http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/article_23464bcc-e378-11df-9fe7-00127992bc8b.html
College football playoff would look good to Mizzou
JEFF GORDON www.STLtoday.com | 1 Comment | Posted: Friday, October 29, 2010 11:06 am
If only major college football had a playoff system. If only the NCAA would give big programs the same opportunity it gives schools at the lower levels.
Imagine how good a 16-team playoff bracket would look to the Missouri Tigers right now.
Mizzou is 7-0 heading into Saturday’s showdown at Nebraska. The Tigers rank sixth in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings.
The Tigers are equipped to beat any team on a given day, as Oklahoma discovered last Saturday. The Sooners carried the No. 1 BCS ranking onto Faurot Field and fell hard to Mizzou.
Missouri would be dangerous in a playoff bracket, given its improved defense, strong-armed quarterback and big assortment of offensive playmakers.
But no such bracket exists, so the Tigers will try to battle their way into the BCS Championship game. A victory at Lincoln would move them closer to that goal, but it wouldn’t provide a clear path to the big game.
If No. 1 Auburn wins out, it will play for the national title. The competitive depth of the Southeast Conference and the quality of the SEC Championship Game guarantees that. It is impossible to argue against that.
The Pac-10 has no title game, but most experts believe No. 2 Oregon would still advance to the BCS game by going unbeaten. The Ducks have won impressively to this point and they big games left, including Saturday’s tilt at USC.
No. 3 Boise State and No. 4 TCU play lesser schedules, so those teams must win out and hope that teams above them and below them lose.
The Big Ten doesn’t have a league title game yet, so No. 5 Michigan State lacks the opportunity to win one more big game. The Spartans must keep winning and hope the higher ranked teams falter.
And then there is Missouri. If the Tigers can manage to win at Lincoln, that would bolster their stock. It would position them to win the Big 12 North, reach the conference championship game and add another marquee game to their resume.
And yet . . .
Knocking off the Cornhuskers wouldn’t guarantee anything. Mizzou would have to win its remaining regular season games, beat the Big 12 South champion and then hope either Auburn or Oregon take a fall somewhere along the trail.
What are the odds that all of that will happen?
In an ideal world, the NCAA would eliminate conference title games, erase the current BCS system and go to a 16-team playoff bracket. The major bowls would be incorporated into the playoff system and the lesser bowls would continue to offer consolation prizes.
In an ideal world, Missouri, Michigan State, Boise State, TCU and Utah would get a chance to win it all on the field – without interference from biased poll voters and skewed computer data.
In an ideal world, one-loss powers like Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State and LSU would be rewarded for playing daunting schedules. They would get to play on.
In an ideal world, teams would earn their big paydays. Politics, tortured logic and financial chicanery would not factor into the process.
In an ideal world, you wouldn’t see ludicrous selections like Kansas going to a BCS bowl instead of Missouri after the 2007 season – even though the Tigers beat the Jayhawks that year to win the Big 12 North title. MU got punished for advancing to the conference title game and losing.
(The Orange Bowl decided it just had to have the storied Jayhawks in Miami. After all, Jayhawks were synonymous with gridiron glory. KU has been one of the country’s most prestigious programs for decades. Fans flock to watch Kansas football wherever it plays. Or so thought the folks running the Orange Bowl.)
In an ideal world, major college football would produce a real champion every year – just like the NCAA does at every other level of football and in every other sanctioned sport.
The 2010 Missouri Tigers would gladly quit the "what if" game and take their chances in that format.
College football playoff would look good to Mizzou
JEFF GORDON www.STLtoday.com | 1 Comment | Posted: Friday, October 29, 2010 11:06 am
If only major college football had a playoff system. If only the NCAA would give big programs the same opportunity it gives schools at the lower levels.
Imagine how good a 16-team playoff bracket would look to the Missouri Tigers right now.
Mizzou is 7-0 heading into Saturday’s showdown at Nebraska. The Tigers rank sixth in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings.
The Tigers are equipped to beat any team on a given day, as Oklahoma discovered last Saturday. The Sooners carried the No. 1 BCS ranking onto Faurot Field and fell hard to Mizzou.
Missouri would be dangerous in a playoff bracket, given its improved defense, strong-armed quarterback and big assortment of offensive playmakers.
But no such bracket exists, so the Tigers will try to battle their way into the BCS Championship game. A victory at Lincoln would move them closer to that goal, but it wouldn’t provide a clear path to the big game.
If No. 1 Auburn wins out, it will play for the national title. The competitive depth of the Southeast Conference and the quality of the SEC Championship Game guarantees that. It is impossible to argue against that.
The Pac-10 has no title game, but most experts believe No. 2 Oregon would still advance to the BCS game by going unbeaten. The Ducks have won impressively to this point and they big games left, including Saturday’s tilt at USC.
No. 3 Boise State and No. 4 TCU play lesser schedules, so those teams must win out and hope that teams above them and below them lose.
The Big Ten doesn’t have a league title game yet, so No. 5 Michigan State lacks the opportunity to win one more big game. The Spartans must keep winning and hope the higher ranked teams falter.
And then there is Missouri. If the Tigers can manage to win at Lincoln, that would bolster their stock. It would position them to win the Big 12 North, reach the conference championship game and add another marquee game to their resume.
And yet . . .
Knocking off the Cornhuskers wouldn’t guarantee anything. Mizzou would have to win its remaining regular season games, beat the Big 12 South champion and then hope either Auburn or Oregon take a fall somewhere along the trail.
What are the odds that all of that will happen?
In an ideal world, the NCAA would eliminate conference title games, erase the current BCS system and go to a 16-team playoff bracket. The major bowls would be incorporated into the playoff system and the lesser bowls would continue to offer consolation prizes.
In an ideal world, Missouri, Michigan State, Boise State, TCU and Utah would get a chance to win it all on the field – without interference from biased poll voters and skewed computer data.
In an ideal world, one-loss powers like Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State and LSU would be rewarded for playing daunting schedules. They would get to play on.
In an ideal world, teams would earn their big paydays. Politics, tortured logic and financial chicanery would not factor into the process.
In an ideal world, you wouldn’t see ludicrous selections like Kansas going to a BCS bowl instead of Missouri after the 2007 season – even though the Tigers beat the Jayhawks that year to win the Big 12 North title. MU got punished for advancing to the conference title game and losing.
(The Orange Bowl decided it just had to have the storied Jayhawks in Miami. After all, Jayhawks were synonymous with gridiron glory. KU has been one of the country’s most prestigious programs for decades. Fans flock to watch Kansas football wherever it plays. Or so thought the folks running the Orange Bowl.)
In an ideal world, major college football would produce a real champion every year – just like the NCAA does at every other level of football and in every other sanctioned sport.
The 2010 Missouri Tigers would gladly quit the "what if" game and take their chances in that format.
