State president Bob Kustra told the Associated Press of the Buckeyes’ schedule, “If they’re not playing the Little Sisters of the Poor, they’re playing the Little Brothers.“
“I don’t mind somebody stating that they don’t think we ought to be in the national championship, but to do it with such erroneous information as Gordon Gee has used, gets under the skin of all of us who thought university presidents were supposed to be standing for fairness, equity and truth in how we portray our universities,“ Kustra continued. “And he’s doing a very poor job of that at the moment.“
This isn’t a great year for anyone at Ohio State to be making a strength of schedule argument. Looking at three computer systems that contribute ratings to the BCS, the Buckeyes, who count Iowa, Miami, Penn State and Illinois as their quality wins, have the No. 59 schedule in the country according to Jeff Sagarin’s ratings. TCU is No. 68 and Boise State 73. In the Massey ratings, Ohio State is No. 34 in schedule strength, Boise State is 47 and TCU 57. In the Colley Matrix, Ohio State’s schedule is No. 60, TCU is 72 and Boise State 79. That’s not much to argue about.
TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte jumped into the debate, telling ESPN 103.3 in Dallas, “Especially when I start to look at their nonconference schedule made up of the MAC schools - that’d be Ohio, Eastern Michigan - I had no idea they were going out and testing themselves week in and week out.“
Del Conte said TCU would be willing to play Ohio State at any time. In 2007, the schools talked about meeting to start the 2009 season, but that plan eventually fell through. A common problem, as was an issue in this case, is that TCU and Boise State are hoping for more home-and-home series while large schools like Ohio State want to only host those schools and not make a return trip.
An eight- or 16-team playoff system would create those matchups, but Gee said, “I think that’s a slippery slope to professionalism. I’m a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it’s worked very, very well. And I think the BCS by and large is working very, very well.“ He even said he likes the uncertainty of the current system, calling it a “mixed-up mystery.“
Could the bowl system help settle this on the field? If Wisconsin was upset by Northwestern on Saturday, sending Ohio State to the Rose Bowl with a win over Michigan, Boise State or TCU would be the opponent if the Rose Bowl lost Oregon to the BCS National Championship. That’s a longshot. The other chance could be the Sugar Bowl, which could match Ohio State and either Boise State or TCU if that bowl loses Auburn to the national title game. But another SEC team against Ohio State is the Sugar Bowl is more likely.
So this may have to simmer for a while. For the moment, there are a couple teams that seem to dislike Ohio State almost as much as Michigan does.