More disappointment for Ducks?
Posted: Sunday, November 04, 2007 11:38 PM
With a month to go, the BCS is its usual mishmash. More often than not, however, the process works itself out. In the past nine seasons, the top two teams in the coaches poll have met in the “national championship game” six times.
But this season has been so wacky that it seems safe to assume that the teams selected to play for the BCS title will be called into serious question, whether or not they match the polls.
As many as four teams could end up making a legitimate claim at being in the top two.
That has got to be making the folks in Eugene pretty edgy these days. After all, they’ve already been burned by the BCS twice before.
After winning the 2001 Pac-10 championship and finishing the regular season as the consensus No. 2 team in the polls, Oregon suffered the indignity of getting booted from the Rose Bowl (which hosted the title game that season) in favor of a Nebraska team that hadn’t won the Big 12 title or even its own division, but still got the go-ahead to face top-ranked Miami.
Relegated to the Fiesta Bowl, the Ducks overcame their disappointment and registered a convincing 38-16 victory over Big 12 champ Colorado, which had annihilated the Cornhuskers, 62-36, in the regular-season finale. Oregon put itself in position to claim the Associated Press’ national championship if the Hurricanes got toppled in Pasadena, but the Huskers continued their slide, getting destroyed by Miami, 37-14.
Four years later, the Ducks got squashed again. This time they got stepped on by a contract rather than a computer. The agreement Notre Dame has with the BCS, which calls for the Fighting Irish to be automatically placed in a BCS bowl if they finish in the top eight, locked up a trip to the Fiesta Bowl for the two-loss Golden Domers (who played only three ranked teams and beat only one).
The Irish snuck in at No. 6, leaving out one-loss Oregon, which finished at No. 5 and only lost to top-ranked USC. The Ducks had to settle for a humbling trip to the Holiday Bowl and then watched on TV as the Irish got blasted by Ohio State, 34-20, in the Fiesta.
Of course, the Notre Dame clause won’t get in the way of Oregon -- or any team -- this year, but that doesn’t mean the Ducks won’t get pushed around again.
Currently sitting in the dreaded No. 3 spot, there are more than a few scenarios that could get in the way of Oregon playing for the national championship even if they run the table to capture the Pac-10 title and finish 11-1.
Not having to play in a conference title game is a big benefit for the Ducks -- and Ohio State -- in terms of trying to maintaining a sparkling record, but it also means that you have one less opportunity to wow the voters or improve upon the numbers that get fed into those six computers.
No. 2 LSU won’t budge from its spot if it is able to cap off a 12-1 season with a victory in the SEC Championship Game.
And the trio of Big 12 teams that sit directly below the Ducks -- No. 4 Kansas, No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 6 Missouri -- could produce a survivor that has enough juice to leap over Oregon.
With that being said and recent history serving as a backdrop, the Michigan Wolverines just picked up a ton of new fans in the Pacific Northwest. It looks like Ohio State might need to be out for Oregon to be in.
