…Tennessee had beaten Florida (they lost by 1), Georgia had beaten Vanderbilt and Kentucky (they lost by 2 and 4, respectively), and Notre Dame had lost to either Michigan State or UCLA?

In all likelihood, the BCS top 14 would feature six SEC teams (Florida, though not #2, would still be in the mix, along with LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, two-loss Tennessee and two-loss Georgia) and no Notre Dame … and there wouldn’t be enough eligible at-large teams to fill out the available BCS bowl slots! (Five teams in the top 14 — Wisconsin and four of the six SEC teams — would be ineligible because of the two-teams-per-conference rule. 14 minus 5 equals 9… which is, obviously, less than the ten spots in the five BCS bowls… and with all the major-conference champions being in the top 14, that equals not enough teams!)

[CORRECTION: I just realized, this scenario is flawed, because West Virginia would still be eligible, at #14. This is possible because automatic qualifier Wake Forest would fall to #15. Thus, there would still be enough eligible at-large teams. In order to make the scenario work, either West Virginia would need to have lost an additional game (to someone other than Rutgers, because a Rutgers win would have made Louisville an eligible at-large team rather than a conference champion), or Wake Forest would have needed to win an additional game (thus jumping WVU and knocking them out of the top 14). Since Rutgers was West Virginia’s only remotely close win, let’s suppose Wake Forest had beaten Clemson (they lost by 10). Then the scenario would work as I’ve described. More details after the jump.]

(more…)

Lex icon is dreaming of an eight-team playoff. I say, that’s not ambitious enough! It’s we’re going to fantasize about the best sporting event on the face of the earth that will never, ever come to pass, let’s go all-out!

If we take the 11 conference champions, plus the top 5 at-large teams, and seed them according to the BCS standings, we get…

Okay, so I’m taking some liberties with the predicted winners. :) But the point is, a 16-team playoff would be AWESOME!!!

But noooo, heaven forbid we actually spend December and January playing meaningful games. Instead, we must respect college football’s sacred traditions with TCU vs. Northern Illinois in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

P.S. Speaking of lex icon, in an earlier post he makes an excellent point that I hadn’t thought of: “When Arizona beat Cal, I was almost disappointed, because it made the win over Cal less valuable for BCS purposes. Turns out, had they won that game, we’d be going to the Holiday Bowl.”

P.P.S. On a somewhat related note, lots of good stuff — with varying degrees of bitterness — from the Michigan bloggers:

MgoBlog is putting Reggie Fish, the Harris Poll, and various other people and entities “on notice.” But the most scathing commentary is reserved for “smarmy-ass CBS”:

SEC fans constantly decry ESPN/ABC as some sort of Big Ten propaganda machine. On Saturday night ESPN and ABC featured debate. Corso, Mark May, Lou Holtz, and Craig James all argued for Florida. Herbstreit, Flute, Fowler argued for Michigan. By comparison, CBS was Pravda, beating out a steady SEC SEC SEC SEC SEC drumbeat without the barest hint of debate. The second half of the the SEC championship game was less a football game and more an informercial for the magical juicing power of Florida. It was unprofessional, inappropriate, and hypocritical. I never want to hear another word about “bias” from SEC fans.

The Michigan Sports Center and (again) MgoBlog are justifably ripping on the Harris Poll.

So is The M Zone, but humorously.

Maize n Brew bashes the SEC, says Michigan got screwed, and wonders “how 71% of the coaches who voted on this thing lost their {bleep}ing minds in the span of 24 hours.”

iBlog for Cookies is also bashing the SEC: “You cannot make a legitimate claim to being the best conference in the country when your top 4 teams’ best non-conference wins are against Southern Miss and Louisiana Lafayette.”

Last but not least, The M Zone finds humor in something non-BCS-related:

Heh.

JohnMac justifably scolded me yesterday for not giving props to the Notre Dame basketball team, which upset #23 Maryland in Washington, D.C. last night, improving to 6-1 on the season and earning 11 votes in the AP poll. Frankly, I was so focused on the BCS and my term paper that I totally forgot about the Irish-Terps game, but that’s obviously a big win for ND. Next up: a huge test this Thursday, when #4 Alabama (7-0) comes to town. ROLL THE TIDE!!!

More immediately, unranked and unvoted-for USC (5-1) faces its big test tonight, playing at #12 Kansas (6-2). The game is on ESPN2 at 9:00 PM. Kansas is coming off an upset loss to DePaul, which may be bad news for the Trojans. The Jayhawks’ other loss was also a stunner — to Oral Roberts back when Kansas was ranked #3 — and they responded with a five-game winning streak, including a victory over then-#1 Florida. On the bright side, USC’s basketball team can’t possibly disappoint any more than the football team did on Saturday. BEAT THE JAYHAWKS!!!

Last but not least, #18 Gonzaga, fresh off a huge statement win over Texas, also has a big week: tomorrow they’re at Washington State (7-1), and then on Saturday they host Washington (6-0) in the annual Trojan Hall Room 379 Roommate Rivalry Game (hi David). The Huskies won last year in Seattle, so the Zags will be looking for revenge — and for their 45th straight home win. GO ZAGS!!!

P.S. I just noticed that Wichita State, which is 6-0 with wins over Georgia Mason, LSU and Syracuse — all on the road — is ranked #10. Wow!

Hurricanes? He don’t need no stinkin’ Hurricanes! Greg Schiano is staying at Rutgers, rejecting overtures from Miami in favor of building something lasting at the The State University of New Jersey. (Hat tip: Patrick.)

Good for him.

Rutgers is a young team. Ray Rice is only a sophomore, and so will be around for at least another year. Quarterback Mike Teel is a redshirt sophomore. And now we learn that Coach of the Year candidate winner Schiano is staying, instead of leaving for greener pastures like so many successful coaches at upstart teams do. So while the loss to West Virginia was heartbreaking and “The Drop” was crushing, the Scarlet Knights should be a Big East contender again in 2007-08, and beyond.

But first: the Houston Bowl. Go Rutgers, Beat Kansas State!

Cool:

Organic globules found in a meteorite that slammed into Canada’s Tagish Lake may be older than our sun, a new study says. …

Most of the meteorite’s material is about the same age as our solar system—about 4.5 billion years—and was likely formed at the same time.

But the microscopic organic globules that make up about one-tenth of one percent of the object appear to be far older.

The study reports that “isotopic anomalies in the globules suggest that they formed in very cold conditions—near absolute zero.” Which, from what I understand, is slightly colder than the temperature outside when I walked the dog this morning.

No, but seriously, absolute zero conditions would never be found “anywhere close to the sun” — like, not even in the outer reaches of the solar system — so these globules were apparently formed long, long ago and far, far away. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

You’ve seen indignity #1 that I suffered as a consequence of losing my bet with Mike on Saturday’s game. And now, indignity #2.

To my fellow Trojans, I’m sorry. That said, believe me, this is going to hurt me more than it’s going to hurt you.

. . . . .

Why UCLA is superior to USC
by Brendan and Becky Loy

How is the University of California at Los Angeles superior to the University of Southern California? Let me count the ways.

UCLA is better at sports. For example, the Bruins have won more team NCAA championships (99) than any other school. Also, as winners of 9 out of the last 16 football games against the Trojans, it is clearly more of a football school than USC. With regard to basketball, no explanation is needed.

UCLA is also better academically than USC — as a result of which, UCLA has more kids that got into USC than USC.

UCLA has better fans than USC. For example, Snoop Dogg is a USC fan.

O.J. Simpson did not go to UCLA.

UCLA has a nicer campus than USC, and is in a better location than USC (Westwood v. South Central LA). Again, no explanation is needed.

Speaking of Westwood, Diddy Riese Cookies makes the world’s best cookies. USC does not have a Diddy Riese Cookies in its neighborhood.

UCLA has a better daily newspaper than USC. One reason for this is that the editor-in-chief of the UCLA daily newspaper was not recently fired by a university administrator who shares a name with a freaky pop star who likes little boys.

Unlike USC players, UCLA football players do not perform sexual acts on their opponents after getting knocked down.

Unlike USC cheerleaders, UCLA cheerleaders do not cheer when their opponent scores.

UCLA’s band knows more than one song.

UCLA students do not wear black Velcro shoes and black socks.

Spike Lee’s movie about Hurricane Katrina did not feature a goofy-looking red-headed dork wearing a garish UCLA sweatshirt.

UCLA students are better at making NCAA brackets than USC students.

UCLA has Mike Tran. USC has Brendan Loy. ‘Nuff said.

This list is not exhaustive, as it would be impossible to list all of the ways in which UCLA is superior to USC.

. . . . .

There you go. Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t welch on bets.

“Thanks” to Mike Tran for his “help” in compiling this list.

I hate myself.

The promised post singing UCLA’s praises will appear at 1:00 PM EST.

I hate UCLA.

P.S. In case anyone is wondering, the rules of the bet vis a vis the pro-UCLA, anti-USC post are: I won’t artificially cause it to scroll down the page by adding new posts specifically for that purpose, and I will put a prominent link to it in the left-hand column (where it currently says “DAMMIT”) and will leave that link there for 48 hours. I refused to make any official promise of how long the post will stay on top of the homepage, or on Page 1 for that matter, because I’m not going to reliquish the right to blog new stuff for two days. But I promised to act in good faith with regard to, like I said, not artificially bumping it down… and I will keep that promise. And of course, like all blog posts, it will stay on the blog for perpetuity, in the archives.

Please remind me not to make bets with Mike Tran anymore. :) My teams (USC, Gonzaga, Notre Dame) are 6-2 overall in college football and NCAA Tournament basketball games against his teams (UCLA, Notre Dame) in the last three years, 3-2 in games that we’ve bet on, yet somehow I’m 1-4 in those bets.

As you’ll recall, I lost the bet, so…

To paraphrase what Mike wrote last fall when he had to wear my USC sweatshirt: I hate UCLA, and now I hate myself.

Here I am walking into class:

Did I mention I hate UCLA?

P.S. The color of my shirt (underneath Mike’s jersey) wasn’t an attempt to sabotage the bet. I thought Mike was bringing a sweatshirt, not a basketball jersey, so I didn’t realize it would matter what I was wearing underneath.

Anyway, the bet didn’t say anything about what I could wear underneath. So there. :)

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